Dark bleatings, my lovely tribe! I often check out lists of female horror authors (on the prowl for my next great, undiscovered read!), and have noticed that such lists always use at least half their slots to recommend authors who, alas, are no longer with us. The likes of Mary Shelley, Susan Hill, and Charlotte Perkins-Gilman should definitely be read and celebrated, but most of us know about them already. I thought it might be beneficial to compile a list of contemporary female horror authors who are still writing today (so we get the joy of looking forward to their new releases!).
Before I start listing authors, let me say this… just don’t. Last year, I made a video post on some of my favourite horror written by women and I was immediately hit with “what does gender matter?” and “why are you excluding men?” I was shocked that this video was deemed so offensive by some, and more shocked that I – after vowing to NEVER do this – had to actually block 2 people from commenting.
If you’d like to read my reasoning for compiling this list, you will find it at the bottom of this article (because this article is about the awesome female horror authors I want to tell you about!). In no particular order, here they are!
PS. There will most definitely be several “sequels” to this post because there are too many authors to include at once, so we’re going 10 at a time!
S.Q. MCGRATH
S.Q. McGrath was completely unknown to me just a few months back. She submitted several novels to the website for review, and on my Kindle they idly sat for ages before I had time to get to them. But oh. my. god. The first book I read of hers was called The Women in the Woods – an incredible work of folk horror (it gets seriously dark). This was basically a perfect horror novel to me, and I loved her writing so much that I went ahead and ordered paperbacks of ALL of her work. I’ve read 5 of her novels now and loved every one of them.
Outside of her work, what I love about McGrath is that she clearly loves writing. It shows in how well executed her stories are, in her deep, layered characters, and in her style. It’s also shown by the fact that, for reasons that I can’t even imagine, she has hardly any reviews on any of her works, which makes me think her readership is limited – which, I think, actually lends even more credit to her as a creative artist because she doesn’t continue to do it for the sales.
My amazing tribe – I implore you to help me support this author by spreading the word and reading her work (and reviewing it, of course!). I’m so confident in recommending her that I’m happy to stake my reputation as a reviewer on my insistence that she deserves a lot more readers.
You can find S.Q. McGrath HERE.
GEMMA AMOR
Next up, my gal, Gemma Amor. And by ‘my gal’, I mean that I’ve only met her once and spoken to her via the Internet a handful of times, but I feel a bizarre kinship with her because of how relatable her characters are. She writes with an intelligent intensity, the way she uses language when she’s describing scenes of absolute horror and gore is somehow gorgeous to me, and the horror palette she paints with is large. No two of her works are alike – she’ll give us slightly futuristic sci-fi horror in one book, creepy coastal ghost-like shenanigans in another, and an eerie, real-world psycho in the next. Plus, her actual writing leaps up in quality with each release – she started off strong and continues to absolutely smash it to a slightly higher degree with every new book.
HOLLEY CORNETTO
Holley Cornetto is ridiculously talented. Two years ago, I read We Haunt These Woods – a story that manages to feel epic despite its novella length, that reminded me of Stephen King’s IT. It’s told in alternating chapters between past and present, so we get dual timelines, and there’s a scary presence known as The Forest Man.
More recently, I read a novel that she co-wrote with S.O. Green, called They Are Cursed Like You. If there’s one thing I often complain about, it’s the lack of scary, adult, witch stories. I have no beef with teenage witches, or YA witchy love triangles – I enjoy those stories, but I am in seriously short supply of adult horror about ruthless, bloodthirsty witches who are willing to sacrifice babies, and whatnot. Those are my kind of witch stories, and they’re in short supply. And then looky here, this book pops up and it’s literally every single thing I could want in a witch story, all packaged together with a nice, neat (black, made of human flesh) bow. It’s one of my favourite books of the year so far.
You can find Holley Cornetto HERE.
PENNY JONES
Penny Jones is a sweet person who spends a lot of her time promoting other people’s work on her social media, and saying nice things. Which is why it was such a shock to my system when I read her micro-collection, Suffer Little Children. There I was, sitting down for a nice relaxing read, and then half an hour later my face was fused into its lesser-spotted shock/horror expression. I tell you… the absolute savagery! Just opening the pages, expecting some “standard” horror, and then spitting my tea everywhere, I was.
As far as I know, Penny has mostly penned short fiction, and lots of it (and a novella, if I’m not mistaken). I have yet to read her entire works but am currently rectifying that.
You can find Penny Jones HERE.
ALEXIS HENDERSON
I’m obsessed. I picked up The Year of the Witching during my aforementioned eternal search for scary witch horror, and enjoyed this feminist period piece (which wasn’t actually quite what I was looking for, but I wasn’t at all disappointed!). I enjoyed her writing so much that I went straight on to House of Hunger, which again – not quite what I expected for the subgenre it’s listed under but, again, was not at all disappointed. Henderson’s penchant for putting an off-kilter twist on popular subgenres is something I really enjoy, and I can’t wait for her upcoming release! I’m sitting here, twiddling my thumbs, hoping she does something weird with werewolves next…
You can find Alexis Henderson HERE.
ERICA SUMMERS
All hail Erica Summers! She’s a new Top Ten Favourite Author for me, and I’m so excited about it. I love it when I find a new author whose work excites me this much. She covers quite a variety of topics in her works – everything from parasitic body horror to a potential biblical apocalypse. Her novella, Writhe, (co-written with H.M. Wohl) is brutal, funny (in a really dark way) and the stuff of nightmares, and right after that I moved over to Vanity Kills (there’s also a movie adaptation of this called Obsidian) – which also contains some parasitic body horror, but we’re in a group setting in a medical trial facility so we get a lot more out of the characters. If that’s not your cup of tea, you can just slide right on over to her western thriller/horror story, Bad God’s Tower. But the creme de la creme for me is Mantis – an apocalyptic adventure story starring a gang of demon fighting exotic dancers (plus one tag-along DJ). It’s bloody brilliant, and Mantis is one of the funniest protagonists ever, and one of my favourite characters of all time.
You can find Erica Summers HERE.
Mary SanGiovanni
I first discovered Mary when I joined Goodreads and entered a free prize draw for a copy of her book, Thrall. And I’ve never looked back. She’s the author of numerous works (recently including a novel from the Alien universe!) and is published by several reputable, wonderful presses. She has a great back catalogue to read your way through, if you’re just discovering her, including a few comics as well as novels, novellas, and shorts, if that’s your jam.
If you want a recommendation on where to start (if you’ve not yet discovered the joy of Mary), may I humbly suggest The Hollower. Man, that was creepy but fast-paced!
You can find Mary SanGiovanni HERE.
Lee Murray
Lee Murray is a master storyteller and isn’t afraid to hit you right where it hurts, in the feelings. One of her recent releases, Fox Spirit on a Distant Cloud, is gorgeously written but dear lord, so harrowing. It’s a collection of stories from female, Asian perspectives, and in places, it is absolutely brutal. I find that much of Lee’s work fuses beautiful mythological and fictional ideas with the savagery of the real world, which makes for both excellent horror and deeply upsetting tales. If ever there was a writer that perfectly works serious social commentary into her horror stories, it’s Lee Murray.
I suppose, for me, what really gets to me is the dichotomy between her lovely, poetic language and storytelling, and then what she’s actually telling. It’s so jarring at times, but makes for excellent horror!
Judith Sonnet
Judith Judith Judith. Now, extreme horror is not my subgenre – I simply do not like it. I don’t like reading extreme human suffering, I just don’t get on with it. However, Judith is such a good writer that despite the fact I don’t actually enjoy the subject matter, I can’t deny that I enjoy her work. There’s a lot of depth to her characters and her story ideas are really compelling. If you like your horror on the extreme side, Judith is definitely an author you should be reading, if you’re not already.
If, like me, you’re not a seasoned extreme horror reader, I will caution you to proceed with… er… caution! But she is great and there’s a reason that she’s so popular in the horror community.
You can find Judith Sonnet HERE.
Angela Sylvaine
Crazed, murderous prairie dogs! Angela has several stories that you absolutely should check out, but I really must insist that Frost Bite is the one you start with. Rarely am I so delighted when I’m reading about people getting bitten to bits. Angela has such a great sense of humour that she works into her horror – it’s enough to make you laugh at times but never enough to undercut the actual horror so much as to ruin it. And what an imagination – she’s the kind of author who has ideas that make me, as a fellow author, jealous that I didn’t think of it first.
As well as her premises being top notch, she’s also really great at character work – they’re so real that it’s impossible not to care about whatever their individual plights are.
You can find Angela Sylvaine HERE
There you have it, I hope there are a few authors on this list that you’d like to check out! I have plenty more to talk about, so you can expect a few more lists like this by the end of this year.
Now, as promised for anyone triggered by the fact this is a list of ladies, let me remind you that I am constantly promoting the work of men – I think probably about 90% of what I’ve covered has been by male authors (I am actively trying to do better since realising this).
The reason I wanted to create this list is because men, by far, still have the highest visibility in horror, the proportion of male/everyone else authors in mainstream publishing is still massively skewed, and also most male readers just don’t pick up books written by women in the first place. As of last year, the percentage of male readers of female-written fiction was only, on average, around 20%, whereas the audience for male authors is closer to 50/50. “Bullshit! Where are your sources?!” – I hear you cry. Here. Here they are (some of them, I have more if you really need them).
Excerpt from ‘The Authority Gap’ by Mary Ann Sieghart
This article from The Guardian
This article from The New European
Bleeeat!
Happy Goat Horror 
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