Kayleigh Dobbs and Happy Goat Horror

Thanks to Kayleigh Dobbs for asking me to chat with her. Kayleigh explores all things horror for website Happy Goat Horror.

Kayleigh is a writer herself and her microcollection, The End, is available from Black Shuch Books.

Review of Pomegranates

Thanks to Jamie Mollart for reviewing “Pomegranates” for the British Science Fiction Association.

Pomegranates reimagines the classic Greek myth of Demeter, Persephone and Hades, but it’s much more than that. It’s an expansion of the myth, which at the same time feels intimate, bringing the Gods to a level of a (very) dysfunctional family operating in a modern world firmly in the thrall of climate change. A climate change caused by the squabbling Gods stopping doing their jobs and instead live amongst human society, it being the implication of them exacting revenge for the ills done against them by each other and humanity.

– Jamie Mollart

Read the entire review here.

Buy eBook / hardback.

The World Fantasy Awards 2023

From Locus Online

The World Fantasy Awards winners are:

Best Novel

• WINNER: Saint Death’s Daughter, C.S.E. Cooney (Solaris)

• Spear, Nicola Griffith (Tordotcom)
• The Ballad of Perilous Graves, Alex Jennings (Redhook; Orbit UK)
• Babel, R.F. Kuang (Harper Voyager US; Harper Voyager UK)
• Siren Queen, Nghi Vo (Tordotcom)

Best Novella

• WINNER: Pomegranates, Priya Sharma (Absinthe)

• The Bruising of Qilwa, Naseem Jamnia (Tachyon)
• The House of Drought, Dennis Mombauer (Stelliform)
• Even Though I Knew the End, C.L. Polk (Tordotcom)
• Helpmeet, Naben Ruthnum (Undertow)

Best Short Fiction

• WINNER: “Incident at Bear Creek Lodge”, Tananarive Due (Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology)

• “The Devil Don’t Come with Horns”, Eugen Bacon (Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology)
• “The Morning House”, Kate Heartfield (PodCastle 7/5/22)
• “Telling the Bees”, Kat Howard (Sunday Morning Transport 1/30/22)
• “Douen”, Suzan Palumbo (The Dark 3/22)

Best Anthology

• WINNER: Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction, Sheree Renée Thomas, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, Zelda Knight, eds. (Tordotcom)

• Screams from the Dark: 29 Tales of Monsters and the Monstrous, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Nightfire)
• Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology, Vince A. Liaguno & Rena Mason, eds. (Morrow)
• Dark Stars: New Tales of Darkest Horror, John F.D. Taff, ed. (Nightfire)
• Trouble the Waters: Tales from the Deep Blue, Sheree Renée Thomas, Pan Morigan, Troy L. Wiggins, eds. (Third Man)

Best Collection

• WINNER: All Nightmare Long, Tim Lebbon (PS)

• Dark Breakers, C.S.E. Cooney (Mythic Delirium)
• Breakable Things, Cassandra Khaw (Undertow)
• Boys, Beasts & Men, Sam J. Miller (Tachyon)
• A Different Darkness and Other Abominations, Luigi Musolino (Valancourt)

Best Artist

• WINNER: Kinuko Y. Craft

• Galen Dara
• Matt Ottley
• Lauren Raye Snow
• Charles Vess

Special Award – Professional

• WINNER: Matt Ottley, for The Tree of Ecstasy and Unbearable Sadness (Dirt Lane)

• Irene Gallo, for Tor.com
• Gavin J. Grant & Kelly Link, for Small Beer Press
• Tim Lebbon & Daniele Serra, for Without Walls (PS)
• Fiona Moore, for Management Lessons from Game of Thrones: Organization Theory and Strategy in Westeros (Edward Elgar)

Special Award – Non-Professional

• WINNER: Michael Kelly, for Undertow Publications

• Cristina Macía, for The Celsius Festival
• dave ring, for Neon Hemlock Press
• Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas, for Uncanny
• E. Catherine Tobler, for editing The Deadlands

The Life Achievement Awards, presented annually to individuals who have demonstrated outstanding service to the fantasy field, went to Peter Crowther and John Douglas

I am hugely honoured to win this award. I owe so many people a debt of thanks.

Firstly, the World Fantasy Awards and jurors Dale Bailey, Kelly Robson, Ginny Smith, A.C. Wise, and Ian Whates.

Thanks to everyone who supported the book.

Thanks to Absinthe editor, Marie O’Regan, and the PS Publishing Team. Congratulations to Peter Crowther of PS for his Lifetime Achievement Award.

The artwork is by the supertalented Jeffrey Alan Love.

My hearty congratulations to ALL the finalists and winners.

The British Fantasy Awards 2023

The British Fantasy Society (BFS) has announced the winners for the 2023 British Fantasy Awards:

Robert Holdstock Award for Best Fantasy Novel

• WINNER: The Spear Cuts Through Water, Simon Jimenez (Del Rey)

• Path of War, David Green (Eerie River)
• Cast Long Shadows, Cat Hellisen (Luna)
• Glitterati, Oliver K. Langmead (Titan)
• The Bone Orchard, Sara A. Mueller (Tor)
• The Oleander Sword, Tasha Suri (Orbit)

Best Horror Novel (the August Derleth Award)

• WINNER: Just Like Home, Sarah Gailey (Hodder & Stoughton)

• Full Immersion, Gemma Amor (Angry Robot)
• The Hollows, Daniel Church (Angry Robot)
• Miracle Growth, Tim Mendees (Eerie River)
• Sundial, Catriona Ward (Viper)

Best Novella

• WINNER: The Queen of the High Fields, Rhiannon A. Grist (Luna)

• And Then I Woke Up, Malcolm Devlin (Tordotcom)
• Interference, Terry Grimwood (Elsewhen)
• The Entropy of Loss, Stewart Hotston (NewCon)
• Pomegranates, Priya Sharma (PS)
• Ogres, Adrian Tchaikovsky (Solaris)

Best Short Fiction

• WINNER: “Morta”, James Bennett (The Book of Queer Saints)

• “The Tails That Make You”, Eliza Chan (Fantasy  8/22)
• “The Call of El Tunche”, Shona Kinsella (Weird Horror Anthology)
• “A Moment of Zugzwang”, Neil Williamson (ParSec #4)

Best Collection

• WINNER: Under the Moon, E.M. Faulds (Ghost Moth)

• Candescent Blooms, Andrew Hook (Salt)
• Behind a Broken Smile, Penny Jones (Black Shuck)
• Breakable Things, Cassandra Khaw (Undertow)

Best Anthology

• WINNER: Someone in Time, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Solaris)

• Sky Breaker: Tales of the Wanderer, Lee C. Conley, H.L. Tinsley, J.E. Hannaford, David Green, Derek Power, C. Marry Hultman, Damien Larkin, & C.F. Welburn, eds. (Nordic)
• Isolation: The Horror Anthology, Dan Coxon, ed. (Titan)
• The Book of Queer Saints, Mae Murray, ed. (Medusa)
• Great British Horror 7: Major Arcana, Steve J. Shaw, ed. (Black Shuck)
• Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fic­tion, Sheree Renée Thomas, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki & Zelda Knight, eds. (Tordotcom)

Best Independent Press

• WINNER: Luna

• Black Shuck
• Flame Tree
• NewCon

Best Non-Fiction

• WINNER: An Earnest Blackness, Eugen Bacon (Anti-Oedipus)

• Fantasy: How it Works, Brian Attebery (OUP)
• Outlander and the Real Jacobites, Shona Kinsella (Pen & Sword History)
• My Life in Horror, Vol. 2, Kit Power (self-published)
• The Full Lid, Alasdair Stuart & Marguerite Kenner, eds.
• Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes, Rob Wilkins (Doubleday)

Best Magazine / Periodical

• WINNER: Interzone

• Ginger Nuts of Horror
• Shoreline of Infinity
• Strange Horizons

Best Artist

• WINNER: Vince Haig

• Chris Baker (Fangorn)
• Ben Baldwin
• Jenni Coutts
• Dan Hillier

Best Audio

• WINNER: The Stranger Times, C.K. McDonnell

• The Painkiller Podcast, Bitter Pill Theatre
• The Secret of St. Kilda, Michael Ireland & Naomi Clarke
• PodCastle, Escape Artists
• PseudoPod, Escape Artists
• Breaking the Glass Slipper, Megan Leigh, Charlotte Bond, & Lucy Hounsom

Sydney J. Bounds Award for Best Newcomer

• WINNER: Hiron Ennes

• Sunyi Dean
• Somto Ihezue
• Shauna Lawless
• Elijah Kinch Spector
• Susan York

Karl Wagner Award

• Ann Landmann

I am very honoured to have be a finalist in the novella category of the British Fantasy Awards and I am genuinely thrilled for Rhiannon A. Grist. A huge congratulations to all the nominees and winners.

Shirley Jackson Award Nomination

I am hugely honoured that “Pomegranates” was nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award. I will treasure my nominee pebble.

I owe thanks to my editor, Marie O’Regan, to Jeffrey Alan Love for his cover art, and tothe team at PS Publishing- Tamsin Traves, Michael Smith, snd Nicky and Peter Crowther.

It’s available in hardback and as an ebook.

World Fantasy Awards

The World Fantasy Awards ballot for works published in 2022 has been announced. The awards will be presented during the 2023 World Fantasy Convention, scheduled for October 26-29, 2023 at the Sheraton Crown Center in Kansas City MO.

The Life Achievement Awards, presented annually to individuals who have demonstrated outstanding service to the fantasy field, will go to Peter Crowther and John Douglas.

The World Fantasy Awards finalists are:

Best Novel

• Saint Death’s Daughter, C.S.E. Cooney (Solaris)
• Spear, Nicola Griffith (Tordotcom)
• The Ballad of Perilous Graves, Alex Jennings (Redhook; Orbit UK)
• Babel, R.F. Kuang (Harper Voyager US; Harper Voyager UK)
• Siren Queen, Nghi Vo (Tordotcom)

Best Novella

• The Bruising of Qilwa, Naseem Jamnia (Tachyon)
• The House of Drought, Dennis Mombauer (Stelliform)
• Even Though I Knew the End, C.L. Polk (Tordotcom)
• Helpmeet, Naben Ruthnum (Undertow)
• Pomegranates, Priya Sharma (Absinthe)

Best Short Fiction

• “The Devil Don’t Come with Horns”, Eugen Bacon (Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology)
• “Incident at Bear Creek Lodge”, Tananarive Due (Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology)
• “The Morning House”, Kate Heartfield (PodCastle 7/5/22)
• “Telling the Bees”, Kat Howard (Sunday Morning Transport 1/30/22)
• “Douen”, Suzan Palumbo (The Dark 3/22)

Best Anthology

• Screams from the Dark: 29 Tales of Monsters and the Monstrous, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Nightfire)
• Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology, Vince A. Liaguno & Rena Mason, eds. (Morrow)
• Dark Stars: New Tales of Darkest Horror, John F.D. Taff, ed. (Nightfire)
• Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction, Sheree Renée Thomas, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, Zelda Knight, eds. (Tordotcom)
• Trouble the Waters: Tales from the Deep Blue, Sheree Renée Thomas, Pan Morigan, Troy L. Wiggins, eds. (Third Man)

Best Collection

• Dark Breakers, C.S.E. Cooney (Mythic Delirium)
• Breakable Things, Cassandra Khaw (Undertow)
• All Nightmare Long, Tim Lebbon (PS)
• Boys, Beasts & Men, Sam J. Miller (Tachyon)
• A Different Darkness and Other Abominations, Luigi Musolino (Valancourt)

Best Artist

• Kinuko Y. Craft
• Galen Dara
• Matt Ottley
• Lauren Raye Snow
• Charles Vess

Special Award – Professional

• Irene Gallo, for Tor.com
• Gavin J. Grant & Kelly Link, for Small Beer Press
• Tim Lebbon & Daniele Serra, for Without Walls (PS)
• Fiona Moore, for Management Lessons from Game of Thrones: Organization Theory and Strategy in Westeros (Edward Elgar)
• Matt Ottley, for The Tree of Ecstasy and Unbearable Sadness (Dirt Lane)

Special Award – Non-Professional

• Michael Kelly, for Undertow Publications
• Cristina Macía, for The Celsius Festival
• dave ring, for Neon Hemlock Press
• Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas, for Uncanny
• E. Catherine Tobler, for editing The Deadlands

I am OVER THE MOON to be nominated in the novella category alongside some incredible writers.

I am hugely grateful to everyone at PS Publishing and my editor Marie O’Regan. My thanks to everyone who supported the book and to the jury for including it.

I’m delighted that Peter Crowther of PS has been given a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Interzone Pod

Thanks to Gareth Jelley for interviewing me for Interzone Pod to discuss “Pomegranates”.

Listen here.

British Fantasy Awards

The British Fantasy Award nominations have been annouced and I am delighted to be included with “Pomegranates” in the novella category. My humble thanks to anyone who voted for it.

The Robert Holdstock Award for Best Fantasy Novel

Jurors: Elias Eells, Elloise Hopkins, S.D. Howarth, Nadya Mercik, Roseanna Pendlebury

• The Bone Orchard – Sara A. Mueller (Tor)
• Cast Long Shadows – Cat Hellisen (Luna Press Publishing)
• Glitterati – Oliver K. Langmead (Titan)
• The Oleander Sword – Tasha Suri (Orbit)
• Path of War – David Green (Eerie River Publishing)
• The Spear Cuts Through Water – Simon Jimenez (Del Rey)

The August Derleth Award for Best Horror Novel

Jurors: Ben Appleby-Dean, Theresa Derwin, Rhian Drinkwater, Rebecca Gault, Sasha Sienna

• Full Immersion – Gemma Amor (Angry Robot)
• The Hollows – Daniel Church (Angry Robot)
• Just Like Home – Sarah Gailey (Hodder & Stoughton)
• Miracle Growth – Tim Mendees (Eerie River Publishing)
• Sundial – Catriona Ward (Viper)

Best Novella

Jurors: Rick Danforth, Elizabeth Elliot, Jessica Hyslop, E. Saxey, Miranda Seitz-McLeese

• And Then I Woke Up – Malcolm Devlin (Tordotcom)
• The Entropy of Loss – Stewart Hotston (NewCon Press)
• Interference – Terry Grimwood (Elsewhen Press)
• Ogres – Adrian Tchaikovsky (Solaris)
• Pomegranates – Priya Sharma (PS Publishing)
• The Queen of the High Fields – Rhiannon A. Grist (Luna Press Publishing)

Best Short Fiction

Jurors: Laura Bennett, Andrew Freudenberg, Jessica Levai, Peter McLean

• The Call of El Tunche – Shona Kinsella (in Weird Horror Anthology, Flame Tree Press)
• A Moment of Zugzwang – Neil Williamson (in ParSec #4)
• Morta – James Bennett (in The Book of Queer Saints, Medusa Publishing Haus)
• The Tails That Make You – Eliza Chan (in Fantasy Magazine #82)

Best Collection

Jurors: Brian Kinsella, Ann Landmann, Chris McNallen-Jones, India Nye, Derek Schofield

• Behind a Broken Smile – Penny Jones (Black Shuck Books)
• Breakable Things – Cassandra Khaw (Undertow Publications)
• Candescent Blooms – Andrew Hook (Salt Publishing)
• Under the Moon – E.M. Faulds (Ghost Moth Press)

Best Magazine/Periodical

Jurors: Jonathan Laidlow, Hesper Leveret, Lauren McMenemy, Eleanor Pender, Nathaniel Spain

• Ginger Nuts of Horror
• Interzone
• Shoreline of Infinity
• Strange Horizons

Best Audio Work

Jurors: Rosemarie Cawkwell, Arden Fitzroy, Morgan Greensmith, Amy Portsmouth

• Breaking the Glass Slipper
• The Painkiller Podcast (Bitter Pill Theatre)
• Podcastle (Escape Artists)
• Pseudopod (Escape Artists)
• The Secret of St. Kilda (Michael Ireland & Naomi Clarke)
• The Stranger Times (C.K. McDonnell)

Best Independent Press

Jurors: Rowena Andrews, Andy Angel, Robin CM Duncan, Alex Norriss, Sara Omer

• Black Shuck Books
• Flame Tree Press
• Luna Press Publishing
• NewCon Press

Best Artist

Jurors: Cat Anderson, Mehzeb Chowdhury, David Green, Adam McDowall, Paul Yates

• Chris Baker (Fangorn)
• Ben Baldwin
• Jenni Coutts
• Vince Haig
• Dan Hillier

Best Anthology

Jurors: Chris Butler, Robin CM Duncan, Ian Hunter, Mira Manga, Abbi Shaw

• Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction, ed. Sheree Renée Thomas, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki & Zelda Knight (Tordotcom)
• The Book of Queer Saints, ed. Mae Murray (Medusa Publishing Haus)
• Great British Horror 7: Major Arcana, ed. Steve J. Shaw (Black Shuck Books)
• Isolation: The Horror Anthology, ed. Dan Coxon (Titan)
• Sky Breaker: Tales of the Wanderer – Lee C. Conley, H.L. Tinsley, J.E. Hannaford, David Green, Derek Power, C. Marry Hultman, Damien Larkin and C.F. Welburn (Nordic Press)
• Someone in Time, ed. Jonathan Strahan (Solaris)

Best Non-fiction

Jurors: Cerys Gardner, Susan Maxwell, Kevin McVeigh, TJ Moules, Aparna Sivasankar

• An Earnest Blackness – Eugen Bacon (Anti-Oedipus Press)
• Fantasy: How it Works – Brian Attebery (OUP)
• The Full Lid – Alasdair Stuart, ed. Marguerite Kenner
• My Life in Horror, Vol. 2 – Kit Power
• Outlander and the Real Jacobites – Shona Kinsella (Pen & Sword History)
• Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes – Rob Wilkins (Doubleday)

The Sydney J. Bounds Award for Best Newcomer

Jurors: Liz Delton, Michael Dodd, Fabienne Schwizer, Arturo Serrano, Stephen Theaker

• Sunyi Dean, for The Book Eaters (Tor)
• Hiron Ennes, for Leech (Tor)
• Somto Ihezue, for a collection of short stories: Whole; Like Stars Daring to Shine; A Girl is Blood, Spirit and Fire; The Carving of War
• Shauna Lawless, for The Children of Gods and Fighting Men (Head of Zeus)
• Elijah Kinch Spector, for Kalyna the Soothsayer (Erewhon Books)
• Susan York, for Starless and Bible Black (Midnight Street Press)

2022 Shirley Jackson Award Winners

Winners Announced for the 2022 Shirley Jackson Awards

Boston, MA (July 15, 2023) — In recognition of the legacy of Shirley Jackson’s writing, and with permission of the author’s estate, The Shirley Jackson Awards, Inc. has been established for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic.

The 2022 Shirley Jackson Awards were presented in-person on Saturday, July 15 at Readercon 32, Conference on Imaginative Literature, in Quincy, Massachusetts.

The awards ceremony was hosted by Jeff VanderMeer, Readercon 32 Guest of Honor and past Shirley Jackson Award winner, and Ann VanderMeer, Readercon 32 Special Guest and a member of the Shirley Jackson Awards Board of Advisors.

My HUGE congratulations to all the nominees and winners. I am proud to be in the novella category and genuinely delighted for the superb Angela Slatter.

The winners for the 2022 Shirley Jackson Awards are:

NOVEL — Tie

The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias (Mulholland Books)

Where I End by Sophie White (Tramp Press)

NOVELLA

The Bone Lantern by Angela Slatter (PS Publishing)

NOVELETTE

What the Dead Know by Nghi Vo (Amazon Original Stories)

SHORT FICTION

“Pre-Simulation Consultation XF007867” by Kim Fu (Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century)

SINGLE-AUTHOR COLLECTION

We Are Here to Hurt Each Other by Paula D. Ashe (Nictitating Books)

EDITED ANTHOLOGY

The Hideous Book of Hidden Horrors, edited by Doug Murano (Bad Hand Books)

The Shirley Jackson Awards 2022

The nominees for the 2022 Shirley Jackson Awards are:

NOVEL

Beulah by Christi Nogle (Cemetery Gates Media)

The Dead Friends Society by Paul Gandersman and Peter Hall (Encyclopocalypse Publications)

The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias (Mulholland Books)

Jackal by Erin E. Adams (Bantam)

Unwieldy Creatures by Addie Tsai (Jaded Ibis Press)

Where I End by Sophie White (Tramp Press)

NOVELLA

The Bone Lantern by Angela Slatter (PS Publishing)

Bound Feet by Kelsea Yu (Cemetery Gates Media)

Catastrophe by Deirdre Danklin (Texas Review Press)

Lure by Tim McGregor (Tenebrous Press)

Pomegranates by Priya Sharma (PS Publishing)

The Wehrwolf by Alma Katsu (Amazon Original Stories)

NOVELETTE

Azeman or, the Testament of Quincey Morris by Lisa Moore (Black Shuck Books)

“Challawa” by Usman T. Malik (Dark Stars:  New Tales of Darkest Horror)

“Sweetbaby” by Thomas Ha (Clarkesworld, October 2022)

“This Place is Best Shunned” by David Erik Nelson (Tor.com)

What the Dead Know by Nghi Vo (Amazon Original Stories)

SHORT FICTION

“Brother Maternitas” by Viktor Athelstan (Your Body is Not Your Body)

“The Church of Divine Electricity” by Emily Mitchell (The Southern Review)

“Dick Pig” by Ian Muneshwar (Nightmare Magazine, Issue 112)

“Halogen Sky” by Wendy N. Wagner (VASTARIEN:  A Literary Journal, vol. 5, issue 1)

“Pre-Simulation Consultation XF007867” by Kim Fu (Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century)

SINGLE-AUTHOR COLLECTION

And At My Back I Always Hear by Scott Nicolay (Word Horde)

Breakable Things by Cassandra Khaw (Undertow Publications)

Hell Hath No Sorrow Like a Woman Haunted by RJ Joseph (The Seventh Terrace)

Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century by Kim Fu (Tin House)

Splendid Anatomies by Allison Wyss (Veliz Books)

We Are Here to Hurt Each Other by Paula D. Ashe (Nictitating Books)

EDITED ANTHOLOGY

Chiral Mad 5, edited by Michael Bailey (Written Backwards)

The Hideous Book of Hidden Horrors, edited by Doug Murano (Bad Hand Books)

Other Terrors, edited by Vince A. Liaguno and Rena Mason (William Morrow)

Screams From the Dark:  29 Tales of Monsters and the Monstrous, edited by Ellen Datlow (Tor Nightfire)

Your Body is Not Your Body, edited by Alex Woodroe and Matt Blairstone (Tenebrous Press)

****

The 2022 Shirley Jackson Awards will be presented in-person on Saturday, July 15 at 8pm at Readercon 32, Conference on Imaginative Literature, in Quincy, Massachusetts.

****

I am thrilled to be on this list with “Pomegranates”. My thanks to PS Publishing and editor Marie O’Regan.

Congratulations and thanks also to Ellen Datlow, editor of “Screams From The Dark”, who including one of my stories (“The Ghost of a Flea”).