Announcing Screams From the Dark
Screams From the Dark: Tales of Monsters and the Monstrous, a thrilling anthology featuring all-original tales of monsters from bestselling and award-winning authors and edited by Ellen Datlow, will be published by Nightfire in June 2022!
From werewolves and vampires, to demons and aliens, the monster is one of the most recognizable figures in horror. But what makes something, or someone, monstrous?
In Screams From the Dark, authors attempt to answer this question, with stories running the gamut from traditional to modern, from mainstream to literary, from explorations of familiar monsters to the unknown and unimaginable. This bone-chilling collection has something to please—and spook—everyone, so lock your doors, turn off your lights, and try not to scream.
Contributors to Screams From the Dark include:
- Priya Sharma (Shirley Jackson Award-winning author of Ormeshadow)
- Indrapramit Das (Lambda & Shirley Jackson Award-winning author of The Devourers)
- Ian Rogers (award-winning author of Every House is Haunted)
- Garry Kilworth (World Fantasy Award-winning co-author of The Ragthorn)
- Joe R. Lansdale (Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Bottoms and Moon Lake)
- Glen Hirshberg (Shirley Jackson Award-winning author of Nothing to Devour)
- Stephen Graham Jones (Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Mapping the Interior and New York Times bestseller The Only Good Indians)
- Carole Johnstone (British Fantasy Award-winning author of Mirrorland)
- Laird Barron (multi-award-winning author of The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All)
- Nathan Ballingrud (multi-award-winning author of Wounds)
- John Langan (Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Fisherman)
- Siobhan Carroll (Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy Award finalist)
- A.C. Wise (Nebula, Lambda, Ignyte & Aurora Award finalist)
- Daryl Gregory (World Fantasy Award-winning author of Spoonbenders)
- Caitlín R. Kiernan (World Fantasy and Bram Stoker Award-winning author)
- Brian Evenson (multi-award-winning author of Song for the Unraveling of the World)
- Margo Lanagan (World Fantasy Award-winning author)
- Richard Kadrey (New York Times bestselling author of the Sandman Slim series)
- Fran Wilde (multi-award-winning author of Updraft)
- Brian Hodge (winner of the International Horror Guild Award and author of The Convulsion Factory)
- Joyce Carol Oates (multi-award-winning and bestselling author of Zombie, Blonde, and Night Gaunts and Other Tales of Suspense)
- Jeffrey Ford (multi-award-winning author of Ahab’s Return and Big Dark Hole: and Other Stories)
- Kaaron Warren (multi-award-winning author of The Grief Hole and Into Bones Like Oil)
- Cassandra Khaw (multi-award-winning author of Nothing But Blackened Teeth)
- Kristi DeMeester, author of Such a Pretty Smile and Beneath
- John Langan, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Fisherman and Children of the Fang
Here’s what Ellen Datlow has to say:
“I’ve edited a lot of theme horror anthologies. One of the most important issues for me in choosing a theme is to urge, encourage, and enable my contributors to push that theme to the limits. My rule of thumb is that if I love a submission and can justify it fitting the theme to myself, I’ll take the story.
I’ve previously edited an all-reprint anthology on the theme of monsters (The Monstrous) and that gave me a taste for monster stories. So when Nightfire asked me for a big, juicy book of all new stories on the theme, I was excited to fulfill my mission.
So this is how I solicited stories: ‘Monsters. I want monsters. They can be human or not. They can be classic monsters or new, contemporary ones. But I don’t want them to be cheesy. I want my skin to crawl.’ I believe the contributors took my request to heart. This is a BIG book of monsters—some of the worst might be human. I’m delighted with the results and I hope you will be, too.”
And from Kristin Temple, associate editor at Nightfire:
“I’m so thrilled to be working with Ellen and this incredible lineup of authors! I’ve always been fascinated with monsters; there are so many different kinds—human or inhuman, real or imagined, recognizable or unknowable. What’s so fun about this project is that each author got to decide what exactly makes something monstrous. As you can imagine, everyone had a different, bone-chilling interpretation. I can’t wait for horror fans to get their hands on these stories!”
ELLEN DATLOW has been editing science fiction, fantasy, and horror short fiction for forty years as fiction editor of OMNI Magazine and editor of Event Horizon and SCIFICTION. She currently acquires short stories and novellas for Tor.com. In addition, she has edited about one hundred science fiction, fantasy, and horror anthologies, including the annual The Best Horror of the Year series, The Doll Collection, Mad Hatters and March Hares, The Devil and the Deep: Horror Stories of the Sea, Echoes: The Saga Anthology of Ghost Stories, Final Cuts: New Tales of Hollywood Horror and Other Spectacles, Body Shocks: Extreme Tales of Body Horror, and When Things Get Dark: Stories Inspired by Shirley Jackson.
She’s won multiple World Fantasy Awards, Locus Awards, Hugo Awards, Bram Stoker Awards, International Horror Guild Awards, Shirley Jackson Awards, and the 2012 Il Posto Nero Black Spot Award for Excellence as Best Foreign Editor. Datlow was named recipient of the 2007 Karl Edward Wagner Award, given at the British Fantasy Convention for “outstanding contribution to the genre,” was honored with the Life Achievement Award by the Horror Writers Association, in acknowledgment of superior achievement over an entire career, and honored with the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award at the 2014 World Fantasy Convention.
She lives in New York and co-hosts the monthly Fantastic Fiction Reading Series at KGB Bar. More information can be found at www.datlow.com, on Facebook, and on Twitter as @EllenDatlow. She’s owned by two cats.
Screams From the Dark will hit shelves in June 2022!
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