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THE HORROR WRITERS ASSOCIATION (HWA) is a nonprofit organization of writers and publishing professionals around the world, dedicated to promoting dark literature and the interests of those who write it.




Recent News

API/AANHPI Heritage in Horror Month: An Interview with Kelsea Yu

What is your novella about?

My next book, Demon Song (out from Titan Books on September 30), is a modern gothic horror novella inspired by The Phantom of the Opera. The main character, Megan, is a Chinese American teenager who—along with her mom—is on the run from an abusive man. They seek refuge in an ancient Beijing opera house. There, Megan finds a Chinese mythology book and begins reading the tale of Baigujing, the White Bone Demon. Soon, myths begin to bleed into her life as dreams and reality blur, and Megan must discover the true, horrifying secret of her new home before Huihuang Opera House casts its hungry gaze on her. ...More...

API/AANHPI Heritage in Horror: An Interview with Geneve Flynn

What is your story about?

“If I Am to Earn My Tether” is a horror short story about sand piracy, colonialism, and living with the choices our ancestors made. It features the Malaysian myth of the polong, a tiny homunculus born from the blood of a murder victim, and her pet grasshopper, the pelesit. It was published in Silk and Sinew: A Collection of Folk Horror from the Asian Diaspora by Bad Hand Books in May this year. The collection is edited by Kristy Park Kulski and includes short fiction and poetry by Ai Jiang, Nadia Bulkin, Christina Sng, Rena Mason, Lee Murray, J.A.W. McCarthy, Bryan Thao Worra, Ayida Shonibar, Yi Izzy Yu, Angela Yuriko Smith, Kanishk Tantia, Robert Nazar Arjoyan, Christopher Hann, Audrey Zhou, Seoung Kim, Rowan Cardosa, Gabriela Lee, Shawna Yang Ryan, Priya Sridhar, Jess Cho, and Saheli Khastagir. The foreword is by Bram Stoker Award-winning author Monika Kim. ...More...

An Introduction to API/AANHPI Month by Frances Lu Pai Ippolito

The first thing I think of when I sit down to write this introduction is a well. It’s a deep one, made of chipped stone blocks in the courtyard of an abandoned house somewhere between Anhui and Guangdong in the late 1930s. My 7-year-old grandmother is hiding in an empty residence with the women of her family – her mother, Popo, Nai Nai, and her 5-year-old sister. Her brother and father are missing, and the oldest sisters fled their Anhui home weeks ago with neighbors. ...More...

Pride Month 2025: An Interview with Abigail F. Taylor

What is your novel about?

Maryneal, 1962, is American Werewolf in London meets American Graffiti… With the full moon approaching and no salvation in sight, Delah is faced with an unconscionable decision: If she can’t find a cure, she’ll have to kill the boy next door. Despite its monsters and all things that go bump in the night, at its core, Maryneal is about grief and how concealing identities can devour us. Delah is learning how to navigate her sexuality with an unexpected crush developing on one of her girlfriends, and it hits her at the worst possible time: death and mayhem are wrecking her small town. She grapples with the guilt of how she knows she should be feeling and behaving in public, and how those clash with her budding desires. Meanwhile, her childhood friend and neighbor, Hardy, is afflicted with a curse of his own. Bitten by a were-coyote, he’s delighting in all of the ‘gifts’ that come with it, but ignores the toxicity of his behavior and how it changes the dynamics between himself and those around him. ...More...

Pride Month 2025: An Interview with Newton Webb

What is your book about?

My books explore the horrors humans inflict on one another, cannibalism, gaslighting, serial killers, and mad science. I’ve published fifteen books now. Even though I include supernatural creatures and cryptids in many of my stories, I always focus on the human element. Beneath the gore and the ghosts, there is a consistent theme: power, the abuse of it, and what happens when ordinary people are pushed too far. I write my stories to unsettle, to provoke, and to tell my personal truth through the lens of horror. I’ve written nearly a hundred short stories now and show no signs of slowing down. You can expect to see plenty more from the Newt. ...More...

Nuts & Bolts: Gregory Frost on Writing Historically Based Fiction

Nuts & Bolts: Gregory Frost on Writing Historically Based Fiction

By Tom Joyce

When tackling historically based fiction, how do you split the workload between research and writing time? How do you please both casual readers and history buffs? Author Gregory Frost recently had to face those challenges three times in rapid succession with his time-hopping horror/science fiction Rhymer series. His latest is a “haunted White House” novel titled The Secret House, out this month. For the latest installment of Nuts & Bolts, Gregory shares advice on doing research and mining historical fact for genre fiction. ...More...

Pride Month 2025: An Interview with Mia Dalia

What is your novel about?

My novel, Haven, is about a family who stays at an inherited house for a month of August. And all the things that go terribly wrong. So, on the surface, it’s a “dream vacation turns nightmare” story, but there’s a lot more to it. Both the novel and the house have a backstory of a woman wronged and determined to rise above. But a terrible injustice calls for a revenge in whatever way it finds it, and the past never truly stops bleeding into the present. Haven is far from an idyllic lake house, and the Bakers are far from an ideal family. And this vacation will tear them apart. Who will be responsible, the house or the people? That I’ll let the readers decide. A choose-your-own adventure approach, if you will. Just remember that not every house is a haven. For me, Haven was a chance to indulge my curiously persistent desire to dismantle the myth of an all-American happy family. Tolstoy had famously said that all happy families are alike, making the unhappy ones more interesting by default. I wanted to see how far I could take it. ...More...

Pride Month 2025: An Interview with Briana Morgan

What is your novel about?

I write psychological, character-driven horror featuring ghosts, demons, monsters, and the scariest thing of all—the dark side of humanity. So far, I’ve written books and plays that run the gamut from queer vampires to killer mermaids and influencer horror. ...More...

Pride Month 2025: An Interview with Azzurra Nox

What is your novel about?

I actually have two novels out right now. The first one is Into the Dread Unknown, the fifth book in my Women in Horror series, and the second is Panico! a historical poetry collection that borders on the macabre. Into the Dread Unknown is an exploration of Gothic literature through sharp, feminist lenses. Some of the authors featured are familiar voices I’ve had the pleasure of including in past anthologies, while others are new additions to the Women in Horror series. I’m especially thrilled to have two Bram Stoker Award-nominated authors in this latest edition, L.E. Daniels and Rachel Bolton. Both of their stories are filled with a sense of dread and crackle with intensity. As with past collections, this anthology features many queer authors and stories too. Meanwhile, my second book, Panico! dives headfirst into the most harrowing chapter of Marie Antoinette’s life, her captivity during the Reign of Terror. So many films and books tend to skim over this period of her life, but I wanted to linger in the shadows, become intimate with her fear. I wanted readers to feel the weight of every moment, and when it came down to how would I do this in a way that wasn’t tiresome or too scholarly? That’s when I decided to tell the story from her perspective, slip into her mind as her gilded world unraveled in absolute blood and horror. I fashioned the book as a homage to Dante’s Inferno, as each moment is told in poetic cantos. You’re not simply reading history, you’re living the terrifying moments with her. ...More...

Final Frame Judges Announced!

2025 JUDGES

The judges for the Final Frame competition are always an essential part of an ever-evolving film family we love to see at StokerCon. Four returning judges and two new additions round out the discerning minds tasked to evaluate the evening’s selections. We’ll have fun hearing them scream along with the audience during an evening of cinematic mindbenders leading up to their prize determinations for Grand Prize, Runner-Up, Best Writing in a Short Film, and more! ...More...

Pride Month 2025: Celebrating in the Midst of Chaos

by Gwendolyn Kiste

Bittersweet—that’s what I recently called this year’s Pride Month in a social media post. It’s difficult to celebrate when the world is falling apart around us. It’s difficult to celebrate when you know your neighbors want to see your rights dismantled. It’s difficult to celebrate when each and every day we’re waking up to news that’s worse than the morning before. ...More...

HWA Scholarship Applications Now Open!

The  Horror Writers Association is pleased to announce that the Scholarship Committee will be reviewing applications for the following scholarships and grants: the Mary W. Shelley, HWA and Poetry Scholarships. Applications will be available via the HWA submittable and reviewed by a sub-committee of the HWA Scholarship Committee. ...More...

Nuts & Bolts: Maurice Broaddus on Finding an Agent

By Tom Joyce

Do authors need agents anymore? If so, how do they go about finding one, and what should they expect? Author Maurice Broaddus addresses those questions in this month’s edition of Nuts & Bolts. ...More...

Annual StokerCon Diversity Raffle Prizes Announced

Annual StokerCon Diversity Raffle

The Annual StokerCon Diversity Grant Raffle is here! Over twenty books, unique collectables, and other treasured items for lovers of horror, dark fantasy, and the weird will be raffled to benefit the Horror Writers Association Diversity Grant Program. ...More...

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