Ghosties and ghoulies and long-leggedy beasties and things that go bump in the night: That’s Kirstin Dearborn in a nutshell. This life-long New Englander and horror writer was destined to write about anything that screams, squelches, or bleeds. Her first literary love was Michael Crichton (she was eleven). Her second, Stephen King. And Jurassic Park, one of her favorite movies, she asserts is a creature feature – her favorite type of horror flick.

At the University of Maine, Dearborn studied theater and English, and then went on to Seton Hill University where she earned her M.F.A. in Writing Popular Fiction (heavy on the monster horror).  She’s been on the horror scene since 2010 with her short stories and novellas, and has contributed to a number of anthologies.

Dearborn is the author of The Amazing Alligator Girl (2022), Sacrifice Island (2018), Woman in White (2017), Whispers (2016), Stolen Away (2016), and Trinity (2012). She revels in people saying, “But you look so normal,” after they’ve read her work. Coming in 2024 you’ll be able to check out Faith of Dawn from Cemetery Dance: Detective Amanda Lane returns to her rural-Florida-hometown to solve a missing-persons case that turns into taking down a cult with a horrifying secret and having to choose who she kills and who she saves.

When she’s not unleashing a fresh new nightmare onto the page, Dearborn is probably searching for one. (80s horror paperbacks make her heart sing.) Or she’s speaking all things horror at one of her usual stomping grounds like Northeastern Writers Conference (NECON), Merrimack Valley Halloween Book Festival, or StokerCon.

Interested in hearing Dearborn speak? Contact her.

And if Dearborn is taking a break from all things blood-curdling, she’s likely scaling rock cliffs, zipping around Vermont on a motorcycle, hanging out with her dog, or gallivanting the globe looking for her next novel’s horrifying inspiration – she can already check South Korea and Egypt off her list.

Want to keep up with Dearborn? Follow the horror enthusiast here.