Jeff Strand

Jeff Strand (born December 14, 1970) is an American writer, known for his works of comedy horror.

Jeff Strand
Strand in 2024
Born	(1970-12-14) December 14, 1970 (age 54) Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Occupation	Writer
Genre	horror comedy, horror, thriller, dark comedy, young adult fiction, middle grade fiction
Notable awards	Bram Stoker Award for Best Long Fiction (2022)
Website
www.jeffstrand.com

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 (2022).^[3][4]

Biography

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 1989. 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, in 2000, Strand published Graverobbers Wanted (No Experience Necessary), the first novel in the horror-comedy style for which he would later become known, 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] In 2022, "Next Best Baker," included in Baker's Dozen from Uncomfortably Dark, won a Splatterpunk Award in the Best Short Story Category. ^[12]

Style

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.^[13] His writing is often defined by its dark humor and sparse prose style.^[14][15] Strand has named such authors as Douglas Adams, Richard Laymon, Dave Barry and Jack Ketchum as influences on his writing.^[16][17]

Personal Life

Strand lives in Duluth, Minnesota.

Bibliography

Novels

• Your Body Will Never Be Found (2025)
• Finders Keepers (2025)
• Bloodsucker County (2025)
• Nightmare in the Backyard (2024)
• It Watches in the Dark (2024)
• Creep Out (2024)
• Veiled (2023)
• Demonic (2023)
• Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: The Novelization (2023)
• Deathless (2021)
• The Odds (2020)
• Cemetery Closing (Everything Must Go) (2020)
• Autumn Bleeds into Winter (2020)
• Allison (2020)
• Wolf Hunt 3 (2019)
• My Pretties (2019)
• Ferocious (2019)
• Clowns vs. Spiders (2019)
• Sick House (2018)
• How You Ruined My Life (2018)
• Bring Her Back (2018)
• Bang Up (2018)
• Stranger Things Have Happened (2017)
• The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever (2016)
• Cyclops Road (2016)
• Blister (2016)
• Wolf Hunt 2 (2014)
• Kumquat (2014)
• I Have A Bad Feeling About This (2014)
• A Bad Day for Voodoo (2012)
• Wolf Hunt (2011)
• Lost Homicidal Maniac (Answers to “Shirley”) (2011)
• Fangboy (2011)
• Draculas (w/ JA Konrath, Blake Crouch, and F. Paul Wilson) (2010)
• Dweller (2010)
• Benjamin’s Parasite (2009)
• The Sinister Mr. Corpse (2007)
• The Haunted Forest Tour (w/ James A. Moore) (2007)
• Pressure (2006)
• Casket for Sale (Only Used Once) (2004)
• Mandibles (2002)
• Out of Whack (2001)
• Single White Psychopath Seeks Same (2001)
• Elrod McBugle on the Loose (2000)
• Graverobbers Wanted (No Experience Necessary) (2000)
• How to Rescue a Dead Princess (2000)

Novellas

• Twentieth Anniversary Screening (2021)
• Cold Dead Hands (2018)
• An Apocalypse of Our Own (2017)
• Facial (2014)
• Stalking You Now (2013)
• The Faint of Heart (2012)
• Kutter (2010)
• Suckers (w/ JA Konrath) (2009)
• Disposal (2007)

Collections

• Snuggling the Grotesque (2024)
• Freaky Briefs (2022)
• Candy Coated Madness (2020)
• Five Novellas (2019)
• Everything Has Teeth (2017)
• Dead Clown Barbecue: Expansion Pack (2014)
• Dead Clown Barbecue (2012)
• Gleefully Macabre Tales (2008)

Non-Fiction

• The Writing Life: Reflections, Recollections, and a Lot of Cursing (2020)

Chapbooks

• Bad Bratwurst (2015)
• The Severed Nose (2009)
• Funny Stories of Scary Sex (2006)
• Two Twisted Nuts: A Chapbook of Testicular Terror (w/ Nick Cato) (2005)
• Socially Awkward Moments With An Aspiring Lunatic (2005)