Whisper House Press

“Mundane horror for the people.”

Utah Horror Day

It’s a big deal, and you should be there. October 25th, 2025 at the Utah Cultural Celebration Center in West Valley City, 10 AM to 4 PM.

Schedule.

Panel Details:

  • “Why I Love Horror”* panel: Steve Capone, Jr., Elizabeth Copps, Lehua Parker, Dan Baron, Elizabeth Suggs
  • “Gude to Horror Subgenres” panel: C.R. Langille, Bryan Young, Andrew Pixton, Kate Anderson, Jonathan Reddoch, Lex Burton
  • Dread Mondays book launch panel: Steve Capone, Jr., C.R. Langille, Andrew Pixton, Jonathan Reddoch, Elizabeth Suggs, Dan Baron, Lex Burton
  • “What’s so risky about horror?” panel: Bryan Young, Lehua Parker, Kate Anderson, Elizabeth Kopps

* Why I Love Horror is a new anthology of essays from Becky Siegel Spratford, affectionately and not inaccurately known as “the horror librarian.” Panelists will offer our own responses to the question, “Why do you love horror?” after reading the answers our favorite horror authors offered in their essays. You don’t have to have read the book to love this discussion! We’d love to hear why you love horror (and if you’re wondering how someone could love horror, this panel is for you).

We’ll offer light refreshments (water, fruit, and some snacks) available throughout the day as long as our supplies last.

We’d have more and more varied options, but the majority of funding for our major supporter, Utah Humanities, was withdrawn following apportionment from the federal government earlier this year by DOGE, and that’s made the whole event a bit more tricky than we’d anticipated based on apportioned funding. We are just glad to be able to put on the event! Please, if you want more events like this in our state, support UH and ask state and federal lawmakers to restore and increase its funding.

Participants.

Stephen Graham Jones is the New York Times bestselling author of The Only Good Indians, My Heart Is a Chainsaw, and I Was a Teenage Slasher. He has been an NEA fellowship recipient and a recipient of several awards including the Ray Bradbury Award from the Los Angeles Times, the Bram Stoker Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, the Jesse Jones Award for Best Work of Fiction from the Texas Institute of Letters, the Independent Publishers Award for Multicultural Fiction, and the Alex Award from American Library Association. He is the Ivena Baldwin Professor of English at the University of Colorado Boulder. (from the publisher’s website)

SGJ’s Recent Books: The Buffalo Hunter Hunter (2025), Killer on the Road / The Babysitter Lives (2025), Earthdivers Vol. 3: 1776 (2024), I was a Teenage Slasher (2024)

Philip Fracassi is the Bram Stoker Award-nominated author of the story collections Behold the Void and Beneath a Pale Sky. His novels include A Child Alone with Strangers, Gothic, and Boys in the Valley. His stories have been published in numerous magazines and anthologies, including Best Horror of the Year, Nightmare Magazine, Southwest Review, Interzone, and Black Static. Philip lives in Los Angeles. (from the publisher’s website)

PF’s Recent Books: D4 (2025), The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre (2025), The Third Rule of Time Travel (2025), The Egotist (2025), No One Is Safe (2024)

Bryan Young (he/they) works across many different media. His latest horror short, The Lost Boys, has featured in more than 30 festivals and won almost 20 awards. He’s been a regular contributor to the Huffington Post, StarWars.com, Star Wars Insider, SYFY, and /Film. He wrote the critically acclaimed A Children’s Illustrated History of Presidential Assassination, co-authored Robotech: The Macross Saga RPG, and has written seven novels in the BattleTech Universe. His work has won two Diamond Quills, he was named 2023 Writer of the Year by the League of Utah Writers, and he won the 2025 Utah Book Award from the Utah Humanities Council. He teaches writing for Writer’s Digest and the University of Utah. Find him @swankmotron or swankmotron.com.

C.R. Langille spent many Saturday afternoons watching monster movies with her mom. It wasn’t long before she started crafting nightmares to share with her readers. She is a retired, disabled veteran with a deep love for weird and creepy tales. This prompted her to form Timber Ghost Press in January of 2021. She is an award-winning author, affiliate member of the Horror Writers Association, the DEI Chair for the League of Utah Writers, earned her MFA: Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University in 2014, and was named Editor of the Year by the League of Utah Writers in 2024.

One half of P.W. Interrobang (a contributor to Dead Mondays), Dan Asher Baron is a father, an AuDHD writer, and everyone’s future favorite author…assuming he ever remembers to send out queries. He builds worlds faster than he answers emails and is dangerously enthusiastic about collaborating with anyone who doesn’t mind his brand of chaos.  Dan’s other credits include competition screenplays like Truck and Sidekicks (Finalists at Atlanta Film Festival,) and the short story, Data, Absent Desire, published in the Beowulfs of the Web collection. Consider this your chance to say you knew him before he was moderately well known.

The other half of P.W. Interrobang, Lex Burton is a green-thumbed geek who loves horror, video games, and stinky plants. Living in the heart of Central Florida with her husband, three dogs, and curmudgeonly tortoise, Lex is venturing back into the world of fiction writing after a long stint in content marketing. She is currently obsessed with Clive Barker and Greek mythology, and moonlights as a 3D printer-er (you may have seen some of her tap handles in the wild).

Kate Anderson lives in Utah with her husband, four children, and a very spoiled cat. When she’s not writing, she’s working on a Master’s in secondary English education. Her first novel, Here Lies Olive, was released in 2023 and was a Foreword INDIES Book of the Year finalist and a Moonbeam Awards silver medalist. Her second novel, Lonely Places, was released in 2024. Halloween is her favorite season!

Elizabeth Suggs is the co-owner of the indie publisher Collective Tales Publishing, president of the Utah Chapter of the Horror Writers Association, owner of Editing Mee, and is the author of a growing number of award-winning published stories, one of which titled “Into the Dark” part of the Collective Darkness anthology was Amazon Bestseller and another was selected for second place in the Quills Short Story Contest “Technicolor Tears.” She is also a book reviewer (EditingMee.com), popular bookstagrammer, and cosplayer (@ElizabethSuggsAuthor). When she’s not writing or reading, she’s traveling the world or practicing yoga. 

Jonathan Reddoch is co-owner of Collective Tales Publishing. He is a father, writer, editor, and publisher. He writes sci-fi, fantasy, romance, and especially horror. He’s a prolific flash fiction author, but also writes poetry and short stories. He has been working on his enormous sci-fi novel for over a decade and would like to finish it in this lifetime if possible. He’s from southern California, but lives in Salt Lake City. Notable works included in Deluxe Darkness, Darkness 101: Lessons Were Learned, and This Isn’t the Place. Find him on Instagram @JonathanReddochAuthor or CTPfiction.com

Lehua Parker wanted to climb pyramids in Egypt and South America and translate hieroglyphics until she discovered zombie mummies in a comic book. Instead she grew up to write the kinds of stories she wished she could have found in her Hawaii school library, including the Niuhi Shark Saga trilogy, a story about two brothers, one a surfing star and the other allergic to water. You can usually find Lehua chained to her writing desk and ignoring mountains of laundry. Ever the optimist, she’s still looking for the door to Narnia and awaiting her letter to Hogwarts. Connect with her at www.LehuaParker.com.

Andrew J Pixton of Salt Lake is the author of several acclaimed dark fantasy and horror novels, with Fables From Nevermore as his latest release. He has works featured in the upcoming anthologies Dread Mondays published by Whisper House Press, and Darkness 102: Advanced Lessons were Learned, published by Collective Tales. Known for exploring odd worlds and strange philosophies, he’s always branching into new genres. When he’s not crafting tales of a gloomy unreality, Andrew enjoys traveling, practicing martial arts, and obsessing over his day job in community social work.

Founder of Whisper House Press, whose Costs of Living and Dread Mondays horror anthologies are newly published, Steve Capone Jr. is an HWA affiliate member and award-winning Utah-based writer hailing from the Rust Belt. He released Max in the Capital of Spies in 2024, and Jimmy vs. Communism is due out from Gibbs Smith. Find his short fiction in This Isn’t the Place and No Exit (Timber Ghost Press 2024, 2025) and elsewhere. His “Cure for Creativity” won Best Short Screenplay in 2024 at the Bloody Mirror Film Festival and won “Official Selection” or better status in seven of ten festivals and contests, and “Submission” is currently doing the rounds, already finding “Official Selection” and “semi-finalist” status at multiple festivals in 2025. You can find his incorporeal footprint at https://linktr.ee/stevecaponejr.