Latinx Heritage in Horror: Interview with Carmen Baca

Carmen Baca taught high school and college English for thirty-six years before retiring in 2014. As a Chicana, a Norteña native to New Mexico, Carmen Baca keeps her culture’s traditions alive through regionalism to prevent them from dying completely. She is the author of six books and over 70 short publications in a variety of genres from prose to poetry. Q. What inspired you to start writing? A. When our rural community’s religious brotherhood disbanded in the mid-’80s, the brothers entrusted the relics from the prayer house, including a locked wooden box, into my care. The box revealed answers to…

Bisexual Awareness Week — B Stands for Bisexual by Angel Leigh McCoy

LGBTQ+ — B Stands for Bisexual Our job as fiction writers requires us to step into the hearts, minds, and bodies of other people. For this reason, writers are some of the most empathic beings I know. We’re skilled at using our imaginations. We use that tool to choose the actions, thoughts, and feelings experienced by our characters. The diversity of our characters and their stories can attract a broader audience to our writing, add stronger storytelling to our works, and—dare I say it—open our readers’ minds to empathy and compassion. We learn to avoid stereotypes and clichés in our…

Latinx Heritage in Horror: Introduction to Latinx Horror Month 2023 by Pedro Iniguez

  By Pedro Iniguez 2023 has been a monumental year in Latinx horror. As you may have noticed, recent Stoker Award® wins by Cynthia Pelayo and Gabino Iglesias, the first Latinx authors to do so, have shaken up the horror writing community in a positive and encouraging way. As the highest profile award in the genre, it was a validating win for the entire Latinx writing community. Along with nominations for other exceptional Latinx authors lately, we’ve also seen an upsurge in sales, reviews, and recognition. We’ve also been included in more anthologies, chapbooks, and magazines these last few years.…

HWA Scholarship Announcement

HWA Scholarship Announcement The Horror Writer’s Association would like to thank everyone who applied for scholarships in 2023. The initiative of applicants makes it possible to provide these invaluable opportunities to connect, learn, grow, and imagine what might be next for the genre.  Whether it’s a haunting novel or a groundbreaking thesis, a riveting collection of poetry or a jaw-dropping new script, the horror writers of the world have been busy. These scholarships provide more than just money; they provide the chance for the winners to learn from the best, mature as creators, and infuse our world with art like…

2023 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 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 7, 2023 to our Active and Lifetime members, with a due date of September 16, 2023.  The elected officers shall hold their respective offices for terms of two years, beginning on November 1 and ending on October 31. Candidate Statement for Horror Writers Association VICE PRESIDENT Lisa Wood (L. Marie Wood) Hello and thank…

World of Horror: Interview with Tejaswi Priyadarshi

Tejaswi Priyadarshi is a splatter-noir author and an HWA Grant Conferee. His two books The Psychopath, The Cannibal, The Lover and Bhang Milkha Bhang have been pivotal in exploring the splatterpunk genre in the Indian literary landscape. His work is focused on layering splatterpunk with local genre and geographic indications and flavors. Tejaswi has an engineering and a business degree, and apart from writing, he also specializes in Digital marketing. He is currently working on a splatterpunk short story collection and a psychological horror novel. What was it about the horror genre that drew you to it? I think it was the early acclimatization…

World of Horror: Interview with Alessandro Manzetti

Alessandro Manzetti (Rome, Italy) is a three-time Bram Stoker Award-winning writer, editor, scriptwriter and essayist of horror fiction and dark poetry. His work has been published extensively (more than 40 books) in Italian and English. Among his publications in English: the novel Naraka (2018), the novella The Keeper of Chernobyl (2019), the collections The Radioactive Bride (2020) and The Garden of Delight (2017) the poetry collections  Whitechapel Rhapsody (2020), The Place of Broken Things (2019, with Linda D. Addison), War (2018, with Marge Simon), Sacrificial Nights (2016, with Bruce Boston) and Eden Underground (2015), the graphic novels Kraken Inferno (2022),…

World of Horror: Interview with Zachary Ashford

Zachary Ashford is the Aurealis-nominated author of When the Cicadas Stop Singing. His new book, The Morass: Servant of the Fly God is out through Crystal Lake on July 14. His debut novel, Polyphemus, follows through Darklit in September. He is an educator, occasional speaker, and cat-lover. He spends a lot of time hanging out with his wife, cats, and action figures. His books usually feature Australian characters, tonnes of page-turning conflict, and an assortment of lizard-people, killer marsupials, giant crocodiles, mutations, living dead things, sentient hive-mind flies, demons, and highway-patrolling serial killers. There’s usually a guy in a metal shirt too. You can buy…

World of Horror: Interview with Marko Hautala

Marko Hautala is a Finnish horror writer whose novels and short stories have appeared in eight different languages. In 2020, his novelette "Pale Toes" (in Valancourt Book of World Horror Stories Vol. 1) was nominated for the Shirley Jackson Award. Hautala’s novel The Dark Architect is currently being developed into a movie by Matila & Rohr Productions: https://matilarohr.com/en/ What was it about the horror genre that drew you to it? I was seven or eight when I read a comic book version of Edgar Allan Poe’s “A Descent into the Maelström.” It gave me nightmares, yet I had to read…

World of Horror: Interview with Paolo Di Orazio

  Paolo Di Orazio has authored horror novels and comic books in Italian since 1987, and in English since 2015. He appeared in Ellen Datlow’s Best Horror of the Year 2015. What was it about the horror genre that drew you to it? I was hopelessly fascinated by horror during my childhood. Movies on TV during the early ’70s captured my heart forever. I love monsters, I love drama since I can remember. I was just a little child, so I really didn’t know what has drew me inside of it and why. I only believed that monsters were real.…

World of Horror: Interview with Chinaza Eziaghighala

Chinaza Eziaghighala is a medical doctor and storyteller. She is a University of Iowa International Writing Program, Voodoonauts, and EbonyLife Creative Academy alum. Her works are in/forthcoming in British Science Fiction Association's (BSFA) Fission #2 Volume 1 anthology, Mythaxis, Planet Scumm, Metastellar, BrittlePaper, Afritondo, and BSFA's Focus. Chimera, her debut novella, is forthcoming in 2024 from Nosetouch Press. She is diversifying her writing by working as a screenwriter for TV and film and also moonlights as a budding film development executive. In her free time, she enjoys mobile photography, meditation, dancing, and spending time with loved ones, because she is…

World of Horror: Interview with Kev Harrison

Kev Harrison is a writer of dark fiction and English language teacher from the UK, living and working in Lisbon, Portugal where he resides with his partner in crime Ana and their two cat overlords. He’s previously lived in various cities in the United Kingdom, as well as Turkey and Poland. His subterranean horror novella, Below, is out now from Brigids Gate Press, while his debut novella, The Balance, is also available through Lycan Valley Press. His short fiction collection, Paths Best Left Untrodden is available through Northern Republic. His debut novel, Shadow of the Hidden, arrives in March 2024…

World of Horror: Interview with Johann Thorsson

Johann Thorsson is an Icelandic author whose short stories have appeared in publications both in Icelandic and English, such as Fireside Fiction and The Apex Book of World SF series.  His first novel, the crime-horror novel Whitesands, will be out from Canelo UK's new horror imprint in early 2024 and blends Nordic noir with the supernatural. He grew up partly in the Middle East and Eastern Europe but now lives in Reykjavik with his wife, two kids and ever-decreasing space on his bookshelves. What was it about the horror genre that drew you to it? I think maybe it was…

World of Horror: Interview with Marie O’Regan

Marie O’Regan is a multiple award-nominated author/editor based in Derbyshire. Her fiction has appeared in many genre magazines and anthologies, and she is the author of three collections (Mirror Mere, In Times of Want, and The Last Ghost and Other Stories), a novella (Bury Them Deep), and the internationally best-selling debut novel Celeste. Her genre journalism has appeared in magazines like The Dark Side, Rue Morgue, and Fortean Times, and she co-authored an interview book with prominent figures from the horror genre, Voices in the Dark. She is co-editor of the bestselling Hellbound Hearts, Mammoth Book of Body Horror, A…

World of Horror: Interview with Tonya Liburd

Tonya Liburd is an Apex Magazine Reader’s Choice 2022 Fiction Winner, and is a 2017 and 2018 Rhysling Award nominee. Her fiction is used in Nisi Shawl's Writing the Other course and Tananarive Due’s Black Horror course at UCLA (which has featured Jordan Peele as guest lecturer) as an example of "code switching.” She is also the recipient of a 2020 Ontario Arts Council writer’s grant, a 2021 Horror Writers Association Diversity Grant, and a 2023 Recommender’s Grant for writing. She is an editor at The Expanse Magazine. You can find her blogging at https://www.Tonya.ca, on Twitter at @somesillywowzer, or…

World of Horror: Interview with Marty Young

  Marty Young is a Bram Stoker nominated and multiple Australian Shadows award-winning writer and editor, and sometimes ghost hunter. His fiction and anthologies have been nominated for and won numerous awards, while his essays on horror literature have been published in journals and university textbooks across the world.  Marty was also the founding president of the Australian Horror Writers Association from 2005-2010, and one of the creative minds behind the internationally acclaimed Midnight Echo Magazine, for which he also served as executive editor until mid-2013. As of 2023, Marty is the co-chair of Asylumfest, an all-new annual Australian horror…

Halloween Haunts Rises Again!

From October 1 through October 31, the Horror Writers Association will host an online event to celebrate the month of Halloween and help horror readers and horror writers connect at the eeriest time of the year. All HWA members are invited to participate in this series of daily blog posts, book excerpts, and more. Halloween Haunts offers HWA members a place to share Halloween anecdotes and stories to connect with new readers, spread the word about members’ new works, and raise the profile of the horror genre and the HWA.  You can find past posts on our Halloween blog: http://horror.org/category/halloween/… …

World of Horror: Interview with Steve Stred

A two-time Splatterpunk-nominated author, Steve Stred lives in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, with his wife, son and their Staffy, Cocoa. His work has been described as haunting, bleak and is frequently set in the woods near where he grew up. He’s been fortunate to appear in numerous anthologies with some truly amazing authors. He is an Active Member of the HWA. Website: stevestredauthor.ca, Twitter: @stevestred, Instagram: @stevestred, Tik Tok: @stevestredauthor, Universal Book Link: author.to/stevestred What was it about the horror genre that drew you to it? Honestly, I’ve always been drawn toward the horror/dark fiction world because it’s a genre that…

World of Horror: Interview with Eric Nash

Eric Nash (he/him) lives with ghosts in Southwest England. His dark tales have been published in numerous venues, including Bleed Error magazine, Coffin Bell Journal, Demain’s Short Sharp Shocks! series, and by WyldbloodPress. Read more of his work at https://eric-nash-inked-up-and-earthbound.com/, or give him a follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/EANash1. What was it about the horror genre that drew you to it? When I was knee-high, my Irish grandmother babysat me regularly. During those evenings, I’d sit by her side, drink milk stout, and watch black-and-white horror movies such as Cat People, Dracula, and The Ghoul. I discovered the thrill of being…

NUTS & BOLTS: INTERVIEW WITH LINDA GOULD, CREATOR OF KAIDANKAI PODCAST

By Tom Joyce Linda Gould’s Kaidankai podcast, which she started as a project during the pandemic, is still going strong with 60,000 downloads. In this month’s edition of Nuts & Bolts, Linda talks about how she found an audience and the kinds of narratives that lend themselves to a storytelling format.  Q: Can you tell us a little bit about Kaidankai and how it got started? A: What a long story this could be! I'll give you a short answer. When I started the Kaidankai podcast, I lived in Japan where it has become a tradition to tell ghost stories…