William Joseph Martin, formerly Poppy Z. Brite, is an American author. He initially achieved fame in the gothic horror genre of literature in the early 1990s by publishing a string of successful novels and short story collections. He is best known for his novels Lost Souls (1992), Drawing Blood (1993), and Exquisite Corpse (1996). His later work moved into the genre of dark comedy, with many stories set in the New Orleans restaurant world. Martin's novels are typically standalone books but may feature recurring characters from previous novels and short stories. Much of his work features openly bisexual and gay characters.
Weird fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction originating in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Weird fiction either eschews or radically reinterprets traditional antagonists of supernatural horror fiction, such as ghosts, vampires, and werewolves. Writers on the subject of weird fiction, such as China Miéville, sometimes use "the tentacle" to represent this type of writing. The tentacle is a limb-type absent from most of the monsters of European folklore and gothic fiction, but often attached to the monstrous creatures created by weird fiction writers, such as William Hope Hodgson, M. R. James, Clark Ashton Smith, and H. P. Lovecraft.
Caitlín Rebekah Kiernan is an Irish-born American paleontologist and writer of science fiction and dark fantasy works, including 10 novels, series of comic books, and more than 250 published short stories, novellas, and vignettes. Kiernan is a two-time recipient of both the World Fantasy and Bram Stoker awards.
The Dreaming was a monthly comic series that ran for 60 issues and was revived in 2018. It is set in the same dimension of the DC universe as The Sandman and the stories occurred primarily within Dream's realm, The Dreaming, concentrating on characters who had played minor roles in The Sandman, including The Corinthian, Matthew the raven, Cain and Abel, Lucien the dream librarian, the faerie Nuala, Eve, and Mervyn Pumpkinhead. It also introduced a number of new characters, Echo and a new (white) dream raven, Tethys. After those characters were retconned the 2018 version of The Dreaming introduced new characters such as Hyperion Keeter, WAN, and the night hag, Dora. The 2020 spin-off / continuation, The Dreaming: Waking Hours introduced other new characters such as Linsy, Ruin, and most notably, Heather After, a direct descendant of Roderick Burgess. There were brief appearances by The Endless during the series, including cameos by Dream, Death, Destiny, and Desire.
Cemetery Dance Publications is an American specialty press publisher of horror and dark suspense. Cemetery Dance was founded by Richard Chizmar, a horror author, while he was in college. It is associated with Cemetery Dance magazine, which was founded in 1988. They began to publish books in 1992. They later expanded to encompass a magazine and website featuring news, interviews, and reviews related to horror literature.
Tales of Pain and Wonder is Caitlín R. Kiernan's first short story collection. The stories are interconnected to varying degrees, and a number of Kiernan's characters reappear throughout the book, particularly Jimmy DeSade and Salmagundi Desvernine. The stories run the gamut from dark fantasy to ghost stories and supernatural horror fiction to noir fiction. A number of the stories have a decidedly H. P. Lovecraftian flavor and the influence of Charles Fort, as does much of Kiernan's fiction published since Tales of Pain and Wonder. The stories are also united by a theme of cultural decay and loss of meaning in 20th-century society, as expressed by the collection's epilogue, Kiernan's only published poem, "Zelda Fitzgerald in Ballet Attire." Originally published in 2000 as an expensive limited-edition hardback by Gauntlet Publishing, it was reissued in trade paperback format in 2002 by Meisha Merlin Publishing. In 2008, Subterranean Press re-issued the book again, in a limited edition hardcover, with a new author's introduction and two new stories, "Mercury" and "Salammbô Redux", and omitting the story "Angels You Can See Through". All three editions include artwork by Canadian illustrator Richard A. Kirk, as well as an introduction by anthologist/novelist Douglas E. Winter and an afterword by novelist Peter Straub.
Candles for Elizabeth (ISBN 0-9658345-8-1) is fantasist Caitlin R. Kiernan's first chapbook, released in 1998 by Meisha Merlin Publishing, shortly before the release of Kiernan's debut novel, Silk. It includes an introduction by Poppy Z. Brite. The contents of this chapbook were later incorporated into Kiernan's first short-story collection, Tales of Pain and Wonder. The author provided afterwords for each story, discussing their inspiration. According to an interview conducted by Jessa Crispin, the title is a reference to the suicide of Kiernan's close friend, Elizabeth Tillman Aldridge, in 1995. Kiernan's Alabaster, written in 2006, is dedicated to Aldridge as well. These stories were later included in Kiernan's first short-fiction collection, Tales of Pain and Wonder.
From Weird and Distant Shores is fantasist Caitlin R. Kiernan's second solo short-story collection, released by Subterranean Press in 2002. As with her first collection, Tales of Pain and Wonder, interior illustrations were supplied by Canadian artist Richard A. Kirk. The book includes thirteen stories, including a collaboration with Poppy Z. Brite and another with Christa Faust. As Kiernan explains in the collection's introduction, most of these stories were originally written for "'shared world' and 'theme' anthologies," books wherein the authors have been asked to write stories set in the worlds of other authors or stories pertaining to some particular subject, respectively. The collection is notable in that includes Kiernan's earliest published short story, "Persephone." Kiernan provides an afterword for each story.
To Charles Fort, With Love is a short story collection by American fantasist Caitlin R. Kiernan, published by Subterranean Press in 2005. As the author explains in the preface, many of these stories were inspired by the writings of Charles Fort (1874-1932), and many of them have a Lovecraftian flavor. Two of the stories have received the International Horror Guild Award: "Onion" and "La Peau Verte". Also, "La Peau Verte" and the collection as a whole were both nominated for the World Fantasy Award (2005). As with Kiernan's earlier short-story collections, the book is illustrated by Canadian artist Richard A. Kirk, and the cover art is provided by Ryan Obermeyer. An afterword, "A Certain Inexplicability," was provided by Ramsey Campbell.
Subterranean Press is a small press publisher in Burton, Michigan. Subterranean is best known for publishing genre fiction, primarily horror, suspense and dark mystery, fantasy, and science fiction. In addition to publishing novels, short story collections and chapbooks, Subterranean also produced a quarterly publication called Subterranean Magazine from 2005 to 2014, specialising in short fiction and edited by William Schafer; it had also an online direct seller. In addition to trade editions, the company produces collector's and limited editions. These books are issued with author signatures, in both numbered and lettered states, and are produced using high-grade book papers and bindings with matching slipcases and traycases.
A Cthulhu Mythos anthology is a type of short story collection that contains stories written in, or related to, the Cthulhu Mythos genre of horror fiction launched by H. P. Lovecraft. Such anthologies have helped to define and popularize the genre.
Wormwood, originally published as Swamp Foetus, is a collection of short stories by American horror fiction author Poppy Z. Brite. It was first published by Borderlands Press, a small-press publisher of horror fiction, in 1993. It was reprinted by Penguin Books in 1995, and reprinted and retitled in 1996 by Dell Publishing.
Mojo Press was a small press which primarily published science fiction, horror, and western books and graphic novels between 1994 and 1999.
Book of the Dead is an anthology of horror stories first published in 1989, edited by John Skipp and Craig Spector and featuring a foreword written by George A. Romero. All the stories in the anthology are united by the same premise seen in Romero's apocalyptic films, depicting a worldwide outbreak of zombies and various reactions to it. The first book was followed three years later by a follow-up, Still Dead: Book of the Dead 2, with a new group of writers tackling the same premise, though the second book put the stories in order according to their imagined chronology of the zombie takeover.
Are You Loathsome Tonight? is a collection of short stories by American author Poppy Z. Brite, published in 1998 by Gauntlet Press. The title is a play on the song "Are You Lonesome Tonight?," made famous by Elvis Presley, and a reference to the inner groove etching of the 1986 single "Ask" by The Smiths.
Brimstone Press was an Australian independent publisher of dark fiction. Brimstone Press was established in 2004 by Shane Jiraiya Cummings and was based in Western Australia.
October Dreams is an anthology of Halloween-themed memories and short stories edited by Richard Chizmar and Robert Morrish. Jack Ketchum's "Gone" was nominated for the 2000 Bram Stoker Award for Best Short Fiction.
Caitlín R. Kiernan is the author of many science fiction and dark fantasy works, including fourteen novels, many comic books, and more than three hundred published short stories, novellas, and vignettes collected into twenty collections. They have also written numerous scientific papers.
The Ammonite Violin & Others is Caitlin R. Kiernan's sixth short story collection. The twenty stories included first appeared in issues 1-23 of Sirenia Digest, Kiernan's monthly digest of weird and dark fiction. It was published by Subterranean Press in July, 2010. The cover features an illustration by Richard A. Kirk, who has provided artwork for several of Kiernan's other collections. Jeff VanderMeer wrote the introduction. The collection was nominated for both the World Fantasy Award and Shirley Jackson Award, and appeared on the cover of Publishers Weekly.
American Fantastic Tales is a set of two reprint horror anthologies, released as American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from Poe to the Pulps and American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from the 1940s to Now. Both anthologies were edited by Peter Straub. They were published by Library of America in 2009. The anthologies contain horror stories by American authors from the 18th century to modern times, split at 1940. The anthology pair itself won the 2010 World Fantasy Award—Anthology. The pair were also released as a boxed set in 2009.
