Gwendolyn Kiste

Stoker winner Gwendolyn Kiste holds up a dark, queer mirror to The Great Gatsby in IN THESE GILDED, GHOSTLY HEARTS, a haunting exploration of the obsession and control at the edges of an American classic. In 1955, Daisy Buchanan is found dead in an abandoned West Egg mansion, but her daughter Mel knows she's really been gone for years. No one knows whether Daisy was murdered, or if it was a simpler, slower death: her yearslong spiral of alcohol, abuse, and helplessness. But when Mel enters the estate, she finds Daisy's ghost, somehow frozen at twenty-five, and a charming, bleeding phantom that used to be Jay Gatsby. To free her mother, Mel must carve a path through family secrets and decaying revelers: deep into Gatsby's starving house as it gorges itself on unfulfilled love and grows stronger every night.

Follow Mina Harker-mother, wife, teacher, survivor, and the heart and soul of Dracula-as she reveals her strength, her resilience, and her secrets in eleven all new harrowing tales. Plus, as always, a resurrected classic and a haunting poem to close out our longest issue yet. Contributors: Tyler Kitchenman Mark Oxbrow Vince Stadon Henry Herz Bill Cozza R. S. Tiemstra Dennis K. Crosby Macoy Greco Doris V. Sutherland Lindy Ryan Gwendolyn Kiste Cynthia Ward James S. Dorr Dracula Beyond Stoker is a fiction journal dedicated to celebrating and continuing the legacy of Bram Stoker's Dracula

Winner of the 2025 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Novel Finalist for the 2025 Shirley Jackson Award From Bram Stoker Award-winning author Gwendolyn Kiste comes an "emotionally devastating, character driven ghost story" (CrimeReads) about three childhood friends who miraculously survive the night everyone in their suburban hometown turned to ghosts--perfect for fans of Yellowjackets. The Velkwood Vicinity was the topic of occult theorists, tabloid one-hour documentaries, and even some pseudo-scientific investigations as the block of homes disappeared behind a near-impenetrable veil that only three survivors could enter--and only one has in the past twenty years, until now. Talitha Velkwood has avoided anything to do with the tragedy that took her mother and eight-year-old sister, drifting from one job to another, never settling anywhere or with anyone, feeling as trapped by her past as if she was still there in the small town she so desperately wanted to escape from. When a new researcher tracks her down and offers to pay her to come back to enter the vicinity, Talitha claims she's just doing it for the money. Of all the crackpot theories over the years, no one has discovered what happened the night Talitha, her estranged, former best friend Brett, and Grace, escaped their homes twenty years ago. Will she finally get the answers she's been looking for all these years, or is this just another dead end? Award-winning author Gwendolyn Kiste has created an "eerie and evocative" (Kirkus Reviews) suburban ghost story about a small town that trapped three young women who must confront the past if they're going to have a future.

Where do we go when we dream? Since the beginning of time, people have argued the meaning of dreams. Are they symbolic visions that hold great meaning and personal significance? Are they portals into other worlds? Or are they just a series of random events our mind shows us when we fall asleep? Whatever the case, this much is true - the mind can be a scary place to venture, even for a few hours. NEVER WAKE is an anthology of dream horror, bringing you several mind-bending tales of nightmares, hallucinations, and phantasmagoria from some of the hottest talent in horror fiction. But don't worry - when you (wake up screaming) flip the last page, just remember to tell yourself, "It was only just a story..." Unless it wasn't. Featuring an introduction from Sadie "Mother Horror" Hartmann and stories from Philip Fracassi. Eric LaRocca, Gwendolyn Kiste, Todd Keisling, Kristin Peterson, Laurel Hightower, Lee Murray, Michael Bailey, TJ Cimfel, Angela Liu, Michelle Tang, Jara Nassar, Pedro Iniguez, Joe Koch, Anaea Lay, Steve Rasnic Tem, Cynthia Pelayo, Lyndsay E. Gilbert, and Catherine McCarthy. Edited by Kenneth W. Cain and Tim Meyer. Cover art by Don Noble.

Where do we go when we dream? Since the beginning of time, people have argued the meaning of dreams. Are they symbolic visions that hold great meaning and personal significance? Are they portals into other worlds? Or are they just a series of random events our mind shows us when we fall asleep? Whatever the case, this much is true - the mind can be a scary place to venture, even for a few hours. NEVER WAKE is an anthology of dream horror, bringing you several mind-bending tales of nightmares, hallucinations, and phantasmagoria from some of the hottest talent in horror fiction. But don't worry - when you (wake up screaming) flip the last page, just remember to tell yourself, "It was only just a story..." Unless it wasn't. Featuring an introduction from Sadie "Mother Horror" Hartmann and stories from Philip Fracassi. Eric LaRocca, Gwendolyn Kiste, Todd Keisling, Kristin Peterson, Laurel Hightower, Lee Murray, Michael Bailey, TJ Cimfel, Angela Liu, Michelle Tang, Jara Nassar, Pedro Iniguez, Joe Koch, Anaea Lay, Steve Rasnic Tem, Cynthia Pelayo, Lyndsay E. Gilbert, and Catherine McCarthy. Edited by Kenneth W. Cain and Tim Meyer. Cover art by Don Noble.

For fans of Mexican Gothic, a harrowing, sultry horror novel about the forgotten women in Dracula and Jane Eyre as they combat the toxic men intent on destroying their lives.

2023 Lambda Literary Award Winner 2023 Bram Stoker Award Finalist for Superior Achievement in a Novel For fans of Mexican Gothic, from three-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author Gwendolyn Kiste comes a novel inspired by the untold stories of forgotten women in classic literature--from Lucy Westnera, a victim of Stoker's Dracula, and Bertha Mason, Mr. Rochester's attic-bound wife in Charlotte Bront 's Jane Eyre--as they band together to combat the toxic men bent on destroying their lives, set against the backdrop of the Summer of Love, Haight-Ashbury, 1967. Reluctant Immortals is a historical horror novel that looks at two men of classic literature, Dracula and Mr. Rochester, and the two women who survived them, Bertha and Lucy, who are now undead immortals residing in Los Angeles in 1967 when Dracula and Rochester make a shocking return in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco. Combining elements of historical and gothic fiction with a modern perspective, in a tale of love and betrayal and coercion, Reluctant Immortals is the lyrical and harrowing journey of two women from classic literature as they bravely claim their own destiny in a man's world.

Boneset & Feathers is a novel of witchy folk horror by Bram Stoker Award-winning author Gwendolyn Kiste, in which a young woman must re-ignite her magic against the threat of the dreaded witchfinders. You don't know their fire is coming until it's too late. That's exactly the way the witchfinders like it. As an isolated enchantress, Odette knows this too well-she lost nearly her whole family to the last round of executions, barely escaping with her own life. All the magic she could conjure wasn't enough to protect her mother and sister, a burden that leaves a despondent Odette practically wishing she'd burned with the rest. Now it's five years later, and as the last witch left from her village, Odette has exiled herself to the nearby woods where she's sworn off all magic, hoping instead for quiet and for safety. But no witch has ever been permitted a peaceful life. It starts with crows tumbling out of the clouds and spectral voices on the wind that won't leave her alone. Then there are those midnight visits to the graveyard that she can't quite remember in the morning and the strange children following her everywhere she goes. Odette wants to forget magic, but her magic doesn't want to forget her. Meanwhile, the former friends she left behind in the village are cowering together, hiding from the ghostly birds they believe she's sent to torment them for abandoning her. But that's only the beginning of their problems, as Odette soon discovers their worst nightmare is about to come true-the witchfinders are returning. And this time, the decree is clear: to burn the witch that got away. With the men drawing nearer to the village, Odette must face the whispers from the dead and confront her fear of her own growing power if she wants any chance of stopping the army of witchfinders determined to rid the countryside of magic once and for all.

Be changed. GORGON: STORIES OF EMERGENCE contains 42 transformative stories spanning all genres from both emerging and new voices alike, with all new stories by Gwendolyn Kiste, Richard Thomas, Annie Neugebauer, Eden Royce, Beth Cato, D. A. Xiaolin Spires and more, and featuring 10 illustrations by Carrion House.

Something's happening to the girls on Denton Street. It's the summer of 1980 in Cleveland, Ohio, and Phoebe Shaw and her best friend Jacqueline have just graduated high school, only to confront an ugly, uncertain future. Across the city, abandoned factories populate the skyline; meanwhile at the shore, one strong spark, and the Cuyahoga River might catch fire. But none of that compares to what's happening in their own west side neighborhood. The girls Phoebe and Jacqueline have grown up with are changing. It starts with footprints of dark water on the sidewalk. Then, one by one, the girls' bodies wither away, their fingernails turning to broken glass, and their bones exposed like corroded metal beneath their flesh. As rumors spread about the grotesque transformations, soon everyone from nosy tourists to clinic doctors and government men start arriving on Denton Street, eager to catch sight of "the Rust Maidens" in metamorphosis. But even with all the onlookers, nobody can explain what's happening or why--except perhaps the Rust Maidens themselves. Whispering in secret, they know more than they're telling, and Phoebe realizes her former friends are quietly preparing for something that will tear their neighborhood apart. Alternating between past and present, Phoebe struggles to unravel the mystery of the Rust Maidens--and her own unwitting role in the transformations--before she loses everything she's held dear: her home, her best friend, and even perhaps her own body.

Mary, Mary... Always hitchhiking the same lonely highway, she calls herself Rhee, but everyone else knows her as Resurrection Mary. And when she's transported home each night to the same decrepit, nowhere mansion, she's always got her sisters. Call her name three times, and Bloody Mary appears. In the poisoned garden, Mistress Mary, Quite Contrary. Downstairs, Mary Mack, forever building her own coffin. And brooding with her horse skull, the restless Mari Lwyd. They are the Marys, embodiments of urban legend and what goes bump in the night, every child's nightmare. But as the walls between their realities start to crack, the shadows threaten oblivion. To save herself and her sisters, Rhee must unravel who the Marys are before the darkness claims them.