2025 LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

2025 Lifetime Achievement Awards

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is pleased to announce the recipients of its Lifetime Achievement Award. These will be presented on June 14, 2025, during the Bram Stoker Awards® Presentation at StokerCon®2025 in Stamford, CT.

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 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 acknowledgment of superior achievement in an entire career.

The recipients of the HWA’s Lifetime Achievement Award for 2024 are:

Del and Sue Howison, Dame Susan Hill, and David Cronenberg.

DEL HOWISON

Del Howison is an author, journalist, SAG actor including a cameo in

the upcoming horror film Big Baby produced by Cher and directed by

Spider One. He is a Bram Stoker Award-winning editor of the

anthology Dark Delicacies: Original Tales of Terror and the Macabre

by the World’s Greatest Horror Writers. He has written articles for

Fear.net, Gauntlet Magazine, and Writers Digest among others.Del’s

short story Cul-de-Sac appeared in Weird Tales Magazine #369. His

western short story The Lost Herd was turned into the premiere (and

highest rated) episode, The Sacrifice, for the series Fear Itself. His

dark western novel The Survival of Margaret Thomas was shortlisted

for the Peacemaker Award given out by the Western Fictioneers. He

has been shortlisted for over half a dozen awards including the

Shirley Jackson Award and the Black Quill. Del’s retrospective short

story compilation of dark tales, What Fresh Hell Is This?,was released

in March of 2025. He is the cofounder and owner (with his wife, Sue) of Dark Delicacies, a book and gift store known as “The Home of Horror,” located in Burbank, California. The store won the “Il Posto Nero” award from Italy and has been inducted into the Rondo Hatton Hall of Fame.

SUE HOWISON

Sue Howison is co-creator, with Del Howison, and COO of Dark Delicacies®. She and Del were business partners prior to their marriage. Sue is the main person responsible for deciding what

stock to carry; lining up such diverse events as signings, memorials, weddings, and entertainment; as well as handling all charity happenings and donations. Her 30+ years working in horror has

left an indelible impression on the genre. She and Del continue to work together in horror to this day.

DAME SUSAN ELIZABETH HILL

Dame Susan Elizabeth Hill, Lady Wells DBE is an English author of

fiction and non-fiction works. Her novels include The Woman in Black,

which has been adapted for stage and screen, The Mist in the Mirror,

and I’m the King of the Castle, for which she received the Somerset

Maugham Award in 1971. She also won the Whitebread Novel Award

in 1972 for The Bird of Night, which was also shortlisted for the

Booker Prize.

She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire

(CBE) in the 2012 Birthday Honors and Dame Commander of the

Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2020 Birthday Honors, both

for services to literature.

DAVID CRONENBERG

David Cronenberg is a Canadian film director, screenwriter, producer

and actor. He is a principal originator of the body horror genre, with

his films exploring visceral bodily transformation, infectious diseases,

and the intertwining of the psychological, physical, and technological.

Cronenberg is best known for exploring these themes through sci-fi

horror films such as Shivers (1975), Scanners (1981),Videodrome(1983)

and The Fly (1986), though he has also directed dramas, psychological

thrillers and gangster films.

Cronenberg’s films have polarized critics and audiences alike; he has

earned critical acclaim and has sparked controversy for his depictions

of gore and violence.The Village Voicecalled him “the most audacious

and challenging narrative director in the English-speaking world”. His films have won numerous awards, including the Special Jury Prize forCrash at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, a unique award that is distinct from the Jury Prize as it is not given annually, but only at the request of the official jury, who in this case gave the award “for originality, for daring, and for audacity”.

Seven of his films were selected to compete for the Palme d’Or, the most recent beingThe Shrouds(2024), which was screened at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.