Becky Spratford

Monika Kim is a second-generation Korean American living in Los Angeles’s Koreatown. She learned about eating fish eyes from her mother, who immigrated to LA from Seoul in 1985. The Eyes Are the Best Part is her first novel.

S.A. Barnes is the author of Dead Silence and the forthcoming Ghost Station. She works in a high school library by day, recommending reads, talking with students, and removing the occasional forgotten cheese stick used as a bookmark.

From intensely unsettling to heartbreakingly beautiful moments, the best horror novels of 2023 offer fresh spins on terrifying tropes.

Jenny Kiefer is a Kentuckian and an avid rock climber. Together with her mother, she is the owner and manager of Butcher Cabin Books, an all-horror bookstore. Her work has been featured in Pseudopod, Cosmic Horror Monthly, Fantasy & Science Fiction, and Howls from the Dark Ages. This Wretched Valley is her debut novel.

Cassandra Khaw is the USA Today best-selling author of Nothing but Blackened Teeth. Their first original novella, Hammers on Bone, was a British Fantasy Award and Locus Award finalist. Khaw is also an award-winning game writer and has published work in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Lightspeed, and Tor.com. They talk with LJ about myths, fear, video games, and language.

The horror genre keeps growing, and its tendrils touch every subgenre and theme. LJ's preview looks at the titles and trends of the upcoming season.

The multi-award-winning author of The Beast You Are: Stories tells LJ of his love for the short story format and why he thinks “write what you know” is “terrible writing advice.”

Australian author Kaaron Warren talks to LJ about her youthful bibliomania, how the horror genre chose her, and an ancient fish sauce that inspired her new novel, Bitters. 

Cynthia “Cina” Pelayo is an International Latino Book Award–winning and three-time Bram Stoker Awards–nominated poet and author. She talks with LJ about her writing process, writing history, and the horror genre.