Jewishness in horror manifests itself in many ways, chief among them being conjured through folklore musings of golems, dybbuks, or biblical angels with four faces as harbingers of the apocalypse to terrifying monsters that swallow ships and demons that plague villages in Eastern Europe.
Still, there’s more to Jewishness in horror than literary tradition might dictate, and every author brings their unique experiences and their own intersectionality that make every part of their work different in the best ways possible.
The act of storytelling holds significant importance in the Jewish faith and culture, and we as a people have valued the importance of storytelling as a way to educate, illuminate, and give meaning to that which might be lost to the darkness.
And today, not only to honor that aspect of my own culture, but more importantly, to highlight the vital work of others, I'm sharing a few of the many Jewish authors in the horror and dark literature spaces. These authors are creating work today and telling stories in ways that have become meaningful to them and to their readership.
While this list is nowhere near comprehensive, here are five Jewish authors doing great work in the horror fiction space.
Becky Spratford
Why I Love Horror: Essays on Horror Literature
Becky Spratford is a renowned librarian and authority on Reader’s Advisory in the library world. Her recently published book, Why I Love Horror: Essays on Horror Literature features 18 of today's best horror writers in spine tingling essays that get to the dark heart of why we truly love horror.
Nat Cassidy
Nestlings
Nat Cassidy brings wit, terror, and sharpness in his novel Nestlings, and stands out as a dark star in horror’s nightscape.
Actor, author, and musician, Nat brings versality not only in his prose but with a career spanning both on and off the screen.
Nicholas Kaufmann
Monuments in Darkness
Nicholas Kaufmann is a master of darkness and the weird, celebrating his 25th year as a published author, Nicholas’ talent for the cosmic, strange, and bleak comes to light (or shadow) in his new short story collection Monuments in Darkness from Hippocampus Press.
An assemblage of tales, Monuments in Darkness fulfill any reader’s urge for the uncanny and the weird.
Elana Gomel
Nightwood: All Fairy Tales were History Once (Dark Fantasy set in the Soviet Empire Book 2)
As her bio states, “born in country that no longer exists” (Soviet Union), Elana Gomel weaves the darkness of our past with the bright possibilities in our future in her fiction and poetry.
Elana’s novel, Nightwood takes readers on this journey where a Ukrainian bride is taken to a new place, a new world and must take a perilous journey.
Jon Palisano
Requiem
John Palisano’s storytelling ability and veteran skills as a seasoned writer surpass all expectation in his recent novel Requiem which blends sci-fi and horror in a wild, fast-paced fever-dream with all eyes set on a bleak future.
Featured image: Alexander Grey / Unsplash
