Short Story Collection of the Year

Winner: Fish Bites Cop! Stories To Bash Authorities by David James Keaton
Runner up: Hair Side, Flesh Side by Helen Marshall

Damn this is big honor, and I’m thankful to everyone out there who voted. Those other books were some serious business (in fact, someone in my home was flipping through The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All the other day, and when I mentioned it was “competition,” she said, “You’re screwed”). So this is an excellent surprise. And it feels good to be acknowledged by the horror community, especially since I had no idea what genre this book lurked in. Fish Bites Cop! probably isn’t comfortable anywhere for very long really, but there’s murder and monsters, and authority bashing is kinda universal, and it’s nice to discover horror is a dark yet inviting thing that takes misfits like this collection under its wing.

David James Keaton