Critic Darryl Jones on the history and appeal of a disreputable genre
The Irish critic writes that horror, like all avant-garde art, operates at the extremes and tests its recipients’ tolerance levels.
Stephen Graham Jones’s self-aware metafictional slasher The Last Final Girl
The American novelist’s violent, cheeky 2012 book displays a true fan’s knowledge of, and enthusiasm for, the cinematic subgenre.
The mystery behind the death of Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe died on October 7, 1849 under conspicuously mysterious circumstances. A Buzzfeed mini-documentary speculates on what might have happened to him.
“What did he have to report?”: “Paranoia” by Shirley Jackson
Jackson’s story of the commute from hell is one of her most nerve-shattering, Kafkaesque tales.
“I was thinking about my neighbours”: Shirley Jackson on her literary inspiration
Shirley Jackson on the inspiration for her classic 1948 chiller, “The Lottery.”
The automaton cometh: “The Sandman” by E.T.A. Hoffmann; Ritchie Robertson, trans.
The Prussian author’s 1816 tale is an early 19th century progenitor of the modern horror story.
Novels by Carl Hiaasen and John le Carré take different approaches to our current political moment
Fictionalizing the geopolitics of the past four years throws up challenges for novelists in how to treat a reality that is often stranger than fiction.
Grady Hendrix recalls popular horror’s heyday in Paperbacks from Hell
Grady Hendrix’s Paperbacks from Hell is a nostalgic tour through 1970’s and ’80s horror fiction.
On June 4, 1972, Angela Davis was acquitted of kidnapping and murder. Her trial still resonates
A volume of essays by and about the radical Black thinker Angela Davis deals with her time in U.S. prison and has disturbing relevance today.
31 Days of Stories 2020, Day 31: “Home” by Langston Hughes
First published in 1934, Langston Hughes's story throws a spotlight on racial violence that continues in America today.