Gemma Files
{{short description|Canadian horror writer, journalist, and film critic}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Gemma Files
| image = Gemma Files at Readercon.jpg
| caption = Files at Readercon in 2016, holding her Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1968|04|04}}
| birth_place = London, England
| occupation = Writer
| language = English
| alma_mater = Ryerson Polytechnic University
| genre = Horror
| subject =
| notableworks =
| influences =
| influenced =
| awards = International Horror Guild Award
Shirley Jackson Award
Sunburst Award
| website =
| years_active = 1993 {{en dash}} present
}}
Gemma Files is a Canadian horror writer, journalist, and film critic. Her short story, "The Emperor's Old Bones", won the International Horror Guild Award for Best Short Story of 1999. Five of her short stories were adapted for the television series The Hunger.
Biography
Gemma Files was born in 1968 in London to the actors Elva Mai Hoover and Gary Files.{{Citation needed|date = August 2015}} Her family relocated to Toronto in 1969.{{Citation needed|date = August 2015}} Files graduated from Ryerson Polytechnic University in 1991 with a degree in journalism. She published her first horror fiction, "Fly-by-Night" in 1993.{{Cite web|url = http://www.locusmag.com/Perspectives/2011/12/gemma-files-the-sex-and-death-show/|title = Gemma Files: The Sex and Death Show|date = 4 December 2011|access-date = 13 August 2015|website = Locus Online}} Various freelance assignments eventually led to a continuing position with entertainment periodical Eye Weekly, where she wrote about the horror genre, independent films and Canadian cinema.{{Citation needed|date = August 2015}} She was listed by Cameron Bailey of NOW as one of the Top 10 Coolest People in Canadian Cinema for 1996.{{Citation needed|date = August 2015}}
In 2000 her award-winning story "The Emperor's Old Bones" was reprinted in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror Thirteenth Annual Collection (ed. Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow). In 2010 her Shirley Jackson Award-nominated novelette "each thing i show you is a piece of my death" was reprinted in The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Two (ed. Ellen Datlow).{{Citation needed|date = August 2015}} Her short story "The Jacaranda Smile" was also a 2009 Shirley Jackson Award finalist.{{ Cite web | title=2009 Shirley Jackson Awards Winners | url=http://www.shirleyjacksonawards.org/award-winners/2009-shirley-jackson-awards-winners/ | access-date=18 August 2016 }}
Her first novel, A Book of Tongues, won the 2010 Black Quill Award for "Best Small Press Chill" from Dark Scribe Magazine; it was followed by the sequels A Rope of Thorns (2011) and A Tree of Bones (2012), together comprising her The Hexslinger series. A Rope of Thorns was considered a "powerful sequel" to A Book of Tongues by Publishers Weekly.{{Cite journal|url = http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=60367344&site=ehost-live|title = A Rope of Thorns|date = 25 April 2011|journal = Publishers Weekly|access-date = 13 August 2015|volume = 258|issue = 17|pages = 119–120}}
Her book We Will All Go Down Together (about a coven of witches and changelings) was given a favorable review by NPR.{{Cite news|url = https://www.npr.org/2014/11/26/363835816/north-of-the-border-horror-in-go-down-together|title = North-Of-The-Border Horror In 'Go Down Together'|last = Heller|first = Jason|date = 26 November 2014|work = NPR|access-date = 13 August 2015}}
Her novel Experimental Film (2015) won the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel and the Sunburst Award for Best Canadian Speculative Fiction (Novel) in 2016.
Files married science fiction and fantasy author Stephen J. Barringer (with whom she co-wrote "'each thing i show you is a piece of my death"") in 2002. They have one child.{{Citation needed|date = August 2015}}
Bibliography
= ''The'' ''Hexslinger'' series =
- {{cite book |first=Gemma |last=Files |author-mask=2 |title=A Book of Tongues: Volume One in the Hexslinger Series |publisher=ChiZine Publications |year=2010 |isbn=9780981297866}}
- {{cite book |first=Gemma |last=Files |author-mask=2 |title=A Rope of Thorns: Volume Two in the Hexslinger Series |publisher=ChiZine Publications |year=2011 |isbn=9781926851143}}
- {{cite book |first=Gemma |last=Files |author-mask=2 |title=A Tree of Bones: Volume Three in the Hexslinger Series |publisher=ChiZine Publications |year=2012 |isbn=9781926851570}}
- {{cite book |first=Gemma |last=Files |author-mask=2 |title=The Hexslinger Omnibus |publisher=ChiZine Publications |year=2013 |edition=eBook |asin=B00EXOT72Q}}
= Novels =
- {{cite book |first=Gemma |last=Files |author-mask=2 |title=Experimental Film |publisher=ChiZine Publications |year=2015 |isbn=9781771483490}}{{Cite web |last=Langan |first=John |date=2016-07-13 |title=John Langan reviews Gemma Files |url=https://locusmag.com/2016/07/john-langan-reviews-gemma-files/ |access-date=2022-05-11 |website=Locus Online |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Allan |first=Nina |date=2016-03-16 |title=Experimental Film by Gemma Files |url=http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/reviews/experimental-film-by-gemma-files/ |access-date=2022-05-11 |website=Strange Horizons |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=2022-03-25 |title=The Past Comes Back to Haunt a Movie Scholar in Experimental Film |url=https://the-line-up.com/experimental-film-excerpt |access-date=2022-05-11 |website=The Lineup |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Wallace |first=Kali |date=2022-01-31 |title=The Best Niche Genre? Creepy Books About F*cked Up Films That F*ck People Up |url=https://www.tor.com/2022/01/31/the-best-niche-genre-creepy-books-about-fcked-up-films-that-fck-people-up/ |access-date=2022-05-11 |website=Tor.com |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Westenfeld |first=Adrienne |date=2021-10-12 |title=10 Books About Ghosts That'll Scare the Sh*t Out of You—and Make You Smarter |url=https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/g37705209/best-ghost-books/ |access-date=2022-05-11 |website=Esquire |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=McRobert |first=Neil |date=2022-05-09 |title=The 50 Best Horror Books of All Time Will Scare You Sh*tless |url=https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/g37676766/scary-horror-books/ |access-date=2022-05-11 |website=Esquire |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Centorcelli |first=Kristin |date=2016-02-10 |title=Five Questions With Gemma Files, Author of EXPERIMENTAL FILM |url=https://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2016/02/5-questions-with-gemma-files-author-of-experimental-film/ |access-date=2022-05-11 |website=SF Signal |language=en-US}}
= Collections =
- {{cite book |first=Gemma |last=Files |author-mask=2 |title=Kissing Carrion: Stories |publisher=Prime Books/Wildside Press |year=2003 |isbn=9781894815635}}
- {{cite book |first=Gemma |last=Files |author-mask=2 |title=The Worm in Every Heart: Stories |publisher=Prime Books/Wildside Press |year=2004 |isbn=9781894815765}}
- {{cite book |first=Gemma |last=Files |author-mask=2 |title=We Will All Go Down Together: Stories of the Five-Family Coven |publisher=ChiZine Publications |year=2014 |isbn=9781771482011}}
- {{cite book |first=Gemma |last=Files |author-mask=2 |title=Spectral Evidence |publisher=JournalStone |year=2018}}
- {{cite book |first=Gemma |last=Files |author-mask=2 |title=Drawn Up from Deep Places |publisher=JournalStone |year=2018}}
- {{cite book |first=Gemma |last=Files |author-mask=2 |title=In That Endlessness, Our End |publisher=Grimscribe Press |year=2021}}{{Cite web|url=https://horrortree.com/wihm-12-quick-six-questions-with-gemma-files/|title=Quick Six Questions With Gemma Files|access-date=2021-02-15|website=Horror Tree|last=MacLeod|first=Selene|date=15 February 2021 }}
- {{cite book |first=Gemma |last=Files |author-mask=2 |title=Blood from the Air |publisher=Grimscribe Press |year=2023}}
- {{cite book |first=Gemma |last=Files |author-mask=2 |title=Dark Is Better |publisher=Trepidatio Publishing |year=2023}}
= Poetry =
- {{cite book |first=Gemma |last=Files |author-mask=2 |title=Invocabulary |publisher=Aqueduct Press |year=2018}}
References
{{reflist|30em}}
External links
- {{Official website|http://musicatmidnight-gfiles.blogspot.com|name=Official blog}}
- {{IMDb name|id=0276874|name=Gemma Files (II)}}
- {{ISFDB name|id=12981}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Files, Gemma}}
Category:Canadian horror writers
Category:Cthulhu Mythos writers
Category:Toronto Metropolitan University alumni
Category:Canadian people of Australian descent
Category:20th-century Canadian women writers
Category:Canadian women horror writers
Category:21st-century Canadian women writers
Category:20th-century Canadian short story writers
Category:21st-century Canadian short story writers
Category:21st-century Canadian novelists
Category:Canadian women short story writers
Category:Canadian women novelists
Category:Novelists from Toronto
Category:English emigrants to Canada