Mark McLaughlin

MARK McLAUGHLIN is a Bram Stoker Award-winning author whose earliest works were published in dozens of literary journals during his teen years. His fiction, nonfiction, and poetry have appeared in more than 1,000 magazines, newspapers, websites, and anthologies, including CEMETERY DANCE, MIDNIGHT PREMIERE, DARK ARTS, LIVING DEAD 2, WRITER'S DIGEST, GALAXY, TOASTMASTER MAGAZINE, and two volumes of YEAR'S BEST HORROR STORIES (DAW Books). He is also an experienced public relations specialist, who has assisted clients in construction, education, and the entertainment industry.

McLaughlin is the author of the novels HUMAN DOLL, a tale of suspense, murder, and reality TV ... THE HELL NEXT DOOR, an adventure set in the after-life ... and INJECTABLES, a work of Lovecraftan horror. McLaughlin is the author of many unique works in the traditions of H.P. Lovecraft and Robert W. Chambers. He has spent more than forty years writing stories that continue and advance storylines and concepts started in Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos and Chambers’ King in Yellow tales. According to the online resource, Grok: Mark McLaughlin is the most prolific living author of stories inspired by Robert W. Chambers' collection, The King in Yellow. Born in 1961, McLaughlin—a Bram Stoker Award winner—has produced dozens of weird fiction tales incorporating Carcosa, the Yellow Sign, and cosmic decay, often blending them with body horror and surrealism.

Wildside Press has released a mammoth collection of McLaughlin's fiction: THE WEIRD WORLD OF MARK McLAUGHLIN MEGAPACK(R). In addition, McLaughlin is the author of many other solo fiction collections, including BEST LITTLE WITCH-HOUSE IN ARKHAM, MIDNIGHT PET SHOW, EMPRESS OF THE LIVING DEAD, and HIDEOUS FACES, BEAUTIFUL SKULLS.

Story collections in a Lovecraftian vein, co-written with his best friend, Michael Sheehan, Jr., include HORRORS & ABOMINATIONS, NIGHTMARES & TENTACLES, THE HOUSE OF THE OCELOT, THE PRISONER OF CARCOSA, ABSOLUTELY MONSTROUS, and CITY OF LIVING SHADOWS. McLaughlin is the coauthor, with Rain Graves and David Niall Wilson, of THE GOSSAMER EYE, which won the 2002 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Poetry. In 2023, he was a Guest of Honor at the Necronomicon Tampa convention, along with his collaborator and friend, Michael Sheehan, Jr.

Poetry collections by McLaughlin include CRUSHED VELVET, EMBRACE OF THE INTERNET WITCH, THE ARRIVAL OF OUR NEW MASTER, and PROFESSOR LaGUNGO’S EXOTIC ARTIFACTS & ASSORTED MYSTIC COLLECTIBLES: INCREASED INVENTORY. Mark is the coauthor, with Rain Graves and David Niall Wilson, of THE GOSSAMER EYE, which won the 2002 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Poetry.

McLaughlin is the most widely published living writer raised in the Iowa/Illinois Quad-Cities area, with readers across the United States and in England, Canada, Japan, and Germany.

What other authors have said about Mark McLaughlin’s work:

"In the most devious manner, McLaughlin's stories achieve a high degree of demonism by perpetuating a sinister 'humor' at the gallows of the human comedy."

– Thomas Ligotti, author of GRIMSCRIBE

"Absolutely fabulous ... McLaughlin is HOT! If your palette is jaded, come to the feast that is Mark McLaughlin ... massive helpings of grisly horror, black humour and surreal splendour. Hugely satisfying, but I guarantee you’ll beg for more."

– Simon Clark, author of NIGHT OF THE TRIFFIDS

"Mark McLaughlin ... deftly mixes grisly horror with outlandish humor ... It is this bizarre voice that has earned McLaughlin an underground legion of hardcore, devoted fans."

– Brian Keene, author of THE RISING

"Gruesome, funny and touching. Top that: anybody..."

– Matthew Nadelhaft, TANGENT

"However outlandish the territory, he knows exactly where he is going...."

– Joel Lane, THE ZONE Magazine