Klang-born Cassandra Khaw, who is based in New York City, picked up the Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection prize for their 2022 book “Breakable Things”.
Khaw, who uses the pronoun “they”, describes feeling startled, overjoyed, and even “a little suspicious” upon hearing of their win.
“I’m convinced a piano is going to fall on my head at any moment, but more than anything, I feel immensely grateful. It’s incredible to be a working writer in this day and age, to be in the company of such luminous peers,” Khaw, 38, told FMT Lifestyle in an online interview.
They added that they are glad to be writing during a time when so much work is being done to promote marginalised voices, with many editors ferociously championing those who might previously have been sidelined.
“It’s a privilege to have that support, to be alive now, and to have my work recognised when I’m surrounded by so many incredible people,” Khaw said.
Established in 1987, the Bram Stoker Awards are presented annually by the global Horror Writers Association to recognise “superior achievement” in dark-fantasy and horror writing. The prize is, of course, named after Irish author Bram Stoker (1847-1912), best-known for the novel “Dracula”.
There are 13 categories, including Best Novel, Best Short Fiction, Best Graphic Novel, and Lifetime Achievement. Previous winners include Ray Bradbury, Neil Gaiman, Clive Barker, Stephen King, J K Rowling and Thomas Harris, placing Khaw in fine company indeed!
Khaw’s writing spans the gamut from video and tabletop roleplaying games to short stories and novellas. Their published works include “Rupert Wong, Cannibal Chef” (2015), “Hungry Ghosts” (2016), “Nothing But Blackened Teeth” (2021), and “The Salt Grows Heavy” (2023).
Alongside Angeline Woon, Khaw also edited the regional short-story collection “Flesh: A Southeast Asian Urban Anthology” (2016) published by Fixi Novo.
“Breakable Things” has been described as “a bloody fusion of horrors from cosmic to psychological to body traumas”. The book, which collects many of Khaw’s short fiction over the past half-decade or so, has also been nominated in the Single-Author Collection category of the 2022 Shirley Jackson Awards, which recognise outstanding achievement in psychological suspense, horror, and dark fantasy.
Khaw said they tended to gravitate towards themes of “explorations of grief and monstrosity, of generational trauma, and breaking away from the concept that love is a right rather than a privilege”.
The collection gets its title from the story “Some Breakable Things”, written on the morning Khaw discovered their father had died.
“I remember sitting down about 10 minutes after getting the news, startled and heartbroken. It’s a lot about being haunted by your parents long after they’re gone,” they shared.
Are there any local elements in “Breakable Things”? Perhaps in one regard. “It is very Malaysian in that none of the stories do the western thing of going, ‘Let’s explain where the monsters come from’,” they said.
“Here the monsters and the hauntings have always existed, and it’s up to the humans to tread carefully around the darkness.”
Follow Cassandraw Khaw on Instagram.