THE BRAM STOKER AWARD® FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT is presented periodically to an individual whose work has substantially influenced the horror genre. While this award is often presented to a writer, it may also be given for influential accomplishments in other creative fields.

About the Award

WHO MAY RECEIVE THE AWARD? To be eligible for this award, a candidate must either be at least sixty years of age by May 1 of the year of the award's presentation, or must have first produced professional work in the field of Horror at least thirty-five years prior to May 1 of the year of the award's presentation. All recipients must be alive at the time the President is informed of the committee's choice.

HOW ARE RECIPIENTS CHOSEN? The Lifetime Achievement Award is the most prestigious of all awards presented by HWA. It does not merely honor the superior achievement embodied in a single work. Instead, it is an acknowledgement of superior achievement in an entire career. So, to prevent unseemly competition and to prevent the impression that there are any losers in this category, the L.A.A. is the only award that is not decided by a vote of the entire Active membership.

Instead, at the beginning of each year, HWA's President appoints a Lifetime Achievement Awards Committee consisting of five Active HWA members from diverse geographical areas, and whose writing represents the varied types of dark fantasy/ horror/ and occult fiction. This committee considers recommendations submitted by HWA's membership at large, though they are not obliged to pick an award recipient from among the recommendations.

MULTIPLE RECIPIENTS. The committee may, at its discretion, bestow up to three Lifetime Achievement Awards in a single year, though only if they are in unanimous agreement that more than one Award is appropriate that year.

Past Recipients

The following individuals have received the Bram Stoker Lifetime Achievement Award:

2011 - Rick Hautala, Joe Lansdale
2010 - Ellen Datlow, Al Feldstein
2009 - Brian Lumley, William F. Nolan
2008 - F. Paul Wilson, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
2007 - John Carpenter, Robert Weinberg
2006 - Thomas Harris
2005 - Peter Straub
2004 - Michael Moorcock
2003 - Anne Rice, Martin H. Greenberg
2002 - Stephen King, J.N. Williamson
2001 - John Farris
2000 - Nigel Kneale
1999 - Edward Gorey, Charles L. Grant
1998 - Ramsey Campbell, Roger Corman
1997 - William Peter Blatty, Jack Williamson
1996 - Ira Levin, Forrest J. Ackerman
1995 - Harlan Ellison
1994 - Christopher Lee
1993 - Joyce Carol Oates
1992 - Ray Russell
1991 - Gahan Wilson
1990 - Hugh B. Cave, Richard Matheson
1989 - Robert Bloch
1988 - Ray Bradbury, Ronald Chetwynd-Hayes
1987 - Fritz Leiber, Frank Belknap Long, Clifford D. Simak

(Photo: 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award Winner Rick Hautala with a fan at the 2012 World Horror Convention; photo courtesy of Lisa Morton)