Introduction
Lisa Morton (born December 11, 1958) is an American horror author and screenwriter.
Biography
Morton was born in Pasadena, California, and entered the film industry in 1979 as a modelmaker on Star Trek: The Motion Picture. In 1988 she co-wrote (with make-up effects expert Tom Burman) Life On the Edge, which was later re-titled Meet the Hollowheads; she also served as an Associate Producer on the film, and received an acting credit as "the Edge Slut" (in a scene that was cut from the film). The film was shown at the Odeon London Film Festival, was selected to appear in London’s Shock Around the Clock Film Festival for 1989 and was one of 12 films selected to appear in the Avoriaz Film Festival.
Morton also co-wrote the films Adventures in Dinosaur City, Tornado Warning, and Blood Angels. As an animation writer, she wrote for the series Sky Dancers and Dragon Flyz.
In the 1990s, Morton began publishing short horror fiction. In 2006, her short story "Tested" (from Cemetery Dance magazine) won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Short Fiction. In 2009, she edited the anthology Midnight Walk, and her first novella, The Lucid Dreaming, was published by Bad Moon Books and went on to win the Bram Stoker Award for Best Long Fiction.
Her second novella, The Samhanach, was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Best Long Fiction, and was named the top pick in the 2011 reviewer poll by Monster Librarian.
Her first novel, The Castle of Los Angeles, was published in 2010 by Gray Friar Press. It won the Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel (tie) and was nominated for “Best Small Press Chill” by the 4th Annual Dark Scribe Awards.
Her 2013 novel Malediction was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel.
Morton has also worked as an editor. Her anthology Midnight Walk (2009) received a nomination for the Bram Stoker Award for Best Anthology and won the Black Quill Award for Best Dark Genre Anthology. Her 2017 Halloween-themed anthology Haunted Nights (co-edited with Ellen Datlow) received a starred review from Publishers Weekly.
Her 2019 anthology Ghost Stories: Classic Tales of Horror and Suspense (co-edited with Leslie S. Klinger) was named a Publishers Weekly Pick of the Week.
Morton has written three non-fiction books on the history of Halloween: The Halloween Encyclopedia (2003, second edition published in 2011); A Hallowe'en Anthology: Literary and Historical Writings Over the Centuries (2008), which was nominated for the Black Quill Award and won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Non-Fiction; and Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween (2012), which won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Non-Fiction and the Halloween Book Festival Grand Prize Award.
She has also been interviewed for The History Channel’s documentary The Real Story of Halloween, the supplement The Lore and Legends of Halloween on the Blu Ray release of Trick 'r Treat, the How Halloween Has Changed episode of AHCTV’s America: Fact Vs. Fiction, and Coast to Coast AM with George Noory.
Her other non-fiction books include The Cinema of Tsui Hark (2001) and Savage Detours: The Life and Work of Ann Savage (2010, co-authored with Kent Adamson), and Ghosts: A Haunted History (2014).
Her non-fiction articles have appeared in such books as The Art of Horror (2015), The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets (2015), Birthing Monsters: Frankenstein’s Cabinet of Curiosities and Cruelties (2018), and It’s Alive: Bringing Your Nightmares to Life (2018). She frequently interviews other authors for Nightmare Magazine and has provided feature articles for Shudder’s newsletter The Bite.
She co-authored (with Rocky Wood, art by Greg Chapman) the non-fiction graphic novel Witch Hunts: A Graphic History of the Burning Times (2012), which received the Bram Stoker Award for Best Graphic Novel.
From 2014 to 2019, Morton served as President of the Horror Writers Association.
A California native, she currently resides in Los Angeles, California.
Awards
- 2005 President's Richard Laymon Award from the Horror Writers Association
- 2006 President's Richard Laymon Award from the Horror Writers Association
- Tested (2006 Bram Stoker Award for Best Short Fiction)
- A Hallowe'en Anthology: Literary and Historical Writings Over the Centuries (2nd Annual Black Quill Award nominee)
- A Hallowe'en Anthology: Literary and Historical Writings Over the Centuries (2008 Bram Stoker Award for Best Non-Fiction)
- The Lucid Dreaming (2009 Bram Stoker Award for Best Long Fiction)
- Midnight Walk (2009), Nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Best Anthology
- Midnight Walk (3rd Annual Black Quill Award winner for Best Dark Genre Anthology)
- The Castle of Los Angeles (2010), Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel
- The Samhanach (2010), Nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Best Long Fiction
- Monsters of L.A. (2011), Nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Best Fiction Collection
- Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween (2012), Halloween Book Festival Grand Prize
- Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween Bram Stoker Award for Best Non-Fiction
- Witch Hunts: A Graphic History of the Burning Times (2012), Bram Stoker Award for Best Graphic Novel
- Malediction (2013), Nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel