Posted inData+Errata

New Post to The Popular Uncanny blog on “The Uncanny Valley and Intellectual Uncertainty”

Just added a new essay to my theory blog on The Popular Uncanny:  "The Uncanny Valley and Intellectual Uncertainty" -- a review and reaction to an interesting cognitive study just published on the brain's response to the uncanny valley. If you don't know what the Uncanny Valley is, then see Wikipedia.  Or watch this video from Popular Science online:  
July 16, 2011Posted inData+Errata
Posted inArnzen News

Winter Chills: Arnzen Interview with Non-Horror Reader Survey

Like reading, but don't really like horror fiction? WD Prescott, is running an interesting website bluntly called The Non-Horror Reader Survey that is studying what today's readers think about the modern horror genre. It features interviews with various readers, writers, and scholars, along with a research questionnaire you can fill out, if you want to participate. It's an interesting idea and you should chime in and get the discussion going. Prescott interviewed me this week. See "Winter Chills with Mike Arnzen". I talk about The Popular Uncanny, teaching horror in college, horror's relationship with humor and poetry, and all sorts…
December 22, 2010Posted inArnzen News
Posted inArnzen News

Legends of the Mountain State

Woodland Press is NOW SHIPPING the latest volume (#4) in the LEGENDS OF THE MOUNTAIN STATE ghost tale series. Featuring transformations of "Appalachian myths, ghost tales and folklore" derived from West Virginian lore, this book is sure to be a gem, with stories by Gary Braunbeck, Brian Hatcher, Steve Rasnic Tem, Elizabeth Massie, Lisa Morton, and a raft of other horror greats. My story involves a ghost child at the end of Childer's Road... I'll say no more than that. Order the book directly from the publisher for $18.95 to get it as soon as it's release in mid October,…
August 21, 2010Posted inArnzen News
Posted inNot Dead Yet: Print Reviews

A Double-Take on The New Uncanny

Last year's Shirley Jackson Award winner for "Best Anthology" -- The New Uncanny: Tales of Unease, edited by Sarah Eyre and Rah Page (Comma Press, 2008) -- is a knockout example of genre renewal. The book features some of the best British horror authors alive, including Ramsey Campbell, Nicholas Royle, A.S. Byatt, Christopher Priest and many more...even Matthew Holness (whose comedic double from the BBC, Garth Merenghi, is echoed here). The book definitely deserved the Jackson Award for its ambition, because it makes for an interesting literary experiment. The book, essentially, was an assignment. All its contributors were challenged to…
October 31, 2009Posted inNot Dead Yet: Print Reviews