Monster, She Wrote

Lisa and Melanie co-host the biweekly podcast Know Fear. Together they ve edited the academic titles Shirley Jackson: Influences and Confluences (2016) and Spectral Identities: Essays on Ghosting in Literature and Film (2013). Lisa Kroger s short fiction has appeared in Cemetery Dance magazine and the anthology Lost Highways: Dark Fictions from the Road (Crystal Lake Publishing, 2018). She s contributed to The Encyclopedia of the Vampire (Greenwood Press, 2010), and Horror Literature through History (ABC-CLIO, 2017). She holds a Ph.D. in English. Melanie R. Anderson is an assistant professor of English at Delta State University in Cleveland MS. Her academic publication Spectrality in the Novels of Toni Morrison (Tennessee Press, 2013) was a finalist for a 2014 Ohioana Library Association Award and winner of the 2014 South Central MLA Book Prize. Natalya Balnova has shown her work in galleries worldwide and been recognized by International Print Center New York, The New York Society of Etchers, The Society of Illustrators, and other professional organizations. Illustrator Nathan Fox lives in Kansas City, Missouri, with his wife and daughter. His work has appeared in the New York Times, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Wired, Print, Spin, and countless other national publications.

2019 Bram Stoker Award® Winner for Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction2020 Locus Award Winner for Non-FictionA 2019 Booklist Editors’ Choice in Arts and Literature“I was elated when Monster, She Wrote arrived in my mailbox. It is a book I have been waiting to read for a long time...Lisa Kröger and Melanie R. Anderson deserve a standing ovation.”—Danielle Trussoni for The New York Times Book Review“A great gift for anyone fascinated with genre writing.”—SFX Magazine“Presented in a breezy, conversational style that makes it easy to gobble up whole sections at a time...Anyone from casual fans to horror historians will benefit from reading this important book.”—Cemetery Dance“Your necronomicon for all women writing horror.”—Book Riot“A perfect way to find your next spooky story.”—Tulsa World“The curatorial quality of a literary anthology, the historical rigor of an academic text, and the pleasure of a picture book.”—Tor.com“Kröger and Anderson write in consistently engaging prose and display depth and breadth in their knowledge of literary matters. Besides demonstrating great synthetic acuity, they provide the fruits of original scholarship.”—Locus“Straddling the divide between highly useful reference and compulsively readable stories about the writing lives of the women of horror, this book will keep you up all night (one way or another).”—Booklist, starred review“Inspired not only in the way it explores what the off-kilter, the monstrous and the half-known has meant to women for centuries but also in how it illuminates the often unusual lives of the women who crafted these dark worlds.”—BookPage“This biographical index will reawaken readers' admiration for established virtuosos of literary terror and inspire curiosity in lesser-known specialists in fictitious fear.”—Publishers Weekly“An engrossing, eye-opening encyclopedia on the pioneering women who went against convention and broke down barriers to mold the horror fiction genre, thereby inspiring generations of writers and even filmmakers with their works.”—Geeks of Doom“Unique, fascinating, informative...an extraordinary and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, community, college, and university librar[ies].”—Midwest Book Review

• IntroductionPART ONE: THE FOUNDING MOTHERSMargaret Cavendish: Mad MadgeAnn Radcliffe: Terror over HorrorMary Wollstonecraft Shelley: The Original Goth GirlRegina Maria Roche: Scandalizing Jane AustenMary Anne Radcliffe: Purveyor of Guts and GoreCharlotte Dacre: Exhibitor of Murder and HarlotryPART TWO: HAUNTING TALESElizabeth Gaskell: Ghosts Are RealCharlotte Riddell: Born StorytellerAmelia Edwards: The Most Learned WomanPaula E. Hopkins: The Most Productive WriterVernon Lee: Ghostwriter à la GarçonneMargaret Oliphant: Voice for the DeadEdith Wharton: The Spine-TinglerPART THREE: CULT OF THE OCCULTMarjorie Bowen: Scribe of the SupernaturalL. T. Meade: Maker of Female MastermindsAlice Askew: Casualty of WarMargery Lawrence: Speaker to the SpiritsDion Fortune: Britian’s Psychic DefenderPART FOUR: THE WOMEN WHO WROTE THE PULPSMargaret St. Clair: Exploring Our DepthsCatherine Lucille Moore: Space Vamp QueenMary Elizabeth Counselman: Deep South StorytellerGertrude Barrows Bennett: Seer of the UnseenEveril Worrell: Night WriterEli Colter: Keeping the Wild West WeirdPART FIVE: HAUNTING THE HOMEDorothy Macardle: Chronicler of Pain and LossShirley Jackson: The Queen of HorrorDaphne du Maurier: The Dame of DreadToni Morrison: Haunted by HistoryElizabeth Engstrom: Monstrosity in the MundanePART SIX: PAPERBACK HORRORJoanne Fischmann: Recipes for FearRuby Jean Jensen: Where Evil Meets InnocenceV. C. Andrews: Nightmares in the AtticKathe Koja: Kafka of the WeirdLisa Tuttle: Adversary for the DevilTanith Lee: Rewriting Snow WhitePART SEVEN: THE NEW GOTHSAnne Rice: Queen of the DamnedHelen Oyeyemi: Teller of Feminist Fairy TalesSusan Hill: Modern Gothic Ghost MakerSarah Waters: Welcome to the Dark SОanceAngela Carter: Teller of Bloody FablesJewelle Gomez: Afrofuturist HorroristPART EIGHT: THE FUTURE OF HORROR AND SPECULATIVE FICTIONThe New Weird: Lovecraft Revisited and RevisedThe New Vampire: Polishing the FangsThe New Haunted House: Home, Deadly HomeThe New Apocalypse: This Is the End (Again)The New Serial Killer: Sharper Weapons, Sharper VictimsGlossaryNotesSuggested ReadingIndexAcknowledgments