Richard Thomas (author)


Richard Thomas is an American author. His focus is on neo-noir, new weird, and speculative fiction, typically including elements of violence, mental instability, breaks in reality, unreliable narrators, and tragedies. His work is rich in setting and sensory details—often called maximalism. His writing has also been called transgressive and grotesque. In recent years, his dark fiction has added more hope, leaning into hopepunk. He was Editor-in-Chief at both Dark House Press and Gamut Magazine.

Biography

Thomas was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and grew up in Webster Groves. He earned a Bachelor of Science at Bradley University, in Peoria, Illinois, and in 2012 an MFA at Murray State University. He currently lives in Chicago.
Thomas was Editor-in-Chief at Dark House Press, an imprint of Curbside Splendor Publishing that launched in 2014 with The New Black. Work there was nominated for both the Bram Stoker Award and the Shirley Jackson Award. He was also the Editor of Gamut Magazine, a new online publication focusing on neo-noir, speculative fiction with a literary bent,, raising over $55,000. It was launched on January 1, 2017, shuttered in 2018, and relaunched as the House of Gamut on January 1, 2024.
In addition to his fiction he wrote a Storyville column at LitReactor.com for ten years before it shut down. He has taught creative writing at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival, Story Studio Chicago, LitReactor.com, and his own classes .

Novels

Transubstantiate April, 2010Disintegration May, 2015 Breaker January, 2016 Incarnate, September, 2024

Collections

Herniated Roots: Stories September, 2012Staring Into the Abyss April, 2013Tribulations: Stories April, 2016 Spontaneous Human Combustion, February, 2022

Nominations, awards and contests

Winner, "Enter the World of Filaria" contest, 2009, at ChiZine for "Maker of Flight." Winner of the 2011 Cafe Doom / One Buck Horror short story contest for "Wicker Park Pause."
  • “Terrapin Station,” Pear Noir #5, January 2011
  • “Fireflies,” Polluto #8, May 2012
  • “The Jenny Store,” Qualia Nous, Written Backwards, October 2014
  • "White Picket Fences," Shadows over Main Street, Hazardous Press, January 2015
  • "From Within," Slave Stories: Scenes from the Slave State, Omnium Gatherum, April 2015
  • Bram Stoker Award. 2014: nominated for Best Anthology—Burnt Tongues, Medallion Press and Qualia Nous, Written Backwards ; nominated for Best Short Story Collection: After the People Lights Have Gone Off by Stephen Graham Jones, Dark House Press ; nominated for Non-Fiction: Horror 101: The Way Forward, Crystal Lake Publishing.| 2016: nominated for Best Anthology—Chiral Mad 3 edited by Michael Bailey AND Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories edited by Doug Murano and D. Alexander Ward | 2017: Winner for Best Anthology—Behold!: Oddities, Curiosities and Undefinable Wonders, edited by Doug Murano ;
  • Shirley Jackson Award. 2014: nominated for Best Short Story Collection—After the People Lights Have Gone Off by Stephen Graham Jones, Dark House Press | 2015: nominated for Best Anthology—Exigencies, edited by Richard Thomas; nominated for Best Short Fiction: "Wilderness" by Letitia Trent, in Exigencies
  • This is Horror Award. 2014: Winner for Best Anthology: Burnt Tongues, Medallion Press ; Winner for Best Short Story Collection: After the People Lights Have Gone Off by Stephen Graham Jones, Dark House Press.| 2015: Nominee for Best Short Story Collection: Vile Men, by Rebecca Jones-Howe, Dark House Press ; Nominee for Best Anthology: Exigences, Dark House Press ; Nominee for Best Press, Dark House Press.| 2016: Nominee for Best Novel: Paper Tigers, by Damien Angelica Walters, Medallion Press.| 2017: Nominee for Best Magazine: Gamut.|Disintegration, 2015: Best Fiction Books of 2015 ; Top Ten Books of 2015 ; Favorite Reads of 2015. Best Fiction Reads of 2015.Best Horror of the Year: Volume Eight, June, 2016: "Wilderness" by Letitia Trent, in Exigencies.
  • "Repent," Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories, Crystal Lake Publishing and "The Offering on the Hill," Chiral Mad 3, Written Backwards, 2016
  • International Thriller Writers Awards. 2016: Finalist for Best eBook Novel: Breaker
  • Million Writers Awards. 2016: Notable story, "From Within".
  • “The Offering on the Hill,” Chiral Mad 3, March 2016
  • “Repent,” Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories, June 2016 Gamut magazine had eighteen stories and poems listed as Honorable Mentions for Best Horror of the Year) .
  • "Golden Sun," Chiral Mad 4 included in The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Eleven. Co-written with Kristi DeMeester, Damien Angelica Walters, and Michael Wehunt