Most writers, like most actors, do not like to be typecast. Many strive mightily to avoid being labeled genre writers, even when the fiction they're writing obviously falls well within the parameters of a particular genre. One thinks of writers like Kurt Vonnegut, who used to strenuously deny that Slaughterhouse Five was science fiction. And one would be hard-pressed to find a dread-inducing classic like Shirley Jackson's The Lottery anywhere near the horror section of one's local bookstore.
As we noted in yesterday's post, this attempt to avoid ghettoization as a writer is not necessarily a bad thing--it keeps genres fresh, by preventing them from lapsing into staid formula. But it sometimes makes things difficult for readers, who may be interested in the genre but unable to easily keep up with what's being published sans some type of labeling. Fortunately, one can always turn to lists of the genre's award winners.
Arguably the best-known of these awards is the Bram Stoker Award, given annually by the Horror Writers Association. So if you want to know if Clive Barker (who--if he is to be labeled at all--prefers the label "a master of the fantastic") writes horror fiction, the receipt of a Stoker Award would seem to indicate yes:
Bram Stoker First Novel Award, 1987
Because the Bram Stoker Award covers many different categories (First Novel, Short Fiction, Poetry, etc.), readers often are surprised at the diversity of mainstream authors who win these awards. Unless you are an avid reader of Joyce Carol Oates, for example, you may not fully appreciate the extent to which elements of horror pervade her fiction. Or realize that she is a past winner (1993) of the most prestigious of all Stoker Awards, The Brom Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement (awarded to writers "whose work has substantially influenced the horror genre")
Other lists that often are used to keep track of what's being published in horror fiction include the International Horror Guild Awards, the Australian Shadows Awards and Australia's Aurealis Awards....
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