Who says horror fiction is just for the boys? Erm...wait a second...only three women have received the WHC Grandmaster Award since the annual industry peer-voted honor first began. (THE LIST OF PAST RECIPIENTS Robert Bloch – 1991 Stephen King – 1992 Richard Matheson – 1993 Anne Rice – 1994 Clive Barker – 1995 Dean Koontz – 1996 Peter Straub – 1997 Brian Lumley – 1998 Ramsey Campbell – 1999 Harlan Ellison – 2000 Ray Bradbury – 2001 Charles L. Grant – 2002 Chelsea Quinn Yarbro – 2003 Jack Williamson – 2004 F. Paul Wilson – 2005 Ray Garton – 2006 Joe R. Lansdale – 2007 Robert McCammon – 2008 Tanith Lee – 2009 James Herbert – 2010 Jack Ketchum – 2011 T. E. D. Klein – 2012 Dan Simmons – 2013 Brian Keene - 2014). Everyone on the list more than deserves the horror entertainament and culture industrys greatest honor, but why so few female honorees? Seems a bit lopsided to me and it cant help but to validate the past and current accusations leveled against the WHC of being a boys club environment. The ultimate irony is that the official title of the award is named after Shirley Jackson, who is probably the one name that should always come to mind when we think about women whom write or have written the greatest horror fiction in the history of literature. Now Im not advocating that there be a forced policy of actively scouring the ranks of past and current female writers to find more women horror writers to be given the Grandmaster Award. But if I were, who do you think should be considered? For my vote, theres definitely Mary Shelley, Poppy Z. Brite, Nancy Holder, Ellen Datlow (yes, Im aware shes more an editor than writer, but if you dont get why her past accomplishments in that field alone should merit an inclusion on the list of honorees, then I cant help but suspect youre seriously lacking in a basic understanding of the history of horror literature; to wit, Id seriously encourage you to get the hell off of Facebook and go read some more books instead of this post), Edith Wharton, and thats just off the top of my head without really digging too deep. If I wished to do a more thorough listing it wouldnt be too difficult to come up with at least a dozen names in moments of women in horror who deserve equal consideration and our respectful honor and recognition of their accomplishments and importance to horror literature. Anyone else have any names they believe should be added to a list of potential honorees?
Posted on: Sat, 20 Sep 2014 09:52:28 +0000
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