World of Horror: Interview with Santiago Eximeno

Santiago Eximeno (Madrid, Spain, 1973) is a Spanish-genre writer who has published several novellas and collections, mainly horror literature. His work has been translated to English, Japanese, French and Bulgarian. His last book published in English is Umbría (Independent Legions Publishing, 2020). His short story, “Noverim Te,” was included in the 2019 Full recommended list (Best Horror of the Year volume Eleven) by Ellen Datlow.  What was it about the horror genre that drew you to it? Its power. Horror allows us to show the social reality of our world without limits. We can extrapolate real, everyday problems, playing with…

World of Horror: Interview with Austrian Spencer

Austrian Spencer lives with his family in Austria, nestled under a mountain, and is slowly hoarding gold in an attempt to lure his own dragon. Until such a time, he acts as the headbutting post to two cats, edits books for other writers, and writes horror novels or shorts such as: "Krampus" in Burial Day's Gothic Blue Book VI: A Krampus Carol; "9/11" in Ghost Orchid Press's Beneath: An Anthology of Dark Microfiction; and The Sadeiest. Austrian's media Website: https://www.austrianspencer.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/SpencerAustrian Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/austrianspencer/ Substack: https://austrianspencer.substack.com What was it about the horror genre that drew you to it? It’s the most…

World of Horror: Interview with Flavius Ardelean-Bachmann

Flavius Ardelean-Bachmann is a Romanian award-winning writer of dark fiction, the author of nine novels and three short story collections for adults and children. His work has been translated into German, Russian and Hungarian, and he made his English-language debut in the first volume of the Valancourt Book of World Horror Stories. Flavius has a master of arts in publishing from the Oxford International Centre for Publishing Studies, with a dissertation on the horror book industry, and has translated fiction from English and German into Romanian, most notably the cult classic The Other Side by Alfred Kubin. He lives in…

World of Horror: Interview with Daria Pietrzak

Daria Pietrzak is a writer of Polish origin, and has been settled in Spain since childhood. She has studied artistic photography with the intention of going into the world of cinema, although it is a dream that has never materialized. It was not until a few years later when she found another way to tell her stories, and since then, she strives to draw with words the images that populate her imagination. She is a lover of horror, to which she devotes most of her stories and novels, and of her free time, a fan of fantasy worlds and an…

World of Horror: Interview with Rosemary Thorne

Rosemary Thorne (she/her) is a bilingual Spanish writer, researcher, and translator living in Madrid, Spain. Born in 1968, she became an HWA member in 2019, choosing English as the most welcoming language for her horror fiction. Her first novel, El Pacto de las 12 uvas, was published in December 2021. She has also translated Edward Lee's The Bighead into Spanish for Dimensiones Ocultas Press. Her goal for the years to come is to populate the English market with her dreadful monsters. Find out more at: https://linktr.ee/Rosemary_thorne and Twitter at https://twitter.com/rosemarythorne_ What was it about the horror genre that drew you…

World of Horror: Interview with Kyla Lee Ward

Kyla Lee Ward is a Sydney-based creative whose work has garnered Australian Shadows and Aurealis awards. She has placed in the Rhyslings and received multiple Stoker and Ditmar nominations. Reviewers have accused her of being “gothic and esoteric,” “weird and exhilarating” and of “giving me a nightmare.” This Attraction Now Late (2022) was her first collection of short fiction, after two poetry collections and the co-written novel, Prismatic. Those That Pursue Us Yet, a dark fantasy novella set in Paris and . . . other places, is due for release in 2023. Delve deeper at http://www.kylaward.com/ or come chat at…

World of Horror: Interview with Somto Ihezue

  Somto Ihezue is a Nigerian-Igbo editor, writer and filmmaker. He was awarded the 2021 African Youth Network Movement Fiction Prize. A British Science Fiction Award, Nommo Award and 2022 Afritondo Prize nominee, his works have appeared in Tor: Africa Risen Anthology, Fireside Magazine, Podcastle, Escape Pod, Strange Horizons, Nightmare Magazine, POETRY Magazine, Cossmass Infinities, Flash Fiction Online, Flame Tree Press, OnSpec, Africa In Dialogue, and others. Somto is Original Fiction Manager at Escape Artists. He is an acquiring editor with Android Press and an associate editor with Cast of Wonders. He is an alumnus of the Milford SF Writers ’22, and Voodoonauts ’22, and…

World of Horror: Interview with Erica Couto-Ferreira

Erica Couto-Ferreira is a historian, writer, and translator. She is the author of the horror novelette Hemetia (Arima, 2022) and a bunch of horror and fantasy short stories that have appeared in magazines and anthologies over the years.  As a non-fiction writer, she has published in Spanish the essays Bodies. The other lives of corpses (Kalandraka, 2023), Hell. The underworld in ancient Mesopotamia (Aurora Dorada, 2020) and Infestation. A cultural history of haunted houses (Dilatando Mentes, 2021), which was a finalist of the Ignotus Awards 2022 in the category Best Essay. She has also translated W. G. Pugmire’s book Bohemians…

World of Horror: Interview with Kaaron Warren

Shirley Jackson award-winner Kaaron Warren has published five novels and seven short story collections. She’s sold over 200 short stories to publications big and small around the world and has appeared in Ellen Datlow’s Year’s Best anthologies. Her novel The Grief Hole won all three Australian genre awards. She has lived in Melbourne, Sydney, Fiji and Canberra and her most recent books are The Deathplace Set in Vandal, and Bitters, a novella from Cemetery Dance. She won the inaugural AsylumFest Ghost Story Telling Competition in 2022. What was it about the horror genre that drew you to it? Even as…

World of Horror: Interview with Ross Jeffery

Ross Jeffery Ross Jeffery is the Bram Stoker Award-nominated and 3x Splatterpunk Award-nominated author of The Juniper Trilogy, The Devil's Pocketbook, I Died Too, But They Haven't Buried Me Yet, Only The Stains Remain, Beautiful Atrocities and many more. He has been published in print with a number of anthologies and his short fiction has appeared in various online journals. Ross lives in Bristol with his wife (Anna) and two children (Eva and Sophie). You can follow him on Twitter here @RossJeffery_   What was it about the horror genre that drew you to it? I think what first drew…

World of Horror: Interview with Greg Chapman

  Bram Stoker Award® nominee and multiple Australian Shadows Award nominee Greg Chapman is a horror author and artist based in Queensland, Australia.  Greg is the author of several novels, novellas, and short stories, including his award-nominated debut novel, Hollow House, and collections, Vaudeville and Other Nightmares and This Sublime Darkness and Other Dark Stories. His next book is the collection, Midnight Masquerade, coming this Halloween from IFWG Publishing. He is also a horror artist and designer and his first graphic novel Witch Hunts: A Graphic History of the Burning Times, (McFarland & Company) written by Rocky Wood and Lisa…

World of Horror: Interview with Alan Baxter

Alan Baxter is a multi-award-winning author of horror, supernatural thrillers, and dark fantasy liberally mixed with crime, mystery, and noir. He’s also a martial artist, a whisky-soaked swear monkey, and dog lover. He creates dark, weird stories among dairy paddocks on the beautiful south coast of NSW, Australia. Find Alan online at: https://www.alanbaxteronline.com/. What was it about the horror genre that drew you to it? Honesty. I’ve said many times that horror is the genre of honesty. It doesn’t shy away from harsh truths, it follows the rabbit hole all the way down. No manufactured happy endings, you find truth…

HOLISTIC HORRORS PANEL REPORT: SENSE AND SENSITIVITY & ESSAY: PORTRAYALS OF DEMENTIA IN HORROR

(Trigger Warning: Articles in this column discuss mental health/illness) HOLISTIC HORRORS PANEL REPORT: SENSE AND SENSITIVITY & ESSAY: PORTRAYALS OF DEMENTIA IN HORROR By Lee Murray In this column, I’m pleased to offer a report of the inspirational virtual panel on sensitive treatments of mental illness in horror, a discussion moderated by HWA Wellness co-chair Dave Jeffery and including an expert panel of speakers, which was published in June 2023 at our annual StokerCon convention. Also in this column is a short personal essay incorporating my takeaways from that panel discussion as they relate to three short stories on the…

World of Horror: Introduction to International Horror Month 2023 by Alan Baxter

By Alan Baxter It has long been recognised that the USA is the main focus of attention when it comes to horror fiction. If that hasn’t been noticed by people in North America, it most certainly has by everyone outside the country. But there is a growing interest in horror set beyond America’s shores, and for stories written by authors from other countries and other cultures. One of my most successful books is The Gulp, an unashamedly Australian collection of horror stories set very much in rural New South Wales, Australia. We’ve seen a surge of successful horror from European…

HOLISTIC HORRORS: PANEL REPORT: SENSE AND SENSITIVITY & ESSAY: PORTRAYALS OF DEMENTIA IN HORROR

Written by Lee Murray (Trigger Warning: Articles in this column discuss mental health/illness) In this column, I’m pleased to offer a report of the inspirational virtual panel on sensitive treatments of mental illness in horror, a discussion moderated by HWA Wellness co-chair Dave Jeffery and including an expert panel of speakers, which was published in June 2023 at our annual StokerCon convention. Also in this column is a short personal essay incorporating my takeaways from that panel discussion as they relate to three short stories on the subject of dementia and caregiving: Dave Jeffery’s “Once” which is published in its…

MHI: HOW HORROR CAN OFFER SOLACE

The following post contains this writer’s individual experiences and opinions.  This post should not be interpreted as mental health diagnosis or treatment. If you are experiencing a mental health crisis, please contact your nearest mental health center or local emergency services.  Written by Nicole Henning [Trigger Warning: This article addresses mental health/illness] Straining to see in the darkness, the slightest shift of light looks like movement in the perpetual gloom. Your ears are homing in on any sound for an indication of what direction the impending danger could come from. In this experience of veritable sensory deprivation, you may find…

The Seers’ Table August 2023

Linda D. Addison, Member of the Diverse Works Inclusion Community You can see any of The Seers’ Table posts since inception (March 2016) by going to the HWA main page and selecting menu item “Our Blogs / Diverse Works.”   Linda D. Addison recommends: Like a magpie, Rhonda Parrish is constantly distracted by shiny things. She’s the editor of many anthologies and author of plenty of books, stories, and poems (some of which have even been nominated for awards!). She lives in Edmonton, Alberta, and she can often be found there playing Dungeons & Dragons, bingeing crime dramas, making blankets,…

NUTS & BOLTS: INTERVIEW WITH “THE HORROR ZINE” JEANI RECTOR

By Tom Joyce If you ever get despondent over the state of the publishing industry, think of Jeani Rector. Alarmed about all the publications closing after the economic collapse of 2008, she decided to start The Horror Zine—now in its 14th successful year. In this month’s edition of Nuts & Bolts, Jeani talks about how she got started, what makes for a good author/editor relationship, and what she looks for in a submission.   Q: How did The Horror Zine get started? A: Back “in the day”, I used to write fiction and submit it to various magazines and ezines.…

Announcing HWA POETRY SHOWCASE X Selectees

Congratulations to all the poets and poems that made the HWA Poetry Showcase X, and thank you to everyone who submitted. There were nearly 300 poems submitted, all excellent. It was difficult to whittle down to just 50 poets. For everyone not on this list, you should feel proud. If we could include all 300 submissions we would. Each of these poems was worth it. Thank you to this year's judges: Eugen Bacon, Katherine Quevedo, Colleen Anderson and Timothy Flynn for all their hard work that went into creating this list. I appreciate everything you did. Next year Showcase 11…

The Seers’ Table July 2023

Kate Maruyama, Member of the Diverse Works Inclusion Community We’re deep into summer reading, so we’re bringing you three flavors of novels to add to your TBR pile! A ghost story, a space opera, and a harrowing horror tale. You can see any of “The Seers’ Table” posts since inception (March 2016) by going to the HWA main page and selecting menu item “Our Blogs/Diverse Works.”   Linda Addison recommends: India Hill Brown is an author with a passion for writing, reading, and all things literary. Her debut novel, The Forgotten Girl, has been nominated for an NAACP Image Award…