In celebration of Women in Horror Month, I'm passing along The Top 25 Women Horror Writers You Haven't Heard of But Probably Should Have, by Hellnotes that M.B. Partlow told me about, and adding one book by each of these women to the Best Horror list I'm doing, wherein I read a book that has been claimed to be one of the best and do a review every other Friday.
Now, technically WIHM is all about supporting females in horror films, but I'm choosing to see it as supporting all women involved in horror, be it film, writing, or other visual arts. After all, there are those who still don't take women in horror seriously. We don't know about blood and horror? Have you BEEN in a delivery room? How do girls know they've become women? Blood, that's how. We've got it down pat.
And, as addressed in my Psycho Horror Lovers Unite post, most of the horror fans I know are female. Comments on the post bore this out, as well. If that's so, shouldn't there be more women writing horror or producing/directing/writing horror films?
In all fairness, there are already books by women on the best horror list I'm reading. In fact, I've read the Kathe Koja book mentioned in the Hellnotes list and even done my review on it already. It wasn't really my cup of tea, but neither were a couple of the other books, whether by men or women. The women from this list who are already featured in the best horror lists I'm reading through are Caitlin R. Kiernan, Tananarive Due, and Kathe Koja. That leaves 22 women for me to read in addition to the rest of the list.
Have you read books by any of these 25 women? Did you know about WIHM? Do you think women are seen as scary as much as men are?
May you find your Muse.
24 comments:
It's unfortunate for people to not take women seriously in Horror. I guess if you only ever read Dean Koontz and Stephen King, then you could have missed the brilliance of Caitlin Kiernan. But if you love Horror, then how could you have missed Jennifer Kent's Babadook last year? Women have been integral to Horror film for my entire lifetime, between Carrie, Survivor Girls and the Alien Queen.
As far as whether men or women are scarier - it depends on the person. I've met some horrifying human beings of both popular genders.
I don't read much horror but like the science fiction genre, women writers are still fighting the battle to recognized. Many female scifi writers only use their initials to 'cloak' themselves.
I don't read a lot of horror, but I think women can be just as scary as men. Wait, that came out wrong...
I've never heard of this before either. Love it. I have to make a note to remember this for next February.
I'm definitely going to check out that Top 25 list. Thanks for sharing the info!
I didn't know February was Women in Horror Month. This reminds me that I need to read more horror books written by women! Thanks for the list!
Crazy that in this day and age people still count women out of certain things. I've not heard of any of those 25 authors (sadly), but I do love Shirley Jackson.
I'm not sure I've read much horror and certainly none of the authors on this list. And like the title of the article says I haven't even heard of these authors. I didn't even know February was "Women in Horror Month". Here I thought it was Black History Month. Oh, and a regional Mexican restaurant chain has been advertising that it's National Margarita Month, but I'm pretty sure they say that every month.
Arlee Bird
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Tossing It Out
I had not heard of any of these authors, but some of the books look good. I like horror. Thanks for sharing.
Me neither. Never heard of them. Learned another new thing this morning.
Mehitobel Wilson sounds really good!
Wow, what a great list of awesome women horror writers. I haven't read any of them, but I will soon!
Gah! Babadook is driving me nuts. It didn't come out in theaters around here, I haven't found it in Redbox, and Netflix hasn't gotten it. I think I just have to buy it to see it. Which is fine since it supports those involved.
Absolutely. This is why they did those anthologies with Kickstarters, Women Destroy Horror and Women Destroy Science Fiction. I don't know if they did others. Fantasy?
Haha, it all depends.
Yes! Let's make it grow! Or is that spawn?
Let me know if you read anything really good from it!
Woo-hoo! I do think there are a lot of women in UF, though I don't know comparison numbers, but it makes me wonder why. The romance angle?
I went and looked it up for fun and it's a lot of things month, including American Heart Month: http://familycrafts.about.com/od/holidays/a/FebruaryMonth.htm
I hope you find something good from it. Let me know if there end up being any you recommend!
I'm always looking for new authors, male or female, but it's good to support women in horror.
Shirley Jackson is great! There's a popular book of hers I haven't read yet, but need to. Can't remember the title off the top of my head.
How can you go wrong when Fangoria recommends her?
Enjoy! And let me know if you find any you really like!
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