Horror Writers Association

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.


Bram Stoker Awards
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Summer Scares Reading Program 2024

New Anthology


HWA is proud to announce our next members-only anthology: Scaring and Daring Adventures edited by Eric J. Guignard and published by Harper Collins in 2025.

Submissions open on November 20. Guidelines here.


Newly Elected Board Members


Welcome to our newly elected trustees, VP, and Treasurer. They officially take their seats on November 1. Here's the list.


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Recent Posts

Veterans in Horror Spotlight 2023: David Rose

David Rose Biography

David Rose served in the United States Marine Corps from 2002 to 2006, during which deploying to Iraq to participate in the second battle of Fallujah. Since trading the sword for the almighty pen, he’s crafted multiple collections and composite novels: Forsaken Fantastic and Amden Bog being fine examples. A forthcoming work is Monsters in the Bush, a collection of Lovecraftian military tales, soon brought to the world by Screaming Banshee Press. He lives in Orlando, Florida. He is a founder and co-chair of the HWA committee Veterans in Horror.

Book Recommendation: The Scrolls of Sin

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Veterans in Horror Spotlight 2023: James Pack

James Pack Biography

James Pack served in the Arizona Army National Guard. He is a member of the Horror Writers Association and has published several collections of poetry and short fiction. Learn more about James and his collected works on his personal blog. He lives in Tucson, AZ.

Book Recommendation: The Hook

I want more people to read my book, The Hook, not just because I wrote it, but because the main character served in the Navy and is still dealing with some of the things he experienced during the Vietnam War. The story is about him dealing …

Indigenous Heritage in Horror Month: Interview with Tiffany Morris

Tiffany Morris is an L’nu’skw (Mi’kmaw) writer from Nova Scotia. She is the author of the swampcore horror novella Green Fuse Burning (Stelliform Books, 2023) and the Elgin Award-winning horror poetry collection Elegies of Rotting Stars (Nictitating Books, 2022). Her work has appeared in the Indigenous horror anthology Never Whistle At Night, as well as in Nightmare Magazine, Uncanny Magazine, and Apex Magazine, among others.

What inspired you to start writing?

It’s always been easier for me to articulate my thoughts and feelings in metaphorical language, rather than directly. I think that’s why story is so important to people; why …

Indigenous Heritage in Horror Month: Interview with Alicia Elliott

Alicia Elliott is an award-winning Mohawk writer and editor living in Brantford, Ontario. Her bestselling first book, A Mind Spread Out on the Ground, was nominated for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction. And Then She Fell is her first novel.

What inspired you to start writing?

This isn’t a particularly unique writing origin story, but it started with loving reading. Books were a break from the difficulties of my everyday life, which as a child was full of things I didn’t understand. But I understood the emotions of the protagonists I read about – I loved …

Veterans in Horror Spotlight 2023: Scott Middlemist

Veterans in Horror Spotlight 2023: Scott Middlemist

Scott Middlemist Biography

My name is Scott Middlemist, and I am a U.S. Army veteran. My family once owned Burma-Shave, a company known for its memorable roadside jingles, so love for language is in my blood. JIGSAW SOUL is my self-published novel that I’d like to share. To create this story, I leaned on my experience as a former infantry officer and 30 years as an English teacher.

Book Recommendation: Jigsaw Soul

Jigsaw Soul follows a soldier’s terrifying quest to recover the lost pieces of his soul in an epic that echoes Apocalypse Now and The Odyssey. In a …

Veterans in Horror Spotlight 2023: Luciano Marano

Luciano Marano Biography

Luciano Marano is an award-winning writer, journalist, and photographer, the author of a trilogy of werewolf novellas, The Ambush Moon Cycle, and many short stories which have appeared in anthologies such as Year’s Best Hardcore Horror, The Best New Weird Horror, Monsters, Movies & Mayhem, and Crash Code, as well as Nightscript, PseudoPod, and Chilling Tales for Dark Nights. His written and photographic reporting has earned a number of industry accolades, and he was twice named a Feature Writer of the Year by the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association. A …

Veterans in Horror Spotlight 2023: Lori R. Lopez

Lori R. Lopez Biography

Author-Illustrator-Poet Lori R. Lopez haunted graveyards as a child.  Entering the U.S. Navy to serve as a Journalist, Lori was nominated for the American Spirit Honor Medal. She has since received honors for books including The Dark Mister Snark, An Ill Wind Blows, The Fairy Fly, and Darkverse:  The Shadow Hours (an Elgin Award Nominee and Kindle Book Awards Finalist). Two poems garnered Editor’s Choice Awards; seven have been nominated for Rhysling Awards. Verse and stories appear in numerous publications, among them HWA Poetry Showcases and California Screamin’ (the Foreword Poem). She co-owns …

Veterans in Horror Spotlight 2023: Michael Knost

Michael Knost Biography

Michael Knost is a two-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award® and served in the United States Marine Corps during the mid-1980s. He was the recipient of the Horror Writers Association’s Silver Hammer Award in 2015 for his work as the organization’s mentorship chair. A former HWA trustee, Michael currently serves as the organization’s treasurer and was recognized as the 2021 Mentor of the Year. He also received the prestigious J.U.G. (Just Uncommonly Good) Award from West Virginia Writer’s Inc. His novel Return of the Mothman has recently been filmed as a movie adaption. Michael has taught …

Veterans in Horror Spotlight 2023: Xavier Poe Kane

 

Xavier Poe Kane Biography

Xavier served 6 years in the Air Force after which he spent 14 in the Air National Guard, retiring in 2020. He currently lives in St. Louis with his wife, Morticia, in a state of mutual weirdness with their dogs Chuck Norris and the three-legged Jabba the Hutt. Thanks to the GI Bill, he has a MFA in Popular Fiction Writing and Publishing from Emerson College. Xavier has published three books: The Hidden Lives of Dick & Mary, Broken Hearts & Other Horrors, and A Mother’s Torment. He also writes short horror …

Veterans in Horror Spotlight 2023: Douglass Hoover

 

Douglass Hoover Biography

Douglass Hoover is the author of The North Woods, The Accursed Huntsman, and The Homestead. He is a Marine Corps infantry combat veteran and holds an MFA from Emerson College. His days are spent writing, hunting, and blacksmithing on his small farm in rural Maine with his wife, Patience, and their three mutts, Bug, Furiosa, and Skootcha Nunchuck Monsterface.

 

Book Recommendation:  The North Woods

Follow their adventures on Instagram @StripedDogForge, @DouglassHooverAuthor, or at www.stripeddogforge.com

Over three million acres of dense woodlands make up the North Maine Woods. There are no major …

Veterans in Horror Spotlight 2023: Pamela K. Kinney

Pamela K. Kinney Biography

Pamela K. Kinney gave up long ago ignoring the demanding voices in her head and has written been writing ever since. Her horror short story, “Bottled Spirits,” was runner-up for the 2013 WSFA Small Press Award and considered one of the seven best genre short fiction for that year. She has various short stories and poems published in fiction and nonfiction anthologies, magazines, and online zines, a science fiction novella, an urban fantasy novel, five nonfiction ghost books, and a nonfiction cryptid book. Her horror poem, “Dementia,” got her mentioned in Best Horror of the Year, …

Veterans in Horror Spotlight 2023: Brandon Ketchum

Brandon Ketchum Biography

Brandon Ketchum is a speculative fiction writer from Pittsburgh, PA who enjoys putting a weird spin or strange vibe into every story, dark or light. He is a member of SFWA and the Horror Writers Association, and his work has been published with Air and Nothingness Press, Perihelion, Mad Scientist Journal, and many other publications, including the short story collections Legio Damnati and its sequel Civili Bellum. Brandon is a therapist in the mental health field and provides treatment for veterans with addictions, as well as conducts trauma therapy for veterans with PTSD. He …

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