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Inaugural Ghoulish Book Festival brings horror authors to San Antonio this weekend

The fest will be held at the historic Hermann Sons building.

By Sanford Nowlin on Tue, Apr 26, 2022 at 11:49 am

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Courtesy Photo / Cynthia Pelayo

Two-time Brame Stoker Award-nominee Cynthia "Cina" Pelayo is one of the event's guests of honor.

The inaugural Ghoulish Book Festival will haunt the three floors of downtown's early 1900s-era Hermann Sons building, bringing together authors and fans for a weekend-long celebration of literary horror.

The brainchild of San Antonio publishers Max Booth III and Lori Michelle, the couple behind horror-focused small press Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing and fiction magazine Dark Moon Digest, the event will include panels, author readings, contests, autograph sessions plus more for paying attendees.

Don't feel like sticking around all weekend? Fear not, a downstairs area for book vendors will be free for public browsing.

Guests of honor for what the organizers hope will become an annual event include Chicago-based Cynthia "Cina" Pelayo, a two-time Bram Stoker Award-nominated poet and author; Austin-based author and screenwriter Shane McKenzie, whose feature film Bingo Hell is now an Amazon original for Blumhouse Productions; and Kentucky-based Laurel Hightower, an author who's also compiled the scary anthologies We Are Wolves and The Dead Inside.

For the sake of transparency, we note that Booth is an occasional Current contributor.

$50, 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday, April 30, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday, May 1, Hermann Sons Home Association, 525 S. St. Mary's St., (210) 570-7224, ghoulishbookfest.com.

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