Michael Arnzen
{{short description|American novelist}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Michael A. Arnzen
| birth_name=Michael A. Arnzen
| image =
| caption = Michael Arnzen in Pittsburgh, PA 2009.
| imagesize = 250px
| pseudonym =
| birth_date = May 17, 1967
| birth_place = Amityville, New York, U.S.
| death_date =
| death_place =
| occupation = {{flatlist|
}}
| alma_mater = Colorado State University Pueblo (BA)
University of Idaho (MA)
University of Oregon (PhD)
| period = 1989–present
| genre = Fiction, Horror Fiction, Critical Theory, Poetry
| subject =
| movement =
| notableworks = Grave Markings
| influences =
| influenced =
| awards = {{awd|Bram Stoker Award|1994|Grave Markings| Best First Novel}}{{awd|International Horror Guild Award for First Novel|1994|Grave Markings|}}{{awd|Bram Stoker Award|2003|The Goreletter|Best Alternate Form}}{{awd|Bram Stoker Award|2005|Freakcidents| Best Poetry Collection}}{{awd|Bram Stoker Award|2007|Proverbs For Monsters|Best Fiction Collection}}
| signature =
| website = {{URL|http://www.gorelets.com/}}
}}
Michael A. Arnzen (born May 17, 1967) is an American horror writer. He has won the Bram Stoker Award three times.
Early life and education
Arnzen was born on May 17, 1967, in Amityville, New York.{{Cite book|chapter=Arzen, Michael A.|chapter-url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/arnzen-michael-1967|editor-last1=Matthews|editor-first1=Tracey|title=Contemporary Authors|title-link=Contemporary Authors|series=new revision series|volume=146|pages=22–24|year=2006|publisher=Gale|isbn=978-1-4144-1010-4|oclc=507351966|issn=0275-7176}} After a brief stint in the United States Army overseas, where he began writing horror stories to entertain his fellow soldiers, he moved to Colorado, where he began his writing career.
Arnzen received the Bram Stoker Award in 1994 for Grave Markings. Shortly thereafter, he earned a master's degree while working on his second novel, soon followed by his Ph.D. in English at the University of Oregon, where he studied the role of horror and nostalgia in 20th-century culture in a dissertation called The Popular Uncanny.
100 Jolts (Raw Dog Screaming Press) features 100 of Arnzen's flash fiction stories. His short story collection, Fluid Mosaic (Wildside Press) collects his best stories from the 1990s. His poetry chapbooks include Freakcidents, Gorelets: Unpleasant Poetry, Dying (With No Apologies to Martha Stewart), Paratabloids, Chew, Sportuary, and Writhing in Darkness. His most recent published work is Play Dead, a crime thriller with a poker theme.
Arnzen holds a Ph.D. in English and currently teaches graduate studies in Seton Hill University's Writing Popular Fiction Program and undergraduate English courses at Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pennsylvania.
Arnzen runs Mastication Publications, an umbrella imprint for creative ephemera, chapbooks, collector's items and independently published ebooks.{{Cite web|url=http://masticationpublications.com/about-us/|title = Gorelets – Creative Horror by Michael Arnzen}}
Bibliography
= Novels and novellas =
- Grave Markings (Dell Books, 2004) Winner, Bram Stoker Award Superior Achievement in a First Novel{{Cite web|url=http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/award_category.cgi?497+0|title = Award Category: Superior Achievement in a First Novel (Bram Stoker Award)}}
- Play Dead (Raw Dog Screaming Press, 2005)
- Bitchfight (Bad Moon Books, 2008)
- Grave Markings: The 20th Anniversary Edition (Raw Dog Screaming Press, 2014)
= Short story and flash fiction collections =
- Needles and Sins (Dark Regions Press, 1993)
- Fluid Mosaic and Other Outre Objects D'Art (Wildside Press, 2001)
- 100 Jolts (Raw Dog Screaming Press, 2004)
- Proverbs For Monsters (Dark Regions Press, 2007) Winner, Bram Stoker Award Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection{{Cite web|url=http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/award_category.cgi?496+0|title = Award Category: Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection (Bram Stoker Award)}}
= Poetry collections =
- Chew and other ruminations (Mastication Publications, 1991)
- Writhing in Darkness (Dark Regions Press, 1997)
- Paratabloids (Ozark Triangle Press, 2000)
- Gorelets: Unpleasant Poems (Fairwood Press, 2003)
- Dying (With No Apologies to Martha Stewart) (Tachyon Publications, 2003)
- Sportuary (Mastication Publications, 2003)
- Freakcidents: A Surrealistic Sideshow (2005) Winner, Bram Stoker Award Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection{{Cite web |title=Award Category: Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection (Bram Stoker Award) |url=https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/award_category.cgi?501+0 |access-date=2025-06-24 |website=www.isfdb.org}}
= Non-fiction =
- Many Genres, One Craft (Co-Edited by Michael A. Arnzen and Heidi Ruby Miller) (Headline Books, 2011)
- Instigation: Creative Prompts on the Dark Side (Mastication Publications, 2013)
- Screamin' in the Rain: The Orchestration of Catharsis in William Castle's 'The Tingler' (What Sleeps Beneath, 2024){{Cite web |title=Screamin’ in the Rain: The Orchestration of Catharsis in William Castle’s ‘The Tingler’ |url=https://www.whatsleepsbeneath.com/archive/screamin-in-the-rain |access-date=2025-06-24 |website=What Sleeps Beneath |language=en-US}}
See also
{{portal|Novels}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.gorelets.com Michael Arnzen's official site]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20060614141101/http://www.rawdogscreaming.com/jolts.html 100 Jolts]
- [http://www.rawdogscreaming.com/ Raw Dog Screaming Press]
- [http://blogs.setonhill.edu/ Pedablogue]
- {{isfdb name|id=2902|name=Michael Arnzen}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arnzen, Michael}}
Category:21st-century American male writers
Category:American horror novelists
Category:21st-century American novelists
Category:People from Greensburg, Pennsylvania
Category:University of Oregon alumni
Category:Seton Hill University
Category:Novelists from Pennsylvania
Category:People from Amityville, New York
Category:Sportspeople from Babylon, New York