Here I am, waiting for the BSFA and Kitschies shortlists to be announced and out from left field comes the first annual James Herbert Award for Horror Writing.  The nominees, as announced by Tor.com, are as follows:

  • M.R. Carey, The Girl with All the Gifts (Orbit)
  • Nick Cutter, The Troop (Headline)
  • Frances Hardinge, Cuckoo Song (Macmillan)
  • Andrew Michael Hurley, The Loney (Tartarus Press)
  • Josh Malerman, Bird Box (Harper Voyager)
  • Kim Newman, An English Ghost Story (Titan Books)

This is an impressive shortlists with books from Carey, Newman and Hardinge that I’ve been meaning to read.  Given the all male and uninspiring preliminary novel ballot for The Stokers, I’m seriously thinking of swapping that award out for this inaugural prize.  Whether I get to read the Herbert shortlist or not will depend on time, time, time, but well done to Pan Macmillan for honouring Herbert in the first place and putting together what looks, on the surface, like a fine bunch of books.