Jurors for the 2010 Shirley Jackson Awards
In recognition of the legacy of Shirley Jackson’s writing, and with permission of the author’s estate, the Shirley Jackson Awards have been established for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic.
The Shirley Jackson Awards are voted upon by a jury of professional writers, editors, critics, and academics, with input from a Board of Advisors. The awards are given for the best work published in the preceding calendar year in the following categories: Novel, Novella, Novelette, Short Story, Single-Author Collection, and Edited Anthology.
The jurors for the 2010 Shirley Jackson Awards are, alphabetically:
Andy Duncan, winner of the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award and two World Fantasy Awards, one of them for his debut collection, Beluthahatchie and Other Stories (Golden Gryphon Press); second collection forthcoming, The Pottawatomie Giant and Other Stories, (PS Publishing, 2011); English faculty at Frostburg State University in Maryland.
Gemma Files, winner of an International Horror Guild Best Short Fiction Award for her story "The Emperor's Old Bones"; author of two collections of short stories (Kissing Carrion and The Worm in Every Heart, both Prime Books), two chapbooks of poetry, and a novel (A Book of Tongues, ChiZine Publications).
Helen Oyeyemi, author of The Icarus Girl and The Opposite House, which was short-listed for the 2008 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Fiction; winner of a 2010 Somerset Maugham award for White is for Witching, her third novel.
Lee Thomas, the Bram Stoker Award and the Lambda Literary Award-winning author of Stained (Wildside Press), Parish Damned (Telos Publishing), and The Dust of Wonderland (Alyson Books); author of numerous short stories, including the collection In the Closet, Under the Bed (Dark Scribe Press); forthcoming titles include The Black Sun Set, Focus, Torn, and The German.
David Wellington, author of zombie novels Monster Island, Monster Nation and Monster Planet (Thunder’s Mouth Press); and vampire novels, including Thirteen Bullets, Ninety-Nine Coffins, Vampire Zero and Twenty-Three Hours; a werewolf series, including Frostbite (Three Rivers Press) and continuing with Overwinter.
The Board of Advisors for the Shirley Jackson Awards includes editor Bill Congreve; author and critic, Stefan Dziemianowicz; award-winning author and critic, Elizabeth Hand; renowned scholar and editor S.T. Joshi; author and teacher Jack M. Haringa (co-editor, with Joshi, of the critical journal Dead Reckonings); author and founder Sarah Langan; author Mike O’Driscoll; author and founder Paul Tremblay; award-winning and best-selling author Peter Straub; editor Ann VanderMeer; and award-winning and best-selling novelist Stewart O’Nan. In 2010, founders and former jurors F. Brett Cox and John Langan join this illustrious group.
Shirley Jackson (1916-1965) wrote such classic novels as The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, as well as one of the most famous short stories in the English language, “The Lottery.” Her work continues to be a major influence on writers of every kind of fiction, from the most traditional genre offerings to the most innovative literary work. National Book Critics Circle Award-winning novelist Jonathan Lethem has called Jackson “one of this century’s most luminous and strange American writers,” and multiple generations of authors would agree.