Shirley Jackson (1919–1965), a master of modern horror and psychological suspense, was the acclaimed author of six novels, scores of stories, and two works of nonfiction.

Joyce Carol Oates is the author of a number of works of gothic fiction including Haunted: Tales of the Grotesque, a 1995 World Fantasy Award nominee; and Zombie, winner of the 1996 Bram Stoker Award for Best Horror Novel, awarded by the Horror Writers' Association. In 1994, Oates received the Bram Stoker Lifetime Achievement Award in Horror Fiction. She lives in Princeton, New Jersey.

Ruth Franklin is a book critic and frequent contributor to The New Yorker, Harper's, and many other publications. Her 2016 book Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life was a New York Times Notable selection and the winner of the National Book Critics Circile Award for Biography. A recipient of a New York Public Library Cullman Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship, she lives in Brooklyn, New York.