Michael Arnzen
Michael Arnzen ([official bio]) is a horror writer and English professor, currently teaching in the [MFA in Writing Popular Fiction] graduate program at Seton Hill University, near Pittsburgh, PA.
Arnzen was born in Amityville, NY -- the location of the infamous "horror house" -- in 1967. He first started writing in the Army, and subsequently began publishing horror poetry, short stories, reviews and articles in the small press and [horror zines] during his undergraduate years at the University of Southern Colorado (now CSU-Pueblo). He was an active member of SPWAO -- the Small Press Writer's and Artist's Organization (subsequently renamed the Genre Writers Association) and the [Horror Writer's Association] -- throughout the 1990s. Arnzen and artist (later, wife) Renate Muller launched Mastication Publications in 1991 -- a small press imprint for horror fiction and poetry, responsible for two chapbooks in the early '90s: Chew and Other Ruminations (Arnzen's first poetry collection) and Psychos: An Anthology of Psychological Horror in Verse (an influential collection of horror poems that included writers like Steve Rasnic Tem, Denise Dumars, Don Webb, Kathleen Jurgens, Marge Simon, Andrew Darlington, Steve Eng, Lisa Lepovetsky, John Grey and [many more]).
Arnzen has since published dozens of books ([official bibliography]) and has won numerous awards, including Bram Stoker Awards for Fiction Collection, Poetry Collection, First Novel and Alternative Forms. He also was recipient of the International Horror Critics Guild Award for First Novel, the Best Fiction Writer award from the Genre Writers Association and Best New Writer award from the Small Press Writers and Artists Organization.
Arnzen continues to write professionally. His latest title is [The Gorelets Omnibus], published by Raw Dog Screaming Press in 2012
Chapbooks (as Publisher)
- PSYCHOS (editor)
- Chew and Other Ruminations (author)
