A New Generation of Horror Writers

July 12, 2023 5:39 AM

"We’re living in scary times. The world hasn’t felt this unsafe and uncertain for at least a generation. Common sense would dictate that in such circumstances, horror stories should fall out of favor. After all, who wants to read about monstrous things when the real world is showing its teeth?" But for those who do, here's Neil McRobert in Esquire: These Are the Writers Shaping Horror's Next Golden Age. May your TBR pile grow ever more Cyclopean.
posted by mittens (15 comments total)

[ bangs on desk ] Where is Premee Mohammed!!!!
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:42 AM on July 12, 2023 [3 favorites]

I'll mention as a quick editorial note--and not to thread-sit--that I found the article's assertion that "The 'horror boom' of the ‘80s and early ‘90s was overwhelmingly pale and male," let alone straight, to be a little...ah...historically inaccurate. But it was a nice introduction to new writers!
posted by mittens at 5:50 AM on July 12, 2023 [2 favorites]

I'm surprised at the lack of Thomas Ligotti in the opening history. Harrumph.
posted by doctornemo at 6:10 AM on July 12, 2023 [2 favorites]

Agreed on the goodness of Cassandra Khaw, V. Castro, Eric LaRocca, Gemma Amor.

Thank you for the pointers to other, new horror writers.
posted by doctornemo at 6:14 AM on July 12, 2023

Yeah, many of the big names in the 90s were women, mostly not straight, and that was a central part of their work. Still, it’s good to see new suggestions and new names.

I’m a little annoyed that Esquire equates “success” with major publishers. Horror’s home is the small press and the short story. It periodically breaks out into the mainstream, but it’s nurtured in the cracks, and most authors know this and cherish those cracks. A side effect of the importance of the short story is the vital work of editors, who never get credit in articles like this for their work in helping new authors find their voices and their place.
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:15 AM on July 12, 2023 [13 favorites]

This is a solid list to which I would add Zoey Stage. Baby Teeth is stunning. I'm looking forward to getting to read her new one, Mothered.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:18 AM on July 12, 2023 [2 favorites]

Typo correction: Zoje Stage.
posted by seanmpuckett at 7:25 AM on July 12, 2023 [1 favorite]

Thank you. Autocorrect is forever our enemy.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:33 AM on July 12, 2023 [1 favorite]

Anybody remember Dell's abyss line of books? That was a supurb collection of horror. Discovering the early works of Kathe Koja in my twenties = wow. I thought I had found the female version of Kafka.
posted by hoodrich at 8:10 AM on July 12, 2023 [2 favorites]

Oh, I owned so many Dell/Abyss paperbacks! Kathe Koja, Brian Hodge, and of course Billy Martin (once known as Poppy Z Brite)!

I was a horror fiction reader since my early teens, so I read A LOT of horror fiction. I also wanted to be a horror writer for years and years, but that's water under the bridge. Up until 2010, I bought every edition of the Stephen Jones-edited Best New Horror. I really have dropped off in the last decade because I was just bored with what was coming out. Thanks to an AskMe I posted last year, there's some good stuff I will check out, but I don't think horror will ever be the anchor it used to be in my preferred reading.
posted by Kitteh at 8:29 AM on July 12, 2023 [4 favorites]

Hoodrich, that was exactly where my mind went when I was griping in the comment above. The Abyss line was some crazy, mind-bending stuff!
posted by mittens at 8:29 AM on July 12, 2023 [1 favorite]

I am apparently Terminally Online enough that most of the new horror authors I hear about are people 'round the campfire at the Midnight Society.

Also, if you have not yet discovered Cassandra Khaw's delightful shapeshifter romance Bearly a Lady, I recommend it, despite the lack of gruesome deaths. Still some light body horror, though, so there's that.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 10:19 AM on July 12, 2023

Hari Kunzru? WHITE TEARS is basically the creepiest thing I've read in the past decade.

Victor LaValle?? THE CHANGELING is one long oooOOeeEEEoooooEEEE the entire time.
posted by MiraK at 10:46 AM on July 12, 2023 [2 favorites]

Oh yes, a bunch of Abyss at home.

("The Abyss" is also what we called our dorm rooms, back in the day.)
posted by doctornemo at 1:13 PM on July 12, 2023 [1 favorite]

Victor LaValle?? THE CHANGELING is one long oooOOeeEEEoooooEEEE the entire time.

And it's coming to TV!
posted by mittens at 1:52 PM on July 12, 2023 [1 favorite]