Today marks the beginning of the Why I Love Horror guest posts for 2023 and while the order is mostly random and based around who got me what when, the first one today is first for a reason. Zachary Rosenberg is an up and coming voice who write unapologetically Jewish horror. Hungers As Old As This Land, a Horror Western, and The Long Shalom, a pulp Noir, Cosmic horror hybrid, both came out in 20203 to huge critical acclaim and success.
But Zach did not come out of nowhere. In fact, I first met Zach at StokerCon Librarians Day, which he has attended for years. He always made a point to come up and talk to me, to engage me and other attendees in conversation. I always enjoyed reconnecting with Zach each year, one of the people I can call a friend because of StokerCon. When I saw him this past year at StokerCon and heard he had 2 books coming out, I literally leapt with joy.
He was the very first person invited to 31 Days this year, and I am so excited to present him to all of you. Order both of his books. They are excellent Horror stories and they have awesome covers.
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When I was little, I was an outsider.
In some ways, I still am. I was an autistic Jewish boy who grew into an autistic, Jewish man. Fitting in was never in the cards for me. Finding strength was hard in those times, but I found it in horror. There were several early sources for me there.
The first was RL Stine and his Goosebumps and Fear Street books. The heroes were like me; outsiders. Going through nightmares and running into monsters, but many times finding the strength to fight back and persist. The first ever Fear Street I read just happened to have a boy named Zach as its lead, terrorized by a ghostly teacher. From there, it was a short hop to Christopher Pike and many other young horror writers.
My uncle also had a collection of classic horror tapes. Dracula (In English and Spanish), the Wolfman, Frankenstein, all of the classics that even included Island of Lost Souls and tower of London. Horror became fun and escapist. From horror, I could transport myself into the heroes and see strength represented on the screen and page. Horror scared me, but it also taught me to be brave.
When I learned RL Stine and the Twilight Zone’s Rod Serling were Jewish, everything seemed to make sense to me. The outsiders and the attachment fell into place. It wasn’t just connecting: it was seeing myself represented by them. Their works took me to a uniquely Jewish place in horror that seemed sorely lacking almost anywhere else in the markets.
Horror contained lessons for me. These writings tackled isolation, social injustice, racism and bigotry, war, persecution, and more. Books like Frankenstein and Dracula deepened the empathy. Gothic literature was feminist and moving in addition to being eerie and suspenseful.
As I grew up, I read and watched more. I learned to tell a good story from bad, I branched out into more diverse horror. I enjoyed the monsters and the terrors all at once. Poe and
Shakespeare mingled together with the Bronte sisters, Toni Morrison, and Kafka. Wherever I looked, there was something more to find.
In college, I became a fan of more contemporary horror writers. It took me a long time until I could articulate the missing gap of my own heritage and perspective. Discovering writers like John Baltisberger, Nat Cassidy, Elana Gomel, Brenda Tolian, Richard Dansky, and other unapologetically Jewish writers became an absolute revelation. Seeing the film “The Vigil” was a turning point in my life. There it was: Jewish horror. Dealing with intergenerational trauma, antisemitism, anxiety and mental health. Jewish folklore lovingly depicted onscreen.
The Vigil and these authors helped change my life. They made me realize how much I loved culture and representation in horror, the most primal emotions depicted through those portrayals. Horror was a way to share culture, folklore, history, and identity. The most intimate depictions to be shared with others. It helped me decouple my views from the common majority Christian viewpoint that had seemed the norm.
I began considering writing my own. Jewish horror, but done my own way. The first result was the book “Hungers As Old As This Land,” a horror western in the old west with Jewish characters, the dark sides of American history, and fun monsters. Then came “The Long Shalom,” a homage to pulp, noir, and cosmic horror influenced by modern writers like Laird Barron and P. Djeli Clark.
Horror is one of my favorite genres, precisely because of its intimacy. We show one another our fears, but also our strengths. Depict our anxieties, our backgrounds and our culture through it. And at the end of the day, there’s nothing more meaningful than that.
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