Landis Blair is the author and illustrator of The Envious Siblings and Other Morbid Nursery Rhymes, as well as the illustrator of From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death, by Caitlin Doughty and the graphic novel The Hunting Accident, by David Carlson, which won Best in Adult Books at the Excellence in Graphic Literature awards. He has published illustrations in numerous print and online periodicals including The New Yorker, the New York Times, Chicago magazine, VQR, and Medium. He lives in Chicago.
Read moreStories After Dark: Mort Castle Reads "The Old Man & The Dead"
Mort Castle is a horror author and a writing teacher who has published over 500 short stories. Twice a winner of the Black Quill award, seven times a Bram Stoker Award nominee, Castle edited On Writing Horror, the primary reference work for dark fiction authors. He lives near Chicago with Jane, his wife.
Read moreStories After Dark: Julia Fine Reads Excerpt From The Upstairs House
Julia Fine is the author of What Should Be Wild, which was shortlisted for the Bram Stoker Superior First Novel Award and the Chicago Review of Books Award. Her second novel, The Upstairs House, is forthcoming from Harper in February 2021. She teaches writing in Chicago, where she lives with her husband and children.
Read moreStories After Dark: Amy Giacalone Reads “Unsalted”
Amy Giacalone is a fiction writer in Chicago. She has an MFA from Columbia College Chicago. Her stories have appeared in Babylawn Lit, LDOC, Goreyesque, Bird's Thumb, Hair Trigger and GHOSTLY (Vintage UK 2015). She has reviews and Interviews in Chicago Review of Books.
Read moreStories After Dark: Craig Laurance Gidney Reads "Magpie Sisters"
Craig Laurance Gidney writes both contemporary and genre fiction. He is the author of the collections Sea, Swallow Me & Other Stories (Lethe Press, 2008), Skin Deep Magic (Rebel Satori Press, 2014), Bereft (Tiny Satchel Press, 2013) and A Spectral Hue (Word Horde, 2019).
Read moreStories After Dark: Tina Jens Reads “What’s With All The Damn Zombies Anyway?”
Tina L. Jens’ novel, The Blues Ain't Nothin': Tales of the Lonesome Blues Pub, won the National Federation of Press Women Best Novel award and was a Final Nominee for the Horror Writers and International Horror Guild awards. She’s had more than 70 fantasy, mystery, horror, and comedic short stories published, in addition to more than a dozen poems and numerous essays and news articles.
Read moreStories After Dark: Rebecca Makkai Reads Excerpt From The Hundred-Year House
Rebecca Makkai is the Chicago-based author of the novels The Great Believers, The Hundred-Year House, and The Borrower, as well as the short story collection Music for Wartime. The Great Believers was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, and received the ALA Carnegie Medal and the LA Times Book Prize, among other honors. Makkai is on the MFA faculties of Sierra Nevada College and Northwestern University, and she is Artistic Director of StoryStudio Chicago.
Read moreStories After Dark: Adam McOmber Reads “There’s Someone At The Door”
Adam McOmber is the author of Jesus and John : A Novel (Lethe Press 2020), My House Gathers Desires: Stories (BOA Editions 2016), The White Forest: A Novel (Touchstone 2012) and This New & Poisonous Air (BOA Editions 2011). His work has appeared recently in Conjunctions, Kenyon Review and Diagram. He lives in Los Angeles.
Read moreStories After Dark: Jess Millman Reads "Woodsplitting"
Jess Millman is fixing semicolons in Chicago. She was a Follett Fellow at Columbia College Chicago’s Fiction MFA program, is a co-founder of the Chicago Activist Writers group, and has lived previous lives as a creative writing instructor, a music journalist, and a stable boy. In addition to her freelance editing work, she was an editor of the Edward Gorey-exulting Goreyesque journal and is the current managing editor of StoryNews Magazine. Her cats are Percival and Nugget.
Read moreStories After Dark: Howard Simmons Reads "The Face" by Lennox Robinson
Howard Simmons is a writer and editor currently living in Ferguson, Missouri. His work has appeared in Hair Trigger Magazine, HyperText Magazine, and other publications. Howard also wrote “In the Days of the Pandemic,” our Verses + Vignettes story for October, which will be posted on our website on Saturday, October 31, 2020.
Read moreStories After Dark: Todd Summar reads "The Dark Parts"
Todd Summar writes fiction and essays, and serves as an editor for publishers and individuals. His work has appeared in Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, Literary Hub, and The Chicago Review of Books, among others. He has served as an instructor for StoryStudio Chicago. He is the founding editor of Goreyesque and has an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia College Chicago.
Read moreStories After Dark: Sam Weller Reads "End of Summer" From Dark Black
Sam Weller is a two-time Bram Stoker Award-winning writer and the authorized biographer of the legendary Ray Bradbury. Weller's latest book, DARK BLACK, a collection of 20 gothic short stories was hailed by author Gillian Flynn (GONE GIRL) as "By turns haunting, mysterious, wickedly funny and deeply insightful, DARK BLACK is a truly mood-flipping, mind-tripping collection."
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