The nominees for the Shirley Jackson Awards 2023 were announced on Friday, June 7, 2024. Here are the writers of African descent among them.
Shirley Hardie Jackson was an American writer known primarily for her works of horror and mystery. Her writing career spanned over two decades, during which she composed six novels, two memoirs, and more than 200 short stories. The Shirley Jackson Awards are literary awards named in recognition of her legacy in writing since 2007. They celebrate outstanding achievements in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and dark fantasy.
The nominees for 2023 announced on Friday are;
Novel
- The Reformatory, Tananarive Due (Saga Press)
Novella
- Broken Paradise, Eugen Bacon (Luna Press Publishing)
- To the Woman in the Pink Hat, LaToya Jordan (Aqueduct)
Short Fiction
- Invasion of the Baby Snatchers, Lesley Nneka Arimah (Out There Screaming)
Single-Author Collection
- Drinking from Graveyard Wells, Yvette Lisa Ndlovu (University Press of Kentucky)
- Jackal, Jackal, Tobi Ogundiran (Undertow)
- Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror, Jordan Peele & John Joseph Adams, eds. (Penguin Random House)
Reactions
Drinking from Graveyard Wells is shortlisted for the Shirley Jackson Award! Previous winners include Carmen Maria Machado, Stephen King🤯I’m incredibly honoured for my work to be considered. “The Lottery” was a formative text for me. Congrats to all nominees. Thanks @KentuckyPress.
Yvette Lisa Ndlovu
**squeeeeee** I was also nominated for THE REFORMATORY! 🙂
Tananarive Due
Deeply honoured, grateful to see my novella BROKEN PARADISE by @LunaPressGlobal nominated for @ShirleyJAwards.
Eugen Bacon
Pinching myself! So excited & honoured to learn my debut novella To the Woman in the Pink Hat @AqueductPress is a nominee for the 2023 Shirley Jackson Awards in the novella category. So cool to see my name in lights on this list of talented writers.
LaToya Jordan
I’m pretty excited and honoured that JACKAL, JACKAL has been named a Shirley Jackson Award nominee. In the author’s note I wrote: all I’ve ever wanted is to tell stories, to tell them as I like to hear them, to guide a reader into a fantastic world through the sheer magic of my words. I don’t take for granted that my work is being read and honoured. This little book has collected 2 award nominations! Let’s see how many wins come of it;) Thanks to my editor @undertow_books (Also, pretty fitting that a book whose tagline goes “From the Shirley Jackson award-nominated author…” gets that honour.)
Tobi Ogundiran
The winners will be announced at Readercon 33, an annual conference on imaginative literature, in Quincy Massachusetts, USA on July 13, 2024.
