Terrors of Today – Denise Dumars

The Apocalypse Will Not Be Televised, and Neither Is the Effect of the Hurricane on Cuba by Denise Dumars Auctober Apocalypto   The blossoms are red and the cat is white but ashes darken his fur (what do they say of cats after dark?)  A deep grey-purple has boiled the sky It’s a time of pumpkin spice death a gas mask and a hazmat suit    My mother wakes and cannot breathe the EMT truck is as red as hibiscus Have you any pumpkin spice pan de muertos? Do the teeth of the dead still gnash?   (Will the white…

Terrors of Today: Jamal Hodge

Dinner for One Reddened spoons. Napkins of aging skin. A table for none where once pumped a hopeful heart. Foolish from the start the refreshing glass of toil-laden piss, ripened to this- Vacant meal of me, mournful dish,  served raw, upon mirrored plates. -- From Jamal Hodge's upcoming book, I'm Not A Good Person, I'm A New Yorker.  Author's Statement: My poem Dinner For One takes the symbolic activity of togetherness (A dinner at a table) and turns it into a place of loneliness and horror. The grim end result of preparing a meal of yourself within your selfish choices, that…

Terrors of Today: L Marie Wood

Inside Out by L. Marie Wood Inside out what’s inside bared to the air tender to the touch red and slick hothouse musk. Voice loud my mind Loud in the sky Loud  Because it can be Private for me but I’m flayed for the world to see. Open cavity. Open skull. Open mind. Open shell. A husk to be filled with your words your thoughts your wants your desires you you you alone you whole you bold. Of me there’s no consequence. Of me there’s no gain. All taken with the edge of the blade lain to cut to sever,…

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…

Terrors of Today: Pedro Iniguez

The Epidemic of Shrink-Ray-Gun Violence Plaguing Our Schools Must End By Pedro Iniguez This poem originally appeared in Star*Line #45.3, 2022   Their atoms dust the floors of every school in the country; those frightened children we can no longer console.   Their cries have faded into inaudible wavelengths inside a quantum world where hugs and spacetime both cease to exist.   They have dissolved into mere fractions of their corporeal selves, their particles swept into dustpans and mopped into oblivion.   Blame those new blasters inundating the market, stowed inside scores of scruffy backpacks; the preferred choice of disgruntled…
Call For 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award Nominations

Call For 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award Nominations

  The Horror Writers Association calls for suggestions and nominations from the membership for the 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award. The Lifetime Achievement Award is presented annually to an individual whose work has substantially influenced the horror genre. While this award is often presented to a writer, it may also be given for influential accomplishments in other creative fields. The award is presented each year during HWA's gala presentation of the Bram Stoker Awards at StokerCon. To be eligible for this award, a candidate must either be at least sixty years of age by May 1 of the year of the…

Terrors of Today: Modern Horror Poetry

Terrors of Today: Modern Horror Poetry It’s been 180 years since Edgar Allan Poe wrote “The Raven,” the poem that turned him into an overnight success, only four years before his life was tragically cut short at just forty years of age. The official cause of death was "congestion of the brain,” sometimes used as a euphemism for alcoholism-related mortality of the era. In honor of this morbid Bostonian, we honor Dark Poetry Day on the anniversary of his death (October 7) rather than his birthday.  He is one in a long list of dark poets, from Phyllis Wheatley, William…
The HWA Interview: Daniela E

The HWA Interview: Daniela E

  What is your novel about? My latest book is a collection of horror stories, and Goodnight and Sweet Dreams, a rather ironic title. The stories are based on nightmares and human fears; there are demons, asylums, possessed dolls, witches, haunted forests, wells that lead to another world, and possessions. I love playing with the  combination of fears, nightmares, horror, and psychology. Each title has a Latin name that enhances its meaning   What are you looking to express to readers with your work? I want to help people appreciate horror literature even if they don’t read it, because horror…
HWA ELECTION RESULTS 2025

HWA ELECTION RESULTS 2025

  HWA Election Results 2025 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 back our Vice President, Lisa Wood, and Treasurer, Marc Abbot. Congratulations to Lisa Kröger, Brian Matthews, and Patrick Barb on being re-elected as Trustees; and welcome to new Trustee, Sèphera Girón. The elected officers shall hold their respective offices for terms of two years, beginning on October 31st at midnight.…
Halloween Haunts: SETTING THE STAGE & THE BROWN COUNTY JACK-O-LANTERN

Halloween Haunts: SETTING THE STAGE & THE BROWN COUNTY JACK-O-LANTERN

Halloween Haunts: Setting the Stage & the Brown County Jack-o-Lantern by K.A. Schultz   It is not terribly late, but the sun is about to set, its last lighted dregs trickling out from beneath the gathering wall of clouds. The rays tint the air a pinkish gray, imbuing the autumnal dusk, the wet leaves, and the shiny sidewalks with a quick-fading warmth. From my second-floor apartment, I see costumed children making their way down the block; the youngest ones have already finished with their rounds. I see patches of candle glow on porches and in windows below, lopsided grins and sinister…
Halloween Haunts: THE PERSONAL NATURE OF HORROR

Halloween Haunts: THE PERSONAL NATURE OF HORROR

Halloween Haunts: The Personal Nature of Horror Eugen Bacon   As writers of horror, there are many motivations that spur us to write this kind of fiction. Some, perhaps like Eric LaRocca, there’s a certain glee in unsettling the reader. But in an interview on their book This Skin Was Once Mine and Other Disturbances, he shares that horror is, to him, a form of healing. There’s blood and brutality, the Lovecraftian in cosmic horror. In the horrific is a certain truth: ‘awful things happen to everyone’. This is one reason I write horror—it reflects reality. You have only to…
Halloween Haunts: HAVE A BLUETOOTH HALLOWEEN

Halloween Haunts: HAVE A BLUETOOTH HALLOWEEN

Halloween Haunts: Have a Bluetooth Halloween By Lisa Morton   Bluetooth. Who could’ve predicted ten years ago that Bluetooth technology would be one of the major future advances in the art of the Halloween haunt? But it’s happened, and it’s fantastic. Bluetooth, that nearly-magical energy that allows us to connect our phones to other devices, first entered the Halloween haunt arena a few years ago by allowing haunters to use Bluetooth speakers throughout their mazes. The speakers, which are surprisingly powerful but may be no bigger than a hockey puck or a box of crackers, are controlled by phone apps,…
Latinx Heritage in Horror Month 2025: An Interview with Carmen Baca

Latinx Heritage in Horror Month 2025: An Interview with Carmen Baca

    What is your novel about? My next book will be a collection of short stories and poetry of the supernatural horror variety. My Chicano roots are deep in the New Mexico soil where my ancestors planted them centuries ago. Living in the Land of Enchantment means opening our minds to possibilities that the supernatural exists, and the creatures, cryptids, monsters, and spirits our abuelas told us they encountered weren’t figments of their imagination. They were real then, and they’re just as real today. En las montañas, placitas, y llanos de Nuevo Mejico, they never left, and they always…
Latinx Heritage in Horror Month 2025: An Interview with Clara Elena García

Latinx Heritage in Horror Month 2025: An Interview with Clara Elena García

  What is your novel about? “What are monsters but men made wrong?” An age-old question brought to life through the lens of Paraguayan mythology, Seven Legendary Monsters is an epic poem retelling of Guaraní lore and legend. Steeped in indigenous horror and told from the perspective of the monsters themselves, this novel-in-verse explores the duality of good and evil, the weight of curses, and the enduring power of sacrifice. From the cruel pranks of the feathered serpent trickster, Moñai, to the self-loathing of the hideous lizard dog, Teju Jagua, to the feminist musings of Keraná, the Mother of Monsters…
An Introduction to Latinx Heritage in Horror Month 2025: Cynthia Pelayo

An Introduction to Latinx Heritage in Horror Month 2025: Cynthia Pelayo

    Writing is an isolated activity. Yet, there’s a quiet comfort in knowing that there are others out there who are too, staring at their screens, tapping away at keys, and scribbling in their journals.   We are not alone at this.   When you are writing, know that there is someone else, somewhere, wrestling with a scene, structure, or outline, at the very same hour as you.   Writers come to the horror genre for a number of reasons, nostalgia, the aesthetics, and the ability to explore spiritual, philosophical, and sociological questions, and so on. Each day, the…
HWA 2025 Election Candidates

HWA 2025 Election Candidates

  The HWA’s annual elections will soon be upon us. Up this year are four Trustee positions, as well as the offices of Vice President and Treasurer. Please read the statements of the following candidates carefully. Links to the ballot will be sent out on or around September 9th, 2025 to our Active and Lifetime members, with a due date of September 16th, 2025.  The elected officers shall hold their respective offices for terms of two years, beginning on November 1 and ending on October 31.   Candidates for 2025 Elections All candidates have been verified as active members and eligible…
HWA Mourns the Loss of Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

HWA Mourns the Loss of Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

  The Horror Writers Association mourns the loss of a foundational pillar not only for her contributions to the organization, but for her legacy. Chelsea Quinn Yarbro served as the HWA’s third president, and in the words of former HWA President, Lisa Morton, “as HWA's first female President - at a time when women were still scarce in the genre - she blazed the trail that all of us who came later would follow, a trail she made clear with authority, wisdom, and grace. Like her character Saint Germain, she is a true immortal." Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (September 15, 1942…
HWA Scholarship Recipients Announced

HWA Scholarship Recipients Announced

  The HWA Scholarship Committee is pleased to announce the following recipients for this year’s scholarship selections. The committee would like to thank those who applied and the volunteers who reviewed the many applications we received. Congratulations to all those selected!   Rocky Wood Memorial Scholarship Recipient: Victoria Timpanaro     Victoria Timpanaro is a PhD Candidate at Rutgers University – Newark, NJ in the American Studies program. Her areas of study are film, media, gender, and popular culture. She is currently working on a dissertation focusing on the work of George A. Romero and female representation in horror cinema.…
HWA Update on the LibGen AI Litigation

HWA Update on the LibGen AI Litigation

  We have an important update on the ongoing copyright class-action lawsuit involving the exploitation of authors’ works. The court has found that Anthropic infringed on authors’ and publishers’ copyrights by downloading millions of books from the pirate websites Library Genesis (“LibGen”) and Pirate Library Mirror (“PiLiMi”) to train its AI model. A certified class has been established, made up of rights holders whose copyright-registered books were downloaded from these sites by Anthropic. Here is a link to a searchable database of titles in the LibGen collection. This database includes both traditionally published and independently published works. The plaintiffs’ attorneys are…
API/AANHPI Heritage in Horror Month: An Interview with Jessica Gleason

API/AANHPI Heritage in Horror Month: An Interview with Jessica Gleason

    What is your novel about?  Easy Bake Covenant is personal for me. I poured a lot of myself into the MC, Laura. At its heart, Easy Bake Covenant is a story about a little girl working through her demons, both literal and metaphorical. She’s gifted a peculiar Easy Bake Oven and, through it, she unwittingly makes a deal with the devil. She’s lost and angry, but grabs her power back and uses it to become strong and independent. To be clear, it’s not a fairy tale. Laura is fierce and funny, and her happy ending may not be…