The Horror Writers Association Announces Horror University 2025

  The HWA is pleased to announce this year's course lineup for StokerCon 2025. Course Pricing: $55 per course (to register see Eventbrite for details). Michael Arnzen: The Uncanny and the Abject This two-hour online workshop will involve short writing activities that will allow you to explore and practice the different techniques writers summon when triggering revulsion or conjuring dread. Amityville-born horror writer Michael Arnzen holds four Bram Stoker Awards and an International Horror Guild Award for his often funny, always disturbing fiction and poetry. In addition to his creative books -- like the novel, Grave Markings, or the short story collection, Proverbs for Monsters--he's…

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 Winter 2024 Horror University Online Session

The Horror Writers Association is pleased to announce our Winter 2024 Horror University Online session! From January 22 to April 8, 2024, Horror University will present ten live workshops and a special presentation for horror writers everywhere interested in refining their writing, learning new skills and techniques, exploring new writing formats, or better understanding the genre. Full descriptions and registration information are available in the Horror University School on Teachable. REGISTRATION IS OPEN NOW!

HWA Election Results 2022

HWA Election Results 2022 Los Angeles CA September 22, 2022 The Horror Writers Association (HWA) held its annual election in September. We had an unprecedented number of candidates for the three open positions of Trustee. Offices of President and Secretary ran unopposed. Our members have voted, and we are pleased to share the results. Please welcome our new president, John Edward Lawson; the re-election of our Secretary, Becky Spratford; and the re-election of our three Trustees: Linda Addison, James Chambers, and Ellen Datlow.   The elected officers shall hold their respective offices for terms of two years, beginning on October 31st at midnight. …

HWA 2022 Elections

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The HWA’s annual elections will soon be upon us. 

Up this year are three 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 September 7, 2022 to our Active and Lifetime members, with a due date of September 16, 2022. 

The elected officers shall hold their respective offices for terms of two years, beginning on November 1 and ending on October 31.

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Four-Color Frights by James Chambers

Happy Halloween Haunts! Today's blog comes from 2016... Every Halloween I follow certain traditions. A handful of movies I dig out to watch, some music I like to play, favorite candies to pick up at the store. But my favorite is diving into some classic horror comics. There’s nothing quite like the experience of reading a well-written, beautifully drawn, scary story. And my favorites and perennial Halloween reads are EC Comics. There’s something special to those creepy, old tales from the 50s that makes them resonate as much today as they ever have, something beyond their tightly plotted stories and stunning…

“In Loving Memory: Morbid Anatomy Museum” By James Chambers

This year marks the Horror Writers Association New York chapter’s first Halloween without the Morbid Anatomy Museum since we reformed a few years ago—and the dark country of October feels emptier without it. Located in Gowanus in Brooklyn, the Museum and its board welcomed the HWA and its members for numerous readings, book launches, and other events almost from the day it opened its doors. Thanks to the incredible enthusiasm and generosity of HWA member Tonya Hurley, a Museum founder, Morbid Anatomy provided an early and vital focal point for our chapter. Those who ventured inside the Museum found a…
Halloween Haunts: Four-Color Frights by James Chambers

Halloween Haunts: Four-Color Frights by James Chambers

Every Halloween I follow certain traditions. A handful of movies I dig out to watch, some music I like to play, favorite candies to pick up at the store. But my favorite is diving into some classic horror comics. There’s nothing quite like the experience of reading a well-written, beautifully drawn, scary story. And my favorites and perennial Halloween reads are EC Comics. There’s something special to those creepy, old tales from the 50s that makes them resonate as much today as they ever have, something beyond their tightly plotted stories and stunning illustrations, something vital and fundamental to the entire…
Halloween Haunts: Bloody Mary by James Chambers

Halloween Haunts: Bloody Mary by James Chambers

As far as I know, no student ever saw inside the room with the yellow, rippled glass window. The only one on the second floor of St. James School not part of a classroom row, the window glared down like an angry eye at the parking lot where we played every day during recess. I never found the room it belonged to before I left there for another school, because where it fell between classrooms, no door or other feature existed to explain it. That alone inspired plenty of speculation amongst my third grade class, but the faded red stains…
Halloween Haunts: Sweets in the Darkness by James Chambers

Halloween Haunts: Sweets in the Darkness by James Chambers

Around this time of year, an image of Halloween comes to my mind. It’s a Halloween that never quite occurred and likely never will. It lives in my imagination, defined by oblong shadows stretching beneath Bradburyesque October skies, cast by comic book haunted houses stacked with impossible, Gothic architecture, cobwebbed porches, and ominous, arched windows. Children disguised in costumes worthy of a Hammer horror film—or at least a Corman sci-fi flick—rush along leaf-blown streets, clutching candy-swollen sacks. The chilly breeze lifts their voices, crackling with excitement. Hearts enflamed with celebration, they rush freely through the gloom. Jack-o-lanterns outnumber street lamps.…

Halloween Haunts: Tricks, Treats, and Chainsaws by James Chambers

I’m certain I’m not the only horror writer who’s ever wondered what they would do if they found themselves in the real-life equivalent of a chainsaw slasher flick. I’d venture, in fact, that this is something horror writers spend far more time considering than the average non-horror writer. We probably spend slightly more time thinking about this than figuring out our survival plan for a zombie apocalypse but not quite as much time as we spend imagining what we’d do if we were vampires. However, I think it’s also safe to say not many horror writers ever get to learn…

The Dead Have the Best Candy

by James Chambers To be honest, I can’t say for certain whether or not the dead have the best candy. But, I know they can arrange for some nasty Halloween tricks. I learned that when I was five. That Halloween, I went as Superman in a single-piece costume that slipped on over my clothes and a cape that tied around my neck. I wore that costume on a regular basis for most of the year after that Halloween, until it wore down to threads in places, because I preferred being Superman to an ordinary first grader and wearing it kept…