Nightmare Magazine

ADVERTISEMENT: Text reads Robert W. Chambers: The King in Yellow; illustrated deluxe edition, October 2025.

Advertisement

Our Staff

Wendy N. Wagner

Editor-in-Chief

Wendy N. Wagner is the author of the horror novels Girl in the Creek and The Deer Kings, as well as the gothic novella The Secret Skin. Previous work includes the SF thriller An Oath of Dogs and two novels for the Pathfinder Tales series. Her short fiction has been nominated for the Theodore Sturgeon and Shirley Jackson awards, and her short stories, poetry, and essays have appeared in more than seventy venues. A two-time Locus award finalist for her editorial work here, she also serves as the senior editor of Lightspeed Magazine, and previously served as the guest editor of our Queers Destroy Horror! special issue. She lives in Oregon with her very understanding family, a large cat, and a Muppet disguised as a dog.

John Joseph Adams

Publisher / Founder

John_Joseph_Adams_2018_220x169px

John Joseph Adams is the series editor of Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy and the New York Times bestselling editor of more than forty anthologies, such as Wastelands, A People’s Future of the United States, and Out There Screaming (with Jordan Peele). He is also editor (and publisher) of the Hugo Award-winning magazine Lightspeed and is publisher of its sister-magazines Nightmare and Fantasy. Called “the reigning king of the anthology world” by Barnes & Noble, John is a two-time winner of the Hugo Award, a winner of the Stoker,  Locus, and ENNIE awards, and a ten-time World Fantasy Award finalist. In addition to his short fiction work, he’s the co-creator of The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast, and for five years he was the editor of the John Joseph Adams Books novel imprint for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Lately, he’s been working as an editor on various TTRPG projects for Kobold Press and Monte Cook Games and as a contributing game designer on books such as Kobold Press’s Tome of Heroes. Learn more at johnjosephadams.com.

Lisa Nohealani Morton

Assistant Editor

Lisa Nohealani Morton

Born and raised in Honolulu, Lisa Nohealani Morton lives in Washington, DC. By day she is a mild-mannered database wrangler, computer programmer, and all-around data geek, and by night she writes science fiction, fantasy, and combinations of the two. Her short fiction has appeared in publications such as Lightspeed, Daily Science Fiction, and the anthology Hellebore and Rue. She can be found on Twitter as @lnmorton.

Alex Puncekar

Assistant Editor

Alex Puncekar writes fantasy, science fiction, and horror. His fiction has appeared in Jenny Magazine. He is also the assistant editor for Nightmare Magazine, an interviewer for Lightspeed Magazine, and writes reviews at Grimdark Magazine. He won a cookie stacking contest when he was six or seven (he can’t remember the age but yeah it happened) and has been trying to ride that high ever since. You can find more alexpuncekar.com. He/Him.

Danielle Ranucci

Editorial Assistant

Danielle Ranucci graduated Princeton University able to read horror stories in English, Spanish, and Russian. Her work has appeared in Uncharted Magazine and J Journal, and she is currently penning a novel. She reviews books and talks about writing on her blog danielleranucci.wordpress.com. When not immersed in literature, she enjoys Broadway shows, tennis, and traveling. She lives in New York.

Leighanna DeRouen

Editorial Assistant/Proofreader

Leighanna DeRouen is freelance writer and proofreader who lives with her husband and their dog GG somewhere in Ohio. When she’s not rewatching the 1990 hit film Rockula, she can be found lurking in the abyss that is Twitter at @fleurdleigh.

Devin Marcus

Proofreader

Devin Marcus

Devin Marcus is a writer and editor whose love for spooks is, to his knowledge, unparalleled. He would love it if you sent him cool horror-related stuff on Twitter @DubbleOhDevin. He lives in Olympia with his partner and their handsome pupper, Emmett.

Melissa V. Hofelich

Copy Editor

Melissa V. Hofelich is originally from South Jersey, but now lives in Atlanta with her husband Alex and their cats Zoey and Violet. She’s worked for both The Man and The Devil over the years (though not at the same time), trying her hand at jobs such as accounting, professional box-slinging, fraud detection, and lingerie sales. Her heart is in the care and feeding of books and libraries. Melissa holds a BFA from The University of the Arts in Philadelphia and is a ravenous reader, gamer, and tikiphile.

Adam-Troy Castro

Reviewer

Adam-Troy Castro made his first non-fiction sale to Spy magazine in 1987. His books to date include four Spider-Man novels, three novels about his profoundly damaged far-future murder investigator Andrea Cort, and six middle-grade novels about the dimension-spanning adventures of young Gustav Gloom. Adam’s works have won the Philip K. Dick Award and the Seiun (Japan), and have been nominated for eight Nebulas, three Stokers, two Hugos, one World Fantasy Award, and, internationally, the Ignotus (Spain), the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire (France), and the Kurd-Laßwitz Preis (Germany). The audio collection My Wife Hates Time Travel And Other Stories (Skyboat Media) features thirteen hours of his fiction, including the new stories “The Hour In Between” and “Big Stupe and the Buried Big Glowing Booger.” In 2022 he came out with two collections, His The Author’s Wife Vs. The Giant Robot and his thirtieth book, A Touch of Strange. Adam lives in Florida with a pair of chaotic paladin cats.

Terence Taylor

Reviewer

Terence Taylor (terencetaylor.com) is an award-winning children’s television writer whose work has appeared on PBS, Nickelodeon, and Disney, among many others. After years of comforting tiny tots with TV, he turned to scaring their parents. His first published short story, “Plaything”, appeared in Dark Dreams, the first horror/suspense anthology of African-American authors. He was included in the next two volumes, and his short stories and non-fiction have appeared in Lightspeed and Fantastic Stories of the Imagination. Terence is also author of the first two novels of his Vampire Testaments trilogy, Bite Marks and Blood Pressure. He is currently writing the conclusion, Past Life. Follow him on Twitter @vamptestaments.

Stefan Rudnicki

Podcast Producer

Stefan Rudnicki

Stefan Rudnicki is an independent director, producer, narrator, and publisher of audiobooks. For his work, he has received more than a dozen Audie Awards from the Audio Publishers Association, a Ray Bradbury Award, a Bram Stoker Award, and GRAMMY Awards for the audiobooks The Children’s Shakespeare and Society’s Child. Outside of the audiobook industry, he’s probably best known for the dozen books he’s written or edited, from actor’s resource anthologies to a best-selling adaptation of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. He is president of Skyboat Media, the most respected independent audio production team on the West Coast. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.

Christie Yant

Associate Publisher/Art Director

Christie Yant

Christie Yant is a science fiction and fantasy writer, Associate Publisher for Lightspeed and Nightmare, and guest editor of Lightspeed’s Women Destroy Science Fiction! special issue. She is a two-time World Fantasy Award finalist and a two-time Locus Award finalist for her work as co-Editor-in-Chief at Fantasy Magazine. Her fiction has appeared in anthologies and magazines including Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2011 (Horton, ed.), Armored, Analog Science Fiction & Fact, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, io9, Wired.com, and China’s Science Fiction World. Her work has received honorable mentions in Year’s Best Science Fiction (Dozois, ed.) and Best Horror of the Year (Datlow, ed.), and has been long-listed for StorySouth’s Million Writers Award. Follow her on Twitter @christieyant.

Clockpunk Studios

Webmaster

Clockpunk Studios

Clockpunk Studios is a web design company based in Lawrence, Kansas. They specialize in websites for authors, publishers, and small businesses, and are experts in WordPress design and development. Clockpunk Studios is run by writer Jeremiah Tolbert.

Emeritus Staff

Arley Sorg

Associate Editor

Arley Sorg is an associate literary agent at kt literary. He is a two-time World Fantasy Award finalist and a two-time Locus Award finalist for his work as co-Editor-in-Chief at Fantasy Magazine. Arley is also a SFWA Solstice Award Recipient, a Space Cowboy Award Recipient, and a finalist for two Ignyte Awards, for his work as a critic as well as his creative nonfiction. Arley is senior editor at Locus, a columnist for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and an interviewer for Clarkesworld. He takes on multiple roles, including slush reader, movie reviewer, and book reviewer, and ran a series of interviews on his site: arleysorg.com. He has been a guest instructor or speaker at a range of events—and for a variety of audiences—from Worldcons to WisCons, from elementary students to PhD candidates. He was a guest critiquer for the 2023 Odyssey Writing Workshop and the week five instructor for the 2023 Clarion West Workshop. Arley grew up in England, Hawaii, and Colorado, and studied Asian Religions at Pitzer College. He lives in the SF Bay Area and writes in local coffee shops when he can. Arley is a 2014 Odyssey Writing Workshop graduate.

Xander Odell

Assistant Editor

Sandra Odell

Xander Odell lives in Washington state with their husband, sons, and an Albanian miniature moose disguised as a dog. Their work has appeared in such venues as Jim Baen’s Universe, Daily Science Fiction, Crossed Genres, Pseudopod, and Cast of Wonders. They are a Clarion West 2010 graduate, and an active member of the SFWA. Find out more at writerodell.com or follow them on Twitter at @WriterOdell.

Discord header
ADVERTISEMENT: Robot Wizard Zombie Crit! Newsletter (for Lightspeed, Nightmare, and John Joseph Adams' Anthologies)
Keep up with Nightmare, Lightspeed, and John Joseph Adams' anthologies—as well as SF/F news and reviews, discussion of RPGs, and other fun stuff.

Delivered to your inbox once a week. Subscribers also get a free ebook anthology for signing up.
Join the Nightmare Discord server to chat and share opinions with fellow Nightmare readers.

Discord is basically like a cross between a instant messenger and an old-school web forum.

Join to chat about horror (and SF/F) short stories, books, movies, tv, games, and more!