Richard Laymon

Richard Carl Laymon (January 14, 1947 – February 14, 2001) was an American author of suspense and horror fiction, particularly within the splatterpunk subgenre.

Laymon was born and raised outside of Chicago, Illinois, then lived in Tiburon, California, as a teen. He graduated from Redwood High School, then pursued a BA in English Literature from Willamette University in Oregon and an MA in English Literature from Loyola University in Los Angeles.

His works include more than sixty short stories and more than thirty novels, a few of which were published under the pseudonym Richard Kelly. Additionally he published as Carl Laymon for his young adult novels, Carla Laymon for a romance, and Lee Davis Willoughby for his western The Lawmen. Twenty of his stories were published as part of the Fastback Mystery series—single short stories released in book form.

Laymon was editor of The Executioner Myster Magazine and The 87th Precinct Mystery Magazine. He also worked as a high school English teacher and worked in the Mount St. Mary's College library. He was the regional director for the Los Angeles chapter Mystery Writers of America from 1977 to 1979.

Early in his career, Laymon found greater commercial success in the United Kingdom and Europe, despite praise from prominent writers from within the genre, including Stephen King and Dean Koontz. Laymon believed that this was a result of a badly edited first release of The Woods Are Dark, which had had over fifty pages removed. The poor editing and unattractive cover art also stalled his career in America after the success of The Cellar. Starting in 1999 and in association with Leisure Books, Laymon found delayed recognition in his homeland. Laymon's original version of The Woods Are Dark was finally published in July 2008 by Leisure Books and Cemetery Dance Publications after being reconstructed from the original manuscript by his daughter, Kelly.

His novel Flesh was named Best Horror Novel of 1988 by the Science Fiction Chronicle, and both Flesh and Funland were nominated for the Bram Stoker Award, as was his non-fiction work A Writer's Tale. He won this award posthumously in 2001 for The Traveling Vampire Show.

Laymon was president of the Horror Writers Association (2000–2001). The Richard Laymon President's Award was created in his honor. The award is given by the sitting president to a volunteer who has shown extraordinary dedication to HWA.

The tribute anthology, In Laymon's Terms, was released by Cemetery Dance Publications during the summer of 2011. It featured short stories and non-fiction tribute essays by authors such as Bentley Little, Jack Ketchum, Gary Brandner, Edward Lee, and many others.

Laymon married Ann Marie Marshall in August 1976. They had one daughter, Kelly. He died in Los Angeles, California of a heart attack in 2001, aged 54.