This is such great news! My short story will be published in The Valancourt Book of World Horror Stories, an anthology of horror stories published outside the English-speaking world.

I’m very much looking forward to this, not only as a contributing writer but also as a reader of horror fiction. Like many readers of the genre, I’m very familiar with authors from the English-speaking countries but embarrasingly ignorant of what’s going on in other parts of the world. Being from Finland, I do know the Nordic scene (Finnish, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and Icelandic authors) but couldn’t name a single horror writer from most of the other countries in continental Europe, not to mention Africa or South America. So big, big cheers for Valancourt Books for doing this!

I suppose it’s more common to have favourite writers and books instead of publishers, but for me Valancourt Books is an exception. More than any other publisher, they have broadened my horizons by releasing forgotten and out-of-print gems in the genre. Novels like Ben Greenhall’s Hell Hound and Elizabeth are in a class of their own in terms of eeriness and originality. Joan Samson’s 1975 debut The Auctioneer shows such promise that it’s a shame that it turned out to be the author’s last (she got seriously ill and passed away shortly after the publication), and basically anything by Malcolm McDowell is worth a read.

For news on the World Horror anthology, keep an eye on valancourtbooks.com

EDIT: Just heard that my favourite Swede Anders Fager is also in the anthology! It’s about time that he is translated also into English (previously at least into French, Italian and Finnish).