It is an undeniable fact that H.P. Lovecraft has had an huge influence on horror fiction and film today. It is also an undeniable fact - and an easily confirmable one by looking at his own writings - that he held white supremacist and racist views. This can make today's readers of cosmic horror  look for other books. Luckily, there are plenty of authors who write cosmic and even so-called Lovecraftian horror who can scratch that itch without the upsetting views. Many of these authors have taken to writing in these genres specifically because they enjoy the non-racist aspects and themes of Lovecraft's writing while wanting to address and even redress his white supremacist views.

Of course, reading Lovecraft doesn't make you a racist. But knowing about his beliefs is important background knowledge that can only enrich your reading of his works. Writer Philip Eil says in The Atlantic, 

"My feelings on Lovecraft—as a bibliophile, a lover of Providence history, a Jew, a fan of his writing, a teacher who assigns his stories—are complicated. At their best, his tales achieve a visceral eeriness, or fling the reader’s imagination to the furthest depths of outer space. Once you develop a taste for his maximalist style, these stories become addictive. But my admiration is always coupled with the knowledge that Lovecraft would have found my Jewish heritage repugnant, and that he saw our shared hometown as a haven from the waves of immigrants he saw as infecting other cities. (“America has lost New York to the mongrels, but the sun shines just as brightly over Providence,” he wrote to a friend in 1926.)"

Since here in Andover we are living in Lovecraft Country - the part of Massachusetts and Rhode Island where Lovecraft set most of his stories - it makes sense to take a look this October at some recent releases in Lovecraftian and cosmic horror and fantasy. Some authors, particularly authors of color, engage with Lovecraft's racism directly such as Victor LaValle's The Ballad of Black Tom; others confront racism more obliquely. We hope that there is something on this list that will appease all lovers of the weird, uncanny, and indescribable.