Women in Horror: Interview with Lindy Ryan

Lindy Ryan is an award-winning author-editor of Into the Forest, Under Her Skin, and others. She is the founder of Black Spot Books, a small press that aims to amplify women’s voices in horror, and a contributor to Rue Morgue, Booktrib, and LitReactor. Lindy is an active member of HWA, ITW, the Brothers Grimm Society of North America, and one of Publishers Weekly’s 2020 Star Watch Honorees. She previously served on the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) Board of Directors and is currently co-chair of the HWA Publishers Council. Her debut horror novel, Bless Your Heart, is forthcoming from Minotaur…

Women in Horror: Interview with L. Marie Wood

L Marie Wood is an award-winning dark fiction author, screenwriter, and poet with novels in the psychological horror, mystery, and dark romance genres. She won the Golden Stake Award for her novel The Promise Keeper. She is a recipient of the MICO Award and has won Best Horror, Best Action, Best Afrofuturism/Horror/Sci-Fi, and Best Short Screenplay awards in national and international film festivals. Wood, a Brand New Weird nominated author, has penned short fiction published in groundbreaking works, including the Bram Stoker Award Finalist anthology, Sycorax’s Daughters, and Slay: Stories of the Vampire Noire. She is also part of the…

Women in Horror: Interview with Stephanie M. Wytovich

Stephanie M. Wytovich is an award-winning poet, novelist, and essayist. She is the Poetry Editor for Raw Dog Screaming Press, and a recipient of the Elizabeth Matchett Stover Memorial Award, the 2021 Ladies of Horror Fiction Writers Grant, and the Rocky Wood Memorial Scholarship for nonfiction writing. Follow her at http://stephaniewytovich.blogspot.com/ and on Twitter and Instagram @SWytovich​ and @thehauntedbookshelf. You can also find her essays, nonfiction, and class offerings on LitReactor. What inspired you to start writing? I could answer this question a million different ways—and I have—but I think the simplest way to explain it is that I just…

Women in Horror: Interview with Alma Katsu

Alma Katsu has been writing novels since 2011. Her work has received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and Library Journal, been featured in the NY Times and Washington Post, and won awards in the U.S. and internationally. THE HUNGER (2018) is probably her best-known novel, was named one of NPR’s 100 favorite horror stories, was on numerous Best Books of the Year lists. She also writes spy novels, with RED LONDON being the latest in the series. almakatsubooks.com What inspired you to start writing? I was one of those introverted kids who always had her nose in a book and I…

Women in Horror: Interview with Premee Mohamed

Premee Mohamed is a Nebula, World Fantasy, and Aurora award-winning Indo-Caribbean scientist and speculative fiction author based in Edmonton, Alberta. She is an Assistant Editor of the short fiction audio podcast Escape Pod and the author of the Beneath the Rising series of novels as well as several novellas. Her short fiction has appeared in many venues and she can be found on Twitter at @premeesaurus and on her website at www.premeemohamed.com. What inspired you to start writing? I’ve always loved telling stories—I think that’s a very clichéd thing to say but it’s often true of writers. We like seeing…

Women in Horror: Interview with Lisa Kroger

Lisa Kröger is the author of Monster, She Wrote and Toil and Trouble: A Women’s History of the Occult, as well as co-host of the Know Fear and Monster, She Wrote podcasts. She’s won the Bram Stoker and the Locus Award for nonfiction. She sometimes uses her Ph.D. in Gothic literature to teach, but mostly she uses it to write horror, science fiction, and thrillers. She’s contributed fiction and nonfiction to numerous anthologies and essay collections.  Lisa is a core member of the NYX Horror Collective, a group focused on women-created genre content for film, television, and new media. With…

Beating a Dead Cliché: Women in Horror Month Series Intro by Meghan Arcuri

Meghan Arcuri is a Bram Stoker Award®-nominated author. Her work can be found in various anthologies, including Borderlands 7 (Borderlands Press), Madhouse (Dark Regions Press), Chiral Mad, and Chiral Mad 3 (Written Backwards). She is currently the Vice President of the Horror Writers Association. Prior to writing, she taught high school math, having earned her B.A. from Colgate University—with a double major in mathematics and English—and her masters from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She lives with her family in New York’s Hudson Valley. Please visit her at meghanarcuri.com, facebook.com/meg.arcuri, or on Twitter (@MeghanArcuri). Welcome to the HWA’s Women in Horror Month…

Black Heritage in Horror: Interview with Paula Ashe

Paula D. Ashe (she/her) is an author of dark fiction. Her debut collection — We Are Here to Hurt Each Other — was released in early ‘22 by Nictitating Books. She is a member of the Horror Writers Association and an Associate Editor for Vastarien: A Literary Journal. She lives in the Midwest (which is best) with her family. What inspired you to start writing? I’ve had the compulsion since childhood. I never wanted to do anything else. What was it about the horror genre that drew you to it? Since childhood I’ve been drawn to things that have a…

Black Heritage in Horror: Interview with Tamika Thompson

Tamika Thompson is a writer, producer, and journalist. She is author of speculative fiction collection, Unshod, Cackling, and Naked (Unnerving Books, 2023), which Publishers Weekly calls “powerful,” “unsettling,” and “terrifying,” as well as author of horror novella Salamander Justice (Madness Heart Press). Her work has appeared in several speculative fiction anthologies as well as in Interzone, Prairie Schooner, The New York Times, and Los Angeles Review of Books, among others. She has producing credits at Clear Channel Media and Entertainment, as well as at NBC and ABC News. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Columbia University…

Black Heritage in Horror: Interview with Tracy Cross

Tracy Cross’s work has been featured in several podcasts and mass market anthologies. Her first book, Rootwork, was published by Dark Hart Publishing in 2022. She lives in Washington, DC, and is an active member of the HWA. She loves disco and shares her latest exploits and information on my blog: tracycwritesonline.com. She is on instagram as tracycrosswrites and twitter as tracycwrites. What inspired you to start writing? Subconsciously, it was a lack of representation and a lack of finding the books I wanted. I grew up in the 80's and there were hardly any black writers, outside of academia.…

Black Heritage in Horror: Interview with Mo Moshaty

Mo Moshaty is an Afro-Latina screenwriter, author and producer. Raised within the clash of her mother's Yaqui heritage and her father's strict Southern Baptist upbringing, Mo's work contains worlds in which characters of color strive for identity, sentiment, and belonging within the dark psychological horror genre. Co-founder of the Nyx Horror Collective, she’s partnered with Stowe Story Labs to provide a fellowship for women genre writers over 40 and has also partnered with horror streaming giant, Shudder Channel, to co-produce the 13 Minutes of Horror Film Festival 2021 and 2022. Still engaging with her first love, short horror literature, her…

Black Heritage in Horror: Interview with Candace Nola

Candace Nola is an award-winning horror & dark fiction author. Her work includes Breach, Beyond the Breach (2021 novel of the year from the Horror Authors Guild), Hank Flynn, Bishop, and Earth vs The Lava Spiders. She curated and edited The Baker’s Dozen, the Splatterpunk award-winning, extreme horror anthology, in Dec. 2021. She has various poems and short stories published in several magazines and anthologies with more set to release in the next year. She owns and operates the horror website UncomfortablyDark.com which showcases her work and supports the indie horror community as a whole. The website features weekly author…

Black Heritage in Horror: Interview with Donyae Coles

Donyae Coles is a horror author who has been published in a variety of short fiction venues. She devotes her free time to her other great love, art. Her debut, Midnight Rooms, is forthcoming from Amistad. You can find more of her work on her website, www.donyaecoles.com and follow her on Twitter @okokno. What inspired you to start writing? Writing was always something that I’ve wanted to do, that have been doing, for a long time. Forever, maybe. There’s no moment outside of me where it was like, oh, I can do that? It’s always been, I wanna tell stories…

Black Heritage in Horror: Interview with Ashon Ruffins

Ashon Ruffins is a native New Orleanian and a military Veteran. He earned a Master’s Degree in Business Administration, while also holding certifications for several other pro-fessions. He loves the art of storytelling in all genres and believes the best lessons in life can be told through fiction. Descent of a Broken Man is his debut novel. Ashon is also a huge mental health advocate. Ashon is married and the father of two beautiful children. He also has a passion for the culinary arts. He has to go now—his kids are waiting for him to cook. Social Media: Twitter: @lifethrufiction…

Black Heritage in Horror: Interview with KC Loesener

I’m KC Loesener, author of The Eve of Darkness and several horror short stories. Proud introvert, bird lover, and a huge horror fan. On Youtube and Instagram, I am @kcfinalgirl, a horror content creator and writing coach, teaching new writers to focus and write their manuscripts in four months via kcloesener.com Besides writing horror, I love a good ghost story. The paranormal, vampires, and werewolves exhilarate me. I love punk and grunge, and I desperately miss the 90s. Superhero movies and comics are a necessity. I enjoy creating complex characters that rise to discover themselves.   What inspired you to start…

Black Heritage in Horror: Interview with Tonia Ransom

Tonia Ransom is the creator and executive producer of NIGHTLIGHT, an award-winning horror podcast featuring creepy tales written by Black writers, and Afflicted, a horror thriller best described as Lovecraft Country meets True Blood. Tonia has been scaring people since the second grade, when she wrote her first story based on Michael Myers. She’s a World Fantasy Award Winner, and This is Horror Award runner-up. She lives in Austin, Texas. You can follow Tonia @missdefying on all the socials. Risen is her debut book. What inspired you to start writing? I honestly can’t remember exactly. At night, I used to…

Black Heritage in Horror: Interview with Nuzo Onoh

Nuzo Onoh is a Nigerian-British writer of Igbo descent. She is a pioneer of the African horror literary subgenre. Hailed as “the Queen of African Horror”, Nuzo’s writing showcases both the beautiful and horrific in the African culture within fictitious narratives. Nuzo’s works have featured in numerous magazines, podcasts, and anthologies, and she is listed in the reference book, “80 Black Women in Horror”. She has given talks and lectures about African Horror, including at the prestigious Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies, London. Her works have also appeared in academic and feminist studies such as “Routledge Handbook of African Literature”, “Horror…

Black Heritage in Horror: Interview with John Edward Lawson

While John Edward Lawson has been called “The forgotten black man of horror” he also regularly publishes science fiction, nonfiction, and literary fiction. His work has been nominated for the Dwarf Stars, Rhysling, Stoker, and Wonderland Awards in addition to the Pushcart Prize. For his work as an editor John received the 2018 HWA Specialty Press Award. He currently serves as President of the Horror Writers Association. What inspired you to start writing? Growing up in the 1970s with parents who had severe mental and physical illness I sort of had to raise myself while being their caretaker. We were…

Black Heritage in Horror: Interview with Micah Yongo

Micah is the author of two ancient Africa-inspired epic fantasy novels. His debut, Lost Gods, was shortlisted for a British Fantasy award, as well as Starburst Magazine’s inaugural Brave New Words award. Shaped by the West African folklore of his childhood, Yongo introduces readers to fresh mythic worlds on the way to examining ideas on religion, culture, and belonging. Manchester-born aside from a year living in the US Yongo has remained domiciled in the city of his birth, having worked as a journalist and content designer alongside his novel writing. His latest book, Pale Kings, is a continuation of the…

Black Heritage in Horror: Interview with Kirk A. Johnson

Born in Trinidad in 1971, he credits his love for Sword & Sorcery and Heroic Fantasy from watching old movies with his dad. The very first novel he read was The Hobbit at age 8, and is an avid fan of Conan the Barbarian Marvel comic series. In 2005, he began writing his own fantasy adventure short stories, and in 2014, he sold his first short story to MVmedia LLC for its first anthology Griots: A Sword and Soul Anthology. In 2022 he released The Obanaax and Other Tales of Heroes and Horrors. His very first collection of short stories…