Pan Macmillan and the estate of James Herbert have jointly launched the James Herbert Award for Horror Writing, which “aims to discover and publicise a new generation of horror authors working today and celebrate the boldest and most exciting talent in the genre.” The Award is being described as the UK’s first significant juried award for horror, with a prize of£2,000 ($3,000) and a special statuette – albeit, for the present at least, this is a single-work award for long-form fiction only.
According to the official announcement at Pan imprint Tor Books, “the Serendip foundation, who also run the Arthur C. Clarke award, oversaw the award process and a fabulous judging committee of horror enthusiasts was pulled together to read and assess the submitted novels.” The judging panel include horror legend Ramsey Campbell and James Herbert’s daughter, Kerry Herbert. (Note also, though, that: “Works must be submitted by an eligible publisher and works are only eligible for entry if they are not self-published and/or the author has not contributed to the cost of publication.”) The shortlisted works, selected out of 35 submitted novels, are:
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)
The final winner will be announced in March.
