Lucy Taylor

{{about|the author|the first American woman dentist|Lucy Hobbs Taylor|the author, educator, and authority on interior decoration|Lucy D. Taylor}}

{{Infobox writer

| name = Lucy Taylor

| image = Jasmine&LucyWHC.jpg

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| caption = Jasmine Sailing and Lucy Taylor
at World Horror Convention III (1993)

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| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1951|11|30}}

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| occupation = Novelist

| nationality = American

| period = Contemporary

| genre = horror

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Lucy Taylor (born November 30, 1951) is an American horror novel writer. Her novel, The Safety of Unknown Cities was awarded the Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel and the International Horror Guild Award for Best First Novel in 1995, and the Deathrealm Award for Best Novel in 1996.{{cite web |title=Bibliography: The Safety of Unknown Cities |url=http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?22109 |work=ISFDB |publisher=ISFDB.ORG |accessdate=2009-10-17}} Her collection The Flesh Artist was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award (Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection) in 1994.{{cite web |title=Bibliography: The Flesh Artist |url=http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?36882 |work=ISFDB |publisher=ISFDB.ORG |accessdate=2009-10-17}}

Taylor's horror fictions do not usually feature supernatural elements, instead being psychological thrillers about extreme human relationships.Nevins, Jeff, Horror Fiction in the Twentieth Century : Exploring Literature's Most Chilling Genre. Santa Barbara, CA: Prager Publishers, 2020. {{ISBN|9781440862052}} (p.173). Taylor has been called "The Queen of Erotic Horror" by Jasmine Sailing.{{cite journal |last1=Sailing |first1=Jasmine |year=1993 |title=Lucy Taylor: The Queen of Erotic Horror |journal=Cyber-Psychos AOD |issue=4|url=http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?CYBERPAOD41993}} The online Locus Index to Science Fiction (published by Locus) has also categorized several of her works as "erotic horror".{{cite web |title=The Locus Index to Science Fiction |url=http://www.locusmag.com/index/b468.htm#A6852 |work=Locus Index |publisher=Locus Magazine |accessdate=2009-10-17}} Original short fiction of hers appears in all five volumes of the international anthology series, Exotic Gothic.

She has a B.A. in philosophy. Her early writing included non-fiction travel writing.[http://www.locusmag.com/1998/Issues/11/Taylor.html Locus Magazine] November, 1998 issue

Reception

Reviewing Taylor's book A Respite for the Dead, Peter Tennant called it "a compelling and totally engaging story, one in which the strangeness is woven deep into every line of the text."Peter Tennant, Black Static Magazine, January–February 2015, (pp. 89-90). Jess Nevins stated that Taylor "is skilled at portraying dysfunctional human relationships and the price they demand from the innocent and the weak."

Partial bibliography

See the ISFDB listing in external links for a more complete bibliography, including works of short fiction.

=Novels=

The Safety of Unknown Cities (Dark Side Press, 1995; The Mammoth Book of Erotica; Overlook Connection Press, 1999) {{ISBN|1-892950-12-X}}
Sub-Human (1998)
Eternal Hearts (1999)
Saving Souls (Onyx, 2002) {{ISBN|0-451-41043-2}}
Dancing With Demons (Necro Press, Ebook 2019) {{ISBN|1-944703-66-7}}