Global Indigenous Horror

SHORT-LISTED AS A 2025 BRAM STOKER AWARD NOMINEE FOR SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN LONG NON-FICTION

Contributions by Katrin Althans, Jayson Althofer, Naomi Simone Borwein, Persephone Braham, Krista Collier-Jarvis, Shane Hawk, Jade Jenkinson, June Scudeler, and Sabrina Zacharias

Global Indigenous Horror is a collection of essays that positions Indigenous Horror as more than just a genre, but as a narrative space where the spectral and social converge, where the uncanny becomes a critique, and the monstrous mirrors the human. While contentions swirl around the genre category, this exploratory anthology is the first critical edited collection dedicated solely to ways of theorizing and analyzing Indigenous Horror literature. The essays, curated by scholar Naomi Simone Borwein, ask readers to consider what Global Indigenous Horror is—and to whom.

The volume opens with a preface by international bestselling horror writer Shane Hawk (enrolled Cheyenne-Arapaho, Hidatsa, and Potawatomi descent), followed by an overview of Global Indigenous Horror trends, aesthetics, and approaches. The carefully selected contributions explore Indigenous Horror literature and mixed-media narratives worldwide, unraveling the intricate dynamics between the local and global, traditional and contemporary, and human and monstrous. Contributor chapters are grouped not by geographical or cultural variation, but along a spectrum, from a strong emphasis on ways of knowing to a critical inspection of Horror through Indigenous Gothic aesthetics across cultural boundaries and against and beyond nation states.