Horror Writers Assn. Announces Lifetime Achievement Award Winner

THOMAS HARRIS WINS LIFETIME HORROR AWARD

Fava beans, Chianti, and liver aren't on the menu, but
the writer who suggested that horrific meal is being
honored at a special dinner.

Thomas Harris, who created iconic serial killer
Hannibal Lecter, has been awarded the 2006 Lifetime
Achievement Award by the Horror Writers Association
(HWA). Harris is credited with popularizing the serial
killer genre with his novel "The Silence of the
Lambs," and also scored major successes with his
psychological horror novels "Red Dragon" and
"Hannibal."  Stephen King called the series "one very
long and scary ride through the haunted palace of
abnormal psychiatry."

A former crime reporter, Harris began writing fiction
in the 1960s and was a journalist for the Associated
Press in New York from 1968 to 1974.

His first novel, the prescient "Black Sunday," was
published in 1975 and features terrorists attempting a
mass attack at the Super Bowl. His first four books
were adapted into blockbuster motion pictures.
Harris's latest novel featuring Lecter, "Hannibal
Rising," was published in December 2006, with the film
version scheduled for February release.

The Lifetime Achievement Award is the most prestigious
of the Bram Stoker Awards, given by the HWA in
acknowledgment of superior achievement not just in a
single work but over an entire career. Past Lifetime
Achievement Award winners include such noted authors
as Stephen King, Anne Rice, Joyce Carole Oates, Ray
Bradbury, and Peter Straub. Winners must have
exhibited a profound, positive impact on the fields of
horror and dark fantasy, and be at least sixty years
of age or have been published for a minimum of
thirty-five years.

"The Silence of the Lambs" won the Bram Stoker Award
for Superior Achievement in a Novel in 1988 and
"Hannibal" was a 1999 finalist. His newest novel has
been recommended for this year's award.

The HWA Annual Conference and Bram Stoker Awards
banquet will be held on March 31 in conjunction with
the 2007 World Horror Convention. The convention runs
from March 29 through Apr. 1 in Toronto, Canada.
The Horror Writers Association is a worldwide
organization promoting dark literature and its
creators. Started in 1985, it has over 500 members who
are writing professionally in fiction, nonfiction,
videogames, films, comics, and other media.

To learn more about Harris, visit his official Web
site at www.thomasharris.com.