Authority control databases
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
Jeff Strand | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 14, 1970 Baltimore, Maryland, United States |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Genre | Horror, black comedy, young adult fiction, thriller |
| Notable awards | Stoker—Long Fiction (2021) |
Jeff Strand (born December 14, 1970) is an American author, best known for his works of comedy horror. He has written novels, short stories, screenplays and comedy sketches.[1] In addition to his adult-oriented horror works, Strand also writes young adult fiction.[2] He has been nominated for the Bram Stoker Award five times, winning the award for the first time in the Best Long Fiction category for his novella Twentieth Anniversary Screening (2021).[3][4]
Strand was born in Baltimore, Maryland but moved to Fairbanks, Alaska at a young age.[5] Prior to his freshman year of high school, he moved to Kent, Ohio, and attended Theodore Roosevelt High School, graduating in 1998. He then went on to Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio, where he majored in creative writing. After graduating college, he briefly returned to Alaska before moving back to Ohio and eventually moving to Tucson, Arizona.[6] He had his first short story sale in 1996, selling a story titled "The Private Diary of Leonard Parr" to Twisted Magazine, where it was featured in its first and only issue.[7]
After a string of books in other styles, Strand published Graverobbers Wanted (No Experience Necessary), the first novel in the horror-comedy style for which he would later become known, in 2000 through the publisher Hard Shell Word Factory.[8][9] He received his first nomination for the Bram Stoker Award in 2006 in the Best Novel category for his novel Pressure.[10] In 2018 his novelette "The Tipping Point" from his short story collection Everything Has Teeth won a Splatterpunk Award in the Best Short Story category.[11]
Jeff Strand is primarily known for his works of horror-comedy, which have earned him the nickname "The Clown Prince of Horror". However, he also writes thrillers and young adult fiction.[12] His writing is often defined by its dark humor and sparse prose style.[13][14] Strand has named such authors as Douglas Adams, Richard Laymon, Dave Barry and Jack Ketchum as influences on his writing.[15][16]
