Wagner is mostly celebrated for his short fiction, collected in Why Not You and I, Exorcisms and Ecstasies, Where the Summer Ends, and Walk on the Wild Side, and as editor of the long-running The Years Best Horror Stories series (1980-1994).

The celebrated creator of the immortal Kane, Wagner is the author of such works as The Other Woman and Killer. The name Karl Edward Wagner (1945-1994) is legendary in the worlds of horror and fantasy fiction. These, plus an additional rare story, the author’s afterword, and a new introduction by Ramsey Campbell. ‘Sticks’, thought to be the inspiration behind The Blair Witch Project. ‘Beyond Any Measure’, Wagner’s take on the vampire tale. ‘River of Night’s Dreaming’ a nightmarish masterpiece inspired by The King in Yellow. ‘In the Pines’, set in the Tennessee woods, a classic ghost story still relevant today. My Warner paperback of Lonely Place is well-worn and loved! Sadly copies go for $75 and up online, much more for the limited hardcover, so that's why it's such good news that it will be available in an affordable edition.“Long out-of-print, Wagner’s most sought-after collection is finally available again to scare the hell out of readers both young and old.” I've always liked Wagner, first reading him back in the Eighties/Nineties in anthologies like Dark Forces, Silver Scream, Cutting Edge, and MetaHorror.

I know Valancourt has been trying for ages to get Wagner reprinted. While he's certainly not a household name, he was also the subject of a 2020 documentary, The Last Wolf. He edited many Year's Best Horror Stories that series concluded with his death. Wagner died in 1994 and is also known for his Kane character, in Conan-like sword-and-sorcery tales with more of a horror edge (also out of print). It will not be part of their Paperbacks from Hell reprint series, however.

Big news for fans of vintage horror fiction! Esteemed indie publisher Valancourt Books just announced via Twitter the other day ( ) that in 2022 they will be reprinting a trade paperback edition of Karl Edward Wagner's long out-of-print short story collection In a Lonely Place! It includes his most well-known stories, 'Sticks' and 'Where the Summer Ends,' and several others.

In a Lonely Place by Karl Edward Wagner