As stated in her introduction to Inferno, Ellen Datlow asked her favorite authors for stories that would "provide the reader with a frisson of shock, or a moment of dread so powerful it might cause the reader outright physical discomfort; or a sensation of fear so palpable that the reader feels compelled to turn on the bright lights and play music or seek the company of others to dispel the fear."

Mission accomplished.

Datlow has produced a collection filled with some of the most powerful voices in the field: Pat Cadigan, Terry Dowling, Jeffrey Ford, Christopher Fowler, Glen Hirshberg, K. W. Jeter, Joyce Carol Oates, and Lucius Shepard, to name a few. Each author approaches fear in a different way, but all of the stories' characters toil within their own hell.

An aptly titled anthology, Inferno will scare the pants off readers and further secure Ellen Datlow's standing as a preeminent editor of modern horror.

"Datlow (The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror) makes a solid claim to being the premiere horror editor of her generation with this state-of-the-art anthology of 20 new stories by some of horror fiction's best and brightest. Several outstanding selections feature imperiled children and explore the horrific potential of childhood fears, among them Glen Hirshberg's 'The Janus Tree,' which gives a creepy supernatural spin to a poignant memoir of adolescent angst and alienation, and Stephen Gallagher's 'Misadventure,' in which a young man's near-death experience as a child endows him as an adult with consoling insight into the afterlife. The compilation's variety of approaches and moods is exemplary, ranging from the natural supernaturalism of Laird Barron's cosmic horror tale 'The Forest,' to the unsettling psychological horror of Lucius Shepard's 'The Ease with Which We Freed the Beast'; the metaphysical terrors of Conrad Williams's 'Perhaps the Last'; and the slapstick grotesquerie of K.W. Jeter's black comedy 'Riding Bitch.' If this book can be taken as a gauge of the vitality of imagination in contemporary horror fiction, then the genre is very healthy indeed." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"Datlow makes a solid claim to being the premiere horror editor of her generation." --Publishers Weekly (starred review) on Inferno 

“One good ghost story, one truly effective tale, is usually sufficient to scare the bejesus out of a person. The Dark contains sixteen tales, enough to keep fans tossing and turning and peeking under the bed for a fortnight and then some. Watch your hackles when you read this book; Ms. Datlow and her horrormongers are out to raise them.” --Dallas Morning News

 

“Sure to provide a yardstick by which future ghost fiction will be measured.” --Publishers Weekly (starred review) on The Dark

Award-winning editor Datlow presents 20 original tales of terror from some of the most powerful voices in the horror genre. In this aptly titled anthology, each contributor approaches fear in a different way, but all of the stories' characters toil within their own hell.

Multiple World Fantasy and Bram Stoker Award-winning editor Ellen Datlow presents twenty original tales of terror.

Ellen Datlow is a winner of two Bram Stoker Awards, seven World Fantasy Awards, and the Hugo Award for Best Editor. In a career spanning more than twenty-five years, she has been the long-time fiction editor of Omni and more recently the fiction editor of SciFi.com. She has edited many successful anthologies, including Blood Is Not Enough, A Whisper of Blood, and, with Terri Windling, Snow White, Blood Red and the rest of their Fairy Tales series. She has also edited the Year's Best Fantasy and Horror series, The Green Man, and, for younger readers, The Wolf at the Door and Swan Sister. Ellen Datlow lives in Manhattan.