The HWA’s annual elections will soon be upon us.
Up this year are four Trustee positions, as well as the offices of Vice President and Treasurer.
Please read the statements of the following candidates carefully. Links to the ballot will be sent out on or around September 9th, 2025 to our Active and Lifetime members, with a due date of September 16th, 2025.
The elected officers shall hold their respective offices for terms of two years, beginning on November 1 and ending on October 31.
Candidates for 2025 Elections
All candidates have been verified as active members and eligible to run for office in this cycle.
Vice President:
Lisa Wood (L. Marie Wood)
Treasurer:
Marc L. Abbott
Trustee:
Patrick Barb
Sèphera Girón
Kate Jonez
Lisa Kroger
Brian Matthews
Marge Simon
Andrew Wolter
Lisa Wood (L. Marie Wood)
Hello and thank you for the opportunity to run for the office of Vice President of the Horror Writers Association. I am excited about the prospect of continuing to help the organization grow in a second term. I have been a member of the HWA since the early 2000s but have been writing psychological horror longer than that (publishing since the late 1990s; writing since the 1970s). A lover of the genre, I have been compelled to not only craft my own stories, screenplays, and poems, but to help others find their voices as well. I had a teacher in high school who consistently encouraged me to turn in the dark things I wrote for a grade—at the time he was only one of a handful of people who even knew I was a writer. He impacted my life more than I realized at the time; the encouragement and feedback he provided reinforced the idea that horror is a genre that I could be involved in and that there was nothing wrong with that. As a woman, it was important to me to be seen as a competent contributor to the literary canon. As a person of color being seen by another (this teacher was Southeast Asian), I felt the validation that my words could touch people who were different from me. These concepts still resonate with me today.
My service has included the roles of editor (CyberPulp in the early 2000s, where I was lucky enough to share fresh voices with the horror community), mentor (in the HWA and in SFWA), sensitivity reader, course creator (I am the founder of the Speculative Fiction Academy, an online school dedicated to helping creatives hone their skills), and educator (I am an English Professor in the post-secondary space). My road to the last distinction I listed was interesting because I determined, after a number of years in the business workforce, that I wanted to teach creative writing full time instead… but I didn’t have a degree that would support that effort. I worked as an IT Project Manager while earning an MFA and, subsequently, a Ph.D. in Creative Writing so that I could fulfill my dream of helping aspiring writers find their voices. My experiences in project management, where I managed lifecycle installations and acted as a customer liaison in a 24/7 capacity, as well as my work with students from all walks of life (I once taught a class with a 16-year-old and an 86-year-old enrolled!) in the post-secondary space has equipped me with the tools necessary to find a clear path, prioritize concerns, and communicate effectively and with compassion.
I provide my bio below, as well as the detail above in the hopes that they show my passion for and dedication to the craft and the genre we love. I am and will always be a storyteller, one with a desire to help others tell their own stories. Serving as Vice President of the HWA again would allow me to work in the capacity for which I am best suited—bringing institutional knowledge, as well as relationship building and organizational skills to bear on the professional organization that means so much to the horror community.
Bram Stoker Award® winning author L. Marie Wood is the recipient of the Golden Stake Award for Literature and the International Impact Book Award. She is also a two-time Bookfest Award-winner, a MICO Award-winning screenwriter, an Elgin and an Ignyte Award finalist, a Rhysling nominated poet, an accomplished essayist, and a playwright. She creates immersive worlds that defy genre as they intersect horror, romance, mystery, thriller, sci-fi, and fantasy elements to weave harrowing tapestries of speculative fiction. Wood has won over 50 national and international screenplay and film awards. She is also part of the 2022 Bookfest Book Award-winning poetry anthology, Under Her Skin, as well as Bram Stoker Award® and Shirley Jackson Award nominated anthologies Shakespeare Unleashed and Mooncalves. She has been published in groundbreaking works, including the anthologies Sycorax’s Daughters and Slay: Stories of the Vampire Noire, as well as industry staples such as the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Weird Tales, and Nightmare Magazine. Her nonfiction has been published in academic textbooks such as the cross-curricular, Conjuring Worlds: An Afrofuturist Textbook. Her papers are archived as part of University of Pittsburgh’s Horror Studies Collection. Wood is the founder of the Speculative Fiction Academy, an English and Creative Writing professor, a horror scholar, and a frequent contributor to the conversation around the evolution of genre fiction.
My website: www.lmariewood.com
Marc L. Abbott
In the spring of 2024, I was called upon by the HWA board to fill in the role of Treasurer that was suddenly vacated. I agreed to step in to this important duty and since then have worked closely with the director and the board on many of the matters concerning financial issues such as the Hardship Loan. I have also participated in board meetings both online and at Stokercon.
While the role of treasurer is one that I stepped into, I have truly enjoyed the work I have done and the service I have provided in this administrative role with the HWA. It has given met he opportunity to lend my voice and ideas to this organization in a capacity that exceeds what I have done as a general member for the last 10 years.
Therefore, I would like to officially run for the position of Treasurer, is so that I can continue the important work I have done so far.
If I am chosen, I pledge to continue to make the Horror Writers Association a positive, influential, and productive organization for writers in the horror genre. I’ll listen to and assess all business matters, as well as participate in decision-making processes, with an open mind.
Working together with the other elected bodies and committee chairs on ways that will make the HWA better as time goes on and be an advocate to all those within the HWA community.
Thank you for your time and I hope you will consider having me as your HWA Treasurer.
Patrick Barb
My name is Patrick Barb and I am running for one of the open Trustee positions on the HWA board.
As both writers and readers, the membership of the HWA can understand and appreciate the particular pain of an unfinished story. We want a proper conclusion, the chance to see all plot points and bits of character development paid off.
It is with this desire to finish the story that I am once more running for a Trustee position on the HWA board. For the last 10 months, I’ve served as Trustee, stepping into the role when asked by our leadership. In this capacity, I’ve done everything in my power to perform my duties, to engage with the membership of this wonderful organization, and to add my voice (and the voices of all authors I’ve heard from, regardless of race, gender, age, class, etc.) to the primary issues facing not only our organization, but writers and creators of all stripes.
In the initial months of my term, I participated in the robust and productive discussion held by the Board to produce a strong and ideally long-lasting AI policy for the HWA. I was glad to have the chance to relay specific concerns of membership in this discussion, to bring newer perspectives and insights “from the trenches” to the Board, all resulting in a policy that addressed current key issues, while keeping an eye to the future. I loved the chance to work on something so impactful right out of the gate.
Of course, that’s a small sample of the work done in my brief time as Trustee. Day after day, week after week, I’ve made myself available for and participated in the major discussions covered by the Board. These conversations are held with a shared desire to create a fertile and welcoming environment for creativity and writerly success.
Being a Trustee has been an enlightening and uplifting experience. From online Board discussions to virtual (and in-person) Town Halls/meetings to stepping into help stuff swag bags at StokerCon to casual conversations with both members and non-members alike about ways the organization can improve, each moment of service has added up to a fulfilling whole.
However, I stepped into the final months of a previous Trustee’s term, allowing for only a fraction of the full Trustee experience. I’d love nothing more than to continue the work I’ve already begun and expand upon it during a full term as Trustee. Even before becoming a Trustee, I made a point to participate in the mentorship program because I believe it’s essential to give back to an organization that uplifts horror writers. I’ve benefitted and I wish to pass these benefits onto all who seek them. Not only do I share the love of reading and writing horror which links us all, but I’m also a 19+ year publishing industry veteran, and bring a unique perspective from the other side of the table to the Board.
Truth be told, I feel like I’ve just scratched the surface of the work I want to do and the results I know we can all achieve together. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sèphera Girón
Hello Everyone!
Let me introduce myself. I’m Sèphera Girón, a member of HWA since nearly the beginning, when it changed from HOWL.
For nearly thirty years, I ran the HWA Ontario/Canada chapter. We’ve done all kinds of amazing things, such as running booths at The Word on the Street (the very first booth I fought to get for our chapter!), Fan Expo, Comicon, Ad Astra, Horrorama, Frightmare in the Falls, Eeriecon, and many other events that have come and gone throughout the years. We’ve had readings and panels at various places in Toronto, Niagara Falls, Kingston, and more.
We started the Canadian Content Corner of the Newsletter, the name being an in-joke at the time. I didn’t want the Canadian members to get lost in the shuffle of, at the time, mostly US members, so I tried to keep the column going. The Canadian/Ontario portion of the newsletter has undergone a name change. I wrote dozens of columns for many years, especially back when the newsletter was paper and came in the mail.
Chapters are important because they can bring cohesion and community to authors who might feel alone and lonely in their efforts to write and market their work. Currently, horror is experiencing a resurgence, but there are also cycles where horror isn’t as popular. Communities like the HWA can provide encouragement, helping all of us to persevere when we’re unsure about continuing on.
Over the years, I’ve been on a couple of other committees as well, such as the Lifetime Achievement committee. I’ve been a ballot counter a couple of times back when there were paper ballots and we had to count them!
The HWA ebbs and flows, and it seems we are in a new, exciting time with the biggest membership yet. The most recent Stokercon was huge, and it was amazing to see so many horror professionals gathered in one spot.
Here in Toronto, I’m a member of an Artist’s Co-op, and I’m on the membership committee, where we screen and interview potential applicants. In the past, I was Vice President of Meadowvale Community Theatre for a few years, I was chairperson of the Parent Board at my sons’ high school, I was a board member at a previous co-op, and there are other volunteer positions I’ve held.
I hold a unique perspective as I’ve run a chapter for nearly three decades, I’ve watched the evolution of the HWA, I’ve attended nearly every Stokercon and World Horror Convention, and I’m based in Canada. As I’m not Chapter Head anymore and have had a couple of years to recharge, I’m ready to step into the position of Trustee so that I can help the HWA work for you.
And yes, I’m a horror writer. I have over twenty published horror novels and dozens of short stories out in the world, including work from Leisure/Dorchester, Samhain, Great Lakes Horror Company, RAB, and many others. I’ve also written some screenplays and poetry. A few years ago, I was presented with a Silver Hammer Award for my volunteer efforts with HWA.
As a Trustee, I would listen to your concerns and work on making HWA an even more amazing organization for you.
Instagram: sepheragiron
Bluesky: @gothmother666.bsky.social
Kate Jonez
Kate Jonez is a writer and editor of horror and dark fantasy and long-time member of the HWA’s Los Angeles chapter. She has appeared on the Bram Stoker long list several times and her small press, Omnium Gatherum, received the HWA’s Specialty Press Award. She was co-chair of StokerCon II aboard the Queen Mary, worked on programming for StokerCon 2024 in San Diego and currently serves as the Membership Committee Chair.
I would like to announce my intention to become a member of the HWA board. My candidacy is a bit out of the ordinary because I would also like to retain my position as Membership Committee chair.
As the committee chair, I lead a dedicated team of volunteers that is the first point of contact for new applicants and returning members. I know first hand what the process is like. In this position, I have become familiar with the organization’s bylaws and I’m excited about the upcoming changes that will better serve our membership in the ever-changing literary industry. I look forward to becoming a trustee and working as the dedicated point person for members as the HWA grows.
Lisa Kroger
With this statement, I am formally announcing that I wish to run for my current trustee position with the HWA. I’ve been an active member in good standing of the HWA since 2019, but I’ve been a member of the organization since 2016. I’ve been a trustee for four years, and in that time, I’ve also acted as head of board and worked to rewrite the bylaws.
In my tenure on the board, I have fought to make the horror community a more inclusive place, something I still keep at the forefront of my mind every day. The HWA has been growing at an unprecedented place, and it is important that we grow our internal structure to support everyone in our community.
The HWA has been an important part of my journey as a horror writer. In 2017, I attended my first StokerCon, held that year on the Queen Mary. As a new writer, I was only able to attend because of an HWA scholarship; without that support, I don’t think I would’ve been able to make that trip. The next year, following the success of the first StokerCon, I went again—this time to Providence. Because of the HWA (and the organized pitch sessions), I was able to pitch to an editor at Quirk Books. That is how I published my first book, Monster, She Wrote, which would go on to win a Bram Stoker Award and a Locus Award.
Knowing what the HWA can do for writers, I am committed to creating opportunities for writers, as well as promoting the genre that I love. To that end, I am also committed to being a voice for greater parity for women, writers of color, and LGBTQ writers. The HWA has done much for writers of fiction, but I would also like to bring a larger focus to other modes of horror, including nonfiction and film. In the past two years, I am pleased to see the work that the board has done to make diversity and inclusion a priority. It’s the work I am the most proud of–and the work I hope to continue.
If I am re-elected, I will work hard to support the HWA in an inclusive way for all members. My strengths are positivity, organization, strong listening skills, and empathy, which I have used during my past time on the board and will use to the best of my ability as trustee, if elected.
In addition to my HWA board work, I have previously volunteered for the organization by serving on a jury for the Stoker Awards. I’ve contributed to the genre by editing two essay collections, written two women-in-horror compendiums, and hosted two podcasts dedicated to the horror genre. I also have a PhD in English Literature and Languages, with a focus on the Gothic novel. I taught at the university level for many years before I stepped away to write full time. The horror community is so important to me, and I hope to continue to work to serve the people who make it so wonderful.
Brian Matthews
I am running for reelection as a Trustee for the Horror Writers Association.
I’m an active member of the HWA and have served on the Lifetime Achievement Award committee and as a juror for the Bram Stoker Awards®. I moderate the HWA’s StokerCon® Facebook page and currently serve on the HWA’s Mental Health Wellness Committee and the Crisis Management Committee. I also serve as the Bram Stoker Awards Show Coordinator and the Pitch Session Coordinator for StokerCon. I have acted as Chair or Co-Chair for several StokerCon conventions. In 2021, I received the Silver Hammer Award for outstanding volunteer service in the HWA, and the President’s Award.
For the past two years, I have work tirelessly to help advance the goals of the HWA, to advocate for inclusiveness among its members, and to promote horror in its most positive light. My background in both clinical psychology and financial planning has aided me in providing valuable insights into the various issues that confront the organization.
In short, I believe I have made a difference and would like to continue making a difference.
I would appreciate your support and your vote.
Marge Simon
You may remember that I’ve served on the Board as Chair for over ten years.. I took a break, but I’m ready to help again. Those who know me, know I will listen and respond to your needs, consider new ideas moving forward.
I’ve contributed news to “From the Trenches” and maintained my Dark Poets Columns (including other articles pertinent to writing) in the HWA NL. I am one of the regular proofreaders for the HWA Newsletter and worked with our editor, Kathy Ptacek on ideas for future writer-oriented columns including a Women of Darkness Fiction feature. As a previous Trustee, I’ve worked to keep members informed and help find resolutions to problems they may have. I believe in responding personally and promptly to our members’ needs and concerns. If you have questions or problems, I’m here to help if I can.
HWA Writers’ and Poets’ scholarships: I am happy to continue serving as Chair of this committee. In addition, I have served as a judge for the HWA Poetry Showcase and donated my art for the first five covers.
I was awarded the HWA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020.
I have the time (retired from a day job) and a couple of decades of experience in writing and publishing. I donate it gladly. I hope to serve as a Trustee of the HWA again if you will have me.
Andrew Wolter
I have been an active member of the HWA for nearly fifteen years, but I’ve been watching and appreciating its work from the outside for just as long. I have spent several years as a volunteer within the organization, which resulted in me being a recipient of the Richard Laymon President’s Award (2015).
One of the primary things that has kept me drawn to the HWA is the organization’s growing commitment to inclusion and representation in horror fiction. I see the HWA, not only as a professional organization, but a platform for change. I want to help further that change.
I’m running as a candidate for Trustee because I believe in the power of horror to amplify marginalized voices, challenge the status quo, and tell the truths that other genres are afraid to confront. I want to give back to the community that continues to welcome me and work toward ensuring that horror remains a space where every identity and experience is not just acknowledged, but celebrated.
If elected, I will represent with an open mind, a collaborative spirit, and the awareness that meaningful change starts with listening. I also bring the lived experience of someone who has fought hard to make space in this industry. I will advocate for the kind of horror that recognizes the value of every writer’s unique cultural and personal lens, and that makes room for the stories we haven’t yet been brave enough to tell.
Thank you for your time, your trust, and for continuing to push horror in bold and necessary directions.
