“Horror is for everyone.”
—Wendy N. Wagner
The publishing game has changed a great deal since the days of C. L. Moore and H. P. Lovecraft. Pulp magazines have increasingly given way to digital-and-print magazines, crowdfunded anthologies, ebooks, and patreons. Traditional publishing isn’t dead, but like moths and butterflies, it is undergoing a painful transition from the way things used to be done to how they will be done.
One thing remains: the world still needs editors. There still needs to be someone in the editorial trenches, reading submissions, answering queries, pitching ideas, working with authors to polish a story, push the envelope of what can be done. Their work is what enables writers’ voices to be heard, and even the most scintillant and brilliant bleeding edge of cosmic horror will go unread, if an editor can’t get a story to where people can actually read it.
Wendy N. Wagner is the editor-in-chief of Nightmare magazine and the managing/senior editor of Lightspeed; she was also involved with the { } Destroy { } series, including editorial duties on Women Destroy Science Fiction! (2014), Women Destroy Fantasy! (2014), Women Destroy Horror! (2014), and Queers Destroy Horror! (2015), among others. They were kind enough to answer some of our questions on editing, cosmic horror, and Lovecraft.
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How did you get into Lovecraft and cosmic horror?
Wendy N. Wagner: As a kid, I read a ton of Dean Koontz, Stephen King, Edgar Allan Poe, and Anne Rice. I loved Halloween and anything with a gothic vibe. But I got busy with school and other interests, and horror fell by the wayside until my mid-twenties, when I started writing seriously. At that time, I wrote a couple of fantasy novels and realized that the parts of my work I loved best felt like horror, so I decided I was going to focus on writing horror short stories to improve my craft. I got a book by Mort Castle about horror writing, which included a list of the greatest horror writers and their work, and of course H.P. Lovecraft was on there. I had never read anything by him, but as someone living in Portland, Oregon, the birthplace of the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival, I recognized the name.
I checked out a collection from the library—I think it was the one edited by Joyce Carol Oates—and I was instantly in love. Every story filled me with the feelings I used to get reading horror as a kid. It was all so goth, so over the top, so deliciously dark. I felt like I had come home.
I started going to the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival, which includes a literary track, where I met a number of Lovecraftian and cosmic horror writers, and through them I started getting invited to write work for Lovecraftian anthologies. So I just kept reading and writing and watching Lovecraftian work, spiraling deeper and deeper into that weird and wonderful world. It really feels like home now.
As a speculative fiction writer and editor you have worked in the trenches of weird fiction and nonfiction for years. Have you faced discrimination for your gender or sexuality in that context?
WNW: Not that I know of? But I can’t know about what I’m not invited to because of my identity or my associations.
Your first editing project was Queers Destroy Horror!, a special issue of Nightmare Magazine. How did you get involved with that?
WNW: After I sold a short story to editor John Joseph Adams in 2010, I became fast friends with him and his partner, the editor Christie Yant. I started doing volunteer work for some of JJA’s projects, including working as an editorial assistant for three anthologies and then serving for a year as the assistant editor of Fantasy Magazine. When John closed Fantasy, I took an editing hiatus because I was writing tie-in fiction for the Pathfinder role-playing game while at the same time holding down a day job.
But in late 2013, I lost my job and started looking for a way to make a living as a full-time freelancer. Luckily for me, John Joseph Adams had just reached a point where he found running both Lightspeed and Nightmare magazines a little much on top of his anthology work. He hired me to manage the day-to-day operations of the magazines as well as handling the bulk of the line editing. He had also decided to oversee a Kickstarter campaign for a special issue of Lightspeed with a focus on women writers, to be edited by Christie Yant, and he asked me to assist some of the content production for that Kickstarter campaign.
The Kickstarter for Women Destroy Science Fiction! was an enormous success, and when it surpassed its fundraising goals, the three of us had a meeting to decide what to do next. We decided to expand the concept into Women Destroy Horror! and Women Destroy Fantasy! and brought on a crew of fabulous women to edit those works. I served as the managing editor of all these projects, on top of my regular managing editor duties. (Luckily, WDSF replaced the June 2014 issue at Lightspeed and WDH replaced the October 2014 issue of Nightmare.)
Because these issues were so well-received, we decided to repeat the project in 2015 with an emphasis on LGBTQIA creators. Because of my identity, my previous editorial experience, and of course my love of horror, Christie Yant suggested I serve as the editor-in-chief of Queers Destroy Horror!, and JJA thought it was a great idea.
You were also the nonfiction editor for Women Destroy Science Fiction! and Women Destroy Fantasy! What was that experience like?
WNW: It was an absolute blast overseeing the nonfiction for those projects! And easy, too, because we got so much email from so many people who wanted to be involved with it—there were so many women who had so many exciting ideas, and it was a joy to offer them a place to share them.
I think the best part of the Destroy projects were the micro-essays about people’s personal experiences which ran in the Kickstarter campaigns and in the Destroy Science Fiction! editions. I got to wrangle the ones for Women Destroy and for Queers Destroy, and it was amazing to read them. Over and over again, people spoke of the incredible importance of representation, the way seeing someone like themself on a screen or on a page unlocked the world for them.
It really changed something inside of me. I never set out to be an editor or a gatekeeper of any kind, but after working on the Destroy projects, I understood how important it was to make sure the world was getting a chance to read more diverse voices. I felt it in my bones: this work matters.
You joined Nightmare Magazine as managing/associate editor in 2014 and worked your way up to editor-in-chief. How has that experience been?
WNW: I’ve had so much fun at Nightmare! I was originally brought on to oversee the staff and all the production details, as well as handling the line-by-line editing of stories and articles, but I very quickly volunteered to take over the nonfiction side of things, and John didn’t mind. I’m such a giant horror fan that it was a lot more fun for me than it was for him! To this day, I think our H Word essay column is my favorite part of the magazine. We feature a different writer every month, and after all these years, I think the column is an amazing repository of thoughts on how the horror genre works and what it means to people. I am so proud of it!
In mid-2020, John asked me if I’d be interested in taking over as editor-in-chief, and it was such an overwhelmingly wonderful moment. My first issue was our 101st, and I had the cover printed up as a huge poster to hang in my office. When I got it up on the wall, I cried with happiness.
It’s been really exciting to select stories and share them with the world. My goal for the magazine is to explore the broadest possible spectrum of horror fiction, ranging from the bizarro to the cozy, from the psychological to the supernatural, to publish work that’s barely horror and to publish work that’s in the dead, scary center. I always say that our motto is “Horror is for everyone,” and I dream that the magazine’s archives contain some kind of horror that’s accessible for every kind of reader. Not because I think I can make everyone happy, but because I think horror is good for everyone, and too many people have been turned off from horror because they have this very blinkered vision of the genre. I want to help take off those blinkers. It’s basically my life mission!
In your editorial for Nightmare Magazine #132 (September 2023), you stated that “Lovecraftian” was a lazy adjective. Can you expand on that?
WNW: First because H.P. Lovecraft wrote in so many different genres and subgenres! He wrote stories of the supernatural. He wrote stories that are extremely science fictional. He wrote dark fantasy. He wrote psychological horror. I think the submissions guidelines for the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival do a great job explaining how broad and wide “Lovecraftian” work can be (I have never made a Lovecraftian film, but last year I took home the Best Screenplay award from the HPLFF, so I’ve definitely studied those guidelines very closely).
However, I think most people use the word “Lovecraftian” to refer to the realm of weird and cosmic horror, the subgenres Lovecraft is probably best known for. So why not just use the term “weird and cosmic horror”? There are a lot of other creators who have done just as much for the field as HPL has. I think about Robert W. Chambers, whose novel The King in Yellow was published when Lovecraft was five years old. Or Algernon Blackwood’s “The Willows,” published when HPL was seven. William Hope Hodgson’s The House on the Borderland was issued when Lovecraft was eight. Those three works are three of my very favorite works of cosmic horror, and were huge influences on Lovecraft’s writing.
I suppose “Chambersian” doesn’t sound nearly as cool as “Lovecraftian,” alas.
Did you get any pushback for that editorial, or the statements you’ve made about Lovecraft in general?
WNW: I had to laugh a little at this question, because I usually feel like nobody reads the editorials! I’ve never heard a peep about any of them, at any rate.
You’re also managing/senior editor and nonfiction editor of Lightspeed. What is the difference between editing science fiction versus editing horror?
WNW: As an editor, my job is to try to put myself in the writer’s head and to strive to understand why they’ve made the craft choices they made. I’m always trying to figure out what emotions the writer is attempting to manipulate, what senses they’re hoping to stimulate, what ideas they’re trying to knit together in order to sculpt the landscape of the story. I think the two different genres tend to target different emotions, senses, and conceptual landscapes, but the job remains the same. I’m just there to make sure my writers are totally happy with their work!
Besides being an editor, you’ve written a good bit of Lovecraft-inspired and cosmic horror fiction yourself. What draws you to write it?
WNW: I grew up in a very small community in Oregon’s coast range. To get to the nearest town, we had to drive twenty-five miles on a very narrow, winding road that skirted a deep canyon and a very wide river. It rained nine months of the year, and in the summer, there was heavy fog almost every day. It might have been the West Coast, but I couldn’t have lived any closer to Innsmouth without putting a houseboat on Devil’s Reef.
I guess you could say it’s in my blood!
Do you feel that being you (female, queer) has shaped your understanding of Lovecraft and approach to body horror and cosmic horror?
WNW: When I was a young teenager, there were several ballot measures in my state that tried to limit or eliminate gay rights, and homophobia saturated the airwaves. My own father once told me he thought gay people shouldn’t even exist. I think when you grow up knowing you are hated for simply being yourself, it makes you understand horror in a whole different way.
As for body horror, I do think people with uteruses have easy access a lot of source material! Bodies, man. They can be magically disgusting.
Has writing Lovecraft-inspired fiction changed how you relate to Lovecraft and his fiction?
WNW: When Lovecraft is your job, you definitely read more of his work. I probably wouldn’t have made it through The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath if it hadn’t been required reading!
Reading some of your fiction like “Curvature of the Witch House,” I’m reminded of when W. H. Pugmire wrote “Instead of writing formula stories, we can use Lovecraftian themes as a foundation on which to try to build our own unique fiction.” Do you feel that describes your own approach?
WNW: Oh, Pugmire, you wonderful soul. Of course Pugmire would put it so perfectly!
Those words really resonate with me now after writing two novels (Girl in the Creek, forthcoming 2025 from Tor Nightfire, and a still-to-be-homed novel finished earlier this year) that are definitely cosmic horror novels. I think there are elements in both books that will really resonate with anyone who reads Lovecraft, but at the same time, those elements are totally spun out of my own obsessions. I didn’t set out to ape anything by the master, but I think I’ve spent so much time thinking about his work (and the work of related authors, especially Robert W. Chambers) that the way I approach story naturally shapes it into the realm of the cosmic and weird.
Has being an editor shaped your views of Lovecraft in your own fiction?
WNW: I think being an editor has made me see how important the cosmic and the weird are to all people. That’s one of the reasons why I object to the using the term “Lovecraftian” to mean “cosmic and/or weird.” The weird belongs to everyone! I think we’re only going to see more personal and even weirder takes on cosmic horror.
From an editorial perspective, how do you handle issues of prejudice & discrimination in the submissions you receive?
WNW: As a human, I think my most important value is of ahimsa, the Hindu and Buddhist principle non-harm or nonviolence (I’m not a Buddhist, but I think that term is the best to explain my moral stance). As an editor, I think my primary job is to put stories out into the world that don’t harm people, and my next biggest job is to make sure that the writers who send me work aren’t harmed by their interactions with me. That means I don’t publish stories that encourage discrimination, and I try to publish work from a diverse population of writers. I also try to communicate with authors in a kind way. But there is always room for improvement.
The best way to fight my own prejudices and preconceptions about literature is to read widely and to think critically about my understanding of craft and language. Last year I spent a great couple of months attending a workshop presented by the Willamette Writers about the way writing workshops can be damaging for writers from marginalized communities and identities. It was very thought-provoking, and I look forward to learning more. I’m always looking for ways to expand my horizons and to be a better advocate for diversity in our genre.
How do you encourage diversity as an editor?
WNW: I’m very inspired by our publisher, John Joseph Adams, and his editorial work, particularly Lightspeed. Lightspeed has a stellar record for publishing writers from around the globe and for celebrating marginalized voices. From the very beginning of the magazine, he made sure every issue showcased an even number of male and female writers, and he’s also been hugely supportive of nonbinary and trans authors. John is my absolute hero, and he sets very high standards for all his publications. As for my own measures, I try to invite a diverse population of writers to work with me on nonfiction, an area where Nightmare has always shone, as well as soliciting fiction from marginalized voices (last year we had two themed issues, one exploring “Lovecraftian” themes and one focused on dark fantasy, whose fiction and poetry was entirely commissioned from writers of color). I’ve also experimented with having open submissions periods strictly for people of color. Some people complain about these kinds of submissions periods, but for me, they seem helpful. I like to take more care reading these submissions, which often draw from literary styles and craft techniques that are outside of my own training (I studied literature in ’90s, and it was heavily biased toward British and upper-class American writing). I know I’m still learning a lot about how to evaluate work that doesn’t jibe with the classic European canon of fiction—sometimes I feel like I have an easier time loving poetry from other cultures than I do fiction, simply because I’ve been trained to appreciate more experimental approaches to craft in that genre. But I like to think I’m learning!
What do you see as the future of Lovecraft-inspired fiction and cosmic horror?
WNW: It’s only going to get wilder and more exciting. Our culture has changed radically since Lovecraft was writing fiction, and science has transformed our understanding of both what might lie outside our terrestrial bubble and what the very nature of reality might be. Lovecraft’s Elder Gods no longer feel terrifying in the way they did in the early 20th century because we have begun to suspect the cosmos is far stranger than Lovecraft and his contemporaries ever imagined.
But one of the central tenets of Lovecraft’s work was always that the cosmos are weirder than our simple primate brains are ready to understand. The weirder we get, the more we prove him right. In that regard, Lovecraft will always be relevant, even if his biases aren’t.
Today’s writers stand on the shoulders of weird giants, straining toward the stars. I hope the writers of tomorrow stand on my shoulders, ready to gibber in horror at whatever is up there.
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“Horror is for everyone.” Four words to carve into your heart. Thank you Wendy for taking the time to answer these questions. Looking forward to seeing more from you in the future.
For more on Wendy N. Wagner, check out their Linktree.
Bobby Derie is the author of Weird Talers: Essays on Robert E. Howard & Others (2019) and Sex and the Cthulhu Mythos (2014).
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Deep Cuts in a Lovecraftian Vein 
Excellent post!
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