13 female horror writers you should read

Nancy Holder (Image by John Urbancik)

4.) Nancy Holder

While multiple writers on this list have been nominated for or won the sci-fi Hugo awards, Holder is a four-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award for superior achievement in horror writing. These awards include multiple Best Short Story accolades, as well as Best Novel for 1994’s Dead in the Water. With Debbie Viguie, Holder has also authored Wicked, a series of young adult novels. In the series, a coven of witches feuds with a related coven of warlocks. The main character, Holly Cathers, is caught between the two warring factions and must navigate her way to a new role as a powerful witch.

Holder was a successful female author during the roaring horror industry of the 1990s. This was a rare achievement in a world stuffed to the brim with paperbacks by Stephen King, Peter Straub, and Clive Barker. She continues to be very active today, with many published novels, short stories, and articles that feature her byline.

After the horror fiction boom of the 1980s and 1990s, Holder stepped back from the genre and began writing young adult fiction, tie-in novels, and nonfiction guides. She recently returned to the genre with the novelization for Crimson Peak, the 2015 gothic horror film from director Guillermo del Toro.

Where to start
Dead in the Water, Holder’s 1994 Bram Stoker Award winner. The book starts with the line, “This is how it will be when you drown”; if that doesn’t scare you already, I’m not sure what will. Holder uses Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner as the background for this tale of metaphysical horror set on the high seas. She also references the legend of the Flying Dutchman and Homer’s Odyssey to create a terrifying and, at times, gut-churning horror tale.