John Hornor Jacobs

John Hornor Jacobs is the award-winning author of genre-blurring fiction that explores horror, crime, and the uncanny with emotional depth and literary precision. His forthcoming novel, The Night That Finds Us All (Putnam, 2025), is a dark nautical horror story about a haunted sailboat, a cursed voyage across the Atlantic, and a sailor unraveling in sobriety and isolation. Tense, terrifying, and darkly funny, it showcases Jacobs at the height of his powers. He is the author of A Lush and Seething Hell, a collection of two literary horror short novels that was shortlisted for both the World Fantasy and Shirley Jackson Awards and has been optioned for television. Murder Ballads and Other Horrific Tales, his newest collection, gathers ten stories—two previously unpublished—including a sequel to Southern Gods. Traversing crime noir, folk horror, and speculative dread, it further cements Jacobs as, in the words of Daniel Kraus, “a major author.” Jacobs' debut novel Southern Gods was a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award and winner of the Darrell Award. Set in the haunted South, it blends cosmic horror and blues mythology in a story that first marked Jacobs as a unique voice in modern horror. He is also the author of This Dark Earth (Simon & Schuster), the Twelve-Fingered Boy YA trilogy, and the Incorruptibles fantasy series, the first volume of which was nominated for the Morningstar and Gemmell Awards. His short fiction and essays have appeared in Playboy, Southwest Review, Cemetery Dance, Apex Magazine, and The Continental Literary Magazine. Jacobs is also a screenwriter and co-creator of the upcoming narrative podcast The Listening Station. His work continues to evolve across media and genre, but always remains rooted in the dark territories of the human heart.