February is African American History Month here in the United States. In 2013, when this series began, it was also Women in Horror Month (WiHM). In 2013, as an Ambassador for Women in Horror Month, the original book 60 Black Women in Horror was born during the intersection of the two. . Over the next five years, the world women writing horror from the African Diaspora nearly doubled. and 100+ Black Women in Horror, a 2018 update, containing 109 biographies, was born. Now, in 2023, five years after 100+ Black Women in Horror, the list is once again being updated, to include over 40 new names compiled in a new book, 150 Black Women in Horror.
Here is the first list consisting of 10 biographies of women who will be listed in the new book.
Denise Tapscott
Denise N. Tapscott left her heart in San Francisco, but somehow managed to leave her soul in New Orleans. She enjoys dining on spicy tuna rolls, sharing a bottle of red wine with friends, and watching the latest monster flick, and from time to time this radiant left-handed pirate will even challenge others to a fencing match. She recently joined the podcast Beef, Wine and Shenanigans with Steven Van Patten, Marc Abbott and Kirk A Johnson and can be seen as “Tasha” on the YouTube web series The Vamps Next Door. She published her first novel Gypsy Kisses and Voodoo Wishes as well as the short story The Price of Salvation. She’s currently working on a collection of short stories called The Friends and Foes of Zenobia and a sequel novel, Enlightening of the Damned. Find her on Twitter: @DeniseNTapscott, Instagram:@piratesunny, Facebook: @TheDeniseNTapscott. www.denisetapscott.com
Aziza Sphinx
A techie by trade and writer by necessity Aziza Sphinx is a hybrid author who has been writing and publishing professionally for over 20 years. She fell in love with science fiction, fantasy, and the darker things in life as a child watching Dr. Who and reading Choose Your Own Adventure books. The author of gown- folks speculative fiction that blurs the lines between transpersonal psychology, fantasy, and sanity, she’s had fairytale remakes, short stories, and speculative poems included in a wide range of anthologies and ezines. When not sharing her knowledge and experience of overcoming ‘writer’s avoidance’ with others, Aziza spends her nights playing in the shadows with her vampires, demons, wraiths, and reapers. She also occasionally plays in the light and entertains the undead. www.azizasphinx.com
Tamika Thompson
Tamika is a writer, producer, and journalist. She is author of speculative fiction collection, Unshod, Cackling, and Naked (Unnerving Books), which Publishers Weekly calls “powerful,” “unsettling,” and “terrifying,” as well as author of horror novella Salamander Justice (Madness Heart Press). Her work has appeared in several speculative fiction anthologies as well as in Interzone, Prairie Schooner, The New York Times, and Los Angeles Review of Books, among others. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Columbia University and a Master of Arts in Journalism from the University of Southern California. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Find her on Twitter and Slasher @tamikathompson and online at tamikathompson.com.
Beatrice Iker
Beatrice Winifred Iker is an author and poet whose work can/will be found in FIYAH Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction, Anathema Magazine, Nightmare Magazine, the Death in the Mouth horror anthology, and others. Iker is a Voodoonauts Fellowship alum, co-host on the Afronauts Podcast, and a member of the Horror Writers Association (HWA). Originally from East Tennessee, Iker lives in New England with a wonderful husband, many cats, and a robust tarot deck collection. You can find Iker on Twitter (@BeatriceIker), Instagram (@beatricewinifrediker), or through the website beatriceiker.com
Wi-Moto Nyoka
Wi-Moto Nyoka is a horror and sci-fi writer. She is the founder of Dusky Projects, creating and producing horror & sci-fi projects for young adult and adult audiences.
Awards and honors include: Stowe Story Labs selected project, Puffin Foundation grant recipient, Awesome Foundation grant recipient, Velocity Fund grant recipient, Scribe Video Finishing Grant recipient, Nightmares Film Festival Best Short Screenplay Award Winner, 13 Horror Screenplay Award Winner, Oregon Short Film Festival Best Horror Teleplay Award Winner and more. Published works can be found in Midnight & Indigo’s Speculative Fiction collection, Terror Unleashed: Volume 2, The Seelie Crow and The Last Girls Club. IG: @duskyprojects, wi-motonyoka.com
Penelope Flynn
Penelope Flynn creates mixed genre adult-targeted speculative fiction and illustrations featuring elements of dark fiction, horror, suspense, science fiction, fantasy, and erotica and erotic romance. Her works are included in the Dark Universe anthologies, Steamfunk, Scierogenous II, and SLAY: Stories of the Vampire Noire. She authors the Sci-Fi/Horror/Erotica mash-up series, the Chronicles of Renfields, and co-edits and contributes to the Blerdrotica Black erotica anthology series. She is a member of the Horror Writer’s Association and has joined the faculty of the Speculative Fiction Academy. She has appeared on panels for World Fantasy Con, WorldCon, MultiverseCon, Blacktasticon and the FAMU Literary Forum. Penelope Flynn moderates and co-hosts the weekly podcast, Discussions From the OTHERhood and heads Prolific Hybrid Multimedia. https://www.penelopeflynn.com/
Michelle Renee Lane
Michelle Renee Lane holds an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University and recently joined the faculty of the Speculative Fiction Academy. She writes dark speculative fiction about identity politics and women of color battling their inner demons while fighting/falling in love with monsters. Her work includes elements of fantasy, horror, romance, and erotica. Her short fiction appears in several anthologies and has been featured on The Wicked Library podcast. Her Bram Stoker Award nominated debut novel, Invisible Chains, is available from Haverhill House Publishing. Her nonfiction can be found at Medium, Speculative Chic, and in Writers Workshop of Horror 2. Follow Michelle’s blog, Girl Meets Monster, at michellerlane.com/.
P.M. Raymond
P.M. Raymond hails from New Orleans but currently lives on the East Coast with 27 cookbooks and an imaginary dog named Walter. You can find her enjoying a café au lait and indulging in the storytelling mastery of Shirley Jackson, M.R. James, Joe Hill, Tananarive Due, and manga maestro, Junji Ito. Her work has appeared in Flash Fiction Magazine, Kings River Life Magazine, Dark Fire Fiction, Pyre Magazine, The Furious Gazelle, Dark Yonder, and Rock, Roll, and Ruin anthology from Down & Out Books. Follow her on Twitter or find her at www.pmraymond.com.
Cherrae L Stuart
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers. Member: HWA, SAG. Cherrae L. Stuart has worked for over a decade in broadcast television and as an independent filmmaker in Los Angeles. She lends her voice to many up and coming horror authors as a regular narrator for the Nightlight Horror Podcast, Pseudopod and Cast of Wonders, and the new hit, Horror audio-drama Afflicted. Cherrae has BAs from UNC-Chapel Hill in Dramatic Arts and Film/Television. She has several horror stories that have been produced for The Reading Horror Podcast and is the creator and head writer for the Dystopian Scifi Comedy Series Good Morning Antioch a pitch-black comedy space opera following a derelict mining ship as they navigate working for the MostEvil™ company in the Galaxy. You can listen to her latest horror short story 3115 Wicker Street on the NightLight Horror Podcast. She is currently shopping her first novel. www.CherraeLStuart.com
Mo Moshaty
Mo Moshaty is an Afro-Latina screenwriter, author and producer. Co-founder of the Nyx Horror Collective, she’s partnered with Stowe Story Labs to provide a fellowship for women genre writers over 40 and with horror streaming giant, Shudder Channel, to co-produce the 13 Minutes of Horror Film Festival 2021 and 2022. Still engaging with her first love, short horror literature, her work can be found in A Quaint and Curious Volume of Gothic Tales, by Brigid’s Gate Press and 206 Word Stories by Bag O’ Bones Press. In 2023, Love the Sinner with be published with Brigid’s Gate Press and in 2024, Clairviolence will be published with Spooky House Press. Mo has lectured on Trauma in Cinema with Prairie View A&M Film & TV Program, Horror Studies BAFSS, and The University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom
www.momoshaty.com/
Black Women in Horror 
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