When I think about Women’s History Month, it conjures up images of suffragettes and mothers, tea and sympathy, trailblazing scientists, sirens, bloody queens, burning bras, shotgun brides, downhill skiing, uphill strides, boots and sweaters, scarlet letters, and Stevie Nicks’ Landslide...
But I don’t really think about horror.
Or didn’t, until I had the pleasure of compiling this list. A couple of names came to mind straightaway (hello, Shirley Jackson!) but I was pleased to discover a deep and wide array of women who bring the horror and bring it hard. Don’t let’s let March march on without giving them their due.
Ania Ahlborn (January 20, 1997 - present)
Ania Ahlborn is a Polish-born novelist whose self-published debut Seed reached #1 on Amazon's list of best-selling horror novels in 2011. All of her subsequent work has been published by Simon & Schuster, proving that self-publishing can be a viable path to a successful writing career. In 2015, Ahlborn's novel Brother garnered considerable attention for its "sick and twisted" narrative about a family of serial killers. Her storytelling style blends elements of horror and suspense with a flair for exposing the scurviest depths of the human psyche. Ahlborn's most recent novel is 2025's The Unseen, which has been hailed as "a haunting, grief-filled horror you won't be able to put down." Her work is definitely worth a look. It's gritty and gross with a heart.
Nancy A. Collins (September 10, 1959 - present)
Nancy A. Collins is an American horror writer best known for her Bram Stoker Award-winning series of vampire novels featuring the character Sonja Blue. Collins has also written for comic books, including the Swamp Thing series, and Blade Runner: Black Lotus. She is the author of several highly acclaimed Southern Gothic short stories and novellas, most set in Seven Devils, Arkansas, a fictionalized version of her real hometown. Most recently, Collins has focused her attention on an urban fantasy series set in Golgotham, a supernatural ghetto of New York City where creatures from myth and folklore—including witches, shapeshifters, leprechauns, and centaurs—live and work in an uneasy alliance with humans. If you like sassy female characters and a fantasy-tinged vibe, Collins is your girl.
Tananarive Due (January 5, 1966 - present)
Tananarive Due is an American author and educator. She won the American Book Award for her novel The Living Blood (2001), and the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel, the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel, and the World Fantasy Award for The Reformatory (2023). Due also authored the African Immortals series and the Tennyson Hardwick novels. She is known as a film historian with special expertise in Black horror. Among the classes she has taught at UCLA is "The Sunken Place: Racism, Survival and the Black Horror Aesthetic," which focuses on the film Get Out. The first course went viral and included a visit from the film's director, Jordan Peele. Stephen King and Joe Hill are big fans of her work.
Mariana Enriquez (March 19, 1973 - present)
Mariana Enriquez is an Argentine journalist, novelist, and short story writer. She is part of a group of writers known as "the new Argentine narrative." Enriquez's short stories fall within the horror and Gothic genres and have been published in magazines such as Granta, McSweeney's , and The New Yorker. Her work is known for its haunting characters and exploration of dark themes like violence, corruption, and inequality. Her 2016 short story collection Las cosas que perdimos en el fuego (translated as Things We Lost in the Fire) has been described as "violent and cool." It became a bestseller in Argentina and Spain and was shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman (July 3, 1860 – August 17, 1935)
Charlotte Perkins Gilman was an American writer, lecturer, and early sociologist. She was a utopian feminist and served as a role model for future generations due to her unorthodox points of view and alternative lifestyle. Her works were primarily focused on gender (specifically, gendered labor division in society) and the problem of male domination. Her best remembered work today is the chilling 1892 semi-autobiographical short story The Yellow Wallpaper, which she wrote after a severe bout of postpartum depression. 134 years after its publication, this story is still being taught in many high school and college-level English classes. Read it, and you'll see why!
Shirley Jackson (December 14, 1916 – August 8, 1965)
Shirley Jackson was an American writer best known for her works of literary horror. She gained significant attention in 1948 when her short story The Lottery, which depicts the sinister underbelly of a bucolic American village, was published in The New Yorker. In 1959, she published The Haunting of Hill House, a supernatural horror novel widely considered to be one of the best ghost stories ever written. Jackson's final work, We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962), is a Gothic psychological horror novel that is regarded as her masterpiece. By the 1960s, Jackson's health had begun to deteriorate, leading to her death from heart disease at the age of 48. In recognition of her unique legacy, the Shirley Jackson Awards were established in 2007. They are awarded annually for outstanding literary achievement in the genres of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic.
Gwendolyn Kiste (February 8, 1995 - present)
Gwendolyn Kiste is an openly bisexual American horror and speculative fiction writer. She won the 2018 Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel for The Rust Maidens, the 2024 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel for The Haunting of Velkwood, and the 2023 Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Fiction for Reluctant Immortals. The latter is a historical horror novel featuring two men from classic literature (Dracula and Mr. Rochester) and the two women who survived them (Lucy and Bertha). In Kiste's story, the foursome reunites as undead immortals in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco circa 1967, and mayhem ensues. If this sounds like your jam, you should check out Kiste's work!
Sarah Langan (August 12, 1974 - present)
Sarah Langan is an American horror author and three-time Bram Stoker Award winner. Langan published her first story, Sick People, while attending college in Maine. Her short story The Lost won the Bram Stoker Award in 2008. She has also won the Bram for her novels The Missing and Audrey's Door. Her fiction is pleasantly deranged in the classic horror tradition. Those who enjoy puzzle plots should take a look at Good Neighbors, Langan's wickedly funny examination of the evil that lurks behind the picket fence next door. Langan has served as a judge for the Shirley Jackson Award and is currently on its Board of Directors.
Carmen Maria Machado (July 3, 1986 - present)
Carmen Maria Machado is a Cuban-American writer. Her short stories, essays, and criticism have been published in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and The Los Angeles Review of Books, among others. Her short stories have been reprinted in anthologies such as The Best Horror of the Year, and When Things Get Dark: Stories Inspired by Shirley Jackson. Machado's fiction has been described as "strange and seductive." She has been a finalist for the Nebula Award for Best Novelette, the Shirley Jackson Award, and the Franz Kafka Award in Magic Realism. Her horror-inspired short story collection Her Body and Other Parties was a 2017 finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction, won the 2017 National Book Critics Circle Award, and was shortlisted for the 2018 Dylan Thomas Prize.
Flannery O'Connor (March 25, 1925 - August 3, 1964)
Flannery O'Connor is known for her indelible contributions to American Southern Gothic literature, specifically her darkly humorous and violent short stories. Her most famous works, such as the short stories A Good Man is Hard to Find and Good Country People, are renowned for their shocking, grotesque, and satirical depictions of Southern life and their exploration of the themes of hypocrisy and grace. O'Connor's novels Wise Blood (1952) and The Violent Bear It Away (1960) are also examples of Southern Gothic fiction at its best. She was a three-time winner of the O. Henry Award and posthumously won the National Book Award for Fiction for The Complete Stories in 1972. In a recent online poll, The Complete Stories was named the best book ever to have won the National Book Award for Fiction. Ever! O'Connor passed away at the age of 39 after being diagnosed with lupus in her twenties, back in the days before effective treatments were available, but her genius will always live on in her searingly brilliant fiction.
Helen Oyeyemi (December 10, 1984 - present)
Helen Oyeyemi is a Nigerian-British author known for her distinctive Afro-surrealistic style, which fuses literary fiction with fairy tales and Gothic horror. Her work often explores the themes of identity, transformation, and migration, subverting traditional myths and "happily ever after" tropes. She wrote her first novel, The Icarus Girl, while she was still in high school. White Is for Witching, published in 2009, was a Shirley Jackson Award finalist and won a Somerset Maugham Award. That same year, Oyeyemi was named on Venus Zine's "25 under 25" list. Her eighth novel, Parasol Against the Axe, was published in February 2024. It is the first of her books to be set in the Czech Republic, where she has lived for more than a decade. Grab it if you're in the mood for something "delightfully weird."
Laura Purcell (November 30, 1985 - present)
Laura Purcell is a British historical fiction writer and horror novelist. She is the author of the Victorian Gothic novels The Silent Companions and The Shape of Darkness, both of which are deliciously atmospheric and creepy. She is also the author of a historical fiction series about the Georgian queens (Queen of Bedlam and Mistress of the Court) that are historically sound, very juicy, and well worth your time. Purcell combined her two areas of expertise by serving as head writer on the historical horror podcast series Roanoke Falls, executive produced by John Carpenter and Sandy King. She is also the winner of the WHSmith Thumping Good Read Award (2018, for The Silent Companions). And who doesn't like a thumping good read?
Catriona Ward (May 14, 1982 - present)
Catriona Ward was born to British parents in Washington, D.C. Due to her father's work as an international economist, the family moved frequently, and she grew up all over the world, including in the United States, Kenya, Madagascar, Yemen, and Morocco. Her first novel, The Girl from Rawblood, was published in 2015. She won the British Fantasy Award for Rawblood in 2016, and again in 2018 for her novel Little Eve, making her the first woman to win that prize twice. Little Eve also went on to win the Shirley Jackson Award. Her most recent novel, The Last House on Needless Street, has been named "One of the Best Horror Books of All Time" by Esquire and Cosmopolitan magazines. It was also an Indie Next Pick, a LibraryReads Top 10 Pick, and a Library Journal Editors' Pick. So what are you waiting for, kids? Spook it up with Cat!
