In November, Apex Publishing will republish Elizabeth Engstrom‘s When Darkness Loves Us more than two decades after its first publication. The book is a collection of two stories—a novella and a short novel—that exemplify Engstrom’s early style of soft-spoken but fierce speculative horror.
“When Darkness Loves Us” shows the inner strength and moral deterioration of a sixteen-year-old girl trapped alone in the underground darkness shortly after her wedding day. “Beauty Is…” follows the tragic life of Martha Mannes, a woman born without a nose, and the beauty and horror of the small town life that surrounds her as her mind works its way out of the trauma that has buried it for most of her life.
Engstrom holds a BA in English Literature and Writing from Marylhurst University and is currently pursuing a graduate degree in Applied Theology. A recluse at heart, she still emerges into public occasionally to speak at a writers conference or to teach a class on various aspects of writing the novel, essay, article, or short story.