Stephen Mark Rainey

A resident of Greensboro, North Carolina, from 1987 to 1997, Rainey edited Deathrealm magazine, which was winner of the International Horror Critics Guild Award for Best Magazine of 1995, one of the many honors bestowed upon the magazine. In its ten-year history, Deathrealm featured hundreds of short stories by authors ranging from the most established professionals to young, aspiring first-timers, many of whom proceeded to carve out names for themselves in the dark fantasy field. In September 2004, Delirium Books will release Deathrealms, an anthology of selected short stories from the magazine, as a signed and limited edition hardback.

Rainey is author of the novels Dark Shadows: Dreams of the Dark (with Elizabeth Massie, HarperCollins, 1999), Balak (Wildside Books, 2000) and The Lebo Coven (Five Star Books, 2004); three short story collections; and over 90 published works of short fiction. His short stories may be found in anthologies such as October Dreams (CD Books, 2001), The Best of Cemetery Dance (CD Books, 1998), Love in Vein II (HarperCollins, 1996), Miskatonic University (Tor, 1997), the Barnes & Noble anthologies Horrors: 365 Scary Stories (1998), 100 Creepy Creature Stories (1994), 100 Vicious Vampire Stories (1996), and 100 Wicked Witch Stories (1996), the Chaosium Anthologies The Azathoth Cycle (1995), The Innsmouth Cycle (1998), The Ithaqua Cycle (1998), The Shub-Niggurath Cycle (1994), and Singers of Strange Songs (1997), and many others.

Rainey's anthology, The Song of Cthulhu, released by Chaosium in 2001, features 20 stories of Lovecraftian horror revolving around the concept of sound as a source of unearthly power. Contributors include Ramsey Campbell, Hugh B. Cave, Fred Chappell, Caitlin Kiernan, D. F. Lewis, Thomas Ligotti, Tom Monteleone, and many others.