About American Writers’ Week: Daniel Kraus
A rare chance to hear from one of the most adventurous writers of our time, recently awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Angel Down. This astonishing cinematic horror novel about survival, supernatural wonder, and moral conflict, set amongst the grit and mud of the trenches in WW1, was described by The Pulitzer committee as 'a stylistic tour-de-force that blends such genres as allegory, magical realism, and science fiction into a cohesive whole, told in a single sentence'.
Daniel Kraus is also the multi award winning author of Whalefall, now a major film starring starring Austin Abrams, Josh Brolin and Elisabeth Shue; co-author of The Shape of Water and Trollhunters alongside Guillermo del Toro and co-writer of The Living Dead and Pay the Piper with legendary filmmaker George A. Romero.
In conversation with serial horror anthologist Johnny Mains.
Part of the British Library’s American Writers’ Week (28 September – 2 November 2026), presented in association with Festival America, Vincennes, France. Participating writers include Alison Bechdel, Armistead Maupin, Daniel Kraus, Jeanine Cummins, Joyce Carol Oates, Katie Kitamura and Rabih Alameddine and Viet Thanh Nguyen.
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Daniel Kraus
Daniel Kraus is a New York Times bestselling writer of TV, and film and 22 novels, for adults and Young Adults.
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His novel Angel Down won the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, received a front-cover review in The New York Times Book Review, won the Alex Award, was an LA Times Book Prize Finalist, and was a Best Book of 2025 from NPR, The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and more. With Guillermo del Toro, he co-authored The Shape of Water, based on the same idea the two created for the Oscar–winning film. Also with del Toro, Kraus co-authored Trollhunters, which was adapted into the Emmy-winning Netflix series. He also cowrote The Living Dead and Pay the Piper with legendary filmmaker George A. Romero. Kraus’s The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch was named one of Entertainment Weekly’s Top 10 Books of the Year. Kraus has won the Bram Stoker Award, Scribe Award, two Odyssey Awards (for both Rotters and Scowler), and has appeared multiple times as Library Guild selections, YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults, and more. His work has been translated into over twenty languages. He lives in Chicago.
Johnny Mains
Johnny Mains one of most eminent horror anthologists, a genre researcher and a British Fantasy Award winner.
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He was Project Editor on the The Pan Book of Horror Stories, created the critically acclaimed series Dead Funny: Horror Stories by Comedians (co-edited with Robin Ince) and wrote the introduction to the 30th anniversary edition of Stephen King's Thinner. Mains has now edited five books for the British Library's esteemed Gilded Nightmares series including Illusions of Presence: Lost Christmas Ghost Stories.
Venue and bar opening times
This event will take place in the British Library Knowledge Centre and is also available to watch online. Tickets may be booked to attend in person, or to watch online.
If you are attending in person, please note that the Knowledge Centre and the bar will be open in advance of your event.
Please arrive no later than 15 minutes before the start time of this event. If you have specific access requirements please email customer@bl.uk
Attending the event online
If you book an online ticket, you will receive the viewing link on the morning of the event. You can either watch the event live or during the next 14 days on catch up.
Concessions
There are a range of concessions available. These include discounts for British Library Members, Young Persons (16 – 25s), and visitors on Universal/Pension Credit and free entry for carers.
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