Lovecraft Country: Horror, Race, and the Dark Other

Abstract

In 2015, controversy shook the world of fantastic fiction. Since the annual World Fantasy Award’s inception in 1975, the World Fantasy Convention had bestowed a bust of H.P. Lovecraft upon the author of the year’s best fantastic novel. While some winners had objected to the fact that the bust was a caricature rather than a true representation of the genre-defining weird fiction author, other writers in recent years had expressed uneasiness about receiving the likeness of someone who was well-known for his racist views. And so, in spite of many fans’ vociferous objections, the Lovecraft bust was unceremoniously retired, the prestigious World Fantasy Award trophy henceforth taking the less controversial shape of a tree silhouetted before a full moon (see also Preface).