Word Horde

07/22/2025

Ozzy Osbourne may be gone, but rock ‘n’ roll lives on. Black Sabbath meets The Thing in Tony McMillen’s An Augmented Fourth…

From the twisted mind of Tony McMillen comes the hilarious rock and roll horror of An Augmented Fourth, a novel of the Lord of Low End.

07/18/2025

Reactor includes John Langan’s forthcoming collection Lost in the Dark and Other Excursions in their list of Can’t Miss Indie Press Speculative Fiction for July and August 2025. And gives John’s novel The Fisherman a shout-out. Check out the full list at:

New titles for your summer reading, covering everything from eldritch horrors to career highlights...

07/10/2025

In 2019, Word Horde published A Hawk in the Woods, the debut novel from Shirley Jackson Award-winning author Carrie-Edmund Laben. This wry and spellbinding novel about sister witches on the run struck a chord with reviewers and readers, and continues to find its way onto recommended reading lists. 

Now, Carrie-Edmund Laben returns with their novel Smoke Season, a supernatural tale in the tradition of Arthur Machen, in which Justin, a young man searching for his missing sister, finds solace in a free-thinking, free-loving commune in the Montana mountains. Meanwhile, a shadowy government agency is hellbent on destroying everything he holds dear. 

Smoke Season is a cathartic horror novel about collectivism, mutual aid, found family, working outside of established systems, and q***r joy in the face of oppression. We are proud to be publishing it in 2026. 

07/09/2025

Literary Hub includes John Langan’s Lost in the Dark and Other Excursions on “Our 33 Most Anticipated Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Books for the Rest of 2025.” Here’s what author Drew Broussard had to say:

“The bard of Hudson Valley horror returns! Langan continues to rack up an incredible shelf of story collections, each loosely themed to its ‘and’—this one promises journeys, quests, Blu-Ray commentary, book endnotes, and more. He is the modern heir to literary horror writers like Washington Irving, Henry James, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and of course Edgar Allan Poe—but honestly he’s even scarier than any of them. I wait for new Langan books with feverish intensity and will be diving into this as soon as (in)humanly possible.”

Read the full article here, and preorder Lost in the Dark and Other Excursions at the link in the comments!

Lit Hub’s list of the most anticipated books of the second half of the year includes many genre titles, but, one might argue, not enough. What can I say, I’m an excitable boy, still in …

07/06/2025

Today is Bram Stoker Award-winning author John Langan’s birthday! 🥳

You can celebrate John’s birthday—and get yourself a present 🎁—by preordering his latest collection of cosmic horror, Lost in the Dark and Other Excursions!

Featuring an introduction by Victor LaValle, haunting cover art by Matthew Jaffe, and extensive story notes, Lost in the Dark and Other Excursions has already received a starred review from Publishers Weekly!

Preorder direct from Word Horde and you’ll also get a signed bookplate and a free ebook!

https://www.wordhorde.com/books/lost-in-the-dark/

06/24/2025

Booklist reviews John Langan’s Lost in the Dark and Other Excursions, saying:

“Many collections offer snippets of an author’s work, but Langan’s latest (after Corpsemouth and Other Autobiographies, 2022) goes further by showing how the bloody sausage is made. Horror readers might be familiar with Langan from his novel The Fisherman (2016), but this collection, much like his collection Children of the Fang and Other Genealogies (2020), gives readers a peek into his unique creative process. […] Fans of horror stories that take their time to develop and unnerve readers should gravitate toward these tales, and aspiring writers might also find some examples and insights that could inspire them.”

Preorder your copy today!

John Langan, author of the Bram Stoker Award-winning novel The Fisherman, returns with a new book of stories, Lost in the Dark and Other Excursions.

06/13/2025

Cover reveal! Here's your first look at Lost in the Dark and Other Excursions, the new collection of cosmic horror from Bram Stoker Award-winning author John Langan coming in early August, featuring this haunting cover art by Matthew Jaffe!

Preorder direct from Word Horde and you'll also get a signed bookplate and a free ebook!

https://www.wordhorde.com/books/lost-in-the-dark/

06/11/2025

Are you ready to get Lost in the Dark with John Langan and Word Horde? Cover reveal and preorder information coming soon. Watch this space!

06/11/2025

Paste Magazine shares The Most Anticipated Horror Books of Summer 2025, including Lost in the Dark and Other Excursions by John Langan

Release Date: August 5 from Word Horde

“Why We’re Excited: John Langan is both one of the reigning kings of cosmic horror and one of the finest short story writers currently working in the genre, so it’s thrilling to see that his first new collection since Corpsemouth three years ago is finally making its way out into the world. Billed as a cosmic horror collection, we can expect classic Langan stylings, with new twists on both familiar subgenre elements and new inventions from one of our most beautifully dark imaginations.”

Watch this space for cover reveal and preorder information

The most exciting horror books of summer come from exciting debuts, rising stars, and living legends alike.

05/16/2025

If you’re a Weird Fiction fan near Sacramento, CA, we recommend Bloodstone Books! And tell ‘em we sent you!

In this house we stan Weird Fiction 💖

What's Weird Fiction, you ask? It's a subgenre of speculative fiction that blends elements of horror, fantasy, and scifi, to evoke a sense of the uncanny. It prioritizes the experience of strangeness and dread over traditional genre conventions, often exploring the unknown, the spiritual, and the psychological. 

If you're looking for specific recommendations, you can never go wrong with Perdido Street Station by China Meiville or The Fisherman by John Langan.

03/27/2025

Over the last few years, Word Horde has published multiple collections from consummate storyteller, amateur film scholar, and skeleton Orrin Grey: Painted Monsters and Other Strange Beasts, Guignol and Other Sardonic Tales, How to See Ghosts and Other Figments, and the nonfiction collection, Glowing in the Dark: Writings on the Horror Film (a Rondo Hatton Award finalist).

Now, Word Horde brings you something new from Orrin Grey, a collection of linked tales, Notes from Underground: The Hollow Earth Story Cycle. Coming this October!

A boy becomes fascinated with an elderly, insect-eating neighbor; inhuman bodies begin to wash ashore in a small coastal town; a closed rest stop that played host to a horrific crime may be a gateway to another world; the exhumation of a magician’s grave reveals an empty coffin...

Travel to subterranean realms with Orrin Grey in his latest collection, Notes from Underground: The Hollow Earth Story Cycle. These seven uncanny tales include works featured at Pseudopod and in The Best Horror of the Year, as well as the new novelette “Leandra’s Story,” and together form a linked story sequence of cosmic horror and masterful strangeness.