Jack Ketchum

Once told an interviewer that his favorite horror writer was Herman Melville, for his 1851 novel "Moby-Dick.".

Dallas chose his pseudonym based on the Texan outlaw Thomas "Black Jack" Ketchum (1863-1901).

He is the only child of Dallas William Mayr (1908-1997) and Evelyn Fahner Mayr (1915-1987), both of German immigrant stock and both of whom worked for the war effort during World War II. His mother served as an accountant and office manager; his father was an infantryman in artillery, firing bombs across the Rhine River in Europe.

Jack Ketchum published his first novel in 1980 titled "Off Season", a version of the Sawney Beane story. The novel was subsequently slated by the Village Voice as 'violent pornography' but, undeterred, the author continued to write fiction that deals with the cruelty and violence so often apparent in everyday life. Since the publication of "Off Season", he has released several successful novels including "She Wakes", "Cover", "Road Kill" (aka "Joyride"), "Only Child" (aka "Stranglehold"), "Ladies Night", and "Triage" (a collection of novellas) with fellow writers Richard Laymon and Edward Lee.

In 1990 he published "Offspring", the sequel to "Off Season". Before becoming a full-time writer Jack had written and directed a handful of plays, worked as a teacher, a copywriter, and as literary agent for author Henry Miller, while working at Scott Meredith, Inc. His fiction - with the exception of "She Wakes" - has tended to eschew what is called traditional horror - vampires, werewolves, the supernatural, monsters, and demons - and instead has concentrated on more urban horror and real-life monsters. Jack has, so far, won the Bram Stoker Award for his short stories 'The Box' and 'Gone', and his collections "Closing Time" and "Peaceable Kingdom". 'The Box' first appeared in Cemetery Dance Magazine and the subsequent Cemetery Dance anthologies "The Best of Cemetery Dance" and "The Century's Best Horror Fiction". 'Gone' was further published by CD in the autumnal anthology "October Dreams: A Celebration of Halloween". Richard Chizmar is the founder and editor of CD Publications and has published much of Jack's body of work including the novels "The Lost" and "Hide and Seek", the dark western novella "The Crossings", and 'The Haunt', a short supernatural tale. The late Richard Laymon included Jack in his CD Publications editorial debut anthology "Bad News" with the story 'The Best'. Three of his most powerful novels have recently been turned into films.

Ketchum's short story "The Box" won a 1994 Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Short Fiction; another, "Gone," won the same award in 2000, and "The Haunt" was nominated in 2002.

These dark tales have featured in anthologies like "Imagination Fully Dilated" (1998), "Dark Dreamers" (2001), and "The Horror Hall of Fame: The Stoker Winners" (2011) edited by horror icon Joe R. Lansdale.

His first novel, "Off Season," was hated by reviewers (the liberal New York newspaper "The Village Voice" titled its review "YECCH!"), but loved by fans. "Off Season: The Unexpurgated Version" was published as a hardcover in 1999 with an introduction by renowned writer-scholar Douglas E. Winter.

King provided further praise for Jack's work during his own acceptance speech for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters Award, 2003: he called Jack and fellow writer, Peter Straub, pioneers of modern popular fiction, specifically citing Jack's dark western, "The Crossings". Ketchum's numerous short fiction is so far collected in "The Exit at Toledo Blade Boulevard", "Broken on the Wheel of Sex", "Peaceable Kingdom" and "Closing Time and Other Stories".

His poetry has featured in anthologies like "The Devil's Wine" (2004) alongside Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, and Peter Straub.

The Lost (2006) is the story of a serial killer and features horror queen Dee Wallace of The Howling (1981), Stephen King's Cujo and Rob Zombie's Halloween (2007).

He has also tried his hand at acting, taking small roles such as Teddy Panik in The Lost (2006) and Edward Lee's Header (2006).

His novellas, "Weed Species" and "Old Flames", were published by Cemetery Dance Publications in 2006 and 2008 respectively.

The Girl Next Door (2007) - based on actual events - tracks the abuse of two teenage sisters, and is based on the torture and Murder of Sylvia Likens.

Other roles include a carnival worker in The Girl Next Door (2007), the bartender in Red (2008), and character Max Joseph in Offspring (2009).

Jack appeared as himself in the documentary The Cult of Ichi (2007) with horror directors Lucky McKee and Scott Spiegel, and can be seen in The Making of 'The Girl Next Door' (2007) documentary. Stephen King is a fan of Jack Ketchum's work and contributed the introduction to the signed limited edition of "The Girl Next Door".

King has called Jack the "scariest guy in America" The Girl Next Door (2007), and remarked that there is "a dark streak of genius" in Jack's work ("Road Kill").

Red (2008) is a revenge story that deals with the subject of animal abuse and stars Tom Sizemore, Brian Cox, Amanda Plummer and Robert Englund of A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) fame.

Jack Ketchum's fourth adaptation Offspring (2009) starred Jessica Butler and Art Hindle. It is set outside the town of Dead River and tells the tale of youngsters trying to survive the local cannibals who have been feeding on drifters for many years and is based on Jack's novels "Off Season" and "Offspring". His novel "Hide and Seek" is also set in and around the coastal town of Dead River, Maine.

To date (November 2010) Jack has published the following books: 'Off Season' 1980, 'Hide and Seek' (1984), Cover (1987), 'She Wakes' & 'The Girl Next Door'(1989), 'Offspring' (1991), 'Joyride' aka 'Roadkill' (1994), 'Stranglehold' aka 'The Girl Next Door' & 'Red' (1995), 'Ladies' Night' (1997), 'The Last Exit At Toledo Blade Boulevard' (1998), 'Right to Life' & 'Off Season: the Unexpurgated Edition' (1999), 'The Lost' (2001), 'Peaceable Kingdom' (2002), 'Sleep Disorder' (2003), 'The Crossings' (2004), 'Broken on the Wheel of Sex' (2006), 'Closing Time' (2007), 'Old Flames' & 'Triage' (2008), 'Book of Souls' (2008), 'The Woman' (2010). At lest five of these have been turned into motion pictures, and this slim but brilliant body of work encompasses the following aspects of genre literature: horror (most deal with subject matter that is horrific), crime, western ('The Crossings'), fantasy & supernatural ('She Wakes'), thrillers & serial killers ('The Lost'& 'Roadkill'). Some bring attention to horrific real-life events, most notably 'The Girl Next Door'.