Horror fiction fans are used to being disgusted, but the hateful words of one of the genre’s top writers have left many feeling really sick this week.
On Tuesday, the Horror Writers Association (HWA) announced that it has decided to expel Thomas F. Monteleone, 76, from its membership and bar him from future events regulated by the organization. onion. Monteleone, who wrote dozens of novels and edited popular magazines border horror anthology series from the 1980s, has previously been honored with numerous prestigious Bram Stoker Awards from HWA, including one of the 2016 Lifetime Achievement Awards.
But one declare from the group condemned Monteleone’s “recent words and actions” and added that HWA trustees do not “tolerate hate speech of any kind, shape or form. ” “We support the right of members to feel safe, welcome and above all respected,” the statement continued, adding that the moratorium on Monteleone was introduced “under the our anti-harassment policy.”
The statement did not provide details on what exactly Monteleone’s words were offensive. But the organization has come under pressure over complaints from other authors about his posts on social media. “It is sad to see someone once considered a legend in the field reveal themselves to be as racist, homophobic and bigoted as Monteleone,” horror film author Alan Baxter wrote in an article. . open letter to HWA on Tuesday calling for Monteleone’s deportation.
According to the story overview published on sci-fi fanzine 770 . fileMuch of the outrage began last week when Monteleone posted on Facebook about why he believes author Stuart David Schiff deserves his own Lifetime Achievement Award from HWA. The magazine quotes Monteleone as writing: “That said, and although the LAA has looked a lot like a very obvious DEI project in recent years, I am forced to nominate a smart old white man: Stu Schiff…” The post is said to have attracted more than 800 comments before it was taken down, with some agreeing with his views while others calling for him to apologize.
Monteleone then seems to have doubled down on his point. On a YouTube live stream on Monday titled “Facebook has AIDS with Tom Monteleone,” Monteleone said he will not apologize and still intends to attend HWA’s upcoming StokerCon. He went on to complain about the “odd posture” he had seen in previous iterations of the event, in which an award was given to “a fat black girl,” calling the words of he is “an authentic, reportable description… This is who she is. “
“Diversity is great as long as it’s not diversity of opinion,” Monteleone continued. He said: “I must not believe that the past three years these awards have been severely biased towards those who were previously referred to as ‘marginalised’. “’Oh, you wrote as an Indian? We will give you a prize. Did you write while Black? You get a prize, no problem. You are female and you are not white male? You take one!’”
He went on to brag that he wouldn’t call “anyone a single entity ‘them'”, adding: “Whoever comes up with this nonsense needs to be taken behind their backs and punished. hit with a rubber hose because it’s bullshit, it’s total bullshit.
And despite the backlash, Monteleone insists he’s not worried about an uproar from “parasites” who hate him. “I have a… very healthy e-book royalty coming in every month for the past 40 years, so you know what the rest of us can do? They can smoke it.
Monteleone told The Daily Beast: “I apologized to the people I personally offended on that stupid podcast and everyone accepted my mistake. “According to my belief [HWA] left leaning and politicizing myself, I can’t shy away from that opinion. In many ways, I feel relieved to be separated from a [organization] Either way, I no longer feel like I’m part of it. That’s it.”
