Cover design by Ian Koviak.

Kissing Carrion: A Collection

“One of the genre’s most original and innovative voices.”
Los Angeles Review of Books

Links
Publication Date

September 8, 2026

Print Length

280 Pages (Paperback)
57,500 Words

ISBN

9798897320479 (Paperback)

MSRP

$19.99 (Paperback)

About Kissing Carrion

Finally back in print! The first horror story collection from Gemma Files, the multi-time Bram Stoker Award and Shirley Jackson Award winning author of Experimental Film, and "one of the most powerful and unique voices in weird fiction today" (Paul Tremblay, award-winning author of The Cabin at the End of the World).

This collection of seventeen short stories takes readers into the uniquely twisted mind of "one of Canada's most promising new horror writers" (Publishers Weekly). From a live necrophilia show starring reanimated corpses to a confrontation between a security guard and inhuman squatters, from who can be found at an all-night laundromat to what lies in wait at the bottom of the sea, from undead addictions to all-consuming obsessions, Kissing Carrion is "a journey through some of the most beautifully rendered visions of darkness and death to be published this past year... Fans of Poppy Z. Brite, Charlee Jacob, and Clive Barker should enjoy this collection immensely" (SF Reader).

Featuring new illustrations by the author, this collection includes:

  • "Kissing Carrion"
  • "Keepsake"
  • "Rose-Sick"
  • "Blood Makes Noise"
  • "Skeleton Bitch"
  • "Folly"
  • "Mouthful of Pins"
  • "Pretend That We’re Dead"
  • "No Darkness But Ours"
  • "Job 37"
  • "Bear-Shirt"
  • "Hidebound"
  • "Skin City"
  • "Seen"
  • "Torch Song"
  • "The Diarist"
  • "Dead Bodies Possessed By Furious Motion"

Praise

“Colorful, powerful, and charismatic, her characters are rendered in bold strokes and poignant nuances.”
NPR.org

“One of the genre’s most original and innovative voices.”
Los Angeles Review of Books

“The recent republication of Gemma Files’s first two collections of short fiction, Kissing Carrion and The Worm in Every Heart, was a reminder of how long and how well she has been writing.”
Locus Magazine

Kissing Carrion News
March 28, 2025
Today we are announcing a new deal for Kissing Carrion and The Worm in Every Heart, the debut and sophomore collections by Bram Stoker Award winner Gemma Files…
About the Author

Gemma Files is a Canadian horror writer, journalist, and film critic. Her novel, Experimental Film, won the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel and the Sunburst Award for Best Canadian Speculative Fiction (Novel). Gemma is also a two-time Bram Stoker Award winner.

Other Titles by Gemma Files
🥇 Award Finalist