About

Sofia Ajram is a Bram Stoker Award-winning metalsmith, writer and editor of queer and speculative stories. Their debut novella, Coup de Grâce, won the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Long Fiction, was named a Best Book of 2024 by Barnes & Noble and Esquire, and was shortlisted for the Shirley Jackson Awards and Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer prize. 

They are the Canadian Arts and Fashion Award–winning designer, founder and metalsmith of Sofia Zakia jewelry as well as the editor of Bury Your Gays: An Anthology of Tragic Queer Horror. Sofia has given lectures on contemporary horror films at Monstrum Montreal and has had their work published in Nightmare Magazine. He lives in Montreal with his cat Isa.

Find them on Twitter/X, BlueSky, Threads, TikTok, and Instagram @sofiaajram.

Contact

sofia.ajram@gmail.com
Montreal, Canada

Social Media

Sofia Zakia | Instagram | Twitter | BlueSky | TikTok | Threads

Selected Awards & Exhibitions

Winner - British Fantasy Award (2025) - Bury Your Gays: An Anthology of Tragic Queer Horror

Finalist - Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for Literary Fiction (2025) - Coup de Grâce

Winner - Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Long Fiction (2024) - Coup de Grâce

Finalist - Shirley Jackson Award for Novella (2024) - Coup de Grâce

Finalist - Shirley Jackson Award for Anthology (2024) - Bury Your Gays: An Anthology of Tragic Queer Horror

Finalist - Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in an Anthology (2024) - Bury Your Gays: An Anthology of Tragic Queer Horror

Finalist - Aurora Awards for Best Related Work (2025) - Bury Your Gays: An Anthology of Tragic Queer Horror

Finalist - This Is Horror Award for Novella of the Year (2025) - Coup de Grâce

Winner – CAFA, Swarovski Award for Emerging Talent, Accessories (2018)

Tribeca Games Presents the Craft and Creative of League of Legends, New York (Group, 2015)

Portrait by Laurence Philomene

Writing & Editing

"The H Word: The Horrors Persist But So Do We" (Nonfiction) pub. Nightmare Magazine (Nov 2024)

COUP DE GRÂCE pub. Titan Books (Oct 1, 2024)

Bury Your Gays: An Anthology of Tragic Queer Horror pub. Ghoulish Books (Editing; March 2024)

"The Roses of Heliogabalus". THE PLEASURE IN PAIN ANTHOLOGY, pub. The Dragon's Roost Press (March 2024)

"The Brazen Bull". PLAYLIST OF THE DAMNED, pub. Weird Little Worlds Press (June 2024)

"Acid Bath" in Little Mutilations. pub. Crystal Lake Publishing (April 2023)

"The Arborglyph". LOST CONTACT, pub. Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing (2021)

Interviews & Lectures

StokerCon: "Found Forms in Horror" (Moderator) (2025)

StokerCon: "Behind the Scenes of Anthology Editing" (Panelist) (2025)

StokerCon: "The House is Trying to Kill Me and Other Single-Location Horror" (Panelist) (2025)

Read Quebec Book Fair - "How I got Published: Fiction Edition" (2024)

Belletrist STACKED (2024)

Horror Writers Association - Mental Health Initiative - "Holistic Horror" (2024)

Talking Scared - Episode 215 - "Sofia Ajram & The Architecture of Despair" (2024)

Belletrist Brief (2024)

DreadCentral - "Sofia Ajram on Their Chilling New Novella" (2024)

The ARC Party Podcast - "Sofia Ajram COUP DE GRÂCE" (2024)

StokerCon: "Exploring Queerness as 'Otherness' in Horror" (Panelist) (2024)

StokerCon: "Anomalous Architecture: Unusual and Liminal Settings" (Moderator) (2023)

StokerCon: "Algorithmic Possession: Confronting Big Tech on the Page" (Panelist) (2023)

Scarred for Life Podcast - Episode 184: "Author Sofia Ajram and Rose Red (2002)" (2023)

Ghoulish Podcast - Episode 136: "The Afterlife with Sofia Ajram!" (2022)

Dead Headspace Podcast - Episode 101: "Sanitized Queerness & Horror" (2021)

Montreal Monstrum - Time-Loop Horror (2019)

Jewelry Independent Summit NYC - "Success Comes in Many Forms" (2019)

Professional

Costume and Prop-Making

Digital Photography and Retouching

Fine Jewelry Design and Production

Graphic Design

Illustration

Public Speaking

Writing