Laird Samuel Barron (born March 5, 1970) is an American author and poet, much of whose work falls within the horror, noir, or

horror noir Horror noir (sometimes referred to as noir horror or hyphenated as horror-noir; ) is a film subgenre that blends elements of both horror and noir. It combines the dark, atmospheric qualities of noir with the suspense and fear typical of horror ...

and

dark fantasy Dark fantasy, also called fantasy horror, is a subgenre of fantasy literary, artistic, and cinematic works that incorporates disturbing and frightening themes. The term is ambiguously used to describe stories that combine horror fiction, horror ...

genres. He has also been the managing editor of the online literary magazine ''Melic Review''. He lives in Upstate New York.Biography
from the author's website

Early life

Barron spent his early years in

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

. He has described his youth as exceedingly harsh because his family was poor and lived in isolated areas.

Career

In Alaska, Barron raced the Iditarod three times during the early 1990s, and worked as a fisherman on the

Bering Sea The Bering Sea ( , ; rus, Бе́рингово мо́ре, r=Béringovo móre, p=ˈbʲerʲɪnɡəvə ˈmorʲe) is a marginal sea of the Northern Pacific Ocean. It forms, along with the Bering Strait, the divide between the two largest landmasse ...

. He retired from racing and moved to Washington in 1994. He became active on the poetry scene, publishing with a number of online journals and eventually serving as the managing editor of the ''Melic Review''. His professional writing debut occurred in 2001 when

Gordon Van Gelder Gordon Van Gelder (born 1966) is an American science fiction editor. From 1997 until 2014, Van Gelder was editor and later publisher of ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'', for which he has twice won the Hugo Award for Best Editor Short ...

published ''Shiva, Open Your Eye'' in the September issue of ''

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy fiction magazine, fantasy and science-fiction magazine, first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence E. Spivak, Lawrence Spiv ...

''. Barron's debut collection, ''The Imago Sequence & Other Stories'', was published in 2007 by '' Night Shade Books''. He has stated his affection for pulp fiction, westerns, and noir, and his work typically combines one or more of these elements with a horrific or weird supernatural intrusion. Barron has referred to the Bible and the Necronomicon as "the greatest horror stories ever told." In addition to ''

'', Barron's work has been featured in ''SCI FICTION'', '' Inferno: New Tales of Terror and the Supernatural'', ''Lovecraft Unbound'', ''Black Wings: New Tales of Lovecraftian Horror'', and ''The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy''. It has also been reprinted in numerous year's best anthologies and nominated for multiple awards. He was a 2007 and 2010

Shirley Jackson Award The Shirley Jackson Awards are literary awards named after Shirley Jackson in recognition of her legacy in writing. These awards for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror and dark fantasy are presented at Rea ...

winner for his collections ''The Imago Sequence and Other Stories'' and ''Occultation and Other Stories''. "Mysterium Tremendum" won a 2010 Shirley Jackson Award for best novella. He is also a 2009 nominee for his novelette "Catch Hell". Other award nominations include the

Crawford Award The IAFA William L. Crawford Fantasy Award (short: Crawford Award) is a literary award given to a writer whose first fantasy book was published during the preceding calendar year. It's one of several awards presented by the International Associat ...

, Sturgeon Award, International Horror Guild Award,

World Fantasy Award The World Fantasy Awards are a set of awards given each year for the best fantasy fiction published during the previous calendar year. Organized and overseen by the World Fantasy Convention, the awards are given each year at the eponymous ann ...

Bram Stoker Award The Bram Stoker Award is a recognition presented annually by the Horror Writers Association (HWA) for "superior achievement" in dark fantasy and horror writing. History The Awards were established in 1987 and have been presented annually since ...

and the

Locus Award The Locus Awards are an annual set of literary awards voted on by readers of the science fiction and fantasy magazine '' Locus'', a monthly magazine based in Oakland, California. The awards are presented at an annual banquet. Originally a poll ...

. His second novel, ''The Croning'', was published in 2012 by Night Shade Books. His next three novels were published by G.P. Putnam's Sons.

Bibliography

Novels

*''The Light is the Darkness'', Bloodletting Press 2011 *''The Croning'', Night Shade Books 2012 *''Blood Standard'', G.P. Putnam's Sons 2018 *''Black Mountain'', G.P. Putnam's Sons 2019 *''Worse Angels'', G.P. Putnam's Sons 2020

Novellas

*''X's For Eyes'', JournalStone 2015 *''Man With No Name: A Nanashi Novella'', JournalStone 2016 *''The Wind Began To Howl: An Isaiah Coleridge Story'', Bad Hand Books 2023

Collections

* ''The Imago Sequence & Other Stories'', Night Shade Books 2007; Trade paperback 2009 * ''Occultation'', Night Shade Books 2010

. Best Collection. * ''The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All'', Night Shade Books 2013 *''A Little Brown Book of Burials'', Borderlands Press 2015 *''Swift to Chase'', JournalStone 2016 *''Not a Speck of Light: Stories'', Bad Hand Books 2024

Anthologies

*''The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror 17'' St Martin's 2004 *''The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror 18'' St Martin's 2005 *''The Three-Lobed Burning Eye Annual Volume No. 2'' Legion Press 2005 *''Trochu divné kusy 2'' 2006 *''Fantastyka'' Number 4 2006 *''The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror 19'' St. Martin's 2006 *''Horror: Best of 2005'' Prime 2006 *''Fantasy: Best of 2005'' Prime 2006 *''Year's Best Fantasy 6'' Tachyon 2006 *''Inferno'' Tor 2007 *''Year's Best Fantasy 7'' Tachyon 2007 *''The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror 21'' 2008 *''Clockwork Phoenix'' Norilana Press 2008 *''Year's Best Fantasy 8'' Tachyon 2008 *''The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction & Fantasy'' Del Rey 2008 *''Jack Haringa Must Die!'' 2008 *''Lovecraft Unbound'' Dark Horse Comics 2009 *''The Best Horror of the Year 1'' Night Shade Books 2009 *''Poe'' Solaris 2009 *''Wilde Stories 2010'' Lethe 2010 *''Haunted Legends'' Tor Books 2010 *''Cthulhu's Reign'' DAW Books 2010 *''The Best Horror of the Year 2'' Night Shade Books 2010 *''Black Wings'' PS Publishing 2010 *''The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2011 ed'' Prime 2011 *'' The Book of Cthulhu'' Night Shade Books 2011 *''Blood & Other Cravings'' Tor 2011 *''Ghosts by Gaslight'' HarperCollins 2011 *''Supernatural Noir'' Dark Horse 2011 *''The Best Horror of the Year 3'' Night Shade Books 2011 *''New Cthulhu'' Prime Books 2011 *''Creatures'' Prime Books 2011 *''Wilde Stories 2011'' Lethe 2011 *''Dark Faith 2'' Apex Books 2012 *''Heiresses of Russ'' Lethe 2012 *''Ghosts: Recent Hauntings'' Prime Books 2012 *''A Season in Carcosa'' Miskatonic River Press 2012 *''The Book of Cthulhu 2'' Night Shade Books 2012 *''Fungi'' Innsmouth Free Press 2012 *''The Best Horror of the Year 4'' Night Shade Books 2012 *'' Horror For Good: A Charitable Anthology (Volume 1)'' Cutting Block Press 2012 *''Tales of Jack the Ripper'' Word Horde 2013 *''Suffered from the Night'' Lethe Press 2013 *''Blood Type: An Anthology of Vampire SF on the Cutting Edge'' Nightscape Press 2013 *''Shades of Blue & Gray'' Prime Books 2013 *''The Best Horror of the Year 5'' Night Shade Books 2013 *''The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2012 ed'' Prime Books 2013 *''The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination'' 2013 *''Nightmare Carnival'' Dark Horse 2014 *''Fearful Symmetries'' Chizine Publications 2014 *''A Mountain Walked''

Centipede Press Centipede Press is an American independent book and periodical publisher focusing on horror, weird tales, crime narratives, science fiction, gothic novels, fantasy art, and studies of literature, music and film. Its earliest imprints were Cocytus ...

2014 *''Gigantic Worlds'' Gigantic 2014 *''Lovecraft's Monsters'' Tachyon 2014 *''The Cutting Room'' Tachyon 2014 *''The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2013 edition'' Prime Books 2014 *''The Best Horror of the Year 6'' Night Shade Books 2014

Stories

*"Hour of the Cyclops," ''Three-Lobed Burning Eye'' 2000
"Shiva, Open Your Eye"
''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' 2001

''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' 2003 *"Bulldozer," SCI FICTION 2004 *"Parallax," SCI FICTION 2005 *''The Imago Sequence,'' ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' 2005 *"Proboscis," ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' 2005 *"The Royal Zoo is Closed," ''Phantom # Zero'' 2006 *''Hallucigenia,'' ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' 2006

''Inferno'' 2007

''The Imago Sequence & Other Stories'' 2007 *"The Lonely Death of Agent Haringa," ''Kill Jack Haringa'' 2008

''Clockwork Phoenix'' 2008 *"The Lagerstätte," ''Del Rey Book of Science Fiction & Fantasy'' 2008 *"Catch Hell," ''Lovecraft Unbound'' 2009 *"Strappado," ''Poe'' 2009 *''The Broadsword,'' ''Black Wings'' 2010 *"Six Six Six," ''Occultation'' 2010 *''Mysterium Tremendum,'' ''Occultation'' 2010 *"--30--," ''Occultation'' 2010 *"Vastation," ''Cthulhu's Reign'' 2010 *"The Redfield Girls," ''Haunted Legends'' 2010 *"The Men from Porlock," The Book of Cthulhu (Night Shade Books) 2011 *"The Carrion Gods in Their Heaven" ''Supernatural Noir'' 2011 *"The Siphon," ''Blood & Other Cravings'' 2011
"Blackwood's Baby"
''Ghosts by Gaslight'' 2011 *"a strange form of life" ''Dark Faith'' 2 2012 *"More Dark" ''The Revelator'' 2012
"Frontier Death Song"
''Nightmare Magazine'' 2012 *''Hand of Glory'' The Book of Cthulhu 2 2012 *"D T," ''A Season in Carcosa'' 2012 *"Gamma," ''Fungi'' 2012 *"The Beatification of Custer Poe" ''Shades of Blue & Gray'' 2013 *"Ardor" ''Suffered from the Night'' 2013 *"Black Dog" ''Halloween: Mystery, Magic & the Macabre'' 2013 *"Slave Arm" ''Blood Type: An Anthology of Vampire SF on the Cutting Edge'' 2013
"Nemesis"
''Primeval'' 2013 *"Termination Dust" ''Tales of Jack the Ripper'' 2013 *"LD50" ''Weaponized'' 2013 *"Blood & Stardust" '' The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination'' 2013 *"Jaws of Saturn" ''The beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All'' 2013 *''Man with No Name'' A Mountain Walked 2014 *"Screaming Elk, MT" ''Nightmare Carnival'' 2014 *"Rex" ''Gigantic Worlds'' 2014 *"the worms crawl in," ''Fearful Symmetries'' 2014 *''X's for Eyes'' JournalStone novella 2015 *"Rex" ''Gigantic Worlds'' 2015 *"The Cyclorama" ''Licence Expired'' 2015 *"The Blood in My Mouth" ''The Madness of Cthulhu'' 2015 *"Strident Caller" ''Whispers from the Abyss 2'' 2015 *"49 Foot Woman Straps it On" ''Protectors 2'' 2015 *"Fear Sun" ''Innsmouth Nightmares'' 2015 *"We Smoke the Northern Lights" ''The Gods of H.P. Lovecraft'' 2015
"In a Cavern, in a Canyon"
''Seize the Night'' 2015 *"Don't Make Me Assume My Ultimate Form" ''Cthulhu Fhtagn!'' 2015 *"Ears Prick Up" ''SQ Mag Edition 18'' 2015 *''Tomahawk Park Survivors Raffle'' Swift to Chase 2016 *''An Atlatl'' Limbus III 2016 *"Mobility" What the #%@!is That? 2016 *"Andy Kaufman Creeping through the Trees" ''Autumn Cthulhu'' 2016 *"Oblivion Mode" Lovecraft's Children 2016 *"A Clutch" The Mammoth Book of Cthulhu 2016 *''Man with No Name'' JournalStone novella 2016 *"Swift to Chase" Adam's Ladder 2017
"Girls without their Faces On"
Ashes and Entropy 2018 *"We Used Swords in the '70s" Weird Fiction Review 9, 2019 *“The One We Tell Bad Children” Final Cuts 2020 *“Ode to Joad the Toad” Miscreations: Gods, Monsters, & Other Horrors 2020 *“Jōren Falls” Come Join Us by the Fire II 2020 *“Tiptoe” When Things Get Dark 2021 *“American Remake of a Japanese Ghost Story” There is No Death, and There are No Dead 2021 *“Uncoiling” Cosmic Horror Monthly, January Issue 2022 *“The Big Whimper” Weird World War IV 2022 *“Bitten by Himself” Screams from the Dark 2022 *“So Easy to Kill” Isolation: The Horror Anthology 2022

Other writing

*"Twenty-First Century Ghosts." Essay for Locus, May 2007 *"Quietly, Now." Essay for Erobos: The New Darkness #1, Summer 2007 *"Dark Star: The Michael Shea Experience." An introduction to ''The Autopsy & Other Tales'',

, 2008 *"Vistas of Evil Splendor." Introduction to ''The Darkly Splendid Realm'' by Richard Gavin Dark Regions Press 2009 *"Calling into the Darkness."

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

essay 2010 *"Heart of the North." Introduction to ''Ballad of the Northland'' by Jason Barron 2010 *"Death's Head Blues." Introduction to ''Sin & ashes'' by Joseph S. Pulver

Hippocampus The hippocampus (: hippocampi; via Latin from Ancient Greek, Greek , 'seahorse'), also hippocampus proper, is a major component of the brain of humans and many other vertebrates. In the human brain the hippocampus, the dentate gyrus, and the ...

2010 *"No Escape." Introduction to ''The Ones that Got Away'' by Stephen Graham Jones Prime Books 2010 *"Stalking Through the Jungles of Night." Afterword to limited edition of Peter Straub's ''Koko''

2010 *"In the Shadows of the Pines." Afterword to ''The Collected Stories of Karl Edward Wagner'' by

2011 *"Beyond Love, Sex, and the Heat Death of the Universe." Introduction to ''Engines of Desire,'' by Livia Llewellyn 2011 *"Babes in the Wilderness." Essay for ''Nightmare Magazine'' 2013 *"May Bury You." Essay for ''Weird Fiction Review'' 2014 *"A Stitch in Darkness." Introduction to ''Unseaming'' by Mike Allen 2014 *"Dig My Grave." Introduction to ''Burnt Black Suns'' by Simon Strantzas 2014 *"Waking the Titans." Introduction to ''Ana Kai Tangata'' by Scott Nicolay 2014 *"Shine On, Dark Star." Michael Shea tribute for Locus 2014 *"No Form Is Eternal." Michael Shea tribute for ''Lightspeed Magazine'' 2014 *"Eye of the Raven." Foreword for ''The New Black'' 2014 *"Diabolus Knocks." Foreword to ''The Case Against Satan'' Ray Russell, Penguin Classics edition 2015

Adaptations

His story "-30-" was adapted into the 2018 film '' They Remain'' starring William Jackson Harper.

References

* Biographical notes at
Melic Review
',

' magazine, and

''