It’s February, and that means it’s Women in Horror Month. The Women in Horror Month is a month dedicated to female horror writers. While writing this month’s Horror Tree post – which will be on the website later in the month – I realised that even though I am a female horror writer I haven’t read many novels written by women horror authors.
I have read some horror books written by women – I love the Mira Grant Newsflesh series – but I do need to do better. So, I decided to find ten female horror authors to read. So, I did a search on the internet and found a list. Some of these are authors I’ve heard of (Mary Shelley, etc.), and some of the authors are unknown to me. I then had a look on my library website to see if I could find any books written by the ten chosen female horror writers, and I managed to find a selection of books from each author to read. I picked the following authors and books:
- Shirley Jackson – The Haunting of Hill House
- Daphne Du Maurier – Rebecca or The Birds and Other Stories
- Mary Shelley – Frankenstein
- Anne Rice – Interview with the Vampire
- Lisa Tuttle – The Mysteries
- Melanie Tem – Revenant
- Amanda Stevens – The Restorer
- Dion Fortune – The Demon Lover
- Caitlin Kiernan – Daughter of Hounds
- Nancy Collins – Sunglasses after Dark
Years ago, before I called myself a writer, I did a similar challenge. Every month I went to the library and took out four books written by authors I had never read before. I found many interesting authors that I enjoyed reading, so I’m looking forward to this challenge.
I’ll keep you all updated on how I’m doing, and I’ll let you know about the books I’ve read. If you decide that you too want to take the challenge, then let me know how you get on. Or if you know of other female horror authors, then do let me know.
And this is for all my fellow female horror writers out there, keep writing, folks.
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