February is officially Women in Horror Month, and while it began with a focus on women in the horror film industry—including actresses, writers, directors, and others working behind the scenes— our goal is to expand this focus to include female horror authors. There are so many women writing horror, some famous but many who are not well-known. Their work is not published and pushed by the major publishing houses; most female authors are published by small houses and in some instances, they self-publish (hooray for the internet!). And yet, time and again, “Best of” lists continue to be made up of male writers. Are the women any less worthy? Is their work not as good as their male counterparts? Hell no! We don’t know why female horror authors, for the most part, are overlooked, but we hope to remedy that. So, here at Monster Librarian, we are going to make an active effort to promote women in horror not just by occasionally publishing interviews, but by compiling an index of published women horror writers from Ann Radcliffe to the present. It’s an ambitious project, but there is no resource that really addresses this topic: in her Reader’s Advisory Guide to Horror Fiction, Becky Siegel Spratford was able to spotlight only five women writers, although I know she would have liked to include more. Colleen Wanglund and I are going to be spearheading this project, which we’re calling “Shelley’s Daughters”, If there are people who would like to contribute, you can contact me at our general email address, monsterlibrarian@monsterlibrarian.com, or at kirsten.kowalewski@monsterlibrarian.com. And now, some words from one of my favorite women in horror, and partner in crime (or at least in promoting women writers of horror), Colleen Wanglund.
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Women in Horror Month
by Colleen Wanglund
I am a woman in horror; I am one of Shelley’s Daughters, and I am proud to be able to say that.
I was exposed to horror at an early age, both books and movies, thanks to my parents. When I was in high school I wanted to be a writer, but life got in the way and I got sidetracked. At the age of 39, I was asked to write a book review as a favor for a friend of mine. The book was Vicious Verses and Reanimated Rhymes: Zany Zombie Poetry for the Undead Head (2009 Coscom Entertainment). That began my journey back to being a writer. And I cannot thank that friend enough as he has also become a sort of mentor. For years I’ve written book reviews, eventually branching out into film reviews, and the genre I’ve always written about is horror. I have dabbled in fiction here and there, but only recently have I begun to seriously write horror fiction. I won a horror fiction contest for unpublished writers with my short story “Slugs”, I’ve recently sold a short story titled “The Mad Monk of St. Augustine’s” to an upcoming anthology, and I’m working hard on finishing up a novella based on Japanese Pinku (exploitation) films.
But why the love affair with horror? One answer is that I have many fears in this life and horror allows me to face some of those fears at a safe distance. I can put my fears and anxieties to paper as a sort of therapy. It has the potential to help me wrap my brain around some of the horrible atrocities committed by humans all over the world and throughout history. I also find horror to be the most “real” genre out there. Everyone suffers tragedy—in varying degrees, mind you—and horror can act as a catharsis for the feelings associated with those tragedies. We can relate, empathize, or sympathize to what is happening on the page (or on the screen).
As a society horror brings people together to face our collective fears, whether real or imagined. Serial killers, monsters, ghosts—they all represent something for everyone. And I’ve said before that I think women have a unique perspective to bring to the table when it comes to writing horror. We are more emotional and I believe that translates well to the development of characters and the situations they may find themselves in. We live our own horrors in childbirth, letting our children out into the real world, love and loss. We are viewed as the weaker sex, depicted as needing saving, yet at the same time we are expected to be strong for the people around us—our children and loved ones. We are the caregivers and that doesn’t stop because the apocalypse is upon us.
I would like to eventually see Women in Horror Month become unnecessary, but for now it’s needed. All too often women are being overlooked in a genre they—we—love, and that’s just wrong. I think my main objective is to get the reader to see that gender shouldn’t matter in writing horror stories. What should matter is the story itself.
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Stay tuned and see what we come up with next to promote “Shelley’s Daughters”, and the women of horror fiction!
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