Lisa Morton: Women in Horror Month

In conversation with Lisa Morton

In 2016, on the heels of a traumatic bicycle accident, the Horror Writers Association (HWA) literally saved my life. At my darkest moment, I received a call from Marge Simon notifying me that I had just won the HWA Scholarship. This call gave me hope, and the HWA became a haven. In 2017, I attended my first StokerCon at the Queen Mary in Long Beach. As a previous winner of the HWA Scholarship, I sat on a panel about the program. That was when I first met Lisa Morton, who was still the HWA President at the time. A few years later, I was presented with the opportunity to interview Lisa, a prolific award-winning writer in her own right, for the StokerCon 2021 Souvenir Anthology: The Phantom Denver Edition, edited by Josh Viola at Hex Publishers. It was a wonderful experience, and I enjoyed every minute of our conversation. 

Later, while research the history of women working in horror, I turned to Morton’s books Weird Women: Classic Supernatural Fiction by Groundbreaking Female Writers: 1852-1923 and Weird Women: Classic Supernatural Fiction by Groundbreaking Female Writers: 1840-1925, co-edited with Leslie S. Klinger. And then I began scheduling interviews with writers I knew and admired to help me fill in the blanks. Lisa was one of the first people I reached out to. Luckily, she agreed. – Carina Bissett

“A good story doesn’t have an expiration date. It’s a snapshot of history, and if it’s an accurate depiction, it reveals our past and reminds us of those elements that have endured into the present” (Morton and Klinger, Weird Women: 1840-1925).

About Lisa Morton

Lisa Morton is a screenwriter, author of non-fiction books, and prose writer whose work was described by the American Library Association’s Readers’ Advisory Guide to Horror as “consistently dark, unsettling, and frightening.” She is a six-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award®, the author of four novels and 200 short stories, and a world-class Halloween and paranormal expert. Her latest releases include Calling the Spirits: A History of Seances and The Art of the Zombie Movie. Recent short stories appeared in Best American Mystery Stories 2020, Final Cuts: New Tales of Hollywood Horror and Other Spectacles, and Classic Monsters Unleashed. She has appeared on such popular shows and podcasts as Shock Docs, Coast to Coast, NPR’s Throughline, CNN’S Margins of Error, and Chinwag with Paul Giamatti and Stephen Asma, and is also the host of the weekly Ghost Report podcast. Lisa lives in Los Angeles and online at www.lisamorton.com.

Interview With Lisa Morton

BISSETT: What do you think the future holds for women working in horror right now?

MORTON: When I was starting out there were like ten women in the field and now there are dozens if not hundreds. And they’re incredibly talented. You look at old Stoker years and out of maybe every two categories there would be one female name. Now it’s getting closer to fifty-fifty. It’s really exciting, and I think it’s going to continue. I would love to see more women come along who reach those top publishing levels. A female Paul Tremblay or Josh Malerman would be great.

BISSETT: What was your first experience with horror?

MORTON: I don’t remember this, but my parents always told me I was completely terrified at the age of three by Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. What I DO remember, though, is being maybe five or six and visiting Disneyland with my parents; this would have been about 1963, when they still had a 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea attraction, which involved walking through a recreation of Captain Nemo’s submarine. At one point there was a porthole that I wasn’t quite tall enough to really see through, so my dad lifted me up and the giant squid was dangling on the other side. That both freaked me out and mesmerized me!

BISSETT: Some of the recent work you’ve been doing is on the historical aspect of horror. Do you think that this type of scholarship will impact the way women writers are seen today?

MORTON: It would be nice to think that. One of the things about this scholarship, for a lot of women writers, is that it gives us a sort of grounding, a sense that ‘oh, we’re not the first to do this.’ We actually come from a history that we didn’t even know we had. It certainly was the case with me. It gave me a sense of being part of this wonderful long journey, and that can even give you a little more confidence. One of the problems of being a woman writer is that we are brought up in a culture that tells us to step back, that men should dominate. And for many of us it’s very hard to learn to overcome that. I love how that’s changing. That’s why my first piece of advice to women writers is to always be bold. Don’t just sit back. Go ahead and approach writers. Put yourself out there. God knows the men are.

BISSETT: Do you have any advice for women writers?

MORTON: Start at the top and work your way down. Don’t be afraid to submit. Approach editors. If you see an editor talking about an anthology they are working on, don’t be afraid to write and ask if they have any open slots. I guarantee men are doing that. I will also tell you I have done that myself on probably five occasions, and it led to five of my best publishing credits. This is one of those instances where women are far more hesitant than men are. 

BISSETT: What are you currently working on? 

MORTON: I haven’t written a novel in ten years and was afraid it was a skill I’d lost, but I’m currently halfway through one now and pleased with how it’s going. The story is sprawling and wild and will probably get me in trouble with certain parts of society, which is something I always love seeing in other writers’ work. I hope to get the finished book to my agent soon, and then we’ll cross our fingers that it finds a home.

About The Art of the Zombie Movie (Applause Books, 2023) by Lisa Morton

A Bram Stoker Award finalist for Superior Achievement in Long Nonfiction.

Whether George Romero’s implacable, slow-moving monstrosities or the fleet-footed terrors of 28 Days Later, over the last several decades the zombie has ascended into the upper echelon of the of the movie monster pantheon—an elite tier once reserved only for vampires, werewolves, and Frankenstein’s monster. Featuring over 500 posters, lobby cards, pressbooks, stills, and props from zombie movies across the whole of cinema history, The Art of the Zombie Movie is an eye-popping, entertaining visual history of zombie films written by six-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author Lisa Morton. Included here is the story of the origin and global reach of the zombie feature film; special features, quotes, and interviews from key creators; a survey of such varied subgenres as Blaxploitation, sci-fi, cowboy, and comic zombie films; and a selection of foreign zombie movies from Mexico, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Japan, and other countries. With unprecedented range and detail, this comprehensive collection of zombie movie art begins in 1932 (when The White Zombie, the first true entrant in the genre, was released), explores the renaissance that was launched by George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, and traces the countless variations, innovations, and reinventions that continue to ensure that the zombie genre will never truly die.

Carina Bissett

Carina Bissett is a writer and poet working primarily in the fields of dark fiction and fabulism. She is the author of numerous shorts stories, which are featured in her debut collection Dead Girl, Driving and Other Devastations (Trepidatio Publishing, 2024), and she is the co-editor of the award-winning anthology Shadow Atlas: Dark Landscapes of the Americas. She is currently a Bram Stoker finalist for her essay “Words Wielded by Women” (Apex Magazine, 2023), a comprehensive retrospective of women in horror. Links to her work can be found at http://carinabissett.com.

Dead Girl, Driving and Other Devastations

In this powerful debut, Carina Bissett explores the liminal spaces between the magical and the mundane, horror and humor, fairy tales and fabulism. A young woman discovers apotheosis at the intersection of her cross-cultural heritage. A simulacrum rebels against her coding to create a new universe of her own making. A poison assassin tears the world apart in the relentless pursuit of her true love—the one person alive who can destroy her. Dead Girl, Driving and Other Devastations erases expectations, forging new trails on the map of contemporary fiction. Includes an introduction by Julie C. Day, author of Uncommon Miracles and The Rampant. 

Praise for Dead Girl, Driving and Other Devastations

Check out Steve Stred’s Review of Dead Girl Driving here

“Carina Bissett is one of my favorite speculative authors writing today—magic and myth, horror and revenge, wonder and hope. Her stories are original, lyrical, and haunting—Shirley Jackson mixed with Ursula LeGuin and a dash of Neil Gaiman. An amazing collection of stories.—Richard Thomas, author of Spontaneous Human Combustion, a Bram Stoker Award finalist

“Carina Bissett’s collection is a thing of wonder and beauty. It is a true representation of Carina herself: whimsical, visceral, lovely, and fierce. You can hear women’s voices screaming while roses fall from their lips. Dead Girl, Driving and Other Devastations is a triumph.”—Mercedes M. Yardley, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Little Dead Red

“From fairy tale revisions to fresh takes on monstrous transitions and the absolute horrors of being female, no one knows how to write a story like Carina Bissett. Fierce yet fragile.”—Lindy Ryan, author of Bless Your Heart

“In a debut collection weaving folklore and fairy tale and told in magical, lyrical, irresistible prose, Carina Bissett inveigles readers with the breadth of her skill. A feat of woven wonder, with spells sketched in the air and strands stretched taut, Dead Girl Driving and Other Devastations is an enchanting tapestry of silken stories, the collection establishing Bissett as a world-class author of fabulism, fantasy, and horror. A must-read for lovers of Neil Gaiman, Angela Slatter, and Carmen Maria Machado.” —Lee Murray, five-time Bram Stoker Awards-winning author of Grotesque: Monster Stories

“Ravishing flights of fantasy.”—Priya Sharma, Shirley Jackson award-winning author of All the Fabulous Beasts and Ormeshadow

“Dark, often violent, Dead Girl, Driving & Other Devastations doesn’t lie to you about the nature of its stories. Between the title page and the Afterword lies a harrowing alliance of nightmare and fairytale. The pages are full of strange birds, resurrections, second chances, monstrous women, enchantments, and inventions. These stories explore a dark and permissive imagination, unafraid to disturb the monster at the back of the cave. It is a collection for the brave and forlorn, for those seeking escape, vengeance, transformation, or grace. There is wonder here, and freedom from shackles—for those fierce enough to wrench loose of them.”—C. S. E. Cooney, World Fantasy Award-winning author of Saint Death’s Daughter

“Carina’s short stories are absolutely luminous and deeply unsettling. Savour this collection like a fine blood-red wine. It’s absolute perfection and will linger long after the pages are closed.”—KT Wagner

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