Steve Rasnic Tem (born 1950) is an American author. He was born in Jonesville, Virginia.

Life and career Rasnic attended college at Virginia Tech, and also at Virginia Commonwealth University. He earned a B.A. in English education. In 1974, he moved to Colorado and studied creative writing at Colorado State University. He married Melanie Kubachko, and the couple took the joint surname "Tem".Adam Meyer, "Tem, Steve Rasnic", in David Pringle (ed.), St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost and Gothic writers. Detroit, MI: St. James Press, 1998; (pp. 589-90) They had four children and lived in Colorado.

Rasnic Tem's short fiction has been compared to the work of Franz Kafka, Dino Buzzati, Ray Bradbury, and Raymond Carver, but to quote Joe R. Lansdale: "Steve Rasnic Tem is a school of writing unto himself." His 500 plus published pieces have garnered him a British Fantasy Award, a World Fantasy Award and four Bram Stoker Awards. In 2023, he won the Bram Stoker Lifetime Achievement Award.

Bibliography

Novels Excavation (1986) Daughters (2001) (with Melanie Tem) The Book of Days (2002) The Man on the Ceiling (2008) (with Melanie Tem) Among the Living (2011) Deadfall Hotel (2012) Blood Kin (2014) In the Lovecraft Museum (2015) Ubo (2017, Solaris) – The Mask Shop of Doctor Blaack (2018)

Short fiction

Collections Decoded Mirrors: Three Tales After Lovecraft (1978) Fairytales (1985) Absences: Charlie Goode's Ghosts (1991) City Fishing (2000) Imagination Box (2001) (with Melanie Tem) The Far Side of the Lake (2001) The Hydrocephalic Ward (2003) In Concert (2010) (with Melanie Tem) Ugly Behavior (2012) Twember (2013) Onion Songs (2013) Celestial Inventories (2013) Here with the Shadows (2014) Out of the Dark. A Storybook of Horrors (2017) A Primer to Steve Rasnic Tem (2017) Figures Unseen: Selected Stories (2018) Everything Is Fine Now (2018) The Harvest Child and Other Fantasies (2018) The Night Doctor and Other Tales (2019) Thanatrauma (2021) Everyday Horrors (2024) Queneau's Alphabet. A Story Cycle (2025) The World Under (2026)

Stories (Uncollected)

Kiss (1981) Night Cry (1981) The Owl wth Human Eyes (1981) White Rose (1981) Early Warning (1981) Interlude in a Laboratory (1981) Again, the Hit-and-Miss (1981) A Fairytale (1982) Housewarming (1982) The Reincarnation (1982) On a Path of Marigolds (1982) Shadows on the Grass (1983) The Moths (1983) First Rights (1983) The Day it Rained Vaginas (1984) The End of the Yarn (1984) Spidertalk (1984) Piano Moon (1985) Katherine's Shadow (1986) Self-Possessed (1986) The Three Billy Goats Gruff (1986) In Control (1986) Presents of Mind (1986) (with Edward Bryant, Dan Simmons & Connie Willis) Wake (1987) L is for Love (1987) Her New Parents (1988) The Lie (1988) The Double (1988) Motherson (1989) The Deep Blue Sea (1989) The Strangers (1989) Black (1989) Bodies and Heads (1989) Back Windows (1990) My Wife, with the Yellow Hair (1990) Playing Dead (1990) The Adoptions (1990) The Regulars (1991) Plainclothes (1991) Going North (1992) The Process (1992) Blue Alice (1992) Devourings (1993) Passing Through (1993) The Child Killer (1993) The Garden, in Autumn (1994) Release of Flesh (1994) Sampled (1995) Shades (1995) (with Roma Felible) After the Night (1995) Blood Knot (1995) Close to You (1996) Elena (1996) Sharp Edges (1997) Andrew (1997) What Slips Away (1998) Each Day (1998) The Cough (1998) Heat (1999) Creeps (2000) This Thing Called Love (2002) Denegare Spasticus (2003) Espectare Necrosis (2003) Excerpt: First Entry in The Book of Days (2003) Yesterday (2004) Spirited (2005) Mysteries of the Colon (2005) The House by the Bulvarnoye Koltso (2007) Burning Snow (2008) Noppero-Bo (2008) Shadow (2009) The Stench (2009) Last Drink Bird Head (2009) Red Light (2009) Shaggy Dog Story (2010) Old Men on Porches (2010) The Passing (2010) S.D. Watkins, Painter of Portraits (2010) Living Arrangement (2010) Cattiwampus (2011) El Lagarto (2011) The Ex (2011) Pillows (2011) To Denver (With Hiram Battling Zombies (2012) Scree (2012) Waiting at the Crossroads Motel (2012) The Old Man Beset by Demons (2012) Jack and Jill (2012) Miranda Jo's Girl (2012) Congregate (2012) The Sleeping Ute (2013) The Monster Makers (2013) Home Invasion (2013) Lookie-Loo (2013) Crawldaddies (2014) The Grave House (2015) In the Lovecraft Museum (2015) Deep Fracture (2015) The Common Sea (2017) I Saw Santa (2017) Love Letters (2018) A Space of One's Own (2018) Eidetic (2019) Night Vision (2019) Captain Zack & the Data Raiders (2019) Miguel Prays While His Mother Cries (2019) Bigger Than Life (2019) Z is for Zombie (2020) Conversations with the Departed (2020) E is For Eye (2020) Mummies (2021) Do You Remember? (2022) The Year of the Robot Suicides (2022) Eye of the Storm (2022) The Man in the Mirror (2022) N Is for Night (2022) The Sire (2022) Y Is for Yesterday (2022) Subsidence (2023) W Is for Whispers (2023) H Is for the Hunt (2023) F Is for the Farm (2023) P Is for Phantasies (2023) Higher Powers (2023) Tutti i Morti (2023) A Is for Alphabet (2023) Sundown in Duffield (2023) The Return (2024) Imago (2024) He Has Always Lived in This House Alone (2024) The Stroll (2024) Carcinogenesis (2024) Jolly (2024) Before and After (2024) Prime Purpose (2025)

Anthologies The Umbral Anthology of Science Fiction Poetry (1982) High Fantastic: Colorado's Fantasy, Dark Fantasy and Science Fiction (1987)

Poetry (Uncollected)

My Daughter (1978) The Other State (1978) The Hydrocephalic Ward (1979) Lighting the Colony (1980) Alternate Worlds Ghazal (1980) The Landed Gentry (1980) The New Weather (1980) Dragon Lore (1980) Seeding the Last Freedom (1980) Changes (1981) On Defining & Not Defining Speculative Poetry (1981) The Swimmer (1982) Dinosaurs (1982) ESP (1982) Three Cinquains (1982) Time Paradox Cinquain (1982) Dirt Under His Nails (1982) Syrup (1982) Doubles (1983) Faery (1983) The Lovers (1983) After the Collapse (1983) First Contact (1983) The Dreaming Machine Dreams it Becomes Human (1984) The Dreaming Machine Eats an Apple (1984) The Dreaming Machine Has a Nightmare (1984) Ghost Signs (1987) Ancient Astronomies (1988) No Man Is (1988) Looking Back at Apollo (1989) Nocturne (1989) The Adolescence of NGC 4535 (1992) Head (1992) Belly (1993) Cells (1993) Ulcer (1995) Dark at the Door (1995) Shreve House (1995) The Dead Who Do Not Sleep Under Green Street (1995) Digits (1997) Genital (1997) Heart (1997) Limbs (1997) Lung (1997) Muscle (1997) The Little Match Girl (1997) Creatures Without Names (2002) What Must Not Happen (2004) What Happens at Night (2004) This is the Last Time I'm Telling the Truth (2004) The Window (2004) The Colors of Dark (2004) All Used Up (2004) Hair (2004) The Troll on 23rd Ave (2006) The Great Man's Apology (2007) How to Play Dead (2010) Pumpkin Eater (2010) 39 (2011) After We're Gone (2013) In Quietude (2016) Wraith (2017) The Night Arrives (2019) Leaving Home (2020)

Awards

Work Year & Award Category Result Ref.The Umbral Anthology of Science Fiction Poetry1982 Philip K. Dick AwardFirestorm1983 World Fantasy AwardShort FictionExcavation1987 Bram Stoker AwardFirst NovelLeaks1988 British Fantasy AwardShort StoryBodies and Heads1989 Bram Stoker AwardShort FictionBack Windows1990 Bram Stoker AwardShort FictionHead1992 Asimov's Readers' PollPoem10th PlaceHigh Fantastic1996 World Fantasy AwardAnthologyHalloween Street1999 International Horror Guild AwardShort Fiction1999 Bram Stoker AwardShort FictionCity Fishing2000 Bram Stoker AwardFiction Collection2000 International Horror Guild AwardCollectionThe Man on the Ceiling (with Melanie Tem)2000 Bram Stoker AwardLong Fiction2000 International Horror Guild AwardLong Story2001 World Fantasy AwardNovella2009 Shirley Jackson AwardNovelIn These Final Days of Sales2001 Bram Stoker AwardLong FictionImagination Box (with Melanie Tem)2002 International Horror Guild AwardCollectionThe Book of Days2003 International Horror Guild AwardNovelThe Breavement Photographer2003 International Horror Guild AwardShort FictionInvisible2005 Bram Stoker AwardShort Fiction2005 International Horror Guild AwardShort FictionThe Disease Artist2006 International Horror Guild AwardShort FictionIn Concert (with Melanie Tem)2008 Asimov's Readers' PollNovelette3rd PlaceA Letter from the Emperor2011 Locus AwardShort Story2011 Theodore Sturgeon AwardShort Science FictionBlood Kin2014 Bram Stoker AwardNovelIn the Lovecraft Museum2016 Shirley Jackson AwardNovellaUbo2017 Bram Stoker AwardNovel2018 Locus AwardHorror Novel2023 Bram Stoker AwardLifetime Achievement

See also List of horror fiction authors

Notes

External links Steve Rasnic Tem & Melanie Tem Official Website Bibliography

Story behind Celestial Inventories by Steve Rasnic Tem - Online Essay