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…

The Seers Table – December 2016

The Seers Table! Kate Jonez, Member of the Diverse Works Inclusion Community As we brace ourselves to face the approaching cold season we need to support and celebrate diverse authors more than ever before. Please enjoy these recommendations from The Seers’ Table. Linda Addison recommends: Tonya Liburd is a multi-talented writer to keep an eye on, her fiction has been long listed in the 2015 Carter V. Cooper (Vanderbilt) Exile Short Fiction Competition. She shares a birthday with Simeon Daniel and Ray Bradbury, which may tell you a little something about her. Her passions are music (someday!) and of course,…

Members New Releases 2017

Welcome to the showcase of member publications! Select a book cover to purchase or learn more about it or the author. You can view the wall of amazing cover art from past years by using the dropdown in the menu above. And members, please sign into the members-only area to submit upcoming releases. Thank you!

HWA Announces Contents of Its Next Anthology, HALLOWS’ EVE

An exciting line-up of bestselling and critically-acclaimed authors will share the table of contents with some of the horror genre’s best new voices in the Horror Writers Association’s next anthology, Hallows’ Eve. Co-edited by Ellen Datlow, past winner of HWA’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and Lisa Morton, one of the world’s leading authorities on Halloween, Hallows’ Eve presents sixteen never-before-published tales that explore every aspect of the darkest holiday. In addition to stories about scheming jack-o’-lanterns, vengeful ghosts, otherworldly changelings, masks that cover terrifying faces, murderous urban legends, parties gone bad, cult Halloween movies, and even trick or treating in the…

The Seers’ Table November 2016

The Seers Table! Janet Holden, Member of the Diverse Works Inclusion Community Autumn is upon us and the nights are growing darker. All the more reason to crack open a good book and read by the fire. Here are our suggestions for this month: Kate Maruyama recommends: Nisi Shawl is an African-American writer, editor, and journalist. She is best known as an author of science fiction and fantasy short stories, but her fantastic fiction enters that horror zone in the spirit of Octavia Butler and reflects real-world diversity of gender, sexual orientation, race, colonialism, physical ability, age, and other sociocultural…

Happy Halloween from HWA!

Happy Halloween from the Horror Writers Association (HWA)! As horror writers, of course we treasure Halloween, but we also understand the concerns of some educators in regards to the holiday. Halloween has a rich history that goes back over a thousand years, encompassing elements of folklore, literature, sociology, and pop culture. In the 21st century it is celebrated as a secular festival with playful costumes, parties, and fictitious scares. We urge educators to consider Halloween's literary and historical side; it's a perfect time to interest students in such classics as: "The Black Cat" by Edgar Allan Poe "Young Goodman Brown"…
Halloween Haunts: A Condemned Man, A Halloween Memory by Steve Rasnic Tem

Halloween Haunts: A Condemned Man, A Halloween Memory by Steve Rasnic Tem

Back then, for me, it was all about masks. For Halloween, sure, but I'm also talking about day-to-day.  This all started with the perception that people seldom said what they really felt about anything.  I wasn't sure why, but apparently there was something impolite about frankness, and politeness was something we took pretty seriously in my part of the South.  The only person I knew whose face invariably expressed whatever passed through his head was the town's developmentally disabled fellow who sat on a bench by the drugstore when he wasn't out with his burlap sack collecting roadside treasures.  Whether he…
Halloween Haunts: Halloween Defines Fall, At Least for Me By John F.D. Taff

Halloween Haunts: Halloween Defines Fall, At Least for Me By John F.D. Taff

I have found, in 25 years of fiction writing now, that the surest way to a feeling of verisimilitude in a story is to process the experiences in my life and put them down on paper.  I refer to this process as strip-mining my childhood, and so far, it's been very good to me. Not only has this practice helped me to work my way through past experiences, both good bad, it has also lent an air of reality to a lot of the scenes I have written.  Write what you know is, perhaps, the oldest saw in the art…
Halloween Haunts: Emotional Realism in Extreme Horror Fiction by Nicole Cushing

Halloween Haunts: Emotional Realism in Extreme Horror Fiction by Nicole Cushing

  First things first: let’s acknowledge the elephant in the room. Extreme horror fiction hasn’t always enjoyed the best reputation. Despite the commercial success of books like Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho and Jack Ketchum’s The Girl Next Door, the field is often seen as only catering to a niche audience. Despite a pedigree that arguably extends at least as far back as the Marquis de Sade, the field is often seen as a playground for recent generations of subliterate hacks. Perhaps that’s why so little has been said about how to write extreme horror fiction skillfully: so many people…