Caitlin R. Kiernan won the best novel award at the Bram Stoker Awards for The Drowning Girl. The Horror Writers Association revealed the winners at a gala this weekend.

Below, we’ve rounded up free samples of the scariest books of the year–did your favorite horror novel make the cut?

All the winners are listed in bold.

Read more

Timebound by Rysa Walker has won the 2013 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. The YA novelist won a $50,000 advance and a publishing contract with Amazon Children’s Publishing’s Skyscape imprint.

Readers voted for the grandprize winner, picking Cary, North Carolina author as the winner of the sixth annual competition. Here’s more from the release:

Walker’s Timebound was inspired by her love of history and science fiction and explores how the choices we make affect our future. In the novel, 17-year-old Kate learns that she’s inherited a genetic license to time travel when her grandmother shares a strange blue medallion, an even stranger tale about future historians, and the unshakeable conviction that the fate of half the planet lies in Kate’s hands.

Read more

The Horror Writers Association will reveal the winners of the Bram Stoker Awards this weekend.

Below, we’ve rounded up free samples of the scariest books of the year–did your favorite horror novel make the cut? Here’s more about the awards:

For the third year running, the Bram Stoker Awards will be webcast live, this time direct from the Queen Anne Ballroom in the Hotel Monteleone, New Orleans. We thank our Platinum Sponsor, Samhain Publishing, without whose generous support this would not be possible. Tune in from 10pm US Eastern Daylight Time on Saturday 15 June!

Read more

The Burning of Cherry Hill  by Amber Butler has won first place at the IndieReader Discovery Awards for fiction this year. Cyberslammed by Kay Stephens and Vinitha Nair took first place in nonfiction.

You can read all the winners at this Scribd link. Here’s more from the release:

While writing a great book is the first step, getting it in front of the right people—be they readers or agents or traditional publishers—is also a critical part of making an indie book a success.  To that end, judges on the IRDA panel included publishers, agents, PR professionals, top reviewers and more. Judging was based on the quality of writing and the originality of the story.  There is a first, second and third place winner in each of the fiction and non-fiction categories , in addition to 36 titles in 32 sub-categories, indicating that each book has received at least a 4-5 star review (out of 5 stars).

Read more

All the winners of the 25th Annual Lambda Literary Awards were revealed in New York City. We’ve included the complete list of winners below.

John Irving took the bisexual fiction award for In One Person. Cheryl Burke took the bisexual nonfiction award for My Awesome Place: The Autobiography of Cheryl B. Comedian Kate Clinton hosted the ceremony at the Great Hall at Cooper Union. Here’s more from the release:

the Lambda ceremony brought together almost 500 attendees, sponsors, and celebrities to celebrate excellence in LGBT literature and 25 years of the groundbreaking literary awards. Legendary performer Janis Ian took to the stage at the ceremony, and the VIP After-Party at the New Museum was hosted by super-hot DJ Honey Dijon making a quarter century of the “Lammys” a night to remember.

Read more

A. M. Homes has won the Women’s Prize for Fiction this year for her novel, May We Be Forgiven.

The prize, formerly known as the OrangePrize for Fiction, will be renamed the “Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction” next year. Chair Kate Mosse explained the new sponsorship deal in the release:

We were delighted by the range of interest – and enjoyed meeting brands in various sectors – but in the end, the Women’s Prize for Fiction Board felt Baileys was the ideal choice as our new partners. We were impressed not only by the scale of their ambition, but also their passion for celebrating outstanding fiction by women and willingness to help in bringing the prize to ever wider audiences.

(Via Michele Filgate)

The winners of the 2013 Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards were revealed, honoring the best children’s picture book, fiction and and nonfiction for the year.

Building our House written and illustrated by Jonathan Bean won the picture book award.  Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell won the fiction award. Electric Ben: The Amazing Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin written and illustrated by Robert Byrd won the nonfiction award.

We’ve included all the honor winners below. The judges included Horn Book reviewer Sarah Ellis, children’s librarian Pamela Yosca and retired school librarian Karen Kosko.

Read more

Actor Colin Firth and Audible Studios won the Audiobook of the Year prize at the Audie Awards last night for an audiobook edition of Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair.

We’ve linked to all the winners below. In addition, Dracula by Bram Stoker won the distinguished achievement in production award for an audiobook with work by Alan Cumming, Tim Curry, Katherine Kellgren and more. The audio drama award went to Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner. Firth had this statement in the release:

I’m grateful for this honor, and grateful for the opportunity to narrate one of my favorite stories—a great novel told in the first person makes for the best script an actor could imagine. None better than The End of the Affair … Theater and film each offer their own challenges and rewards, but narration is a new practice for me and the audiobook performance provides exhilarating possibilities for both actors and listeners.

Read more

The National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) has created the John Leonard Award, a literary prize celebrating one author’s first book–named after the late critic and NBCC founding member, John Leonard.

The first winner will be revealed at the NBCC’s 2014 awards ceremony. One author will be selected from a broad range of genres: fiction, nonfiction, biography, criticism, poetry, and autobiography. Here’s more about the award:

In naming the award, which will be selected directly by a vote of the NBCC’s nearly 500 members nationwide, the National Book Critics Circle honors the legacy of critic John Leonard, a former editor of the New York Times Book Review. A founding member of the NBCC, Leonard (1939–2008) is remembered not only for his voracious and enthusiastic criticism of books, film, and television but also for his life-long encouragement of younger critics and his unwavering attention to debut writers. One of the first American critics to write on Toni Morrison, Maxine Hong Kingston and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Leonard shared his enthusiasms with a wide reading audience in a host of newspapers and magazines including New York, the Nation and Harper’s.

National Book Award submissions are due on June 3. The first-ever longlist will be revealed on September 12.

Publishers need to mail six copies of the book in total and pay a $125 entry fee to be considered for the prestigious prize.  Here’s more about eligibility:

All books must be published by U.S. publishers located in the United States between December 1, 2012 and November 30, 2013. All authors must be U.S. citizens. The following are eligible: Full-length books of fiction and nonfiction. Collections of short stories and collections of essays by one author. Collected and selected poems by one author. Books by authors who are living at the commencement of the eligibility year (December 1, 2012). Self-published books, provided that the author/publisher also publishes titles by other authors … The following are NOT eligible: English translations of books originally written in other languages. Anthologies containing work written by multiple authors. Reprints of books published in previous Award years. Books published through self-publishing services.