Some members of the literary community always seem to express surprise and disbelief when they see women writing horror and speculative fiction books—and winning awards for them. Aren’t these genres predominantly the purview of men? Well, not really. Women have been there from the very beginning, and a compelling argument can even be made that these genres couldn’t exist without them. Scholars Lisa Kröger and Melanie R. Anderson do just that in Monster, She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror & Speculative Fiction. This exhaustive guide explores over one hundred female authors from the earliest days of speculative fiction to the present day. The book comes out tomorrow, September 17, and you do not want to miss it! Continue reading Review of Monster, She Wrote—A Comprehensive Compendium of Female Authors
Tag: authors
It’s in the Blood: Family Legacies in Gothic Authorship
Lots of things can be passed down through the family. Maybe you’ve inherited your grandmother’s eyes, your aunt’s madness, or the fatal curse that has plagued your family’s male line for generations. But what about inheriting an affinity for writing Gothic literature? As I research deeper and deeper into the genre, I’ve noticed a few family names that recur throughout different eras. Many of the authors that we love best today built on the legacy of their ancestors, or else passed their love of the genre down to their progeny. Here are a few examples of Gothic authors who kept their literary legacy in the family: Continue reading It’s in the Blood: Family Legacies in Gothic Authorship
African-American Writers of Gothic Literature
February is Black History Month, which we observe in the U.S. by celebrating the lives and achievements of African-Americans throughout the country’s history. In this vein, I wanted to highlight some of the black writers—particularly female writers—who have made significant contributions to the Gothic genre. The Gothic is generally regarded as a Eurocentric genre, created by upper class Englishmen in their extravagant estates and adopted by those who wished to imitate them. But like any good genre, the Gothic is adaptive. Its elements have been co-opted by American writers of urban horror, such as Edgar Allan Poe, and transformed into the unique subgenre of Southern Gothic by the country’s more rural authors. It is no surprise, then, that the black literary community has embraced the Gothic as well, though usually in forms less immediately recognizable than your typical tales of women in nightgowns fleeing from monsters in a castle. Read on for a list of prominent black authors who have incorporated the Gothic into their works. Continue reading African-American Writers of Gothic Literature
Boston Teen Author Festival 2016
Last weekend, I ventured up to Boston to attend the Boston Teen Author Festival for the very first time. Young Adult literature is one of my passions, so I was excited to attend an entire book event dedicated to these authors. But what really motivated me to make the four-and-a-half hour trek was the opportunity to meet the author of the first vampire novel I ever read (and thus the author responsible for changing the course of my literary life)—Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. I was also excited to see a couple of authors that I met last summer at the Brooklyn Book Festival and to discover new authors whose books I might like.
Irish Writers of Gothic Literature
St. Patrick’s Day is this week, and that means it’s time to celebrate all things Irish—like me! But your favorite gothic librarian aside, there are actually a whole bunch of Irish writers who have contributed significantly to the gothic genre. In fact, without Irish writers, we wouldn’t have Dracula, Carmilla, or Lestat. So you can thank the Irish for pretty much the entire vampire genre. Read on to find out more about how the Irish have impacted gothic literature!