About
Elizabeth Donald is a dark fiction writer fond of things that go chomp in the night. She is author of the Blackfire urban fantasy series and Nocturne vampire mystery series, as well as other novels, novellas and stories in the horror, science fiction and fantasy genres. She is a three-time winner of the Darrell Award for speculative fiction and finalist for the Prism and Imadjinn awards, and more recently the Mimi Zanger Literary Award. She is the founder of the Literary Underworld small-press cooperative; an award-winning journalist and essayist with more than 25 years in journalism; a nature and art photographer; freelance editor and writing coach. She holds a masters degree in media studies from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, where she is currently completing an MFA in creative writing; and teaches journalism and English composition at SIUE and St. Louis University. She serves as president of the St. Louis Society of Professional Journalists and SIUE Sigma Tau Delta as well as the Eville Writers, and is a member of the national SPJ Ethics Committee, Association of Writers and Writing Programs, Editorial Freelancers Association, and more writing and trade organizations than is healthy. She lives with her husband in a haunted house in Edwardsville, Illinois. In her spare time, she has no spare time.
Featured Work
Setting Suns: Anniversary Edition
A nightmarish fun house turned deadly.
A couple trapped in a futile journey through time.
A single baleful eye watching from the deep.
An assassin waiting in a snow-covered tree.
A toy that seems to have a life of its own.
A pair of soldiers trapped between death and something worse.
A tenebrous hand reaching out of the shadows.
These are the award-winning tales and terrors of Elizabeth Donald, writer of things that go chomp in the night. This new anniversary edition is being released 20 years after the first story was published, now including a bonus short story and the author’s reflections on twenty years of twilight tales.
In that space between evening and nightfall, between consciousness and sleep, the moment when the light fades and the shadows take over… These are the lands of the Setting Suns.
Winner of the 2005 Darrell Award
“Elizabeth Donald is the George R.R. Martin of horror.” – Michael Knost, author of Return of the Mothman
“Donald’s is one of the strongest and freshest new genre voices out there.” – Bryan Smith, author of 68 Kill and The Unseen
“Elizabeth Donald delves into the shadows of the human psyche and plucks out the darkest, squirmiest bits fit for the spookiest of campfire gatherings.” – Sara Harvey, author of Music City
"One of the strongest writers it is my privilege to know.” – H. David Blalock, author of Ascendant
“A storytelling ability to rival that of Stephen King.” – Enchanting Reviews
Other Works
-
Yanaguana
2020
-
Moonlight Sonata
2017
-
Nocturne Infernum
2015
-
Gethsemane
2014
-
Dreadmire
2013
-
Blackfire
2011
-
Infinity
2011
-
The Cold Ones
2009
-
Nocturne
2006
-
A More Perfect Union
2005
-
Nocturnal Urges
2004
Awards and Recognition
- Mimi Zanger Award for Fiction, 2021
- Darrell Award for fiction novel, 2007
- Darrell Award for short story, 2005
- Darrell Award for novella, 2004
- Imadjinn Award finalist, 2018
- Darrell Award finalist, 2005
- Prism Award finalist, 2004
- Illinois Press Association Award: 2019, 2017, 2014, 2011, 2010
- Illinois Associated Press Media Editors Award: 2018, 2017, 2014
- Ted Scripps Leadership Institute, 2016
- Terry Harper Memorial Fellowship, 2010
- Hoyleton Foundation Media Award, 2008
- Southern Illinois Editorial Association Award: 2003, 2001
