WiHM: Sexism In Horror?

Back in January, the Horror Writers Association hosted one of their monthly roundtable discussions.  The topic that month was “Sexism in Horror:”

Sexism in Horror 

With so many brilliant female horror writers (think Anne Rice, Shirley Jackson, Daphne Du Maurier, Lisa Morton, Nancy Holder, Sarah Pinborough, Lisa Tuttle, Sarah Langan, Kaaron Warren, and many more), why is it that few of them–if any–ever appear on lists of the ‘best horror writers’? Is that the industry’s fault, or the fans? Is there sexism in the horror genre, a bias towards male writers, or is it just that there are more male writers? If a magazine gets 300 submissions for an issue and the majority is from males, isn’t it likely that the final Table of Contents will contain mostly men? Is that the magazine’s fault for not actively pursuing female submissions? And what if they’re then bullied into putting out a ‘women only’ issue; is that fair? If sexism is prevalent across the horror genre, what can be done about it, and where does the fault lie?

Click here for the details on the panelists and to follow the entire discussion in the comments.

I really liked that the HWA tackled this issue head on, and did it in the month prior to WiHM celebrations.

In fact, during this month of February, the HWA’s Blog is running a special series of guest posts by female and male writers on the topic of Women in Horror.

The conversation is more powerful and useful when voices from both genders can be heard.

Between the roundtable and the blog posts, I highly suggest you take a look at what the genre’s association is doing to help educate everyone on Women in Horror.

Horror Roundtable Time: Ray Bradbury: An Appreciation

The first Horror Writers Association Roundtable was a big success (click here to access my post on it).

As promised, these discussions will continue to be held during the second week of the month. This month, there will be a discussion about the life and work of Ray Bradbury.

As always, the conversation will begin with a panel of experts that includes, this time, Sam Weller, Bradbury's official biographer.  This is a discussion you don't want to miss.

So click here now for details and from July 8-14 to follow the discussion.  You can choose to participate or lurk whether you are a HWA member of not.

You can also use this link to access the last roundtable and read the discussion about the popularity of cross-genre writing.

HWA Roundtable on Cross Genre Horror

On Monday, the Horror Writers Association started a new project they are calling The Horror Roundtable:

Get yourself a drink and pull up a seat. Put your feet up. Welcome to the Roundtable, a public discussion about all things writing. A monthly virtual horror panel, if you will.

 What a fabulous idea.  To start here is the link to this month's first discussion, described below:

Is Cross-Genre Writing More Popular Now?
Special Guests: Nancy Holder, Norman L. Rubenstein, and Weston Ochse
There was a time when publishers were stumped on how to market works that conformed to more than one genre. Not only did they not know how to market something that was both science fiction and horror fiction (for instance), but with bookstore chains having separate shelves for each, they weren’t sure how to provide shelving guidance. But recent science fiction-horror smash hits such as Justin Cronin’s The Passage and Stephen King’s 11/23/1963 have demonstrated that readers want more genres. Books such as Daryl Gregory’s The Devil’s Alphabet (science fiction and literary fiction) and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (historical fiction and horror fiction) have also found critical acclaim. Cross-genre fiction is now what readers want, should we give it to them? What are the challenges of writing cross-genre works and how are those best dealt with?

Click through to follow the discussion and comments.  The discussion is still going on 3 days later.  Add your thoughts to the mix.

I look forward to this becoming a monthly event.