Nathan Ballingrud

Asheville author Nathan Ballingrud has the imposing frame of a Louisiana oil rigger—though actually, his time off the coast of New Orleans was spent cooking, not turning wrenches. Still, the experience lends damp, gritty authenticity to his 2015 horror novella, The Visible Filth. Already critically appreciated for his debut story collection, North American Lake Monsters, Ballingrud rode the novella to greater success: It became a film called Wounds, distributed by Annapurna Pictures and starring Armie Hammer and Dakota Johnson. Retitled, the novella serves as the title story for Wounds: Six Stories from the Border of Hell, new from Simon & Schuster’s speculative fiction imprint, Saga Press. Darker and more violent than the creeping unease of his first collection, it goes beyond psychological horror and well into the supernatural, exploring the territory between unquiet and disquiet and bringing back a map for fellow travelers who dare.