Awards:
Dark Dreamers: Facing the Masters of Fear, Alternative Forms, 2001
Dark Thoughts: On Writing, Non-fiction, 1997
Dark Dreamers, Non-fiction, 1990
Nominations:
Dark Visions, Non-fiction, 1992
Category: Alternative Forms
Tem, Melanie
Awards:
Imagination Box (multimedia CD), Alternative Forms, 2002
The Man on the Ceiling, Long Fiction, 2000
Prodigal, First Novel, 1991
BIO: Melanie Tem was a writer, a gifted oral storyteller, a playwright, a teacher, a social worker, a mother and grandmother. She received the Bram Stoker, International Horror Guild, British Fantasy, and World Fantasy Awards for her writing, which included almost a hundred short stories, twelve solo novels, and numerous plays, poems, and storytelling performances. Among her novels: Prodigal, Wilding, Revenant, The Yellow Wood (her last), and Black River, a fictional exploration of grief as a hero’s journey. As a social worker and administrator she worked for the elderly, the disabled, and adoptive children and parents. A speech of hers on unconditional commitment is still used in parts of the country in the training of prospective adoptive parents.
She was born Melanie Kubachko on April 11, 1949 and grew up in Saegertown PA. She attended Allegheny College as an undergrad, and earned her master’s in social work at the University of Denver in Colorado. When she married the writer Steve Rasnic they added the joint surname Tem.
She passed away February 9, 2015 of cancer at the age of 65.
Tem, Steve Rasnic
Awards:
Lifetime Achievement Award, 2023
Blood Kin (Solaris Books), Novel, 2014
Imagination Box (multimedia CD), Alternative Forms, 2002
In These Final Days of Sales, Long Fiction, 2001
The Man on the Ceiling, Long Fiction, 2000
Nominations:
Ubo (Solaris), Novel, 2017
“Invisible”, Short Fiction, 2005
City Fishing, Fiction Collection, 2000
“Halloween Street”, Short Fiction, 1999
“Back Windows”, Short Fiction, 1990
“Bodies and Heads”, Short Fiction, 1989
Excavation, First Novel, 1987
BIO: Steve Rasnic Tem’s collaborative novella with his late wife Melanie Tem, The Man On The Ceiling, won the World Fantasy, Bram Stoker, and International Horror Guild awards in 2001. He has also won the Bram Stoker, International Horror Guild, and British Fantasy Awards for his solo work. His novel UBO (Solaris, January 2017) is a dark science fictional tale about violence and its origins, featuring such historical viewpoint characters as Jack the Ripper, Stalin, and Heinrich Himmler. Steve’s novel Blood Kin (Solaris, March 2014), won the 2014 Bram Stoker Award. His previous novels are Deadfall Hotel (Solaris, 2012), The Man On The Ceiling (Wizards of the Coast Discoveries, 2008, written with Melanie Tem as an expansion of their novella), The Book of Days (Subterranean, 2002), Daughters (Grand Central, 2001, also written with Melanie Tem), and Excavation (Avon, 1987). A handbook on writing, Yours to Tell: Dialogues on the Art & Practice of Fiction, also written with Melanie, appeared in 2017 from Apex Books.
Steve has published over 430 short stories. His first collection of stories, Ombres sur la Route, was published by the French publisher Denoël in 1994. His first English language collection, City Fishing (Silver Salamander, 2000) won the International Horror Guild Award. His other story collections are The Far Side of the Lake (Ash Tree, 2001), In Concert (Centipede, 2010-collaborations with Melanie Tem), Ugly Behavior (New Pulp, 2012-noir fiction), Onion Songs (Chomu, 2013), Celestial Inventories (ChiZine, 2013), Twember (NewCon, 2013-science fiction), Here With The Shadows (Swan River Press, 2014), and the giant 72-story treasury, Out of the Dark: A Storybook of Horrors, from Centipede Press in 2017, featuring the best of his uncollected horror. Some of his best stories are collected in Figures Unseen: Selected Stories (April 2018, Valancourt Books).
A transplanted Southerner from Lee County Virginia, Steve is a long-time resident of Colorado. He has a BA in English Educstion from VPI and a MA in Creative Writing from Colorado State, where he studied fiction under Warren Fine and poetry under Bill Tremblay.
Santoro, Lawrence P.
Piccirilli, Tom
Awards:
Forgiving Judas (Crossroad Press), Poetry Collection, 2014
The Devil’s Wine, Alternative Forms, 2004
The Night Class, Novel, 2002
“The Misfit Child Grows Fat on Despair”, Short Fiction, 2002
A Student of Hell, Poetry Collection, 2000
Nominations:
Midnight Premiere, Anthology, 2007
Headstone City, Novel, 2006
November Mourns, Novel, 2005
Waiting my Turn to go Under the Knife, Poetry Collection, 2004
A Choir of Ill Children, Novel, 2003
Fuckin’ Lie Down Already, Long Fiction, 2003
This Cape Is Red Because I’ve Been Bleeding, Poetry Collection, 2002
The Deceased, Novel, 2000
Hexes, Novel, 1999
Deep into that Darkness Peering, Fiction Collection, 1999
Dark Father, First Novel, 1990
BIO: Tom Piccirilli was the author of hundreds of short stories, three award winning books of poetry and more than twenty-five novels including A CHOIR OF ILL CHILDREN, SHADOW SEASON, THE DEAD LETTERS, and THE LAST KIND WORDS. He was a five-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award, two-time winner of the International Thriller Award, was nominated for the World Fantasy Award, and twice for the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Award. Marilyn Stasio of The New York Times Book Review called THE LAST KIND WORDS, “A caustic thriller…the characters have strong voices and bristle with funny quirks.” New York Times bestselling thriller writer Lee Child said of Tom’s work, “Perfect crime fiction…a convincing world, a cast of compelling characters, and above all a great story”. Dean Koontz called A Choir of Ill Children “wonderfully wacked, disorienting, fully creepy book…The poetic nature of the prose and seriousness of intent carried the day in every scene.” And Publishers Weekly extolled, “Piccirilli’s mastery of the hard-boiled idiom is pitch perfect, particularly in the repartee between his characters, while the picture he paints of the criminal corruption conjoining the innocent and guilty in a small Long Island community is as persuasive as it is seamy. Readers who like a bleak streak in their crime fiction will enjoy this well-wrought novel.” Keir Graff of Booklist wrote, “There’s more life in Piccirilli’s THE LAST KIND WORDS (and more heartache, action, and deliverance) than any other novel I’ve read in the past couple of years.” Kirkus stated, “Consigning most of the violence to the past allows Piccirilli (The Fever Kill, 2007, etc.) to dial down the gore while imparting a soulful, shivery edge to this tale of an unhappy family that’s assuredly unhappy in its own special way.” Tom’s novel THE LAST KIND WORDS appeared on USA Today’s bestseller list.
For more on Tom Piccirilli, please visit his Facebook page.
