HWA Horror Poetry Showcase

To celebrate National Poetry Month, the Horror Writers Association will be holding their inaugural HWA Horror Poetry Showcase in April 2014. Open to all poets, the Showcase will be accepting submissions throughout the month of April with four poems chosen by HWA member judges to be honored on the HWA website. Submission Guidelines: Submissions will be accepted via Submittable from April 1-30, 2014 and all rights will remain with the poets. Those interested in submitting should visit www.horror.org on or after 1 April to access the submissions link. We are looking for more than "blood, guts, worms," etc. Just being…
The HWA on Twitter – An Announcement

The HWA on Twitter – An Announcement

For the past several weeks, Jenn Mattern (A.J. Klein), Doug Murano, Angel Leigh McCoy, and JG Faherty, together with President Rocky Wood and Vice President Lisa Morton, have been putting the finishing touches on the HWA's new Twitter goals, posting rules, and usage guidelines. In summary, they are as follows: Jenn Mattern will be managing the Twitter accounts/feeds. Under her supervision, select officers and page coordinators will be able to forward information for posting on the HWA Twitter pages (@HorrorWriters and @StokerAwards) and also create direct and send direct tweets. These tweets will provide updates on the organization, industry news…

HERE WITH THE SHADOWS by Steve Rasnic Tem

Author: Steve Rasnic Tem HERE WITH THE SHADOWS "Among my favorite reads are those early 20th century single author ghost & supernatural collections by such British authors as Burrage, Caldecott, Cowles, Dare, & M.R. James—stories characterized by indirection, suggestion, and the careful selection of words. I've long wanted to bring out my own version of such a book clearly influenced by my exposure to those collections." In February Ireland's Swan River Press presents Steve Rasnic Tem's Here with the Shadows, a volume of supernatural impressions and quiet vacancies, in an edition of 400 copies. Between these covers lurk the spectres…

BLOOD KIN by Steve Rasnic Tem

Author: Steve Rasnic Tem BLOOD KIN Steve Rasnic Tem's Blood Kin is pure Southern Gothic with a sharp left turn into horror. The influences streaming through this hybrid include William Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, Carson McCullers, Cormac McCarthy, Fred Chappell, Manley Wade Wellman, and the mountains and hollows of the author's southern Appalachian childhood. Alternating between the 1930s and the present day, this dark vision of ghosts, witchcraft, secret powers, snake-handling, kudzu, Melungeons, and the Great Depression is told from the dual points of view of Michael Gibson and his grandmother Sadie. Michael has retreated from the world to the quiet…

PROJECT CAIN by Geoffrey Girard

Author: Geoffrey Girard PROJECT CAIN Sixteen-year-old Jeff Jacobson had never heard of Jeffrey Dahmer, the infamous serial killer who brutally murdered seventeen people more than twenty years ago. But Jeff's life changes forever when the man he'd thought was his father hands him a government file telling him he was constructed in a laboratory only seven years ago, part of a top-secret government cloning experiment called 'Project CAIN.' There, he was created entirely from Jeffrey Dahmer's DNA. There are others like Jeff -- those genetically engineered directly from the most notorious murderers of all time: The Son of Sam, The…

HWA Scholarship Awarded to Jim Pyre

Starting from 2014 the Horror Writers Association (HWA) has instituted the Horror Writers Association Scholarship, open to all members of the HWA. The Scholarship is designed to assist in the professional development of writers in the horror/dark fantasy genre. The first Horror Writers Association Scholarship has been awarded to Jim Pyre, a pseudonym for a writer who grew up in Chicago but now lives in a small farming town. Jim lives in Ohio with his wife and many, many cats. A Midwesterner by birth, he grew up in Chicago and graduated from a law school in Columbus, Ohio. He reads,…

Shelley Scholarship goes to Erinn Kemper

Starting from 2014 the Horror Writers Association (HWA) has instituted the Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Scholarship, open to female writers who are members of the HWA. The Scholarship is designed to address the unseen, but real, barriers limiting the amount of horror fiction being published by women. The first Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Scholarship has been awarded to Erinn Kemper, a Canadian writer who resides in Costa Rica. Erinn Kemper (E. L. Kemper) grew up in an isolated mill town in coastal British Columbia, Canada. From there she moved to the city to study Philosophy at the University of Victoria. Over the…

CAIN’S BLOOD by Geoffrey Girard

Author: Geoffrey Girard CAIN'S BLOOD A terrifying novel about the evil in each of us... Developing new bio-weapons, the US Department of Defense has secretly cloned the world's most notorious murderers, to study their DNA and isolate the genetic of evil. The program contains dozens of young men who have no clue of their evil heritage -- including John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy, and the Son of Sam. Enacting a twisted game of nature vs. nurture, the scientists raise some of the clones with loving families and others in abusive circumstances to match their genetic forefathers. When the most dangerous…
In March: “Found Poetry” with Terrie Leigh Relf & HWA Poetry Showcase Announcement

In March: “Found Poetry” with Terrie Leigh Relf & HWA Poetry Showcase Announcement

Poet Terrie Leigh Relf talks about “Found Poetry” and shares a little bit of herself and her own work this month. Personally, before reading this article, I’d never heard of “Found Poetry” and it’s a fascinating literary field. Special thanks to Terrie for pulling back the curtain a little on a lesser known form of poetry. ☠ What Is Found Poetry and Where-Oh-Where Can It Be? by Terrie Leigh Relf While on staff at Alban Lake Publishing, one of our regular contributors and a writer friend, Lauren McBride, asked me about found poetry. When she requested an article on this…

CHIRAL MAD 2 Edited by Michael Bailey

Editor: Michael Bailey CHIRAL MAD 2 Chiral Mad 2 is an anthology of psychological horror containing twenty-eight short stories by established authors and newcomers from around the world. All profit from sales of this anthology go directly to Down syndrome charities. Featuring the imaginations of David Morrell, Ramsey Campbell, Jack Ketchum, John Skipp, Gary A. Braunbeck, Mort Castle, Gene O'Neill, Gary McMahon, Lucy A. Snyder, Thomas F. Monteleone, and many others, with an introduction by Michael Bailey. Publisher: Written Backwards Publication Date: December 13, 2013

Women in Horror: Part Eighteen

 It may be March but I'm still rolling with WiHM! Today, my dear friends, is the final article. Yes...it's true. Please do not weep, do not lose hope, we will meet again. For now we can explore a great viewpoint on the whole concept of Women in Horror from editor, author, anthologist & all-round great friend...Joe Myndhardt...   Female authors, characters and inspirations… and those who have a problem with them. by Joe Mynhardt I learned something over the last few days; I learned that there is still a lot prejudice when it comes to the work of female authors.…

LITTLE VISIBLE DELIGHT by S.P. Miskowski & Kate Jonez

Authors: S.P. Miskowski & Kate Jonez LITTLE VISIBLE DELIGHT Often the most powerful and moving stories are generated by writers who return time and again to a particular idea, theme, or image. Obsession in a writer's imagination can lead to accomplishment or to self-destruction. Consider Poe and his pale, dead bride; his fascination with confinement and mortality; his illness and premature death. Or Flannery O'Connor's far less soul-crushing fondness for peacocks. Some writers pay a high price for their obsessions, while others maintain a crucial distance. Whichever the case, obsessions can produce compelling fiction. Little Visible Delight is an anthology…

Women in Horror: Part Seventeen

Today we're joined by author Roh Morgon on what horror means to her...     It’s an honor to have been selected to participate in the HWA’s recognition of Women in Horror Month.     Examining the accomplishments of women in this genre has forced me to look closer at my own work and determine whether or not it actually belongs in the horror category.   Before discussing the contributions of women writers to the horror genre, we should first conduct a brief examination of the genre itself.   Horror.   The word conjures images of screaming women, dripping blades,…

Women in Horror: Part Sixteen

Hello & welcome back to our feature special series for WiHM! You'll all have noticed a gap in the posting of these articles & I can only apologise for that. I've been down with a horrible virus & couldn't get any work done...but I'm back now & ready to finish what we've started! Today we welcome author & editor Sandy DeLuca. This lovely lady barely needs an introduction, author of Messages from the Dead & Hell's Door amongst many others, artist & anthologist. For our series she decided to concentrate on a Woman in Horror from the world of film, rather than the print...     Gale Anne Hurd of “The…
HWA 2013 Specialty Press Award Goes to Gray Friar Press

HWA 2013 Specialty Press Award Goes to Gray Friar Press

Gray Friar Press, of Whitby, U.K., will receive the Horror Writers Association's Specialty Press Award for 2013. The Award will be presented during the Bram Stoker Awards® Banquet, to be held this during the World Horror Convention in Portland, Oregon, on May 10, 2014. The annual Specialty Press Award recognizes a publisher outside the mainstream New York City publishing community that specializes in dark-themed fiction. Winners are typically "small presses" specializing in limited editions, small print runs, or the work of new and relatively unknown authors. The winner of the award is determined by a majority vote of the Horror…

Norman Rubenstein to receive the Hammer Award from HWA

The Horror Writers Association periodically gives the Hammer Award (also known as the Silver Hammer Award) to an HWA volunteer who has done a truly massive amount of work for our organization, often unsung and behind the scenes. It was instituted in 1996, and is decided by a vote of HWA's Board. The award is so named because it represents the careful, steady, continuous work of building HWA's "house" -- the many institutional systems that keep the organization functioning on a day-to-day basis. The award itself is a chrome-plated hammer with an engraved plaque on the handle. The chrome hammer…

JG Faherty to receive The Richard Laymon President’s Award from Horror Writers Association

The Richard Laymon President's Award for Service was instituted in 2000 and is named in honor of Richard Laymon, who died in 2000 while serving as the Horror Writer’s Association’s President. As its name implies, it is given by the HWA's sitting President. The Award is presented to a volunteer who has served HWA in an especially exemplary manner and has shown extraordinary dedication to the organization. HWA’s President Rocky Wood has chosen JG Faherty to receive the 2013 Award. Rocky said, “JG (Greg) is one of the hardest working volunteers the HWA has ever had. In the past two…

PHANTOM LIMB by Shane Montgomery

Author: Shane Montgomery PHANTOM LIMB An LAPD narcotics officer-turned-personal bodyguard, a troubled epileptic psychic and an enigmatic shaman~ trying to outrun their pasts... A paranormal scientist and cameraman, just trying to do their jobs: the cast of a reality show investigating hauntings and unsolved murders in Redemption, Arizona~ a ghost mining town. Together, they confront restless spirits, and manifest the tragic lives of Red Morrison and Rosie Rodriquez, star-crossed lovers connected to the town’s bloody past. A ghost dance in the desert, a Tarot reading and a burning chapel summon visions of vengeful shamans who called on demonic forces to…
2014 Lifetime Achievement Award Recipients Announced

2014 Lifetime Achievement Award Recipients Announced

Stephen Jones lives in London, England. He is the winner of three World Fantasy Awards, four Horror Writers Association Bram Stoker Awards and three International Horror Guild Awards, as well as being a recipient of twenty-one British Fantasy Awards and a Hugo Award nominee. A former television producer/director and genre movie publicist and consultant (the first three Hellraiser movies, Night Life, Nightbreed, Split Second, Mind Ripper, Last Gasp etc.), he is the co-editor of Horror: 100 Best Books, Horror: Another 100 Best Books, The Best Horror from Fantasy Tales, Gaslight & Ghosts, Now We Are Sick, H.P. Lovecraft's Book of…