Member Interviews

TLO Member Interview: Ramsey Campbell Conducted by Phillip Stecco Ramsey Campbell's first book was published in 1964 by Arkham House when he was still in his teens. He is regarded as one of the most important writers of contemporary weird fiction. Mr. Campbell resides in the United Kingdom. 1) How did you first encounter the work of Thomas Ligotti? Back in the early eighties Harry O. Morris asked me to read Tom's Songs of a Dead Dreamer with a view to providing – I can't now recall if it was a blurb or an introduction. I took the unbound pages with me to Ensenada, where Dennis Etchison had arranged a few days at Quintas Papagayo (the setting of his tale "The Dark Country"). I wouldn't be surprised if some of my fellow guests still...

Laird Barron is a name that has inspired some controversy around these parts mostly for three reasons: 1) Barron is one of the most talented and skilled living writers of weird fiction. 2) Barron wrote a satirical meta-fictional story entitled "More Dark," published in 2012, which features a fictionalized version of Ligotti (Tom L) cast in an ambivalent light. 3) Barron posted a 2013 blog entry, "Lord of Darkness," in which he simultaneously extols Thomas Ligotti's fiction and excoriates Ligotti's nonfiction.As a longtime reader and friend of Ligotti, "More Dark" got under my skin. The first time I read the story, I took it as a humorous piece that descends into real Ligottian horror by the end. But the combination of the story and the...

I think the interview is the new art form. I think the self-interview is the essence of creativity.-Jim Morrison, “Prologue: Self-Interview,” Wilderness Volume I - The Lost Writings of Jim Morrison(1) (1) James Douglas "Jim" Morrison (December 8, 1943 – July 3, 1971) was the lead singer and lyricist of rock band The Doors, as well as a poet. He was born 8 months before me, but died the week I left Canada to live in Australia. Following The Doors' explosive rise to fame in 1967-8 when I was teaching among the Inuit on Baffin Island, and travelling-pioneering for the Canadian Baha’i community, Morrison developed a severe alcohol and drug dependency which culminated in his untimely death in Paris in 1971 at age 27 due to a suspected...

TLO Member Interview: TheSingingGarden Conducted by Phillip Stecco How did you first encounter the work of Thomas Ligotti? In the 1980's, in a special edition of Dagon, the small press magazine borrowed from a friend. Not long after that I stumbled across a copy of Songs of a Dead Dreamer in a small town near the village where I was born. If you knew the place you'd understand why that was such an unusual find. What are some of your favorite works by Mr. Ligotti? Songs of a Dead Dreamer made the greatest impact on me … "Vastarien," "The Journal of J. P. Drapeau," "Dr. Voke and Mr. Veech" ... When I discovered Ligotti I was already aware of the Symbolist and German Expressionist traditions in writing and art for some time and...

TLO Member Interview: klarkash Conducted by Phillip Stecco 1) How did you first encounter the work of Thomas Ligotti? I had heard his name for some time; I first read him in an old issue of something called Tekeli-li! that I dug out of a box at Time Machine on 14th Street in Manhattan. 2) What are some of your favorite works by Mr. Ligotti? Sideshow and Other Stories. "The Nightmare Network." "New Faces in the City." In a Foreign Town, In a Foreign Land. 3) What other writers do you enjoy reading? Jack Vance, Bruno Schulz, Lord Dunsany, Clark Ashton Smith, Roberto Bolaño, Jorge Luís Borges, Fritz Leiber, Robert E. Howard, Robert Aickman, Gene Wolfe, Don DeLillo, W. G. Sebald, Cormac McCarthy, M. P. Shiel... 4) Do you have...

TLO Member Interview: DoktorH Conducted by Phillip Stecco 1) How did you first encounter the work of Thomas Ligotti? From a Boing Boing post on The Conspiracy Against the Human Race: Philosophy of Thomas Ligotti, a horror writer who can't feel happiness - Boing Boing I read the preview available on Amazon.com, wound up ordering it from Hippocampus Press. (I don't like dealing with vendors who ship via UPS.) While I waited for what I could tell was the kind of misanthropy I enjoyed in Lovecraft without all the cosmic-tentacle-monster window dressing, I read enough of Teatro Grottesco to realize The Conspiracy Against the Human Race is the equivalent of Lovecraft writing The Necronomicon or Robert W. Chambers scripting a...

TLO Member Interview: gryeates Conducted by Phillip Stecco 1) How did you first encounter the work of Thomas Ligotti? I picked up the Virgin edition of Teatro Grottesco in Borders after reading Matt Cardin's interview with Mr. Ligotti online. I'd read a number of writers before who were compared to Lovecraft but I can honestly say this was the first time I'd read the work of someone who was not only equal to Lovecraft in artistic vision and execution but able to take the underlying themes further, fashioning them into something unique, distinctive and deeply disturbing. 2) What are some of your favorite works by Mr. Ligotti? I'll select two for different reasons. My personal choice is "The Malignant Matrix" vignette from Sideshow...

TLO Member Interview: darknessdoubled Conducted by Phillip Stecco 1) How did you first encounter the work of Thomas Ligotti? My older brother turned me on to Ligotti's work. He had a copy of Noctuary and then The Nightmare Factory. I was intrigued and started to read and collect Ligotti on my own shortly thereafter. 2) What are some of your favorite works by Mr. Ligotti? My list of favorite stories would have to include "The Bungalow House," "The Medusa," "The Red Tower," "The Shadow, The Darkness," and "The Spectacles in the Drawer." There are certainly others I could list here, but these come to mind most readily. 3) What other writers do you enjoy reading? Some favorites: Robert Aickman, Ambrose Bierce, Adolfo Bioy Casares'...

TLO Member Interview: LadyLovecraft Conducted by Phillip Stecco 1) How did you first encounter the work of Thomas Ligotti? The very first story I read was "The Last Feast of Harlequin" which got me hooked instantly. In a Lovecraft-based story collection the story stuck out like a neon sign… I had not come across something that grabbed and shook me like this story in a very, very long time. 2) What are some of your favorite works by Mr. Ligotti? Since the first time is usually something that sticks with me, the first story that comes to mind is of course "The Last Feast of Harlequin." Next to that I love "My Work Is Not Yet Done" and "The Shadow at the Bottom of the World." 3) What other writers do you enjoy reading? Well, next...

TLO Member Interview: scottsplatter Conducted by Phillip Stecco 1) How did you first encounter the work of Thomas Ligotti? I'm a late comer to Ligotti's work. The first story I read was "The Shadow, The Darkness" in the anthology 999. Which I somehow had forgotten I'd read until I picked up the Virgin edition of Teatro Grottesco. That book was my real introduction. His name had been in the back of my head for years and just had never gotten to it. It was about as profound a read as I have had, and came at a great time for me. I was getting serious about writing, after a lifetime of half-assing it, and transitioning from doing music all the time. I hadn't read much in the horror field that was resonating with me that was current...

TLO Member Interview: Murony_Pyre Conducted by Phillip Stecco 1) How did you first encounter the work of Thomas Ligotti? I first encountered the name of Thomas Ligotti in the Joyce Carol Oates edited American Gothic Tales anthology. Remembering the name Ligotti and having heard him mentioned in glowing terms from time to time in passing on the internet (though in exactly what connection I can't recall) I put him on my mental "authors to read" list. It wasn't until I picked up Shudder Again: 22 Tales of Sex and Horror, which included his story "Eye of the Lynx," that I actually read Ligotti. Incidentally, it was also in the same anthology that I first read Robert Aickman, with his excellent story "Ravissante." Frankly, I wasn't too...

TLO Member Interview: Pegritz Conducted by Phillip Stecco 1) How did you first encounter the work of Thomas Ligotti? Via Douglas Winter's Prime Evil anthology. I believe I was... fourteen at the time, and couldn't make heads or tails of "Alice's Last Adventure." It was too far beyond my then-limited reading capacity... but something about its surreal eeriness kept drawing me back to it. In later years, I discovered Songs of a Dead Dreamer, Grimscribe, and The Nightmare Factory after I'd read more Poe, Lovecraft, and Samuel Beckett. Beckett's absurd, dadaist influence really piqued my taste for Ligotti's seriously creepy approach to the absurdity of existence. 2) What are some of your favorite works by Mr. Ligotti? My favourite...

TLO Member Interview: Brendan Moody Conducted by Phillip Stecco 1) How did you first encounter the work of Thomas Ligotti? I don't recall how I first heard of Ligotti, but I had already been curious to check out his work for a long time when I discovered that my college library had a copy of The Nightmare Factory. I read it all the way through, and was fascinated. A short time later I was lucky enough to find a copy of the Carroll & Graf paperback of Songs of a Dead Dreamer at a local used book store for $2.50. That was the kernel of what has become a large collection not only of Ligotti, but of many contemporary writers of horror and dark fiction. 2) What are some of your favorite works by Mr. Ligotti? "The Christmas Eves of Aunt...

TLO Member Interview: Jonathan Dread Conducted by Phillip Stecco 1) How did you first encounter the work of Thomas Ligotti? Completely by chance. I hadn't come across Thomas Ligotti's work before. I spotted a copy of Teatro Grottesco in my local library and was curious. Read it, loved it and made a point of looking for more works. 2) What are some of your favorite works by Mr. Ligotti? "My Work Is Not Yet Done" (I loved the dark humour in this, particularly in the opening chapters when Frank describes his colleagues at their meetings.) "The Town Manager" The stories from In a Foreign Town, In a Foreign Land, particularly "The Bells Will Sound Forever." …just recently managed to lay my hands on The Nightmare Factory and expect...

TLO Member Interview: Gray House Conducted by Phillip Stecco 1) How did you first encounter the work of Thomas Ligotti? I think I first took note of Ligotti's name when I read something by S. T. Joshi that made a passing mention. Eventually, after reading online about Ligotti, I decided to try one of his books and bought The Shadow at the Bottom of the World, which was the most inexpensive option at the time. 2) What are some of your favorite works by Mr. Ligotti? "Teatro Grottesco," "Notes on the Writing of Horror: A Story," "Alice's Last Adventure" and "The Strange Design of Master Rignolo" are some of my favorites. I also hold The Conspiracy Against the Human Race in high esteem but that book is very different from the stories...

TLO Member Interview: brendanconnell Conducted by Phillip Stecco Brendan Connell is the author of the novel The Translation of Father Torturo and the story collections Metrophilias and Unpleasant Tales. He resides in New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment. 1) How did you first encounter the work of Thomas Ligotti? I had heard a number of people mention him as being one of the best contemporary writers of dark fiction. This was a number of years ago. I probably first read his work in 1999. 2) What are some of your favorite works by Mr. Ligotti? He has written many very good stories, but one that has stuck with me over the years is called "Nethescurial." 3) What other writers do you enjoy reading? There are so many good writers, it...

TLO Member Interview: Keith418 Conducted by Phillip Stecco 1) How did you first encounter the work of Thomas Ligotti? A friend who was a fellow horror enthusiast turned me on in the late 1980s. 2) What are some of your favorite works by Mr. Ligotti? I am an admirer of all of his different periods - from the earliest to the most recent - but I especially love the stories in Teatro Grottesco. That said, I think his finest work are the pieces in In a Foreign Town, In a Foreign Land. The last story there is, perhaps, one of the single best horror stories I've ever read. 3) What other writers do you enjoy reading? I read a lot. For fiction, I like many contemporary dark fantasy and weird authors like D. P. Watt, John Gaskin, Mark...

TLO Member Interview: tartarusrussell Interview conducted by Phillip Stecco 1) How did you first encounter the work of Thomas Ligotti? I published David Tibet’s interview with Ligotti in Aklo back in 1998 and at roughly the same time bought the Robinson editions of Grimscribe and Noctuary. I remember reading them while on holiday in Dorset and though I quite liked them, I wasn’t really convinced by either collection. 2) What are some of your favorite works by Mr. Ligotti? Having “respected” Ligotti’s work for several years without being a big fan, Teatro Grottesco was then published. I was enjoying the collection more than the previous ones, and then I came across the “Damaged and Diseased” section… At that moment I was really...

TLO Member Interview: Freyasfire Conducted by Phillip Stecco 1) How did you first encounter the work of Thomas Ligotti? I first heard of Thomas Ligotti through the praises of David Tibet around 2003, I believe. I remember from the start even his name intrigued me. But I did not actively seek out any of his work right away. It was in 2004 that I happened upon the story "Teatro Grottesco" in a Year's Best Fantasy and Horror volume that I had taken out of the library. As my boyfriend was also curious about Ligotti's work, he read me the story out loud as dusk was falling on a winter's afternoon. I remember it very vividly. I have a pretty short attention span when listening to stories being read aloud, but my mind did not wander once...

TLO Member Interview: njhorror Conducted by Phillip Stecco 1) How did you first encounter the work of Thomas Ligotti? It was probably in one of those "Year's Best Horror" anthologies and from there I purchased The Nightmare Factory, because with a name like that how could I resist? 2) What are some of your favorite works by Mr. Ligotti? "The Frolic", "Vasterian", "The Last Feast of Harlequin", "The Sect of the Idiot", "The Bungalow House", "Nethescurial" to name a few. 3) What other writers do you enjoy reading? Poe, Lovecraft, King, Cormac McCarthy, Paul Finch, Terry Lamsley, and a bunch of others. 4) Do you have any favorite singers or musicians? I've always been a fan of The Rolling Stones, and lately I've been listening...