Editing W. H. Pugmire

{{Short description|American horror writer (1951–2019)}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Wilum Hopfrog Pugmire
| image = W._H._Pugmire_(orig_2008-03-28_19.35.29_IMG_2565).jpg
| caption = Pugmire signing books at the World Horror Convention on March 28, 2008
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1951|5|3|mf=y}}
| birth_place = [[United States]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2019|3|26|1951|5|3|mf=y}}
| death_place = [[Seattle, Washington]]
| occupation = [[Short story]] [[writer]]
| genre = [[Weird fiction]], [[horror fiction]]
| movement = [[Cosmicism]]
| signature = WHPugmireSignature.jpg
| website = {{URL|sesqua.net}}
}}

'''Wilum Hopfrog Pugmire''' (born '''William Harry Pugmire'''; May 3, 1951 – March 26, 2019), was a writer of [[weird fiction]] and [[horror fiction]] based in [[Seattle, Washington]]. His works typically were published as '''W. H. Pugmire''' (his adopted middle name derives from the [[Hop-Frog|story of the same title]] by [[Edgar Allan Poe]]) and his fiction often paid homage to the lore of [[Lovecraftian horror]].<ref>"Summation 2003: Horror" by [[Ellen Datlow]], ''[[Year's Best Fantasy and Horror|The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Seventeenth Annual Collection]]'' edited by Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link, and Garvin J. Grant, St. Martins, 2003, page lx.</ref><ref name=":2">{{cite web|url=http://www.centipedepress.com/authors/pugmire.html|title=Wilum Pugmire|website=Centipede Press|access-date=21 April 2019}}</ref> Lovecraft scholar and biographer [[S. T. Joshi]] described Pugmire as "the prose-poet of the horror/fantasy field; he may be the best prose-poet we have"<ref name="pugmire2011">{{cite book|title=The Tangled Muse|last=Pugmire|first=W. H.|publisher=Centipede Press|others=Foreword by S. T. Joshi|year=2011|isbn=978-1-933618-78-4|page=15}}</ref> and as one of the genre's leading Lovecraftian authors.<ref name="joshi2010">{{cite book|title=I Am Providence: The Life and Times of H. P. Lovecraft|last=Joshi|first=S. T.|publisher=Hippocampus Press|year=2010|isbn=978-0-9824296-7-9|page=1043}}</ref>

Pugmire's stories have been published in numerous [[Fanzine|fanzines]], book collections, anthologies and magazines including ''[[The Year's Best Horror Stories]]'', ''The Mammoth Book of Cthulhu'', ''[[Weird Tales]],'' ''Year's Best Weird Fiction'', and many more. In addition, two major retrospectives of his work, ''The Tangled Muse'' and ''An Ecstasy of Fear'', were published in 2010 and 2019.

== Life ==
[[File:Wilum with the Thing.jpg|thumb|W.H. Pugmire as Count Pugsly]]
Pugmire was born on May 3, 1951, to a father active in the [[The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints|Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] and a Jewish mother.<ref>{{citation|author=Thomas|first=Jeffrey|title=An Interview with W. H. Pugmire|date=26 February 2009|url=http://punktalk.punktowner.com/?p=154|work=Punktalk|volume=|pages=|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180813080221/http://punktalk.punktowner.com/?p=154|quote=My best friend in high school was Jewish, and that began a Jewish identification.  Later I learned that I AM Jewish on my mom's side of the family.|access-date=31 January 2021|archive-date=13 August 2018}}</ref> Pugmire grew up in Seattle.<ref name=":13">{{Cite web|last=Jepson|first=Theric|date=4 February 2010|title=Latter-day Saint, Latter-day Lovecraft: an interview with W.H. Pugmire|url=https://motleyvision.org/2010/02/04/pugmire-interview/|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=1 February 2021|website=A Motley Vision|language=en}}</ref> 

Pugmire attended [[Franklin High School (Seattle)|Franklin High School]], where he said he was "a wimpy wee fag" who got beaten up a lot.<ref name="NotHereEntertain">''We're Not Here to Entertain: Punk Rock, Ronald Reagan, and the Real Culture War of 1980s America'' by Kevin Mattson, Oxford University Press, 2020, pages 45-6.</ref> To escape what he called a rough childhood, Pugmire embraced "weird, creepy sci-fi stories" like [[The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)|The Twilight Zone]] TV show.<ref name="NotHereEntertain"/> During this time he also began playing the role of the vampire 'Count Pugsly' at [[Jones' Fantastic Museum]] in Seattle. The character was based on the look of [[Lon Chaney]]'s vampire in [[London After Midnight (film)|''London After Midnight'']] and Pugmire played the role into the 1970s.<ref name="vanishing_seattle">{{cite book
| title = Vanishing Seattle
| last = Humphrey
| first = Clark
| year = 2006
| publisher = Arcadia Publishing
| isbn = 978-0-7385-4869-2
| page = 114
| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=gz45oqzIJI4C&pg=PA114
}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{cite web|url=http://lovecraftianhorror.blogspot.com/2012/11/remembering-count-pugsly.html|title=Remembering Count Pugsly|last=Pugmire|first=W. H.|date=30 November 2012|website=A View from Sesqua Valley|access-date=19 April 2019}}</ref> Issue #69 of [[Forrest J Ackerman]]'s ''[[Famous Monsters of Filmland]]'' featured a dedication to Pugmire in his 'Count Pugsly' guise.<ref name=":5" /><ref>{{citation|title=[[Famous Monsters of Filmland]]|date=September 1970|issue=69|page=4}}</ref> In the documentary film ''The AckerMonster Chronicles!'', Pugmire described how he was influenced by Ackerman's magazine and showed the audience the issue in which his photo appeared.<ref>{{cite AV media|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2180547|title=The AckerMonster Chronicles!|date=2012|people=Brock, Jason V (Director)|publisher=JaSunni Productions, LLC|location=USA|medium=Documentary}}</ref>

Following one year in college,<ref>{{cite web|last=Pugmire|first=W. H.|date=5 April 2012|title=Happy Birthday, Bho Blok|url=http://lovecraftianhorror.blogspot.com/2012/04/happy-birthday-bho-blok.html|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=19 August 2013|work=A View from Sesqua Valley}}</ref> he served as a Mormon missionary in [[Omagh]], Northern Ireland for eighteen months, where he corresponded with horror writer [[Robert Bloch]] and first began writing fiction.<ref name=":13" /><ref name=":1">{{cite web|url=https://nicolecushing.wordpress.com/2012/05/11/fiction-that-is-audaciously-ones-own-an-interview-with-w-h-pugmire/|title="…Fiction that is Audaciously One's Own": An Interview with W.H. Pugmire|last=Cushing|first=Nicole|date=11 May 2012|website=Litggressive|access-date=17 April 2019}}</ref> It was also in Northern Ireland that Pugmire discovered a paperback of Lovecraft's stories and was immediately captivated.<ref name="Joshi2019">{{cite web|last=Joshi|first=S. T.|date=31 March 2019|title=My Friend, Wilum Pugmire|url=http://stjoshi.org/news2019.html|access-date=15 November 2020|website=stjoshi.org}}</ref>

After returning from his Mormon mission in 1973, Pugmire came out as gay to the church, was given psychiatric treatment, and requested excommunication, which lasted for about 25 years.<ref name=":13" /><ref name=":0">{{cite web|url=http://www.themonarchreview.org/love-for-the-craft-the-weird-tales-of-w-h-pugmire/|title=Love For The Craft: The Weird Tales Of W.H. Pugmire|date=1 March 2016|website=The Monarch Review|access-date=28 January 2018}}</ref> In the early 2000s, he reconnected with the church and was rebaptized, telling the church's leadership that he would be a "totally [[Homosexual Mormons|queer Mormon]], but celibate."<ref name=":13" /><ref name="jepson2010">"[http://www.motleyvision.org/2010/pugmire-interview/ Latter-day Saint, Latter-day Lovecraft: an interview with W.H. Pugmire]" by Theric Jepson, ''A Motley Vision'', 4 February 2010.</ref> 

For many years Pugmire worked various jobs in cafés owned by old-time punk rockers, who would let him "dress in my [[Boy George]] makeup and mini-skirts as I bussed tables and washed dishes."<ref name="Icarus">"Inteview: W.H. Pugmire" by [[Nick Mamatas]], ''Icarus 13: The Magazine of Gay Speculative Fiction'', issue 13, summer 2012, [[Lethe Press]], pages 37-40.</ref> In March 1995, Pugmire's long-time lover, Todd, died in his arms from a heroin overdose.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iaZbGzqmiScC&pg=PA115|title=Cemetery Walk|last=Powers-Douglas|first=Miranda|publisher=AuthorHouse|year=2005|isbn=978-1-4208-6826-5|pages=114–15}}</ref> In the early 2000s he became the live-in caregiver for his mother, who was an invalid due to epilepsy and dementia.<ref name="Icarus"/>

Pugmire described himself as an eccentric recluse, "the Queen of Eldritch Horror," and a "punk rock queen and street [[transvestite]]".<ref name=":2" /><ref>"Biographical Material", in ''The Fungal Stain and Other Dreams'' by W. H. Pugmire (New York: Hippocampus Press, 2006) {{ISBN|0-9771734-3-7}}.</ref><ref name="Icarus"/>

In 2011, Pugmire nearly died from congestive heart failure.<ref name="Icarus"/> While Pugmire recovered after being hospitalized, these medical issues slowed down his writing. He continued to suffer from heart issues in the following years and, after treatment in a cardiac unit, died in his home in Seattle on March 26, 2019,<ref>"Pugmire, W.H.," ''Obituaries in the Performing Arts, 2019'' by Harris M. Lentz III, McFarland, 2020, page 335.</ref><ref name="Joshi2019"/> prompting numerous eulogies and career retrospectives.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://locusmag.com/2019/03/w-h-pugmire-1951-2019/|title=W.H. Pugmire (1951–2019)|date=27 March 2019|publisher=Locus}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://deepcuts.blog/2019/03/27/editor-spotlight-w-h-pugmire/|title=Editor Spotlight: W. H. Pugmire|last=Derie|first=Bobby|date=27 March 2019|website=Deep Cuts in a Lovecraftian Vein|access-date=22 April 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://sentinelhillpress.com/2019/04/01/wh-pugmire-1951-2019/|title=WH Pugmire, 1951-2019|last=Kramer|first=Bret|date=1 April 2019|website=Sentinel Hill Press|access-date=22 April 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://lovecraftzine.com/2019/04/08/in-memory-of-our-friend-w-h-pugmire-video-and-audio-interviews-and-more/|title=In memory of our friend W.H. Pugmire: video and audio interviews, and more|last=Davis|first=Mike|date=8 April 2019|website=Lovecraft eZine|access-date=22 April 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Nyfors|first=A.R.|date=May 2019|title=In Memory Of Seattle Horror Writer, Magazine Editor Wilum Pugmire|url=https://www.punkglobe.com/wilumpugmire0519.php|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=31 January 2021|website=www.punkglobe.com|language=en}}</ref>

== Writing ==

Pugmire first began writing fiction during his Mormon mission in Northern Ireland,<ref name=":13" /><ref name="jepson2010" /> but grew discouraged with his work and stopped until the mid-80s.<ref name=":8">{{Cite web|url=http://www.astorybookworld.com/2011/07/interview-with-author-w-h-pugmire.html|title=Interview with Author W. H. Pugmire|last=Eden|first=Deirdra A.|date=22 July 2011|website=A Storybook World|access-date=7 May 2019}}</ref> Returning to Seattle, he became a figure in the local punk rock scene and launched an influential zine, ''Punk Lust'', in April 1981.<ref name="Icarus"/><ref>''American Hardcore: A Tribal History (Second Edition)'' by Steven Blush, Feral House, 2010, page 306.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.seattlereviewofbooks.com/reviews/punk-snot-dead/|title=Punk snot dead|last=Hamlin|first=Andrew|date=26 January 2016|website=The Seattle Review of Books|access-date=16 April 2019}}</ref> Called "one of the more interesting characters in the history of early 1980s punk," Pugmire filled the zine with his own gothic and grotesque drawings.<ref name="NotHereEntertain"/> His zine also published letters, including a number of them written by [[Mark Arm]].<ref name="NotHereEntertain"/>

"Punk has shown me that I should be angry," Pugmire later wrote, "and that I can express my anger in the way I look, as well as the way I think."<ref name="NotHereEntertain"/>

Pugmire's time in Ireland led him to discover the works of [[H. P. Lovecraft]],<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":11" /> and eventually [[Henry James]], [[Oscar Wilde]], and Lovecraft would become his strongest literary influences.<ref name=":8" /><ref name=":10">{{Cite web|url=http://thebailer.com/interviews/an-interview-with-wilum-hopfrog-pugmire-by-david-hoenigman/|title=An Interview With Wilum Hopfrog Pugmire by David Hoenigman|last=Hoenigman|first=David|date=15 March 2012|website=The Bailer|access-date=10 May 2019|archive-date=10 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190510230736/http://thebailer.com/interviews/an-interview-with-wilum-hopfrog-pugmire-by-david-hoenigman/|url-status=dead}}</ref> Many of Pugmire's stories directly reference "Lovecraftian" elements (especially [[Nyarlathotep]]).<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":9">{{cite web|url=http://www.arkhamdigest.com/2013/01/interview-wh-pugmire.html|title=Interview: W.H. Pugmire|last=Steele|first=Justin|date=3 January 2013|website=The Arkham Digest|access-date=1 May 2019}}</ref> A self-described "obsessed writer of Lovecraft horror",<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nightmare-magazine.com/nonfiction/the-h-word-lovecraftian-horror/|title=The H Word: Lovecraftian Horror|last=Pugmire|first=W. H.|date=12 June 2013|website=Nightmare Magazine|access-date=13 May 2019}}</ref> his stated goal was to "dwell forevermore within Lovecraft's titan shadow",<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":6">{{cite web|url=https://lovecraftzine.com/magazine/issues/2013-2/issue-28-december-2013/|title=Issue #28 – December 2013|date=6 December 2013|website=The Lovecraft eZine|access-date=21 April 2019}}</ref> claiming that "being Lovecraftian is my identity as an artist".<ref name=":1" /> Pugmire was quoted in the ''[[Seattle Post-Intelligencer]]'' as saying that his writing was "a form of personal exorcism".<ref name="SEATIMES">{{cite news|title=Ghost Writers – Seattle's Horror-Fiction Authors Find Our Region's Gloomy Days Nourish Their Creative Spirits|last=Bartley|first=Nancy|date=30 October 1988|newspaper=Seattle Post-Intelligencer|page=K1}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Joshi|first=S. T.|date=6 April 2019|title=More on Wilum, and Other Matters|url=http://stjoshi.org/news.html#post_20190406|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190415025036/http://stjoshi.org/news.html#post_20190406|archive-date=15 April 2019|access-date=17 April 2019|website=stjoshi.org}}</ref>

When Pugmire visited Lovecraft's birthplace of [[Providence, Rhode Island]], "he walked the streets from [[College Hill, Providence, Rhode Island|College Hill]] to [[Federal Hill, Providence, Rhode Island|Federal Hill]] with a diary in hand, scratching impressions as he went." Pugmire used these notes in his book ''Bohemians of Sesqua Valley''.<ref>"Have You Met H.P.? NecronomiCon Providence resurrects Lovecraft" by Philip Eil, [[The Phoenix (newspaper)|The Providence Phoenix]], August 23-29, 2013, page 9.</ref>

Pugmire set many of his stories in the Sesqua Valley, a fictional location in the [[Pacific Northwest]] of the United States which for him served the same purpose as the fictional [[Arkham]] / [[Dunwich]] / [[Innsmouth]] nexus did for Lovecraft, or the [[Severn Valley (Cthulhu Mythos)|Severn Valley]] for [[Ramsey Campbell]].<ref name=":10" /><ref name=":9" /><ref name=":7">{{cite web|url=http://weirdtalesmagazine.com/2013/11/26/the-weird-bookshelf-an-interview-with-wilum-hopfrog-pugmire/|title=The WEIRD Bookshelf: An Interview with Wilum "Hopfrog" Pugmire|last=Draa|first=Douglas|date=26 November 2013|website=Weird Tales|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140210171823/http://weirdtalesmagazine.com/2013/11/26/the-weird-bookshelf-an-interview-with-wilum-hopfrog-pugmire/|archive-date=10 February 2014|access-date=21 April 2019}}</ref>

== Critical response ==

Pugmire's writings have been described as a "love letter to Lovecraft" around which he constructed his own universe.<ref>"[https://www.blackgate.com/2016/08/31/a-fine-tribute-to-the-godfather-of-weird-literature-the-mammoth-book-of-cthulhu-edited-by-paula-guran/ A Fine Tribute to the Godfather of Weird Literature: The Mammoth Book of Cthulhu, edited by Paula Guran]" by Damien Moore, [[Black Gate (magazine)|Black Gate]], August 31, 2016.</ref> Pugmire's fiction has also been described as embracing the gothic with a modern sensibility,<ref>"Review of Bohemians of Sesqua Valley" by Wayne Edwards, [[Cemetery Dance Publications|Cemetery Dance]] Magazine, issue 47, 2003, page 103.</ref> not as a look or a style but as "an idea that cut against the naive American faith that the past was absolutely past."<ref name="NotHereEntertain"/>

Editor and scholar Scott Connors has written that, stylistically, Pugmire "owes as much to Oscar Wilde and Henry James as to [[H. P. Lovecraft|HPL]] and Poe, creating a truly unholy fusion that defies academic boundaries between 'mainstream' and 'genre' fiction."<ref>{{cite journal|last=Connors|first=Scott|date=Fall 2011|title=A Kinship with Monsters: Review of The Tangled Muse by W. H. Pugmire|url=https://www.hippocampuspress.com/journals/dead-reckonings/dead-reckonings-no.-10|journal=Dead Reckonings|location=New York|publisher=Hippocampus Press|volume=1|issue=10|pages=24–26|issn=1935-6110}}</ref> Writing for ''Weird Fiction Review'', Bobby Derie stated that Pugmire "wrote Lovecraftian fiction without the formulaic trappings of the mythos, wrapped in a sensuous prose and characters with easy, fluid sexuality".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://weirdfictionreview.com/2014/09/a-brief-history-of-sex-in-weird-fiction/|title=A Brief History of Sex in Weird Fiction|last=Derie|first=Bobby|date=15 September 2014|website=Weird Fiction Review|access-date=21 April 2019}}</ref> Issue 28 of ''The Lovecraft eZine'' was devoted to Pugmire—"one of our greatest Lovecraftian writers"—with tributes from [[S. T. Joshi]], [[Joseph S. Pulver Sr.]], and others; in it, Lovecraftian author and editor [[Robert M. Price]] described Pugmire as "the Oscar Wilde of our time ... the most revered and beloved figure in the Lovecraftian movement today."<ref name=":6" /> Author [[Laird Barron]] listed him as one of "the best contemporary horror/weird fiction" small-press authors,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://lairdbarron.wordpress.com/2017/03/12/authors-to-read-part-ii/|title=Authors to Read (Part II)|last=Barron|first=Laird|date=12 March 2017|website=Laird Barron|access-date=18 April 2019}}</ref> and a writer who "puts forth a new baroque masterpiece every other year".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://lairdbarron.wordpress.com/2017/12/21/the-black-barony-1/|title=The Black Barony 1.|last=Barron|first=Laird|date=21 December 2017|website=Laird Barron|access-date=18 April 2019}}</ref> [[Nick Mamatas]], in a 2009 interview, stated that Pugmire and [[Thomas Ligotti]] were "the best Lovecraftians today".<ref name=":11" /> Lovecraftian writers Mike Davis and Will Hart both called Pugmire "the world's greatest living Lovecraftian writer."<ref>"[https://lovecraftzine.com/2011/11/26/update-on-w-h-pugmire/ Update on W.H. Pugmire]" by Mike Davis. ''The Lovecraft Ezine''. November 26, 2011. Accessed October 10, 2021.</ref> [[Silvia Moreno-Garcia]], in a [[The Washington Post|''Washington Post'']] review article, spoke of Pugmire's "decadent, lush prose".<ref>{{Cite news|last1=Moreno-Garcia|first1=Silvia|last2=Tidhar|first2=Lavie|date=13 January 2021|title=Let's talk about fantasy and science fiction books that have fallen off the radar|language=en-US|newspaper=Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/lets-talk-about-fantasy-and-science-fiction-books-that-have-fallen-off-the-radar/2021/01/12/2f653b56-34a9-11eb-b59c-adb7153d10c2_story.html|url-status=live|access-date=28 January 2021|issn=0190-8286}}</ref> 

S. T. Joshi described Pugmire's writing style as "richly evocative",<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jh97v3zeKc0C&pg=PA123|title=Icons of Horror and the Supernatural: An Encyclopedia of Our Worst Nightmares|last=Joshi|first=S. T.|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=2007|isbn=978-0-313-33781-9|page=123}}</ref> writing in his scholarly analysis of [[Cthulhu Mythos]] fiction, ''The Rise and Fall of the Cthulhu Mythos'', that Pugmire's work contains "some of the richest veins of neo-Lovecraftian horror seen in recent years."<ref>{{cite book|last=Joshi|first=S. T.|title=The Rise and Fall of the Cthulhu Mythos|year=2008|page=268|publisher=Mythos Press|location=Poplar Bluff, MO|isbn=9780978991180}}</ref> However, Joshi has been more critical of Pugmire's nonfiction writing, proclaiming "no one takes him seriously as a critic."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://stjoshi.org/review_haefele.html|title=Review of A Look Behind the Derleth Mythos, by John Haefele.|last=Joshi|first=S. T.|access-date=25 October 2013}}</ref>

''[[Asimov's Science Fiction]]'' magazine, in their review of ''Sesqua Valley and Other Haunts'', stated that "Pugmire's devotion to his sources transcends mere pastiche, and his style is neither overwrought nor too sparse."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.asimovs.com:80/_issue_0409/onbooks.shtml|title=On Books|last=Di Filippo|first=Paul|date=2004|website=Asimov's Science Fiction|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120220101620/http://www.asimovs.com/_issue_0409/onbooks.shtml|archive-date=20 February 2012|url-status=dead|access-date=18 April 2019}}</ref> ''[[Publishers Weekly]]'', reviewing ''Uncommon Places: A Collection of Exquisites'', said that readers "with an appetite for the weird and the decadent will find Pugmire's work a rich confection."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-61498-023-0|title=Uncommon Places: A Collection of Exquisites|date=18 June 2012|website=Publishers Weekly|access-date=30 January 2018}}</ref> The site's review of ''Monstrous Aftermath: Stories in the Lovecraft Tradition'', stated that "horror fans fond of baroque prose" should enjoy the collection, noting "a knack for injecting gallows humor", but adding that those "looking for memorable plots and vivid characterizations ... will have to look elsewhere."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-61498-133-6|title=Monstrous Aftermath: Stories in the Lovecraftian Tradition|date=22 August 2016|website=Publishers Weekly|access-date=18 April 2019}}</ref> [[Fantasy Magazine (2005)|Fantasy Magazine]]'s review of ''The Weird Inhabitants of Sesqua Valley'', while observing "the love-it-or-hate-it nature of even the best Lovecraftian style", noted that there were "many pleasures to be had" in the collection of "surprisingly humanistic" tales.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Dansky|first=Richard|title=The Weird Inhabitants of Sesqua Valley by W.H. Pugmire|url=http://www.fantasy-magazine.com/reviews/weird-inhabitants-pugmire/|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190126153927/http://www.fantasy-magazine.com/reviews/weird-inhabitants-pugmire/|archive-date=26 January 2019|access-date=15 November 2020|website=Fantasy Magazine}}</ref> [[The New York Review of Science Fiction|''The'' ''New York Review of Science Fiction'']]'s review of ''The Tangled Muse'' stated that Pugmire's writing revealed "a mastery of language and vocabulary that brings to mind the work of [[Clark Ashton Smith]]", noting a "distinct homoerotic theme or undercurrent that is neither gratuitous nor inconsistent but rather genuine and often central to characterization and storytelling."<ref name="rawlik2011">"Wilum H. Pugmire's ''The Tangled Muse''", by Peter Rawlik, ''The New York Review of Science Fiction'', October 2011, Issue 278, pages 13–14.</ref>

==Bibliography==

Originally published mainly in [[fanzine]]s and small press magazines,<ref>[http://www.locusmag.com/index/s541.htm Entry for PUGMIRE, WILLIAM “WILUM” H. (1951– )], The Locus Index to Science Fiction: 1984–1998, accessed 5 February 2013.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?11256|title=Summary Bibliography: W. H. Pugmire|website=Internet Speculative Fiction Database|access-date=23 April 2019}}</ref> Pugmire produced a steady stream of book collections beginning in 1997. [[Centipede Press]] published two major retrospectives of his work: ''The Tangled Muse'' in October 2010,<ref name="rawlik2011" /><ref name=":4">{{cite web|url=http://www.centipedepress.com/horror/tangledmuse.html|title=The Tangled Muse|website=Centipede Press|access-date=17 April 2019}}</ref> and ''An Ecstasy of Fear'' in June 2019.<ref name=":12">{{cite web|url=http://www.centipedepress.com/horror/ecstasyoffear.html|title=An Ecstasy of Fear|website=Centipede Press|access-date=24 June 2019}}</ref> Earlier stories were often rewritten substantially by Pugmire if republished (notably in ''Weird Inhabitants of Sesqua Valley'' and ''The Tangled Muse'').<ref name=":11">{{Cite web|url=https://nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com/1412634.html|title=Wilum Hopfrog Pugmire, The Interview|last=Mamatas|first=Nick|date=21 December 2009|website=Livejournal|access-date=10 May 2019}}</ref>

===Short fiction and poetry collections===

*''Tales of Sesqua Valley'' (1997, [[Necropolitan Press]])
*''Dreams of Lovecraftian Horror'' (1999, Mythos Books, {{ISBN|978-0-9659433-4-5}})
*''Songs of Sesqua Valley'' (2000, Imelod Publications; collection of sonnets). Note: Although this volume was announced, and the poems appeared in ''Imelod'' magazine, the standalone volume did not appear. Pugmire dropped some poems and added new ones when he printed the poetic sequence in ''Sesqua Valley and Other Haunts'' (2008). 
*''Tales of Love and Death'' (2001, [[Delirium Books]], {{ISBN|978-1-929653-15-7}})
*''A Clicking in the Shadows and Other Tales'' (2002, Undaunted Press; with Chad Hensley)
*''Sesqua Valley and Other Haunts'' (2003, Delirium Books; 2008 Mythos Books paperback reprint contains three new stories). The volume also contains "Songs from Sesqua Valley", a sequence of 33 sonnets by Pugmire, most of which had previously appeared in a Canadian small press magazine, ''Imelod''.
*''The Fungal Stain and Other Dreams'' (2006, [[Hippocampus Press]], {{ISBN|978-0-9771734-3-3}})
*''Weird Inhabitants of Sesqua Valley'' (2009, Terradan Works, {{ISBN|978-1-4486-9954-4}})
*''The Tangled Muse'' (2010, [[Centipede Press]], {{ISBN|978-1-933618-78-4}})
*''Gathered Dust and Others'' (2011, [[Dark Regions Press]], {{ISBN|978-1937128098}})
*''Some Unknown Gulf of Night'' (2011, Arcane Wisdom Press, {{ISBN|978-1935006114}})
*''The Strange Dark One: Tales of Nyarlathotep'' (2012, Miskatonic River Press, {{ISBN|978-0-9821818-9-8}})
*''Uncommon Places: A Collection of Exquisites'' (2012, Hippocampus Press, {{ISBN|978-1-61498-023-0}}; prose-poetry collection)
*''Encounters with Enoch Coffin'' (2013, Dark Regions Press, {{ISBN|978-1-62641-000-8}}; with Jeffrey Thomas)
*''Bohemians of Sesqua Valley'' (2013, Arcane Wisdom Press)
*''The Revenant of Rebecca Pascal'' (2014, Dark Renaissance Books, {{ISBN|978-1-937128-83-8}}; novel; with David Barker)
*''These Black Winged Ones'' (2014, Myth Ink Books)
*''In the Gulfs of Dreams and Other Lovecraftian Tales'' (2015, Dark Renaissance Books, {{ISBN|978-1-937128-49-4}}; with David Barker)
*''Monstrous Aftermath: Stories in the Lovecraftian Tradition'' (2015, Hippocampus Press, {{ISBN|978-1-61498-133-6}})
*''An Ecstasy of Fear'' (2019, Centipede Press, {{ISBN|978-1-61347-085-5}})
*''An Imp of Aether'' (2019, Hippocampus Press, {{ISBN| 978-1-61498-276-0}})

===Novel===
*''Witches in Dreamland'' (2018, [[Hippocampus Press]], {{ISBN|978-1-614982-30-2}}; with David Barker)

===Selected anthology and magazine appearances===

* "Whispering Wires", ''[[Space and Time (magazine)|Space and Time]]'' (#20, September 1973;<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.philsp.com/homeville/sfi/t1181.htm|title=Contents Lists: ''Space and Time'', Issues 20-49|website=The Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Weird Fiction Magazine Index|access-date=13 May 2019|archive-date=13 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190513231642/http://www.philsp.com/homeville/sfi/t1181.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> as "Bill Pugmire"; first sold story)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://darkregions.com/blogs/news/interview-with-author-w-h-pugmire-by-brian-m-sammons|title=Interview with author W.H. Pugmire by Brian M. Sammons|last=Sammons|first=Brian M.|date=10 May 2016|website=Dark Regions Press|access-date=10 May 2019}}</ref>
* "Pale Trembling Youth" (with [[Jessica Amanda Salmonson]]), ''Cutting Edge'' (1986, [[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday]]); reprinted in ''[[The Year's Best Horror Stories]] XV'' (1987, [[DAW Books]]) and ''Horrrorstory Vol. V'' (1989, [[Underwood-Miller]])<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?50783|title=Publication: The Year's Best Horror Stories: XV|date=1 March 2015|work=Internet Speculative Fiction Database|access-date=3 May 2019}}</ref>
* "O, Christmas Tree" (with Jessica Amanda Salmonson), ''Tales by Moonlight II'' (1989, [[Tor Books]])<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?34248|title=Publication: Tales by Moonlight II|date=17 January 2013|work=Internet Speculative Fiction Database|access-date=3 May 2019}}</ref>
* "The Boy with the Bloodstained Mouth", ''The Year's Best Horror Stories XVIII'' (1990, DAW Books)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?50785|title=Publication: The Year's Best Horror Stories: XVIII|date=1 September 2015|work=Internet Speculative Fiction Database|access-date=3 May 2019}}</ref>
* "Delicious Antique Whore", ''Love in Vein'' (1994, [[HarperCollins]]; 2000, Eos; 2005, Harper Voyager)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?183777|title=Publication: Love in Vein: Twenty Original Tales of Vampiric Erotica|date=14 April 2014|work=Internet Speculative Fiction Database|access-date=3 May 2019}}</ref>
* "The Night City" (with Chad Hensley), ''The Darker Side: Generations of Horror'' (2002, [[Roc Books]])<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?256340|title=Publication: The Darker Side: Generations of Horror|work=Internet Speculative Fiction Database|access-date=3 May 2019}}</ref>
* "The Serenade of Starlight", ''[[The Children of Cthulhu]]'' (2002, [[Del Rey Books]] / [[Ballantine Books]])<ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.randomhousebooks.com/books/129202/|title=The Children of Cthulhu|work=Random House|access-date=17 April 2019}}</ref>
* "The House of Idiot Children" (with M. K. Snyder), ''[[Weird Tales]]'' (#348, January / February 2008)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.locusmag.com/2008/Magazines04a.html#weird348|title=Locus Online: New Magazines, early April 2008|work=Locus|access-date=17 April 2019}}</ref>
* "Inhabitants of Wraithwood", ''[[Cthulhu Mythos anthology#Black Wings of Cthulhu|Black Wings: New Tales of Lovecraftian Horror]]'' (2010, [[PS Publishing]]; reprinted as ''Black Wings of Cthulhu'', 2012, [[Titan Books]])<ref>{{cite web|url=https://titanbooks.com/5939-black-wings-of-cthulhu-volume-one/|title=Black Wings of Cthulhu (Volume One)|work=Titan Books|access-date=17 April 2019}}</ref>
* "Some Buried Memory", ''[[The Book of Cthulhu]]'' (2011, [[Night Shade Books]])<ref>{{cite web|url=https://thebookofcthulhu.com/about/authors/|title=The Book of Cthulhu: About the Authors|work=The Book of Cthulhu|access-date=17 April 2019}}</ref>
* "The Fungal Stain", ''[[Cthulhu Mythos anthology#New Cthulhu: The Recent Weird|New Cthulhu: The Recent Weird]]'' (2011, [[Prime Books]])<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.prime-books.com/shop/print-books/new-cthulhu-the-recent-weird-edited-by-paula-guran/|title=New Cthulhu: The Recent Weird edited by Paula Guran|work=Prime Books|access-date=17 April 2019}}</ref>
* "The Hands that Reek and Smoke", [[Cthulhu Mythos anthology#The Book of Cthulhu II|''The Book of Cthulhu'' ''II'']] (2012, Night Shade Books)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://thebookofcthulhu.com/about2/authors2/|title=The Book of Cthulhu II: About the Authors|work=The Book of Cthulhu|access-date=17 April 2019}}</ref>
*"A Quest of Dream", ''Year's Best Weird Fiction, Volume One'' (2014, Undertow Publications)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://lairdbarron.wordpress.com/2014/03/30/final-toc-of-the-years-best-weird-volume-one/|title=Final ToC of the Year's Best Weird Fiction, Volume One|date=30 March 2014|work=Laird Barron|access-date=21 April 2019}}</ref>
* "Half Lost in Shadow", ''Black Wings IV'' (2015, PS Publishing; 2016, Titan Books)<ref>{{cite web |last= |first= |date= |title=Black Wings IV [eBook] Edited by S. T. Joshi |url=https://www.pspublishing.co.uk/black-wings-iv-ebook-edited-by-s-t-joshi-5353-p.asp?v=0&variantid=5354 |url-status=live |archive-url= |archive-date= |access-date=22 June 2022 |work=PS Publishing}}</ref>
*"Old Time Entombed", ''That Is Not Dead: Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos Through the Centuries'' (2015, PS Publishing)<ref>{{Cite web|title=That is Not Dead [Hardcover] edited by Darrell Schweitzer|url=https://www.pspublishing.co.uk/that-is-not-dead-hardcover-edited-by-darrell-schweitzer-2671-p.asp|access-date=15 November 2020|website=PS Publishing|language=en}}</ref>
*"They Smell of Thunder", ''[[Cthulhu Mythos anthology#New Cthulhu 2: More Recent Weird|New Cthulhu 2: More Recent Weird]]'' (2015, Prime Books)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.prime-books.com/shop/print-books/new-cthulhu-2-more-recent-weird-edited-by-paula-guran/|title=New Cthulhu 2: More Recent Weird edited by Paula Guran|work=Prime Books|access-date=17 April 2019}}</ref>
* "Into Ye Smoke-Wreath'd World of Dream", [[Cthulhu Mythos anthology#Cthulhu Fhtagn!|''Cthulhu Fhtagn!'']] (2015, Word Horde)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://wordhorde.com/books/cthulhu-fhtagn/|title=Cthulhu Fhtagn!|work=Word Horde|date=16 April 2015 |access-date=20 April 2019}}</ref>
*"The Imps of Innsmouth", ''Innsmouth Nightmares'' (2015, PS Publishing)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.loisgresh.com/?p=1246|title=Innsmouth Nightmares - Table of Contents|work=www.loisgresh.com|access-date=18 April 2019}}</ref>
*"A Shadow of Thine Own Design", ''The Mammoth Book of Cthulhu'' (2016, [[Constable & Robinson|Robinson]] / [[Running Press]])<ref>{{cite web|title=The Mammoth Book of Cthulhu edited by Paula Guran|url=http://paulaguran.com/the-mammoth-book-of-cthulhu-edited-by-paula-guran/|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191214045507/http://paulaguran.com/the-mammoth-book-of-cthulhu-edited-by-paula-guran/|archive-date=14 December 2019|access-date=15 November 2020|work=Paula Guran}}</ref>
* "A Gentleman of Darkness", ''Heroes of Red Hook'' (2016, Golden Goblin Press, reprinted 2021 in ''His Own Most Fantastic Creation: Stories about H. P. Lovecraft'', Hippocampus Press)
*"In Blackness Etched, My Name", ''Black Wings V'' (2016, PS Publishing; 2018, Titan Books)<ref>{{cite web |title=Black Wings V [eBook] Edited by S. T. Joshi |url=https://www.pspublishing.co.uk/black-wings-v-ebook-edited-by-s-t-joshi-5358-p.asp?v=0&variantid=5359 |access-date=22 June 2022 |work=PS Publishing}}</ref>
* "The Barrier Between", ''Nightmare's Realm: New Tales of the Weird and Fantastic'' (2017, Dark Regions Press)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://darkregions.com/products/nightmares-realm-new-tales-of-the-weird-and-fantastic-preorder|title=Nightmare's Realm: New Tales of the Weird and Fantastic|website=Dark Regions Press|access-date=8 May 2019}}</ref>
*"To Move Beneath Autumnal Oaks", ''Black Wings VI'' (2017, PS Publishing; 2018, Titan Books)<ref>{{cite web|title=Black Wings VI [eBook] Edited by S. T. Joshi|url=https://www.pspublishing.co.uk/black-wings-vi--ebook-edited-by-s-t-joshi-4567-p.asp|access-date=17 April 2019|work=PS Publishing}}</ref>
*"An Implement of Ice", ''Weirdbook'' (#38, 2018)<ref>{{Cite web|title=Weirdbook #38|url=https://wildsidepress.com/weirdbook-38-paper/|access-date=15 November 2020|website=Wildside Press|language=en}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
{{Portal|Biography}}
{{Commons category}}
* {{Official website}}
* {{isfdb name}}
*[http://www.philsp.com/homeville/sfi/s1431.htm#A42861 W. H. Pugmire] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190513231742/http://www.philsp.com/homeville/sfi/s1431.htm#A42861 |date=2019-05-13 }} at [http://www.philsp.com/homeville/sfi/0start.htm The Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Weird Fiction Magazine Index]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pugmire, W. H.}}
[[Category:1951 births]]
[[Category:2019 deaths]]
[[Category:American horror writers]]
[[Category:Cthulhu Mythos writers]]
[[Category:Writers from Seattle]]
[[Category:LGBT people from Washington (state)]]
[[Category:American LGBT writers]]
[[Category:American people of Jewish descent]]
[[Category:LGBT Latter Day Saints]]
[[Category:20th-century Mormon missionaries]]
[[Category:American Mormon missionaries in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Mormon missionaries in Northern Ireland]]
[[Category:People excommunicated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]]
[[Category:Weird fiction writers]]
[[Category:Franklin High School (Seattle) alumni]]