The Horror Writers Association 2024 Scholarship Winners Announced

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is pleased to announce this year’s round of scholarship and grant recipients for the Dark Poetry, Mary Shelley, and HWA Scholarships as well as the Diversity Grants.

The scholarship recipients showcased an array of diversity, talent, and love for the horror genre. The HWA would also like to express its gratitude to the Scholarship Committee chaired this year by Marge Simon and to Linda D. Addison who chaired the Diversity Grant Committee.

The HWA would like to congratulate the following scholarship and grant recipients:

2024 Scholarship Recipients:

Ennis Rook Bashe: Dark Poetry Scholarship

Ennis Rook Bashe is a two-time Elgin Award nominee, Rhysling Award finalist, TAP New York Writers’ Institute Queer Poetry Prize winner, and Lesfic Bard Award-winning poet and novelist whose work has appeared in Strange Horizons, Cricket, and Liminality Magazine. Their chapbook Beautiful Malady includes work nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Find more of their writing at https://linktr.ee/ennisrookbashe.

Catherine Yu: HWA Scholarship

Catherine Yu writes dark speculative fiction. She was born in Nanjing and is now based in New York. She is the author of Direwood and Helga (Page Street). Her short fiction has appeared or is forthcoming from Baffling MagazineFantasy Magazine, and the Death in the Mouth anthology.

Madeleine Pelletier: Mary W. Shelley Scholarship

Madeleine Pelletier lives in an old farmhouse near Montreal, with three cats, six goats, and one grumpy old man. Her short fiction has most recently appeared at Short Edition, Globe Soup, and Through the Grinder Darkly: The Best of the 2k Terrors. Follow her @mad_pelletier (Twitter/X) and @madpelletier.bsky.social

2024 Diversity Grant Recipients:

Amanda Helms (she/her) is a mixed-race Black/white writer whose short fiction has appeared in fine venues such as FIYAHBeneath Ceaseless Skies, and Uncanny. A member of SFWA and HWA, she also serves as an editor for Diabolical Plots. When not reading, writing, or editing, she is likely chasing after her school-age child, daydreaming about embarking upon train journeys, or cooing over cute puppy pictures.Website: https://amandahelms.com

Somto Ihezue (he/him) is a Nigerian–Igbo writer, editor, and filmmaker. He is a Creative Writing MFA student at the University of Maryland, and an alumnus of Clarion West, Tin House, Voodoonauts, and Milford SF workshops. His works have appeared, or are forthcoming in Tor, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Uncanny, Strange Horizons, NIGHTMARE, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Podcastle, Escape Pod, PseudoPod, POETRY Magazine, Flash Fiction Online, Flame Tree Press, and others. His work has been shortlisted for the British Fantasy Award (Sydney J. Bounds Awards), the Nommo Awards, the Utopia Awards, and has equally been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the British Science Fiction Award. Website: https://somtoihezue.com/

Elis Montgomery(she/her)is a speculative fiction writer from Vancouver, Canada. She is a member of SFWA and Codex. When she’s not writing, she’s usually hanging upside down in an aerial arts class or a murky cave. Find her there or at elismontgomery.com.

A. W. Prihandita (she/her) is an Indonesian speculative fiction writer, college writing instructor and PhD candidate in rhetoric and composition, with scholarly (and personal) interests in decolonial and transnational writing. She splits her time between the US West Coast, where she currently teaches and studies, and Indonesia, where she grew up and where her home remains. She attended the Odyssey workshop in 2023 on their Fresh Voices Scholarship, and the Clarion workshop in 2024 on their Octavia Butler Scholarship. Her stories are published in Clarkesworld, Cast of Wonders, Ghoulish Tales, and khōréō magazine, among others.Website: https://awprihandita.carrd.co

Ayida Shonibar (she/they) writes dark and wistful speculative fiction about misfits, monsters, mischief-makers. Spanning genres and age categories, their short works appear in various publications. In horror, these include If There’s Anyone Left, Wilted Pages (Shortwave Publishing), Night of the Living Queers (Wednesday Books), Nature Futures, and Asian Ghost Short Stories. Regardless of premise, most of their storytelling draws on horror traditions in some aspect. You can find more information about their writing at ayidashonibar.com.

Tehnuka (she/they) is a Tamil tauiwi writer and volcanologist from Aotearoa New Zealand. She likes to find herself up volcanoes, down caves, and in unexpected places; everyone else, however, can find her online at www.tehnuka.dreamhosters.com.

Ash Vale (they/them) is a queer, non-binary, neurodivergent Canadian. They’re a big fan of cryptids, guts, and weird lil guys. Their work has been published in Heartlines Spec, Goblincore: An Anthology, and is forthcoming at Black Hare Press. You can find their newsletter and stories at https://linktr.ee/ashvale.

The HWA will be conducting interviews with each scholarship and grant recipient, so watch the HWA’s socials and blog for more to come!

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