Mark Morris
As a reader of horror growing up in the 1970s, and as a young writer starting out in the genre back in the late ’80s and early ’90s, I have to admit that it never occurred to me at the time that the vast majority of books published and promoted for the mass market were being written or edited by white, male, middle-class writers, based in either the US or the UK.
But pick up any major horror anthology from that era – aside, of course, from those specifically themed to be more inclusive, such as Kathryn Ptacek’s Women of Darkness series, or Lisa Tuttle’s Skin of the Soul, both of which I highly recommend – and you’ll find that around 90 per cent of the contributors fall into most, if not all, of those categories listed above.
The narrowness of this particular demographic does not detract from the innovative and inspirational work being produced back then, of course. The half-century between 1960 and 2010 saw the emergence of many great writers – Stephen King, Ramsey Campbell, Dennis Etchison, Karl Edward Wagner, Peter Straub, Clive Barker, Michael McDowell, Stephen Gallagher, Stephen Laws, James Herbert and more – and the appearance of a whole slew of seminal anthologies, among them Kirby McCauley’s Dark Forces, Ramsey Campbell’s two-volume New Terrors, Dennis Etchison’s Cutting Edge, and Charles L. Grant’s Shadows series.
Despite the high quality of much of the fiction available, however, it cannot be denied that not all horror readers and fans felt well-represented by what they were reading. It is often said that horror is a genre that appeals to ‘outsiders’, but whereas many horror writers of the latter part of the twentieth century will readily admit to writing fiction about, and for, the kind of kid they were at school – most commonly the ‘geeky, sports-hating bookworm’ – not many novels or stories from that era feature protagonists who identify as members of the LGBTQ+ community, or who hail from a different ethnic background to the one in which the story is set. Indeed, despite the sterling work of authors such as Anne Rice, Suzy McKee Charnas, Melanie Tem, Tanith Lee, and the aforementioned Lisa Tuttle and Kathryn Ptacek, even female horror readers of the time would have found books written by and about women a little thin on the ground.
I’m happy to say, however, that in recent years the number of voices rising to prominence in the field has shown a far greater diversity, and the genre is all the richer for it. There are more women writing in the field than ever before, there are more LGBTQ+ themed horror stories being told, and with the work of authors such as Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Usman Malik, Mariana Enríquez, Junji Ito, Ryū Murakami, Attila Veres, Anders Fager and Luigi Musolino being brought to the attention of English-speaking readers, the genre is enjoying a breath-taking, eye-opening, mind-expanding explosion of culturally diverse work that can only feed and enhance the imaginations of generations of readers and writers to come.
My particular reason for drawing attention to this new and refreshing diversity in horror – aside from the fact that it’s both important and topical – is that, for the first time ever, I have more female than male contributors in one of my anthologies. As an editor, my story choices have always been based purely on the quality of the work submitted to me; anything less, and I feel I’m doing both the contributors and the readers a disservice. And although establishing gender parity within genre anthologies is clearly an important consideration nowadays, there’s no getting away from the fact that, until recently, that has been something of a struggle, simply because around 75-80 per cent of non-commissioned stories submitted have come from the pens, or rather keyboards, of male writers.
I’m happy to say that there are so many excellent female writers making a real impact in the previously male-dominated horror genre now, though, that the commissioning process is no longer a struggle to achieve gender parity, but more a case of jotting down potential contributors for future volumes because the current volume is full. As for my non-commissioned stories, I choose them blind – which means I’m sent them without by-lines, so know nothing about their authors. In the past, this has resulted in a roughly 3:1 bias in favour of male authors, again reflecting the fact that an overwhelming percentage of stories were submitted by men. For this particular volume, however, it turned out that all four of the stories I selected as a result of the open subs process had been written by women, which I found a heartening, and extremely welcome, outcome.
Like many readers, I’m discovering newer, and more diverse, writers all the time, and my hope is that my discoveries will be further reflected in future volumes of this series. For now, I’m thrilled that this latest annual anthology of horror stories for Flame Tree Press – my fourth for them as editor – is the most far-reaching yet in terms of approaches, styles and story content. In Darkness Beckons you’ll find stories of human evil, of folk magic, of shifting realities, of phantasmagorical horror, of ghostly wistfulness, and of dying worlds. You’ll meet a multitude of characters in extremis, some of whom are seeking love, others peace, others redemption, others a way out, and yet others simply an opportunity to belong.
Diversity is the watchword in horror, and more so now than ever before.
Vive la difference!
Mark Morris