Richard Thomas Chizmar (born 1965) is an American writer, the publisher and editor of '' Cemetery Dance'' magazine, and the owner of Cemetery Dance Publications. He also edits

anthologies In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and ge ...

, produces films, writes

screenplays A screenplay, or script, is a written work produced for a film, television show (also known as a ''teleplay''), or video game by screenwriters (cf. ''stage play''). Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writ ...

, and teaches writing.

Writing

Richard Chizmar is a ''New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Amazon'', and ''Publishers Weekly'' bestselling author. He is the co-author (with Stephen King) of the novella, ''

Gwendy's Button Box ''Gwendy's Button Box'' is a horror fiction, horror novella by American writers Stephen King and Richard Chizmar. It was announced by ''Entertainment Weekly'' on February 28, 2017. The American edition published by Cemetery Dance included illustr ...

'' and the founder/publisher of ''Cemetery Dance'' magazine and the Cemetery Dance Publications book imprint. He has edited more than 35 anthologies and his short fiction has appeared in dozens of publications, including multiple editions of ''Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine'' and ''The Year’s 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories''. He has won two World Fantasy awards, four International Horror Guild awards, and the HWA’s Board of Trustee’s award. Chizmar (in collaboration with Johnathon Schaech) has also written screenplays and teleplays for United Artists, Sony Screen Gems, Lions Gate, Showtime, NBC, and many other companies. He has adapted the works of many bestselling authors including Stephen King, Peter Straub, and Bentley Little. Chizmar is also the creator/writer of the online website, ''Stephen King Revisited''. His fourth short story collection, ''The Long Way Home'', was published in 2019. With Brian Freeman, Chizmar is co-editor of ''Dark Screams'' horror anthology series published by Random House imprint, Hydra. His latest book, ''The Girl on the Porch'', was released in hardcover by Subterranean Press, and ''Widow’s Point'', a novella about a haunted lighthouse written with his son, Billy Chizmar, was recently adapted into a feature film. Chizmar’s work has been translated into more than fifteen languages throughout the world, and he has appeared at numerous conferences as a writing instructor, guest speaker, panelist, and guest of honor.

Publishing

Chizmar is the founder of Cemetery Dance, a literary publisher that runs a magazine by the same name and a book imprint, Cemetery Dance Publications. He founded ''Cemetery Dance'' magazine in 1988 while attending the University of Maryland's College of Journalism. It features

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 ...

horror fiction Horror is a genre of speculative fiction that is intended to disturb, frighten, or scare an audience. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror. Literary historian J. A. Cuddon, in 1984, defin ...

, and articles related to those subjects. ''

Metro Silicon Valley ''Metro'', also known as ''Metro Silicon Valley'', is a free weekly newspaper published by the San Jose, California-based Weeklys media group for four decades, a period during which its readership area became known as Silicon Valley. Metro was ...

'' called it "America's longest-running independent horror-themed magazine". The book imprint, Cemetery Dance Publications was first launched in 1992 and has produced more than 300 different autographed limited edition, lettered edition hardcover novels, novellas, and

. It also publishes

chapbook A chapbook is a type of small printed booklet that was a popular medium for street literature throughout early modern Europe. Chapbooks were usually produced cheaply, illustrated with crude woodcuts and printed on a single sheet folded into 8, 1 ...

s, trade hardcovers, and a few paperbacks.

Screenplays and Chesapeake films

Richard Chizmar co-founded Chesapeake Films with

Johnathon Schaech Johnathon Schaech ( ; born September 10, 1969) is an American actor and screenwriter. He made his film debut in Franco Zeffirelli's '' Sparrow'' (1993) before his breakout with starring roles in the black comedy thriller film ''The Doom Generat ...

, with whom he also co-writes screenplays. Their produced screenplays include 2006's '' Road House 2'' (based on the story by Miles Chapman) and Showtime's ''

Masters of Horror ''Masters of Horror'' is a horror anthology television series created by director Mick Garris for the Showtime cable network. Origin In 2002, director Mick Garris invited some director friends to an informal dinner at a restaurant in Sherm ...

'' presentation of '' The Washingtonians'' (based on Bentley Little's story) from 2007. They also wrote the screenplay for an unproduced adaptation of '' From a Buick 8'' based on

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author. Dubbed the "King of Horror", he is widely known for his horror novels and has also explored other genres, among them Thriller (genre), suspense, crime fiction, crime, scienc ...

's novel.

Selected awards

Won

* 1991 World Fantasy Special Award – Non-Professional (for '' Cemetery Dance magazine'') *1997 Horror Writers Association Specialty Press Award (for ''Cemetery Dance Magazine'') *1999 World Fantasy Special Award – Non-Professional (for Cemetery Dance Publications) *2001 International Horror Guild Awards Best Anthology (for '' October Dreams: A Celebration of Halloween'') *2002 International Horror Guild Awards Best Anthology (for ''Night Visions 10'')

Nominated

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 ...

for Best Anthology 1998 (for ''Best of Cemetery Dance'') *

for Best Anthology 2001 (for ''Trick or Treat: A Collection of Halloween Novellas'') *

for Best Anthology 2002 (''Shivers'') *

for Best Anthology 2004 (''Shivers III'')

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chizmar, Richard American magazine editors American male screenwriters American horror writers American speculative fiction editors American speculative fiction publishers (people) American publishers (people) World Fantasy Award–winning writers 1965 births Living people