Author Hour: Edgar Allen Poe and Writing Horror Short Stories

​Nearly two centuries ago, Edgar Allan Poe laid out a theory of the short story that writers still lean on today—and then proved it with some of the most unsettling fiction ever written. Just in time for Halloween, this Author Hour digs into both.

​Poe believed a great short story should be read in a single sitting and build toward one deliberate effect, with every word pulling its weight toward it. We'll look at what he actually wrote about the craft—including his famous essay ""The Philosophy of Composition""—and then watch those ideas at work in his own tales of dread, guilt, and madness.

​Along the way, we'll explore how Poe builds tension in a small space, why his narrators get under your skin, and what it takes to make a short horror story land its final blow.

​You'll leave with a working understanding of Poe's approach to the short story, and a set of principles you can bring to your own horror fiction—whether you're drafting your first scary story or sharpening one you've already started.

​This Author Hour is led by Daryle Conners