Ecstatic to share that Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy, published in May 2021 by The Seventh Terrace, has won the Ladies of Horror Fiction Award for Best Collection 2021. There was a tie this year, and I’m proud for my collection to be a co-winner with Isabel Yap’s Never Have I Ever.
unfortunate elements of my anatomy
“Blame, Pain, and Selfishness” in A Woman Built by a Man
First story of 2022! This one appears in the new Cemetery Gates Media anthology A Woman Built by a Man. My story “Blame, Pain, and Selfishness” involves a fictional woman in a book written by a man, and how she’s unwilling to stay glued to the page. Check it out!
In other news, while the cover art is still forthcoming, paperback pre-orders are up for my late year noir/horror/dark fantasy novel No Gods for Drowning over at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Bookshop.org.
It releases September 20, 2022 from Polis Books!
Also check out this group interview with myself, Eve Harms, and Gretchen Felker-Martin with Lovecraft Arts & Sciences, Queer Art & Conventional Discomfort.
Lastly, Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy made an appearance on Tor Nightfire’s Best Horror Short Story Collections and Anthologies 2021 list among a stunning lineup of titles, with shout-outs to “Demons of Particular Taste” and “Aggressive Mimicry.”
Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy release day!
At last, it’s release day for Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy! My first short story collection comes from The Seventh Terrace, stuffed with 18 tales of queer horror, isolation, and the monstrous feminine. It includes my first novelette in two years, “Recitation of the First Feeding,” and a host of body horror, sci-fi horror, and all things macabre.
Check it out in paperback and ebook
Praise for Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy:
“In Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy, Hailey Piper masterfully crafts a resolutely modern gothic, unearthing the rotten, the broken and the strangely beautiful. Piper wields incisive prose with empathy and deep intuition, carefully dissecting the monstrous bodies herein and spilling their stories onto the page. A compelling and essential collection.”
– Laura Mauro, British Fantasy Award-winning author of Sing Your Sadness Deep
“With surgical precision, Hailey Piper’s stories slice through the skin, fat, and muscle of her characters’ lives, all the way down to the living bone and what is written on it. In terms of their prose, their wit, their insight, their compassion, their terror, these are the sharpest of stories. Read them, but be prepared for the cuts.”
– John Langan, author of Children of the Fang and Other Genealogies and Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Fisherman
Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy – cover & details
The body of this post features a treasure trove of unfortunate elements. Feast your eyes on the cover for Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy, my upcoming and first short story collection, published by The Seventh Terrace. Cover and interior art by the amazing Janice Blaine; introduction by the wonderful Laurel Hightower.
The collection releases on May 7, 2021 and the ebook is up for pre-order on Amazon. I can’t wait to share with you.
Synopsis:
Love twisted into horrific shapes, nightmares driven by cruel music, and a world where what little light remains fractures the sky into midnight rainbows in eighteen stories tracing the dark veins of queer horror, isolation, and the monstrous feminine.
The universe unwinds to the tune of a malicious ice cream truck jingle in “We All Scream”. “The Law of Conservation of Death” dictates that a ghost pursue his prey across her every reincarnation. Superstitions thrive even in the distant future and across the stars when a colony shuttle mounts a witch trial in “Hairy Jack”. And try to “Forgive the Adoring Beast” as it scavenges a world of dead gods for tokens of bloody affection.
Including two new short stories and a never-before-published novelette, Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy digs deep inside us and clings to the beating nightmare heart you always knew was there.
Best Lesfic Award; Inkheist; “In Subspace, No One Can Hear You Scream” in Mycelia, Issue IV
Today I had the fantastic honor of winning the Best Lesfic of 2020 Award for Best Horror, for my queer cosmic horror novella, The Worm and His Kings! Make horror gay AF!
Also, I had the pleasure of reappearing on the Inkheist podcast to talk about The Worm and His Kings as well as writing process, queer representation, my upcoming 2021 releases Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy and Queen of Teeth, and whether psychic powers fit into supernatural horror or form their own subgenre of psychic horror. Give a listen!
I expect this will be the last update of a long, long year. Ending it with a bang is my erotic horror story, “In Subspace, No One Can Hear You Scream” that appears in Mycelia issue IV. At this club’s show, there’s more happening than meets the eye. Check it out.
Book announcement; interviews galore
I’m ecstatic to announce that my first short story collection, Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy, will be published in spring 2021 from The Seventh Terrace! Focusing on queer horror, isolation, and the monstrous feminine, the book will cover 18 stories, including a new novelette, “Recitation of the First Feeding.”
I’ll keep the site updated (technical issues aside) as info comes in such as cover and release date.
As for interviews, I had technical difficulties that kept me from updating as they came:
- Stephanie Wytovich had me over for a special Pride Month Madhouse interview in Urban Legends and Cannibal Kings: A Guest Interview with Hailey Piper, where we went in-depth on Benny Rose, the Cannibal King.
- Waylon Jordan interviewed me back in February for this lovely Pride Month article at iHorror.
- Laurel Hightower brought me back to Dead Head Reviews for a little interview about representation.
That should be all the interviews this month! And at month’s end, there will be a podcast tale.