Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement

The Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement annually recognizes one to three living artists for "superior achievement in an entire career" which has "substantially influenced the horror genre". It is conferred by the Horror Writers Association, and most winners have been horror fiction writers, but other creative occupations are eligible.^[1]

The Bram Stoker Awards, including the lifetime honor in particular, were established along with the Association itself in 1987. They are presented in the year following the award eligibility year, which is the publication year for most of the awards program.

The winners are selected by the annual Lifetime Achievement Award Committee, which comprises five HWA members appointed by the President. Unlike the literary awards, which are determined by vote of all members, there are no official runners-up.^[1]

David Cronenberg and Del & Sue Howison are the most recent winners, having received the award at the 2025 StokerCon awards banquet.^[2]

Recipients

The annual committee may bestow up to three awards, by unanimous agreement, and it need not bestow any. In fact, though, there has been at least a single winner every year, and there were three winners for 1987, and more recently 2020 and 2021. There were 40 Lifetime Achievement Awards in the first 25 years, through the 2011/2012 cycle.^[1]

Winners

Year	Winner	Ref.[3][4]
1987	Fritz Leiber	[5]
	Frank Belknap Long
	Clifford D. Simak
1988	Ronald Chetwynd-Hayes	[6]
	Ray Bradbury
1989	Robert Bloch	[7]
1990	Hugh B. Cave	[8]
	Richard Matheson
1991	Gahan Wilson	[9]
1992	Ray Russell	[10]
1993	Joyce Carol Oates	[11]
1994	Christopher Lee	[12]
1995	Harlan Ellison	[13]
1996	Forrey Ackerman	[14]
	Ira Levin
1997	William Peter Blatty	[15]
	Jack Williamson
1998	Ramsey Campbell	[16]
	Roger Corman
1999	Edward Gorey	[17]
	Charles L. Grant
2000	Nigel Kneale	[18]
2001	John Farris	[19]
2002	Stephen King	[20]
	J. N. Williamson
2003	Martin H. Greenberg	[21]
	Anne Rice
2004	Michael Moorcock	[22]
2005	Peter Straub	[23]
2006	Thomas Harris	[24][25]
2007	John Carpenter	[26][27]
	Robert Weinberg
2008	F. Paul Wilson	[28][29]
	Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
2009	Brian Lumley	[30][31]
	William F. Nolan
2010	Ellen Datlow	[32][33][34]
	Al Feldstein
2011	Rick Hautala	[35][36]
	Joe R. Lansdale
2012	Clive Barker	[37][38]
	Robert McCammon
2013	Stephen Jones
	R. L. Stine	[39][40]
2014	Jack Ketchum	[41][42]
	Tanith Lee
2015	Alan Moore	[43][44]
	George Romero
2016	Dennis Etchison	[45][46]
	Thomas Monteleone
2017	Linda Addison	[47][48]
2018	Graham Masterton	[49][50]
2019	Owl Goingback	[51][52]
	Thomas Ligotti
2020	Carol J. Clover	[53][54]
	Jewelle Gomez
	Marge Simon
2021	Jo Fletcher	[55][56][57]
	Nancy Holder
	Koji Suzuki
2022	Elizabeth Massie	[58]
	Nuzo Onoh
	John Saul
2023	Mort Castle	[59]
	Cassandra Peterson
	Steve Rasnic Tem
2024	David Cronenberg	[2]
	Del & Sue Howison

Multiple awards

Six of the Bram Stoker Award winners have also been named SFWA Grand Masters by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association: Leiber, Simak, Bradbury, Ellison, Jack Williamson, and Moorcock.^[60]

See also