FIVE MINUTES WITH EDITOR PAULA GURAN

28/10/2022

Which one of your characters would you least like to meet in real life?

I’m not an author, I’m an editor, so I don’t create characters. But there are certainly plenty of unsavory characters and creatures created by others in the books I’ve edited.

The term horror, especially when applied to fiction always carries such heavy connotations. What’s your feeling on the term “horror” and what do you think we can do to break past these assumptions?

I’m quoting myself here, from “Introduction to The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: 2010: What the Hell Do You Mean by ‘Dark Fantasy and Horror?’” (You can find it here: paulaguran.com/introduction-to-the-years-best-dark-fantasy-horror-2010)

Once upon a time I felt the term “horror” could be broadened, accepted, and generally regarded as a fiction [to quote Douglas E. Winter who wrote in Revelations(1997)] that was “evolving, ever-changing—because it is about our relentless need to confront the unknown, the unknowable, and the emotion we experience while in its thrall.”

One reason Winter was reminding us of that in the introduction to his anthology was because the word “horror” had already been devalued. He was right about what horror literature is, but the word itself had been slapped on a generic marketing category and, by 1997, the word had become a pejorative. The appellation was hijacked even more completely in the years thereafter and became associated in the public hive mind—an amorphous organism far more frequently influenced by the seductive images, motion, sounds, and effects that appear on a screen of any size than by written words (even when they are on a screen)—with entertainments that depend on shock for any value they may (or may not) possess rather than eliciting the more subtle emotion of fear.

And while fine and highly diverse horror literature—some of the best ever created—continues to be written in forms short and long, the masses for the most part have identified “horror” as either a certain kind of cinema or a generic type of fiction (of which they have certain expectations or ignore entirely because it delivers only a specific formula.)

So, the term “horror” has been expropriated, and I doubt we’ll ever be able to convince the world it means what we alleged horror mavens might want it to mean.

A lot of good horror movements have arisen as a direct result of the socio/political climate, considering the current state of the world where do you see horror going in the next few years?

Wherever the world goes. In the last few years, we’ve started to see pandemics, climate change, current politics, and the like reflected in horror. That will continue. We are also now, finally and thankfully, seeing more and more fiction published by writers whose viewpoint is not only white, cisgendered, heterosexual, Western, and/or male.

Given the dark, violent and at times grotesque nature of the horror genre why do you think so many people enjoy reading it?

Well, I’ve written essays on that. You can find many of my thoughts reflected in the introductions to various volumes of The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror: paulaguran.com/extras/ . To quote myself again, from the introduction to the latest: “Horror ﬁction and dark fantasy, at its best, can teach us how to survive real fear. It portrays both what is truly terrifying and what is nothing more than ﬁgments of imagination. That there are different kinds of evil to confront and defeat. It tells us, no matter what, we can ﬁght back and survive the monsters, or, at worst, we can put up a damned good ﬁght and leave behind a story worth telling.”

What, if anything, is currently missing from the horror genre?

Since I read a great deal of current short fiction, I find just about everything these days. Not always the case, but that’s changing.

What new and upcoming authors do you think we should take notice of?

My annual anthologies are a great place to discover just those authors along with those you may be better acquainted with.

Are there any reviews of your work, positive or negative that have stayed with you?

No.

Do you have a favorite line or passage from your work, and would you like to share it with us?

“The farther we’ve gotten from the magic and mystery of our past, the more we’ve come to need Halloween.”

Can you tell us about your last book, and can you tell us about what you are working on next?

Here’s something about the two most recent...

The Year’s Best Fantasy, Volume One explores myth and fable, dark and light—a heroic creature facing a dangerous demon; an earthly love facing the mossy decay of death. With tales of living ball gowns and timid monsters, of modern witches and multidimensional magic, these twenty-four stories will transport you from fantastical realms that push the limits of imagination to alternative realities mirroring much of our own.

Discover bewitchment and wonder, the surreal and the chimerical, in a fantasy anthology representing a diverse array of accomplished talent from around the world . . . and perhaps beyond.
* * *
The supernatural, the surreal, and the all-too real. . . Such tales of the dark and the unknown have always fascinated us, and modern authors carry on the disquieting traditions of the past while inventing imaginative new ways to unsettle us. The twenty-three stories in The Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror, Volume Three where are as eclectic and varied as shadows. The anthology offers more than four hundred pages of tales from some of today’s finest writers of the fantastique

* * *
And I am working on the next volumes of each (covering fiction published this year, 2022).

If you could erase one horror cliché what would be your choice?

I’d like to erase all clichés from horror.

What was the last great book you read, and what was the last book that disappointed you?

I’d prefer not to name one that disappointed me. I review and when I am disappointed, I decline to review. That doesn’t mean that book (or those books) might not work for others.

As for “great”—that’s a BIG adjective and I think it takes a little time to determine the truly great.

What’s the one question you wish you would get asked but never do? And what would be the answer?

“We have a full-time job editing (and related stuff) available similar to what you’ve done before. Would you go back to doing that for a living?” My answer would, of course, be “yes!”

The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: Volume Three

The supernatural, the surreal, and the all-too real. . . Such tales of the dark and the unknown have always fascinated us, and modern authors carry on the disquieting traditions of the past while inventing imaginative new ways to unsettle us. Chosen from a wide variety of venues, these stories are as eclectic and varied as shadows.

The latest volume of The Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror edited by fantasy aficionado Paula Guran offers more than four hundred pages of tales from some of today’s finest writers of the fantastique including Alix E. Harrow, Zen Cho, Elizabeth Hand and many more! Indulge if you dare, because these 23 tales of terror are sure to delight as well as disturb!

Paula Guran

BIO

Editor, anthologist, and reviewer Paula Guran has edited more than fifty science fiction, fantasy, and horror anthologies and more than fifty novels and single-author collections featuring the same. She was senior editor for Prime Books for seven years. Previously, she edited the Juno fantasy imprint from its small press inception through its incarnation as an imprint of Simon & Schuster’s Pocket Books. Guran edits the annual Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror series (first ten volumes with Prime; now published by Pyr. In an earlier life, she produced weekly email newsletter DarkEcho (winning two Stokers, an IHG award, and a World Fantasy Award nomination), edited Horror Garage (earning another IHG and a second World Fantasy nomination), and has contributed reviews, interviews, and articles to numerous professional publications. The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, Volume 2 was nominated for a World Fantasy Award in 2022. She’s been reviewing for Locus: The Magazine of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Field on a regular basis for the last six years.

After more than twenty years of working at various publishing-related jobs, including a dozen years as a full-time editor, she took a day job that has nothing to do with books or fiction.

Guran has ﬁve fabulous grandchildren she would be happy to tell you about. She lives in Akron, Ohio, with her faithful cat Nala.

WEBSITE LINKS
paulaguran.com
Facebook: paulaguran
Twitter: @paulaguran
www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Paula-Guran/2117929089