Women in Horror Month – Interview with Sèphera Girón

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors. Following is an interview with Sèphera Girón who won the Silver Hammer award for volunteer work in 2008. Tell us a little about your experience with the Horror Writers Association and how it has influenced your own writing. SG: I joined the Horror Writers Association when it was Horror Writers of America back around 1992 or so. I was one of the ones, back when we used to hang out on an online platform called "Genie" through the SFF-NET community, that rallied for a…

Women in Horror Month – Interview with Elizabeth Massie

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors. Following is an interview with Elizabeth Massie, who won the Bram Stoker award in 1990 for her short fiction, “Stephen,” and in 1992 for her first novel, Sineater.   Tell us a little about your Bram Stoker Award-winning work(s). Inspirations? Influences? Anecdotes about the writing or critical reaction?  I’ve won the Bram Stoker Award twice, for my first novel Sineater and my novella, “Stephen.” Sineater was inspired, believe it or not, by a made-for-TV movie in which Lindsay Wagner played a nurse who went…

Women in Horror Month – Interview with Ellen Datlow

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors and editors. Following is an interview with Ellen Datlow, who has won the Bram Stoker award multiple times for anthologies including: The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror, 13th Annual Collection with Terri Windling (2000); The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, 17th Annual Collection with Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant (2004); Haunted Legends with Nick Mamatas (2010); and Fearful Symmetries (2014). She also won the Lifetime Achievement Award (2010). Tell us a little about your Bram Stoker Award-winning work(s). Inspirations? Influences? Anecdotes about the…

The Scholarship From Hell is now open to applications!

NOW OPEN TO APPLICATIONS! The Scholarship From Hell is the only scholarship offered by HWA that puts the recipient right into the intensive, hands-on workshop environment of Horror University. Horror University takes place during HWA’s  StokerCon 2017 aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach CA April 27-30. The winner of the Scholarship From Hell will receive domestic coach airfare (contiguous 48 states) to and from Long Beach, a 4 night stay on the Queen Mary,  free registration to StokerCon2017, and as many workshops as you’d like to attend! Be sure to follow us on Facebook or Twitter so you don’t miss…

Women in Horror Month – Interview with Paula Guran

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors and editors. Following is an interview with Paula Guran, who won the Bram Stoker award in 1998 and 1999 for her non-fiction work, “DarkEcho.” Tell us a little about your Bram Stoker Award-winning work(s). Inspirations? Influences? Anecdotes about the writing or critical reaction? PG: It was a very long time ago. At the time it was notable for things that may not seem remarkable now. I was the first person to be given “active” status on professional digital credits alone. The awards were for…

The Seers’ Table – February 2017

The Seers Table! Kate Jonez, Diverse Works Inclusion Committee Member Thank you for joining us at the Seers’ Table for February 2017. We have some wonderful recommendations for you this month. Welcome new Diverse Works Inclusion Committee members (The committee behind The Seers’ Table) Andrew Wolter, Lauren Candia, and Michael Paul Gonzalez. Ace Antonio Hall recommends: Darlene Black is Philadelphia-born, which she uses as the backdrop for her debut work, Necromancy. She is working on a second novel, Hollis Hill.           Necromancy: Mauly Basterville is a sophisticated architect, who is contemplating calling off his engagement to…

Women in Horror Month – Interview with Kathe Koja

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors. Following is an interview with Kathe Koja, who won the Bram Stoker award in 1991 for her novel The Cipher.   Tell us a little about your Bram Stoker Award-winning work(s). Inspirations? Influences? Anecdotes about the writing or critical reaction? KK: THE CIPHER was my first novel, and its genesis is as inscrutable as all fiction, as the Funhole it presents as a fact—who knows where the stories come from? I don’t think in terms of genre when I write, so I discovered that THE…

Women in Horror Month – Interview with Linda Addison

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors. Following is an interview with Linda Addison, who has won four Bram Stoker Awards for her poetry collections: Consumed, Reduced to Beautiful Grey Ashes (2001); Being Full of Light, Insubstantial (2007); How To Recognize A Demon Has Become Your Friend (2011); and Four Elements with Charlee Jacob, Marge Simon and Rain Graves (2014).   Tell us a little about your Bram Stoker Award-winning work(s). Inspirations? Influences? Anecdotes about the writing or critical reaction? LA: I won my first Bram Stoker for my poetry collection Consumed, Reduced to Beautiful Grey…

Women in Horror Month – Interview with Nancy Etchemendy

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors. Following is an interview with Nancy Etchemendy, who won the Bram Stoker Award for her short fiction, "Nimitseahpah," in 2004; Young Readers novel, The Power of Un, in 2000; and Young Readers short story, "Bigger Than Death," in 1998.   Tell us a little about your Bram Stoker Award-winning work(s). Inspirations? Influences? Anecdotes about the writing or critical reaction? NE: Two of my Stoker-award-winning works, “Bigger than Death” (1998) and “The Power of Un” (2000), won in the “Work for Young Readers” category, which was very…

Women in Horror Month – Interview with Mercedes M. Yardley

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting daily interviews with award-winning authors. Starting off the month is an interview with Mercedes M. Yardley, who won the Bram Stoker Award in 2015 for her long fiction piece, Little Dead Red.   Tell us a little about your Bram Stoker Award-winning work(s). Inspirations? Influences? Anecdotes about the writing or critical reaction? MMY: My winning piece was a novella titled Little Dead Red. LDR is a modern retelling of Little Red Riding Hood that’s deeply rooted in real tragedies. It has to do with sexual abuse, kidnapping, guilt, revenge,…
Peekaboo with the Devil: Strategies for Hiding and Revealing Your Antagonist

Peekaboo with the Devil: Strategies for Hiding and Revealing Your Antagonist

Just like any relationship, the special bond between a horror protagonist and her antagonist benefits from a little bit of mystery. In this case, the hero is a proxy for your readers, and the mystery comes from your story’s scariest villain, be it a human serial killer or a demonic creature or the mad scientist who, when left unattended for a few minutes, will inevitably create a horrific zombie plague. There are a host of reasons why keeping your baddie cards close to your chest can help your story’s tension and overall terror levels. Obviously, if your plot line is…

The Poets on the 2016 Bram Stoker Awards® Preliminary Ballot

Congratulations to everyone on the 2016 Bram Stoker Awards® Preliminary Ballot! Most especially, congratulations to the poets on the 2016 Bram Stoker Awards® Preliminary Ballot!!! Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection: Betts, Matt – Underwater Fistfight (Raw Dog Screaming Press) Boston, Bruce and Manzetti, Alessandro – Sacrificial Nights (Kipple Officina Libraria) Collings, Michael R. – Corona Obscura: Poems Dark and Elemental (self-published) Cowen, David E. – The Seven Yards of Sorrow (Weasel Press) DiLouie, Craig and Moon, Jonathan – Children of God: Poems, Dreams, and Nightmares from the Family of God Cult (ZING Communications, Inc., Jonathan Moon.) Gailey, Jeannine Hall…

First Recipients of the Young Adult Write Now Endowment Announced

First Recipients of the Young Adult Write Now Endowment: The Horror Writers Association (HWA), the premier organization of writers and publishers of horror and dark fantasy and home of the iconic Bram Stoker Awards®, is proud to announce the first-ever recipients of the annual Young Adults Write Now endowments. Each of the following five libraries will receive $500 to help fund teen writing programs as part of the HWA’s ongoing dedication to furthering young adult literacy. The W. T. Bland Public Library – Mount Dora, FL Dreadful Teen Writing Program, administered by Cathy Jones, Adult Services Librarian The Louisiana, Missouri…
The CreEpy Catalog: On the Day I Died

The CreEpy Catalog: On the Day I Died

In order to write great children's horror, you must READ great children's horror. To help you out with this, we've invited our very own middle school librarian to take you into the deepest, darkest corners of the stacks to see what frightening fiction kids are reading. Welcome to the CreEpy Catalog! One of the things I love about working in a middle school library is that kids have the ability to read independently, but they still love being read aloud to. Once a week, I have a group of fifth graders for library class, and I love the experience of making…

The 2016 Bram Stoker Awards® Preliminary Ballot Announced

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is pleased to announce the Preliminary Ballots for the 2016 Bram Stoker Awards®. The HWA (see www.horror.org ) is the premier writers organization in the horror and dark fiction genre, with over 1,300 members. We have presented the Bram Stoker Awards in various categories since 1987 (see https://horror.org/awards/stokers.htm ) The HWA Board and the Bram Stoker Awards® Committee congratulate all those appearing on these Preliminary Ballots. Notes about the voting process will appear after the ballot listing. 2016 Bram Stoker Awards® Preliminary Ballot    Superior Achievement in a Novel Fenn, J. Lincoln – Dead Souls…

January 2017 The Seers Table and changes to Diverse Works Inclusion Committee

Before we dive into this month's column, we're pleased to announce that Andrew Wolter, Lauren Candia and Michael Gonzales recently joined the Diverse Works Inclusion Committee. We'd also like to bid a fond farewell to exiting committee members Tom Calen and Ari Drew - we thank them for their invaluable service, and we also extend gratitude to our newest DWIC members for stepping up. The Seers Table! Kate Maruyama, Diverse Works Inclusion Committee Member Happy New Year! One of my New Year’s resolutions is to step outside my reading comfort zones (I tend to go to the same authors over…

2016 Bram Stoker Awards Timeline

The Bram Stoker Awards® Please note the Preliminary Ballot for the 2016 Bram Stoker Awards will be announced on January 20, 2017. The main timeline is as follows: January 15: The Bram Stoker Awards Recommendation Sheet (https://horror.org/private/stokers/2016recs.php) closed to new Recommendations at midnight U.S. Pacific Time (Recs will not be accepted after this time). On the 17th, the Juries will forward their Submission choices to the Bram Stoker Awards Committee Co-Chairs. January 20: Announcement of Bram Stoker Awards Preliminary Ballots – announced on the HWA website, via Special IM, and on the HWA Facebook page. In accordance with Rule VIIi…
2016 Lifetime Achievement Award Committee Appointed

2016 Lifetime Achievement Award Committee Appointed

In accordance with the rules regarding the Lifetime Achievement Award (LAA) process, HWA President Lisa Morton has appointed the 2016 LAA Committee: Ramsey Campbell Erinn Kemper Monica Kuebler John Little (chair) Joseph Nassise The Committee will immediately begin discussions to determine 2016's recipient(s). If you would like to suggest someone for consideration to receive the 2016 LAA, please first review the rules and list of former winners. When you are sure your suggested recipient meets the requirements and has not previously received the LAA, please contact Committee chair John Little at john.little@telus.net (please note "LAA Suggestion" in your subject line).

An Interview with Vincenzo Bilof

From Detroit, Michigan, Vincenzo Bilof has been called “The Metallica of Poetry” and “The Shakespeare of Gore.” With a body of work that includes gritty, apocalyptic horror (The Zombie Ascension Series), surrealist prose (The Horror Show), and visceral genre satire (Vampire Strippers from Saturn), Bilof’s fiction remains as divisive and controversial as it is original. He likes to think Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, and Charles Baudelaire would be proud of his work. More likely, Ed Wood would have been his biggest fan. HWA: Where did the concept/inspiration for 'Visions of a Tremulous Man' originate? VB: No matter how I answer…

Horror Writers Association Poetry Page Holiday Shopping Guide 2016

This year has seen a number of excellent poetry collections released by HWA members. To help those wondering what to buy for gift giving, the HWA Poetry Page is please to share a handy shopping guide with you. To start, 2016 saw the release of the third volume of the HWA Poetry Showcase. Edited by David E. Cowen (more on him later), the third volume is the first to be available as an electronic chapbook and also in paperback!   Volume I and Volume II also make great holiday gifts!!     David E. Cowen released The Seven Yards Of…