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) which is now celebrated by many in March during Women’s History Month. In 2013, as an Ambassador for Women in Horror Month, Sumiko Saulson put together the original book 60 Black Women in Horror at the the intersection of the two. Over the next five years, the world of 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, with the assistance of Kenya Moss-Dyme 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 combined list of 150, listed alphabetically, in batches of 10. Here are the tenth 10 of them.
Tonya R. Moore
Speculative fiction writer Tonya R. Moore writes science-fiction, paranormal fantasy and horror. Her out-of-print short story collection On the Brink contained tales about ghosts, mermaids, vampires, urban monsters, androids and witches. Her horror novelette Sea Witch Song is about a grieving lover who plays a song that entices sea monsters up from the deep. She has contributed stories to eFiction Magazine, Black Girl Lit Magic, and Writers on the Wrong Side of the Road.
Isaiyan Morrison
Isaiyan Morrison was born and raised in Minneapolis, but her heart is in the impressive magical worlds she dreams up. She hopes to share her love for world-building with her readers and help guide them through the extraordinary settings she creates. Her other passions include reading, and researching historical events. She also enjoys gardening, gaming, spending quality time with her three cherished cats and beloved pitbull, and practicing her Christian faith.
Toni Morrison
A preeminent voice in African American literary fiction, her Pulitzer Prize winning 1987 Civil War era drama Beloved is a classic ghost story. It tells of a presence at 124 Bluestone Road, thought of as malevolent by some. The magical realism of Song of Solomon and the dark psychological spaces in Jazz, Love, and The Bluest Eye also have certain aspects in common with psychological horror.
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
Kenya Moss-Dyme
A founding member of Colors in Darkness (CID), a group for diverse horror writers, dark speculative fiction author Kenya Moss-Dyme won scholastic awards for writing horror short stories in her teens. She is the author of Daymares, a seven story horror collection, and Devil Inside, a psychological horror story about a cancer survivor who is tortured and mutated under the care of an evil, twisted, unethical nurse who experiments on her. She’s written several gritty thrillers dealing with real life horrors including the Prey for Me series, which takes on child molestation within the church, and the A Good Wife series which tackles domestic violence.
Cerece Rennie Murphy
Cerece Rennie Murphy writes sci-fi/fantasy that sometimes takes a stroll on the darker side with demons, and murderous fairies, with a bit of gory killing on the side. In 2011, Cerece experienced her own supernatural event – a vision of her first science fiction story. Shortly after, she began developing and writing what would become the bestselling Order of the Seers trilogy. Order of the Seers was selected as one of The Best Kindle Books of 2014 by Digital Book Today. To date, Cerece has published ten speculative fiction novels, short stories, and children’s books. In addition to working on the 3rd book in the award-winning Ellis and The Magic Mirror children’s book series with her son and releasing her first short story collection, Cerece launched Virtuous Con, an online sci-fi convention in February 2021. Her current writing projects include a new steampunk fantasy series. Cerece lives and writes in her hometown of Washington, DC. Find her on her website at https://www.cerecerenniemurphy.com/
Candace Nola
Candace Nola is an award-winning author, editor, publisher, and reviewer. Her books include Breach, Beyond the Breach, Hank Flynn, Bishop and Earth vs The Lava Spiders. She has short stories in The Baker’s Dozen, Secondhand Creeps, American Cannibal, and Exactly the Wrong Things. Beyond the Breach won the Novel of the Year award for 2021 from the Horror Authors Guild and her debut novel, Breach, placed 2nd for Debut Novel of the Year for the same awards that year. She is the publisher and editor of the 2022 Splatterpunk Award-winning anthology Uncomfortably Dark Presents: The Baker’s Dozen. She is the creator of UncomfortablyDark.com, promoting other indie authors in the industry with weekly book reviews, interviews, and special features. You can find her on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook and her website,. https://www.uncomfortablydark.com/
Pam Noles
She contributed “Whipping Boy” to the collection Dark Matter: Reading the Bones. She is a professional journalist living in Los Angeles these days, and writes a lot of non-fiction. Her blog And We Shall March On… (Black, Geek, and Fine with That) discusses horror, popular culture, politics, and community. Her fiction has appeared in anthologies from Warner Books; Dark Horse Comics; Terra Major; and Pulphouse.
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
Nnedi Okorafor
She won the Locus Award and was nominated for the Nebula award for her critically-acclaimed dystopian fantasy Who Fears Death? the post-apocalyptic tale of Onyesonwu, the last surviving member of a tribe decimated by genocide, who discovers she possesses great magic and a mysterious shamanistic destiny. She counts among her influences Octavia Butler and Stephen King.
Black Women in Horror 