A lovesick count and the ghost of his brutalized servant...a serial killer who defies death...a house with a violent mind of its own and another that holds within its peeling walls a grotesque secret. Here are witches who feast on faces, changeling rites of passage, a venerable vampire contemplating his end, and a fanged brat who drains the patience of a bumbling teenage boy. Here too are a flamboyant young novelist in search of a subject more compelling than his own eerie existence, and the daughter of a sorcerer fighting to free her lover — and her will — from sinister bonds. Enter the world of Gothic!, a celebration of the literary form made famous by such writers as Mary Shelley and Edgar Allan Poe.

With scary stories by:
Joan Aiken
M. T. Anderson
Neil Gaiman
Caitlín R. Kiernan
Gregory Maguire
Garth Nix
Celia Rees
Janni Lee Simner
Vivian Vande Velde
Barry Yourgrau

Drawing on dark fantasy as well and horror and wild humor, ten contemporary authors — including Neil Gaiman, Garth Nix, and Barry Yourgrau — pay homage to the gothic tale in original stories of the supernatural and the surreal.

Joan Aiken is the beloved author of more than one hundred books for young readers and adults, including the classic Wolves Chronicles, which began with The Wolves of Willoughby Chase. Among many other honors, she received the Lewis Carroll Award, the Edgar Allan Poe Award, and the Guardian Award.

M. T. Anderson has published three novels for teens, most recently Feed, a National Book Award Finalist, a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor winner, and winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Neil Gaiman is the author of nonfiction, radio plays, comics, and screenplays in addition to his highly acclaimed and award-winning fiction. His books include American Gods, Neverwhere, Coraline, The Wolves in the Walls, and many classic graphic novels, among them eleven volumes of The Sandman.

Caitlín R. Kiernan is the author of four novels, including Silk and Threshold, and her short fiction has been collected in three volumes: Tales of Pain and Wonder, From Weird and Distant Shores, and To Charles Fort, With Love. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

Gregory Maguire is the author of more than a dozen novels for young readers, including the Hamlet Chronicles. One of his adult novels, Wicked, is the basis of the Broadway musical of the same name. He lives in Massachusetts.

Garth Nix is the award-winning author of several books for young readers, including Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorsen, and the Seventh Tower series. He lives in Sydney, Australia.

Celia Rees has written many acclaimed books for teens, including Witch Child and Sorceress. She lives in Warwickshire, England.

Janni Lee Simner lives in the hot, bright, and not-at-all-gothic Arizona desert. Her short stories have appeared in more than two dozen anthologies and magazines, including Bruce Coville's Book of Nightmares and Half Human.

Vivian Vande Velde is the author of more than twenty books, mostly science fiction and fantasy for middle-grade readers and teens, including Heir Apparent, Never Trust a Dead Man, and Ghost of a Hanged Man. She lives in Rochester, New York.

Barry Yourgrau's adult books include Wearing Dad's Head. He starred in The Sadness of Sex, a movie adaptation of his stories, and has appeared on MTV and NPR. He lives in New York City.