Reading List
Featured books from Southern Gothic Festival speakers and guests.
Clay McLeod Chapman
Acquired Taste (2025). From department store Santas to ghost boyfriends and salamander-worshipping nuns; from the claustrophobia of the Covid-19 pandemic to small-town Chesapeake USA, Chapman takes universal fears of parenthood, addiction, and political divisions and makes them uniquely his own in this short story collection.
Lindy Ryan
Another Fine Mess (2025). A Southern horror-mystery novel, the second in the Bless Your Heart series, following the Evans women in southeast Texas.
Scott Gould
Beneath a Fallen Sky (October 2026). Set in northeast Alabama during the passage of Halley’s Comet in 1910, this novel follows four ordinary people who believe the world may be ending. As fear, faith, and desperation reshape their lives over four extraordinary days, Scott Gould crafts a richly atmospheric historical novel about hope, redemption, and […]
Lindy Ryan
Bless Your Heart (2024). A Southern gothic mystery-horror novel about four generations of women who run a funeral parlor in Southeast Texas and must fight off vampires (Strigoi) who have returned to their town in 1999. The book blends horror, mystery, and family drama, following the Evans women as they protect their community from the […]
Clay McLeod Chapman
Bodies of Work (2026). A murderous artist is haunted by the spirits of those he has killed in this surreal and chilling supernatural revenge novella.
Nathan Ballingrud
The Lunar Gothic Trilogy. A horror/sci-fi trilogy of novellas — Crypt of the Moon Spider (2024), Cathedral of the Drowned (2025), and Kingdom of the Conqueror Worm (2027) — blending cosmic horror, pulp adventure, and dark fantasy across a shared universe. The sequel to Crypt of the Moon Spider, Cathedral of the Drowned is an oozing, squirming, scuttling […]
Tanya Pell
Cicada (2024). A Southern Gothic-tinged horror novella about a young woman trapped in a small town hosting a deadly cicada film festival, blending nostalgic VHS horror with grotesque small-town terror.
Lindy Ryan
Cold Snap (2024). A horror novella about a grieving mother who takes her son to a remote cabin for Christmas after her husband’s death, only to be tormented by strange noises and a sinister, horned figure in the woods, blurring the lines between her grief and supernatural horror. The book explores themes of loss, guilt, […]
Chris Panatier
Black metal Wizard of Oz Death comes to those who live. The Longing is here: a ruthless psychological pandemic that only ever ends one way. Most find relief in a bullet or a blade. Kaya Sinh chose fire. With Kaya gone, her friend Adam has only the support group they’d attended to keep him going. […]
Clay McLeod Chapman
Exorcism isn’t a job, it’s a calling—and a curse. Just ask Morgan Kingsley, a woman who has a stronger aura than any Demon. Or so she thought. Now, in a pair of black leather pants and a kick-ass tattoo, Morgan is heading back to Philadelphia after a nasty little exorcism—and her life is about to […]
Lindy Ryan
Dollface (2026). A horror novel described as “Barbie meets Scream,” featuring a horror author who moves to suburban New Jersey and gets drawn into a slasher plot where a killer in a plastic mask targets PTA moms. The book blends 90s nostalgia with modern horror, combining gore with social commentary on suburban life, and has […]
Clay McLeod Chapman
Ghost Eaters (2022). Set in Richmond, Virginia, this supernatural horror novel explores addiction, grief, and the afterlife through a drug that allows users to see ghosts.
Jason Mott
Hell of a Book (2021). A National Book Award-winning novel that intertwines the story of a Black author on a surreal book tour with the coming-of-age story of a young Black boy named Soot, exploring themes of racism, police violence, and identity in America. The narrative blends magical realism with sharp social commentary, as the […]
Julia Elliott
Winner of the 2026 Carol Shields Prize for FictionFinalist for the 2026 Southern Book PrizeA TIME Best Book of the Month“I am obsessed with these lush, feral stories.”―Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other Parties “Beautiful, visceral, surprising stories, both wild and dangerous, with a Southern twang but universal appeal. Elliott is an Angela Carter for […]
Tanya Pell
Her Wicked Roots (2025). Set in Victorian England, this Gothic retelling of Rappaccini’s Daughter blends folk horror, poisonous beauty, and psychological dread in a style reminiscent of Hawthorne. Bram Stoker Award Nominee for Superior Achievement in a First Novel In this queer retelling of Nathaniel Hawthorne classic gothic story, Rappaccini’s Daughter, a young woman is lured […]
Andy Davidson
One night in 1980, a man becomes a monster. Travis Stillwell spends his nights searching out women in honky-tonk bars on the back roads of Texas. What he does with them doesn’t make him proud – it just quiets the demons for a little while. But when he crosses paths with one particular mysterious pale-skinned […]
Clay McLeod Chapman
A horror/dark fantasy short story collection featuring six interconnected tales set against grim Southern and working-class landscapes, exploring the boundaries between the known world and Hell through supernatural horror and psychological dread. The collection includes “The Visible Filth,” later adapted into a film. The acclaimed author of Ghost Eaters and What Kind of Mother is coming to Bad Hand […]
Nathan Ballingrud
Monsterland / North American Lake Monsters: Stories (2013). Winner of the Shirley Jackson Award, this collection blends Southern Gothic horror, fantasy, and literary fiction to examine the lives of working-class Southerners confronting monsters both literal and metaphorical. Known for its bleak realism and emotionally intense characters, the stories use supernatural elements to reflect human suffering, […]
Michael Wehunt
Nightjars (September 2026). A horror/psychological thriller novel about a man haunted by his serial killer father’s legacy, who finds himself implicated in new murders that mirror his father’s crimes, forcing him to confront a dark, ancient secret in the North Georgia Appalachians. The story blends elements of photography, repressed memories, and folklore, exploring themes of […]
Yah Yah Schofield
On Sundays She Picked Flowers (2026) is a lyrical Southern Gothic novel about Judith Rice, a woman who escapes an abusive childhood and builds a secluded life in the haunted woods of southern Georgia. Living among ghosts, haints, and the lingering violence of the land, she finds purpose as a healer—until the arrival of a […]
Jason Mott
People Like Us (2025). In People Like Us, two Black writers are trying to find peace and belonging in a world that is riven with gun violence. One is on a global book tour after a big prize win; the other is set to give a speech at a school that has suffered a shooting. […]
Clay McLeod Chapman
Shiny Happy People (2025). A twisted and thrilling genre-bending young adult novel set in a struggling Southern small town, shining a light on the terrors of the U.S. opioid epidemic through a mysterious new drug and its haunting side effects. A BRAM STOKER AWARD WINNER • A twisted and thrilling genre-bending novel that shines a […]
Chris Panatier
Latrine Technician vs. Dark Carnival?Yep.After his mother is diagnosed with dementia, Sunday McWhorter needs a job with flexible hoursand a company vehicle. It just so happens that the local porta-potty company is hiring.The job stinks, but it’s a solid paycheck that allows Sunday to take care of his mom. Everythinggoes smoothly until Autumn and the […]
Robert Gwaltney
Sing Down the Moon (2026). Set on a remote Georgia barrier island steeped in Southern folklore and family inheritance, this novel follows sixteen-year-old Leontyne Skye as she struggles against the haunting legacy tied to her family’s sacred fig tree. Sixteen-year-old Leontyne Skye yearns to escape Good Hope, the remote Georgia coastal barrier island where she […]
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