31 Days of Horror: Day 30-- HWA Announces Summer Scares Reading Program 2027 Spokesperson and Timeline

HWA Announces Summer Scares Reading Program 2027 Spokesperson and Timeline

The Horror Writers Association (HWA), in partnership with Booklist, Book Riot, iREAD, and NoveList®, a division of EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO), is proud to announce the ninth annual Summer Scares, a reading program that provides libraries and schools with an annual list of recommended horror titles for adult, young adult (teen), and middle-grade readers.

Summer Scares is proud to announce the 2027 spokesperson, USA Today Bestselling middle-grade author, Ally Russell:

“As a wee ghoul, my best friend and I would trade scary books like currency. We didn’t get to see each other often, but I lived for those weekend sleepovers, because I knew we would spend a lot of our time together talking about scary books. The last book I remember trading was Give Yourself Goosebumps: Night in Werewolf Woods by R.L. Stine. I don’t remember why we stopped trading; I suspect we simply outgrew the practice. Sharing scares with a friend and fellow reader at that young and pivotal age turned me into a lifelong reader. Reading doesn’t have to be a solitary act, and the Summer Scares program understands that. As a young aspiring author, books were my creative writing teachers. Books taught me how to spell and define words, develop plots, write dialogue, and most importantly, foster friendships. Today, I write horror books for young readers because I had books. With Summer Scares, I hope readers of all ages will feel invited to partake in the horror genre and find community in the sharing of scary stories.”

Russell, along with a committee of six library workers, will select three recommended fiction titles in each reading level, totaling nine Summer Scares selections. The program aims to encourage a conversation at libraries worldwide about the horror genre across all age levels and ultimately attract more adults, teens, and children interested in reading. Official Summer Scares designated authors will also make themselves available to public and school libraries.

The committee’s final selections will be announced on February 12, 2027. Russell, along with some of the selected authors, will kick off Summer Scares at the 10th Annual HWA Librarians’ Day (Friday, June 11, 2027) during StokerCon® 2027 at the Westin Pittsburgh. Click here for more information.

Additional content, including podcast appearances, free webinars with Booklist, and lists of suggested titles for further reading, will be made available by the committee and its partners beginning early in 2027 and continuing through the spring and summer. Of special note is the annual Summer Scares Programming Guide, overseen by HWA Libraries Co-Chair Konrad Stump:

“The 2027 guide, developed by the HWA Libraries team, is packed with everything library workers need to engage their communities with these great titles, including an iREAD partner title in each age group,” states Stump. “From ideas for author events, partner programs with University of Pittsburgh Library Systems, book discussion groups, and much more, this guide is the library worker’s roadmap to creating exciting and meaningful experiences for their patrons through Summer Scares that they can use as a jumping off point for future horror-themed programming.”

The guide will be available beginning March 1, 2027, on the Summer Scares Resource page here.

To see past year’s Summer Scares titles, spokespeople, and programming guides, please visit the program archive here. Keep your eyes peeled for more updates coming soon from Booklist, Book Riot, iREAD and NoveList®, as well as at the HWA’s website: www.horror.org and RA for All Horror.

Questions? Reach out to HWA Libraries Co-Chairs Becky Spratford and Konrad Stump via email: libraries@horror.org.

Summer Scares 2027 Committee Members:

Ally Russell is the USA TODAY bestselling author of It Came from the Trees. Her other books include the Mystery James series, which was nominated for an Edgar Award and a Stoker Award, Down Came the Spiders, and Book of Outcasts (Wednesday). She grew up on a steady diet of Halloween parties, horror films, Unsolved Mysteries, and Goosebumps books. She has always loved scary stories, and got her MFA from Simmons University and, eventually, a job working in children’s publishing. She hails from Pittsburgh—ground zero for the zombie apocalypse. Ally lives with her husband and her black cats. She’s afraid of the woods, the dark, and heights. You can find her at @onedarkally on Instagram or allyrussellbooks.com.

Becky Spratford is a Readers' Advisory Specialist in Illinois. She trains library staff all over the world on how to match books with readers through the local public library. She runs the critically acclaimed RA training blog RA for All, writes reviews for Booklist, and has a horror review column for Library Journal. Becky is the author of three text books for library workers and the editor of the Bram Stoker Award winning Why I Love Horror [Saga Press, 2025]. Becky is currently serving as the Horror Writers Association’s Secretary and Co-Chair of their Libraries Committee.

Konrad Stump co-chairs HWA Libraries, including the Horror Writers Association’s summer reading program Summer Scares, and StokerCon Librarians’ Day, a full day of continuing education that connects authors and librarians and provides both with the necessary tools to engage communities with the horror genre. He also coordinates the Springfield-Greene County (MO) Library’s long-running Oh, the Horror! series, an annual celebration of the horror genre. His work has appeared in Library Journal, NoveList, Booklist, Library Trends, and has been featured in Book Club Reboot: 71 Creative Twists (ALA) and The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Horror, third edition (ALA).

Carolyn Ciesla is an academic library director in the Chicago suburbs. She previously provided spooky programming to patrons as a teen and reference librarian, and has reviewed horror titles for Booklist for several years. She also teaches horror to unsuspecting first-year university students.

Kelly Jensen is a Senior Editor at Book Riot, the largest independent book website in North America. She covers all things young adult literature and has written about censorship for over 10 years. She is the author of three critically acclaimed and award-winning anthologies for young adults. In 2024, she was named a Library Journal Mover & Shaker for her anti-censorship work. She earned similar recognition for her work in 2022, when she was named a person of the year from Publishers Weekly and a Chicagoan of the Year by the Chicago Tribune. She has twice earned commendation from the American Association of School Librarians for her anti-censorship work. Prior to her work at Book Riot, Kelly was a public librarian for children, teens, and adults in several libraries in Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin. Horror is her jam.

Julia Smith is a senior editor at Booklist, where she works in the youth books department and harbors a deep love of middle-grade literature. Prior to her career at Booklist, she worked at an independent children's bookstore and in the Chicago Public Library system.

Yaika Sabat (MLS) worked in public libraries before joining NoveList as a Senior Readers’ Advisory Librarian, where she develops content to help library staff connect readers with books they’ll love. She is passionate about providing inclusive, reader-centered services; encouraging libraries to embrace horror; and, helping readers explore widely across genres and formats. While horror always takes her top genre spot, she enjoys trying other genres, loves graphic novels, and is an avid audiobook listener.

31 Days of Horror: Day 29-- Horror for Libraries Giveaway-- End of October Bonanza for 4 winners!

Here we are, the final Thursday of October ,and do I have an amazing giveaway for all of you. I have 5 books for 4 separate winners, with a finished copy for each winner. All are worth adding to your collections. Details below, but first, here are the rules on how to enter:

1. You need to be affiliated with an American Library. My rationale behind that is that I will be encouraging you to read these books and share them with patrons. While many of them are advanced reader copies that you cannot add to your collections, if you get the chance to read them, my hope is that you will consider ordering a copy for your library and give away the ARC away as a prize or pass it on to a fellow staff member.
2. If you are interested in being included in any giveaway at any time, you must email me at zombiegrl75 [at] gmail [dot] com with the subject line "#HorrorForLibraries." In the body of the email all you have to say is that you want to be entered and the name of your library.
3. Each entry will be considered for EVERY giveaway. Meaning you enter once, and you are entered until you win. I will randomly draw a winner on Fridays sometime after 5pm central. But only entries received by 5pm each week will be considered for that week. I use Random.org and have a member of my family witness the "draw"based off your number in the Google Sheet.
4. If you win, you are ineligible to win again for 4 weeks; you will have to re-enter after that time to be considered [I have a list of who has won, when, and what title]. However, if you do not win, you carry over into the next week. There is NO NEED to reenter.

Last week's winner was Stacey from Nebraska. Now on to this week's giveaway.

I am going to list the 4 giveaways in order, with a link to more info about each title.

First winner pulled will receive an ARC of Angel Country by Alex T. Singer (published October 20th from S&S/Saga) and a finished copy of Your Body is a Fever Dream edited by Alex Woodrow (published October 6th from Tenebrous Press), the spiritual sequel to 2022's wildly successful and critically acclaimed Your Body Is Not Your Body. [Editor's Note: all of you add both to your collections ASAP].

Second winner pulled will receive a finished hard cover copy of Something is Killing the Children: Hope is a Knife by James Tynion IV and Kiersten White (published October 13th by Crown).

Third winner pulled will receive a finished hard cover copy of Ebenezer Scrooge: Ghost Hunter by J.S. Barnes (published October 6th by Titan Books).

And finally....

Fourth winner pulled will receive a finished hard cover copy of Don't Leave Her Alone by Desirée De Fez, translated from the Spanish by Lizzie Davis (published October 13th from G.P. Putnam and Sons)

Remember, when you enter once you are entered going forward and the weekly giveaway goes all year long.

Good luck!

31 Days of Horror: Day 28-- Why Every Library Worker Should Care About Middle Grade Horror

Savvy readers may have noticed that I have focused on serving our youngest horror readers this month. I will tell you that all of this is 100% a teaser as to what we will be announcing on Friday in regards to Summer Scares (9 am eastern 10/30).

Let's recap for those who missed a day:

• On 10/19 I invited Maisie to the blog, a Public Librarian who serves youth to share their Why I Love Horror essay.
• The next day, 10/20, Jose, a School Librarian, came by to share his Why I Love Horror essay.
• And then yesterday, I asked School Library leader, Rain Smith to examine the huge increase in horror check out at school libraries.
• Back on 10/7, as part of my Undertaker Books publisher spotlight, I welcomed Kathleen Palm, a MG horror author, to share her Why I Love Horror essay.

But those are not the only times I have posted about horror for youth.

Last year I asked Librarian and MG Horror author Ally Malinenko to share why she loves horror here. And in 2024 I asked Ally Russell to also share her Why I Love Horror essay with all of you.

I am gathering it all here so when you use the "middle grade" tag the most recent posts will populate at the top, and for now, this one with access to all of these posts is at the top. Now these are not the only MG horror posts I have had, but they are the most recent and useful.

Look, the children are our future is an over used saying for sure, but when it comes to libraries it is 100% true. Our youth readers will grow into our teen readers, and then become our adult readers. 

As Rain noted yesterday, the kids love horror. Let's feed their appetite at the library. Let's show them we have what they want and in some cases, need. Let's hook them on using the library. Let's make them patrons for life through their love of horror.

And not for nothing, as the kids have come to love horror, they have piqued the interest of their parents, to see what this Horror Renaissance is all about. Don't think these "middle grade" posts are not for you, if you serve teens or adults. It is all interconnected. The interest in horror in any age level feeds the interest in all of them.

Since 2019, I have been helping all of you to find Horror for kids through Summer Scares. With 3 MG vetted selections each year, and 3-4 readalikes for each title, we have dozens of recent options for you. 

And on 10/30/26 at 9 am eastern, Summer Scares is going to plant its flag solidly into the MG Horror conversation. So stay tuned.

But before that, I am back tomorrow with a HUGE 4 winner giveaway, the last of 31 Days of Horror.

31 Days of Horror: Day 27-- Examining the Popularity of Horror in School Libraries in 2026 via Rain Smith

Word on the street is that school librarians across this country, serving every grade, are noticing a sharp uptick in students checking out horror. Even at libraries where there are no horror sections, the kids are finding it. 

Enter Rain Smith to this conversation: 

Rain Smith is an award-winning School Library Media Specialist at Whiteland Community High School (IN) in her 27th year in education and 10th in the school library. She co-teaches in every department of the high school supporting students and staff with a focus on information literacy and incorporating high quality reading, research, and writing into the daily work and lives of all. She is an active and involved member of many library and education related organizations including being the 2026 Association of Indiana School Library Educators (AISLE) Chair, American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Indiana Chapters Representative, Indiana Library Federation (ILF) Communications Committee Co-Chair, Indiana State Teachers Association (ISTA) Professional Practices and Standards Committee Chair, Midwest Collaborative of Library Services (MCLS) Board Member representing School Librarians, Indiana Freedom to Read founder and steering committee members, as well as an ALA Law for Librarians trainer. She earned her BS in 2000 from Indiana State University in Speech, Communications, and Theatre Teaching with an English Minor and her MLS from IU in 2005.  Rain is an educator, speaker, facilitator, presenter, author, advocate, and reader, and her special interest lies in the promotion, growth, and advancement of school librarianship. 

Quite the expert, right?

As Rain writes below, when she and I started to discuss this marked increase in horror checkouts, I quickly realized she was better positioned to write about this than I was. 

So thanks to Rain for this 31 Days of Horror guest post examining the popularity of Horror in School Libraries right now. Take it away Rain...

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 I love horror. 

I love libraries (especially school libraries).

I love giving kids great books and talking to kids about reading.

And I love my friend, peer, author, and extraordinary human, Becky.

And that is what got me into this pickle of writing for her blog.

It started with a text, “I dunno how much attention you get to pay to school librarians on socials, but EVERYONE is talking about the HUGE uptick this school year on the checkouts for HORROR.” 

I was excited to be contributing by giving the horror and RA expert a great nugget to run with. Instead that conversation ended in, “You can do a guest post…”

After a lot of hemming and hawing and a few choice words, here we are--me summarizing what many may already know about the trend of horror being the coolest genre for students of all ages in the school library. 

I am a horror reader. Like all readers, professional librarians have some biases. As a default, I often recommend horror, and horror has always been “popular” in my high school library. Even I had mentioned last school year that I was noticing an uptick in the number of horror checkouts. Recently, my dearest friend and middle school library partner in my district said to me one day, “Rain, my students are begging for horror. Do you know some titles I can add to beef up my collection?” She was the second person to ask me in a short amount of time. 

While working on giving horror recs and resources, I noticed I kept seeing my school librarian peers pop up in my social feeds talking about the uptick in horror’s popularity. When I began scanning through the social posts I have been seeing for weeks regarding this trend, a few things stood out. First, it is not limited to one grade level or one geographical area. It is nationwide and beyond and includes elementary through high school students at all reading levels. Second, the reasons for the uptick seem obvious to outsiders, but I think it is a bit more subtle than, “the world is scary so kids want to read scary books.” So, let’s explore this trend.

Of course the world and the news is scary right now. It is super scary for adults--war, political discourse, financial instability--and that is certainly more intense for kids. Books are the safest way to explore the world. They allow readers to delve deep into complex ideas and emotions without consequences. Books let us ferret out our place in the world and feelings on people and issues. We should always be encouraging kids of all ages to read what they want for learning or feeling or escaping. But as I decided to explore the whys of this trend I posed the question online to my peers. MANY non-school librarians also decided to share and remind me that in historically turbulent times horror becomes more popular. I certainly agree that is a part of it but the world is always a scary, turbulent place and that would be a surface-level incomplete explanation of why horror is having a moment now.

There are always trends that wax and wane in publishing and reading; publishers are chasing--or maybe creating--trends. Readers try on trends and genres. Some they stick with and some they move on from. This is especially true with developing readers including students. Horror is always present, but not always at the level of demand it is seeing right now. Obviously, what publishers choose to make available certainly affects the options readers have. And right now, horror is one of the options being made more widely available to readers. As a librarian who gets to purchase books, it has recently become less difficult to find quality horror materials to put on my shelves. Maybe more horror is available because it is what readers are demanding or maybe the demand has been created for readers by publishers. Either way, it is benefitting to all involved right now.

We have all heard about the reading crisis and the fact that reading has to compete for kids’ attention. That means for them to choose reading it must be better than what they are not choosing. And with horror, it is. Horror is familiar. Horror is “forbidden.” Horror is engaging. Horror is communal. Horror is visceral and raw--very human--even in its extremes. It is available in multiple formats like short stories, graphic novels, series, and stand alones. Horror has subgenres that appeal to readers' niche interests. I think that horror's ability to pack so much emotion and action and often humor in addition to terror into what is often considered short readings is one of its greatest advantages with young people. “One and done” is appealing to readers with limited time, stamina or capacity. Horror is ultimately accessible.

Remember that kids of all ages are astute and demanding. They want and deserve quality materials to read, and that is the main reason I think horror is having its moment right now. There are interesting and engaging horror books being published at all reading and interest levels. The quality of the writing is incredible. Many of the writers of horror today will be canon tomorrow. More availability and more quality matter. Horror authors know their readers are smart and treat them as such.They are engaging with their audiences with respect. Additionally, there is more representation happening in horror publishing. This is not to say that there can not be more diversity and representation, because there certainly can be, but look at the incredible women, people of color, and people of diverse backgrounds who are publishing right now. What a wonderful time to be a horror reader and especially a young, developing horror reader.

Because this is a blog, I am going to spare you an entire dissertation about how horror ties into school librarianship, but I will say one of the most important things a school librarian does is get students of all ages excited and engaged in reading. We are not here to judge what someone reads, we are here to provide what they want and encourage them to explore. What they want is horror. I am so glad to be a school librarian right now during a time when one of my favorite genres is having a renaissance, and I get to share that excitement and passion with readers every day.

Provide and encourage kids to read horror.

Be excited about horror.

Recommend horror.

Read horror.

Love horror.

--Rain Smith

31 Days of Horror: Day 26-- Why I Love Horror by Fellow Reviewer Rob Bedford

Earlier this month, while I was in NYC, I moderated a panel at Comic Con. While I was sitting at my post panel signing table I met Rob Bedford:

Rob Bedford has been writing book reviews at SFFWorld since the early 2000s. In 2016, he and the SFFWorld crew kicked off their annual Countdown to Halloween, featuring reviews of horror both past and current. Rob’s reviews have also appeared in the San Francisco Book review, Reactor (f/k/a Tor.com), and was a contributor at the sadly closed Hugo Award-winning Fanzine, SFSignal. Rob lives in NJ with his wife (they met at Rutgers University) and their derpy dog. He considers himself a connoisseur of “craft beer” and bourbon. A relaxing Friday night for Rob features a full glass, his dog and his wife at his side, while watching a horror movie. He can be found on threads as @robhbed and Bluesky as robhb and occasionally blogs at robbedford.blogspot.com.

Turns out Rob was at Comic Con to write about the panels he attended and mine was one of those. We got to talking and I realized rather quickly that I needed Rob's voice as part of the Why I Love Horror universe. 

However, before I get to his essay, here is that write-up and a photo he took of all of us.

• NYCC 2026 – Embracing the Horror: Modern Masters (Jones, LaRocca, Martell, Singer, Spratford, & Triana): write up of our panel (photo below) via Rob from SFFWorld.

Back to today's post. Rob takes us on a journey from monsters to epic fantasy and back to monsters. It;s an essay by a professional reviewer of the genre, but also by a lifelong fan, even if he didn't always realize it.

Thanks Rob. And everyone else, check out SFFWorld as part of your regular resources to help horror readers. 

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Why I Love Horror

by Rob Bedford

Monsters. That’s the easy answer, monsters are cool. Growing up, I always had an affinity for monsters and Horror. I loved Godzilla and Gamera movies, Scooby Doo, The Twilight Zone, and my favorite of the Abbott and Costello movies, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. I was also an avid reader, one of the earliest sets of books I read were The Three Investigators which, of course were mystery, but Jupiter Jones, Peter Crenshaw, and Bob Andrews often found themselves in places like Terror Castle, up against spooky figures like a Whispering Mummy or a Green Ghost. The stories were gateway drugs to Horror, flirting with Horror, even if all of it was based in reality, much like the “monsters” Mystery Incorporated unmasked.  

Perhaps the final “nail in my coffin:” My parents were Constant Readers of Stephen King. I think it was middle school when I read either Firestarter or Cujo as my first Stephen King novel. Growing up in the 1980s and early 1990s, gems from Robert R. McCammon (Swan Song, The Wolf’s Hour, Stinger) and even some of Dean Koontz’s novels (Strangers and Twilight Eyes) helped to fuel my love of Horror and stories that stuck with me for years. I haven’t turned back, since.

But there was maybe a little bit of a pause, or sidestep.

For a lot of years Epic Fantasy was the main genre I read and still a big part of what I read to this day. The monsters brought me to Fantasy, too. As a kid of the 80s, of course I played Dungeons and Dragons, my gateway to fantasy. I was always most intrigued by the conflict between the human characters and whatever non-human/monstrous threat they were facing. As I got older, one of the first things I read for “fun” after years of assigned reading in college was the Epic Fantasy trilogy, Memory, Sorrow and Thorn by Tad Williams. No less than George R.R. Martin (whose Fevre Dream is an incredible vampire novel) points to this series as a landmark of Epic Fantasy and a personal inspiration for his own work. It is a personal favorite I’ve read multiple times. The series features some very creepy scenes that would appeal to Horror readers: the dark, seemingly haunted castle in which we meet our protagonist, Simon. The harrowing and horrific scenes with our characters going into some dark places, hunted by frightening creatures. Some of the scariest scenes I’ve read in any “genre” quite frankly. 

But Horror was always there, King was always writing, keeping me tethered to Horror.  

On a related note, I love roller coasters and have since I was maybe ten years old when my father “encouraged” me to go on the SooperDooperLooper in Hersheypark. I think what really epitomizes my love of being scared was when I rode the Batman & Robin: The Chiller roller coaster at Six Flags, Great Adventure in NJ. The ride shoots the train out at 65 MPH to go do roller coaster things. When I got off the ride, I remember initially being terrified, but then saying to my friends something like “I’ve never been that scared on a coaster before, I need to ride it again!” That sums up why I love Horror, that thrill of being scared.

With all the thrills, chills, and fears, there is a certain safety in Horror, too. We can put ourselves in the shoes of Nancy Thompson (Nightmare on Elm Street) or be afraid of the boogeyman in our closets. We can also close the book and turn off the movie. Certainly, it is a conflicting dichotomy. Drawn by the fear, stay for the comfort of having control over it. 

That visceral reaction that only Horror (and comedy) can illicit is another reason why I love Horror. It is one thing for a film to send the chills down the spine with seemingly inanimate objects being in different places from scene to scene like those terrifying clown figures in Hell House, LLC, but I’ll never forget the nightmare Dan Simmon’s Summer of Night gave me decades ago. One of the characters was sleeping with his window open, with the screen separating his room from outside. One of the nasties scratched on the kid’s screen beckoning him. A couple of nights after I read that scene, I woke from a noise I thought I heard at my screened window because of course I was reading the novel in the summer with the windows. That’s the visceral sense. But the thought-provoking fear, something like Paul Tremblay’s A Head Full of Ghosts makes you question your perspective, question the reality you just experienced, question your senses, question  your trust in characters and people. Few do that specific thing better than Tremblay, honestly.

The diversity, too. Look at modern Horror… from the storytellers to the stories themselves. In other words, a lot more than straight white dudes are writing Horror and Horror ranges in the kinds of stories being told: ghost stories, haunted people stories, folk Horror, slasher, monster Horror, kids fighting monsters, etc., and a big part of those two lines of diversity is small press and the respect that self-publishing now has.

I’ve rambled quite a bit, so back to the impetus for this essay: Why I Love Horror.

Monsters are fun, monsters are cool. It is even more entertaining to experience people overcoming those monsters, inspiring us to overcome our own adversaries and obstacles even if they aren’t quite monsters.

The oft-used G.K. Chesterton quote very much applies to Horror “fairy tales do not introduce children to fear or evil… it instead provides the first clear idea that these terrors can be defeated…” 

But, in really, it is the monsters. Am I right? 

That’s why I love Horror. 

31 Days of Horror: Day 25-- Weekly Links Roundup

Every Sunday during 31 Days of Horror, I will have links that I have gathered throughout the week to share here.  And today marks our last Sunday of October! Here's what I have:

• Horror Romance Embraces the Deadly Side of Desire: Authors discuss why romance and horror are a match made in Heaven, and in Hell via PW
• When Horror Met Rom-Com also via PW
• 5 Horror Novels Told From the Monster's POV via Reactor
• Best New Horror for Book Clubs via Book Riot
• Unshelve Your Horror for Halloween - International Version via Passively Recommending Books
• Library Journal's Display Shelf for Vampires
• Goodreads has this list to help new readers find their best horror book-- 80 Horror Novels Sorted by Setting
• Book Riot's Halloween Listens Audio Book Playlist on Libro.FM
• Kyler Winkler, author of The Ship of Death, recommends three books that influenced his writing about games and gaming in horror via Book Riot.
• Trans Horror Novels are Flying Off the Shelves via PW
• Reactor is doing a podcast starting 10/28
• ICYMI: Becky Interviews Debut Horror Novelist Brenda LaTorre for LJ
• Passively Recommending Books provides lists to "lighter" horror
• This is great for the horror curious who will be coming in this week looking to get in on the Halloween fun.
• Barnes & Noble's Top Horror of 2026

While this marks the final weekly roundup for 31 Days of Horror, remember, Horror is read by many all year long. And I am always here to keep you in the know. 

But we still have 6 more days together for the month and there is plenty more to come, including the announcement of the Summer Scares 2027 Spokesperson on 10/30. 

Back tomorrow with my last WHY I LOVE HORROR original essay.

31 Days of Horror: Day 24-- Tananarive Due's Bram Stoker Winning Why I Love Horror Essay

As we enter the homestretch of 31 Days of Horror this year, I wanted to start this final week with a bang. So today, I have a link for all of you to read the formatted PDF of Tananarive's essay for my book, "My Long Road to Horror." This is the exact PDF that was formatted for the purpose of me submitting it for the award and for voters to be able to read it.

Click here to read "My Long Road to Horror" by Tananarive Due.

For those of you not yet familiar with WHY I LOVE HORROR (the book) I also wanted to include the example, from Tananarive's essay, of the content I added to each essay in the book:

Tananarive Due has been writing suspenseful, fast-paced horror that has an unapologetic social justice lens since the waning days of the last century. Her chilling and terrifying works of supernatural evil in many forms (zombies, witches, ghosts, and immortal evil creatures—she has dabbled in just about every subgenre) are grounded in the Black experience, including themes of racial discrimination, family dysfunction, and ancestral traditions. In her work as a professor, Due has written and lectured about the uniqueness of Black horror in many spaces, from the classroom to major newspapers to documentary films. Her expertise on this topic alongside her evocative and chilling stories have made her one of the genre’s current stalwarts.

In this essay, Due continues the theme of the last two entries, as she contemplates her experiences as a Black woman and a child of parents who fought in the civil rights movement, and how she came to understand that all her work is not only inextricably linked to the Black experience but also how it is responsible for her success—a realization she came to with the help of Jordan Peele, yes, but also an important conversation with Anne Rice.

Readers new to Tananarive Due should start with The Reformatory. For those who want to try a similar author, I suggest N. K. Jemisin.

I am sharing the above with all of you library workers because this is information you can use to help introduce readers to Due or any one of the 18 authors in my book. 

Not a horror fan? No problem. I've got you. With the book, with this blog, with every review I write. I am here to help you help readers. Every single day, with just a click. 

Click here to read "My Long Road to Horror" by Tananarive Due. 

And get ready, Halloween is only 7 days away.