Terrors of Today: Angela Yuriko Smith

Newsfast: Menu for the Machine by Angela Yuriko Smith Thoughts are deadly gossamer, silvery filaments breaching the vacant void to reach me. Dangers tremble along my neural networks, each tentative vibration a warning that there is a ghost in the machine, a viral bug, a broken code. I see it in the clouds, weighted low with toxins. I taste it in the dew, flavored gray, wilting skin and organs from within. Language spewed to skew cellular structures, warping what began as holy into what ends in despair and disrepair. It takes one thought to derail a system, one word to…

2024 Horror Writers Association Elections for Officers and Trustees

2024 Horror Writers Association Elections for Officers and Trustees

The HWA’s annual elections will soon be upon us. Up this year are four Trustee positions, as well as the offices of President and Secretary. Please read the statements of the following candidates carefully. Links to the ballot will be sent out on or around August 19, 2024 to our Active and Lifetime members, with a due date of August 25, 2024. The elected officers shall hold their respective offices for terms of two years, beginning on November 1 and ending on October 31.

HWA Election Results 2023

HWA Election Results 2023 Los Angeles CA September 29, 2023 The Horror Writers Association (HWA) held its annual election in September. We had a number of amazing candidates for the four open positions of Trustee. Offices of Vice President and Treasurer ran unopposed. Our members have voted, and we are pleased to share the results. Please welcome our new Vice President, Lisa Wood, and our new Treasurer, Michael Knost. Congratulations to Lisa Kröger, Brian Matthews, and Angela Yuriko Smith on being re-elected as Trustees; and welcome to new Trustee, Brian Keene. The elected officers shall hold their respective offices for…
Coming to a Shelf Near You: Poetry Showcase Volume X

Coming to a Shelf Near You: Poetry Showcase Volume X

Submit your poem here from April 15-May 15. A decade ago, Peter Adam Salomon had an excellent idea. He wanted to recognize horror and dark poetry as a genre. He brought his idea to then president Rocky Woods and the first HWA Poetry Showcase was born. The response from our membership was excellent and the Showcase has been published every year since. Many of us can credit the Showcase with boosting our careers. I'm one of those—my first professional sale as a poet was to Peter for Volume II. Were it not for his encouragement, I wouldn't be here now.…

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) Announces The Release of its Next Publication: The HWA Poetry Showcase, Volume IX

PRESS RELEASE The Horror Writers Association presents its ninth annual poetry showcase featuring a selection of the best original dark poetry from the past year. Edited by Angela Yuriko Smith with judges Lee Murray, Maxwell I. Gold and Frances Lu Pai Ippolito, this year features Stephanie M. Wytovich, Geneve Flynn, and Naomi Simone Borwein as our featured poets. Cover artwork by Kyra Starr. Appreciation to HWA President John Palisano for doubling the payment to poets and awarding poets both payment and a contributor copy instead of poets choosing between two options. The artwork for this year’s cover pays tribute to…

Call for Submissions Horror Writers Association Poetry Showcase IX

Call for submissions for Poetry Showcase Volume IX  The HWA is proud to announce that it will call for submissions from its members for the Poetry Showcase Volume IX beginning April 1. Angela Yuriko Smith will be the editor for the volume. This year’s judges, along with Angela, will include Lee Murray and Maxwell I. Gold.   Only HWA members (of any status) may submit. The reason for this can be found in the word “Showcase.” The HWA is very proud of the tradition of poetry in the horror genre and of the HWA’s support for poetry. This volume is designed…

Women in Horror: Interview with Angela Yuriko Smith

Angela Yuriko Smith is a third-generation Uchinanchu-American and an award-winning poet, author, and publisher with over 20 years of experience in newspaper journalism. Publisher of Space & Time magazine (est. 1966), a Bram Stoker Awards® Finalist and HWA Mentor of the Year for 2020, she offers free classes for writers at angelaysmith.com. What inspired you to start writing? This is always a hard question for me. I don’t remember a time when words weren’t really important to me. My mom taught me to read before Kindergarten. I loved Ranger Rick magazine and any other thing with words. This included pieces…

Halloween Haunts: Spooky Lit – Why Spooky Matters to Young Readers by Angela Yuriko Smith

Not every little girl loves dolls and pink ponies. I grew up in Wyoming. My dad was an overly avid hunter with an undiagnosed case of PTSD. My mother was second generation Okinawan from a long line of mediums. I didn't understand the other girls my age and shared few, if any, similar interests. Needless to say, I did not fit in with my peers. A latch-key kid, my parents locked up the television while they were gone so I wouldn't rot my brain, something I'm grateful for. Books were my only entertainment and I combed through their well stocked shelves…