Joe R. Lansdale

Joe R. Lansdale is a prolific American author, comic book writer, screenwriter, and martial arts instructor. He has written novels and stories in many genres, including Western, horror, science fiction, mystery, and suspense.

Lansdale has been inducted into The Texas Literary Hall of Fame. Several of his books have been adapted into movies and TV shows.

He has received prestigious literary honors, including the British Fantasy Award, the American Horror Award, the Edgar Award, and an impressive total of eleven Bram Stoker Awards.

Joe Richard Lansdale was born and grew up in Gladewater, Texas. He attended Tyler Junior College, the University of Texas at Austin, and Stephen F. Austin State University.

Joe R. Lansdale published his first full-length novel, Act of Love, in 1981. It is a horror story of a vicious serial killer terrorizing the city and the police officers' desperation to stop him.

In 1989, Lansdale published his first collection of short stories, By Bizarre Hands. The book was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for Best Fiction Collection and contains two stories that won the Stoker Award.

His notable Hap and Leonard series (began in 1990) consists of ten novels, four novellas, and three short-story collections. It featured two unlikely friends, Hap Collins and Leonard Pine, who navigate crime in the fictional town of Laborde, East Texas.

Hap is a white, working-class Vietnam War protester who chose prison over the draft, while Leonard is a gay black Vietnam vet. The stories, narrated by Hap, are filled with violence, profanity, and humor, painting a picture of East Texas tainted by racism, ignorance, and corruption.

Adapted into a SundanceTV series and graphic novels, Lansdale's works are released by various publishers, including Mulholland Books and Pandi Press, co-founded with his daughter Kasey.

Joe R. Lansdale has received the Edgar Award, eight Bram Stoker Awards, the Horror Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the British Fantasy Award, the Grinzani Cavour Prize for Literature, the Herodotus Historical Fiction Award, the Inkpot Award for Contributions to Science Fiction and Fantasy, and many others.

Lansdale was a contributing writer for Batman: The Animated Series. His first film adaptation was Bubba Ho-Tep, based on his novella of the same and released in 2002.

Lansdale is also the executive producer of the horror Western film The Pale Door (2020).

Joe R. Lansdale currently lives in Nacogdoches, Texas.

Photo credit: www.joerlansdale.com