Tomorrow I am appearing at the Seattle Public Library in conversations with Sadie Hartmann, and in conjunction with the Seattle Chapter of HWA and Charlie's Queer Books. You can click here for those details.
As part of my appearance, staff at the library asked me to contribute to their ShelfTalk blog, and specifically their Nightstand Reads series on said blog. As a librarian and blogger, there is no way I could have said no.
Click here or see below for my list of Nightstand Reads. And if you can make it, see you at SPL tomorrow night!
Nightstand Reads with Author and Editor Becky Siegel Spratford
While working on my essay anthology Why I Love Horror: Essays on Horror Literature, these are the horror fiction anthologies I kept on my nightstand and read, one story at a time, before I went to bed. I enjoy that these volumes offer me a variety of voices, from a range of writing styles, and across many identities, giving me a great read before I go to bed each night. These may give some of you nightmares, but it worked perfectly for me. I tried to replicate that same reading experience with my own book. Here are a few of my favorite horror fiction anthologies, which I savored one entry at a time.
I recently finished The End of the World As We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King’s The Stand edited by Christopher Golden and Brian Keene. It is a thick one, but I loved how the brand new stories added to the world of the classic book, both honoring the original and moving it forward in time. The table of contents was filled with authors from the very well known to emerging voices and everyone in between. And it was all done with King’s blessing.
Shirley Jackson is one of my all time favorite writers and Ellen Datlow is the best horror anthology editor out there, so when the 2 teamed up with When Things Get Dark: Stories Inspired by Shirley Jackson back in 2021, that anthology jumped to the top of my nightstand pile. Authors like Seanan McGuire, Carmen Maria Machado, Paul Tremblay, Josh Malerman, Kelly Link, Stephen Graham Jones (and more!) all contributed brand new stories inspired by their love of Shirley Jackson. The results did not disappoint. (ebook is also available)
I really enjoy horror poetry. I find that reading this format before bed allows me to really think about what I have read and give me the time to properly probe the dark emotions in the way the authors intended. One of my recent favorites was Under Her Skin: A Women in Horror Poetry Showcase Volume 1 edited by Lindy Ryan. The evocative cover entices readers to engage with the fierce and chilling poems within.
One of the most underrated (and prolific) horror anthology editors working today is Eric J. Guignard and he was responsible for one of my favorite anthologies of the last few years– Professor Charlatan Bardot’s Travel Anthology to the Most (Fictional) Haunted Buildings in the Weird, Wild World. Imaginative, eerily realistic, and so much fun, this anthology features 63 horror authors from all over the world. It is a fake travel guide, co-edited by the completely fictional Bardot, and even includes GPS coordinates. But this isn’t just a gimmick of a book -the stories themselves are immersive and terrifying.
My conversation partner here at SPL is an award-winning nonfiction writer herself and while Sadie Hartmanns’ 101 Horror Books to Read Before You Are Murdered is not technically an anthology, I consumed it, as a reader, much in the same way as I did these other titles. Hartmann takes the reader through the horror genre by presenting key titles, organized in five overarching categories, each capped off with an original essay by one of the genre’s key voices. Each entry is written in a conversational tone, so it’s like you have a story about the story. And there are no repeat authors!
My last nightstand read is an all time favorite, one I had read from the nightstand more than on, and while not technically horror, it is 100% horror adjacent– Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm: A New English Version, edited by Phlip Pullman. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm published some of the more terrifying stories ever told and acclaimed fantasy author Pullman not only gathered his fifty favorites– both well and lesser known– but he also includes personal commentary on each entry. This collection is a great reminder of the enduring power of our darkest tales on all readers.
Becky Siegel Spratford is a Librarian in Illinois who trains library staff all over the world on how to match books with readers through the local public library. She runs the critically acclaimed RA training blog RA for All. She writes reviews for Booklist and a Horror review column for Library Journal. Known for her work with Horror readers, Becky is the author of three text books for library workers and the recently released Why I Love Horror [Saga Press, 2025]. She is on the Shirley Jackson Award Advisory Board and is a proud member of the Horror Writers Association, currently serving as the Association’s Secretary and Co-Chair of their Library Committee. You can follow Becky on Bluesky @raforall.bsky.social
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