The Garden District Book Shop, in partnership with Shudder as part of their 10th anniversary celebration, is thrilled to announce beloved bestselling horror author Joe Hill, who is in town for the Overlook Film Festival.

Across novels, comic book series, and short stories — many of which have been memorably adapted from page to screen including Horns, Locke & Key, Heart Shaped Box and this year’s Abraham’s Boys — Hill’s blend of horror, dark fantasy and science fiction has cemented his status as a contemporary master of the macabre.

The event will begin at 6 p.m. April 3 and Hill will discuss his works and read a selection. Afterwards, he will open up the floor to a Q&A and then personalize copies of his book. The event is free and open to the public but interested parties can reserve their paperback copies of 20th Century Ghosts on Eventbrite. 

The description of 20th Century Ghosts reads:

“Imogene is young, beautiful . . . and dead, waiting in the Rosebud Theater one afternoon in 1945. . . . Francis was human once, but now he’s an eight-foot-tall locust, and everyone in Calliphora will tremble when they hear him sing. . . . John is locked in a basement stained with the blood of half a dozen murdered children, and an antique telephone, long since disconnected, rings at night with calls from the dead. . . . Nolan knows but can never tell what really happened in the summer of ’77, when his idiot savant younger brother built a vast cardboard fort with secret doors leading into other worlds. . . .

The past isn’t dead. It isn’t even past. . . .”

The Garden District Book Shop (GDBS) is one of the most prominent independent bookstores in the Gulf South, having played a supporting role in the literary careers of authors from Anne Rice to James Lee Burke under founder Britton Trice. Current owners, Barkley Rafferty and Carroll Gelderman are dedicated to ensuring that GDBS will be enjoyed by locals and visitors for years to come and have hosted authors such as Walter Isaacson, Laura Dern & Diane Ladd, the Bush twins, Steve Gleason and Octavia Spencer since they purchased the shop in 2021. They also own the bookshop’s neighboring restaurant, The Chicory House, and opened a full cocktail bar within the bookshop in the summer of 2024. For more information on GDBS, visit www.gardendistrictbookshop.com.