Ghost Stories by Gay Authors

I printed a few copies of this small booklet to provide as a handout during a signing this spring at the Horror Writers Association booth at Book Expo for my collection of gay-themed ghost stories The Haunted Heart and Other Tales and my recent novel The Wolf at the Door, which is set in a haunted gay-owned guesthouse in New Orleans. Since then, I have had a number of requests to see the list from other writers, librarians, and booksellers, so I’ve posted it on my Web site and provide a link here for the curious readers who would like to find more stories to read.

During the eight years that I worked on the gay-themed ghost stories that became The Haunted Heart and Other Tales, I read a number of classic and contemporary ghost stories and horror anthologies and was impressed by the hidden history of how gay authors helped to shape this genre. The list, organized chronologically, reflects ghost stories and novels written by gay men and which include gay male characters, gay themes, and/or gay interpretations. I encourage readers to contact me at jimcurrier@aol.com regarding additions or omissions to this reading list. Please note that this is not a comprehensive list, but a selected and suggested one for discussion and further research. I have also not included the contributions of lesbian authors to the ghost story genre in the hopes that another author will do so, nor have I included the gay vampire tale within these recommendations—that is a genre of its own and which has grown in recent years at warp speed and lie beyond the scope of this list.

Access the list here or here.

If the links do not work or if you cannot download the file, please feel free to email me and I will email you a copy of the booklet.

My thanks to Vince Liaguno for arranging the BEA signing and to Steve Berman and Tom Cardamone for suggesting some of the stories I have included in the list.

The Wolf at the Door: Forthcoming this Spring

This Spring Chelsea Station Editions is publishing The Wolf at the Door, my novel set in a haunted gay-owned guesthouse in the French Quarter of New Orleans. It is not a horror story per se, but more of a comic hallucination of an overworked man who drinks too much and thinks he is seeing ghosts and angels and all sorts of other spirits. I hope that it’s regarded as the kind of spiritual adventure of, say, A Christmas Carol or It’s A Wonderful Life. I think Avery, the main character in the novel, comes close to who I am today, a funny, boozy, aging gay man, but this was also another story that required me to do a lot of historical research — this time on New Orleans and its history of slavery and the fact that there were many freed slaves who owned slaves themselves.

Dark Scribe magazine has a nice interview up in their queer horror issue about The Haunted Heart and Other Tales. Link is here.

Word has also arrived that The Haunted Heart and Other Tales is nominated for a Gaybie award for Best Gay Fiction. Kudos also to Sean Meriwether for The Silent Hustler. Details and voting info can be found here.

The Haunted Heart wins a Black Quill Award

The Haunted and Other Tales, my collection of gay-themed ghost stories, won the Black Quill Award for Best Dark Genre Fiction Collection-Editors' Choice given by Dark Scribe Magazine.

Dark Scribe -- magazine and press -- has been at the forefront of developing, presenting, promoting, and recognizing “queer horror,” so I am very grateful for this recognition. Among the other gay authors who are Black Quill recipients this year is Paul G. Bens Jr. for Best Small Press Chill-Editors' Choice for his novel Kelland. Paul has been collecting some amazing reviews and well-earned word of mouth on his new novel.

Dark Scribe magazine is also celebrating February as Queer Horror month and will have a forthcoming interview with me about The Haunted Heart and Other Tales. Also up will be an interview with Tom Cardamone, author of the collection Pumpkin Teeth. Tom is good friend and a great author and I’m delighted to see his quirky, weird, and ingenious stories finding an audience. Dark Scribe will also have an interview with the terrific writer Lee Thomas, whose new collection In the Closet, Under the Bed is destined to be a landmark in queer horror.