Lifetime Achievement Award
THE LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD 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. The award is presented each year during HWA’s gala presentation of the Bram Stoker Awards.
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:
- 2023 – Mort Castle, Cassandra Peterson, Steve Rasnic Tem
- 2022 – Elizabeth Massie, Nuzo Onoh, John Saul
- 2021 – Jo Fletcher, Nancy Holder, Koji Suzuki
- 2020 – Carol J. Clover, Jewelle Gomez, Marge Simon
- 2019 – Owl Goingback, Thomas Ligotti
- 2018 – Graham Masterton
- 2017 – Linda Addison
- 2016 – Dennis Etchison, Thomas F. Monteleone
- 2015 – Alan Moore, George Romero
- 2014 – Jack Ketchum, Tanith Lee
- 2013 – Stephen Jones, R.L. Stine
- 2012 – Clive Barker, Robert McCammon
- 2011 – Rick Hautala, Joe R. 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
If you are a Lifetime Achievement Award winner, you may feel free to use this medallion:
