Who We Are
From Dark Places
Some stories don’t belong in the light.
They belong in the holler after the last lantern goes out. In the rot beneath the porch boards. In the sound the woods make when the woods shouldn’t be making any sound at all. They belong in the places your grandmother warned you about and your grandfather pretended not to know — the places Appalachia has always kept, quiet and patient, waiting for someone with the nerve to write them down.
That is what Darkling Press is here for.
Taking Shape…
Darkling Press was born from a devotion to the eerie, the uncanny, and the beautifully shadowed. It took shape in the hush of backwoods nights in Southwest Virginia, deep in Appalachia. A place where stories were devoured by the thin glow of a booklight and every rustle in the dark felt like a whisper meant only for us.
Adulthood beckoned with a glare too strange for those raised beneath the heavy canopy of Appalachian nights. So we followed the dark trails winding through forgotten hollers, where the air still holds the breath of old ghosts and the stories never settle. We sought others marked by the same dusk‑lit knowing, the same wild‑haunted wonder. And along those wandering paths, we gathered our Darklings.
Darkling Press took shape in the long, haunted quiet of the pandemic. The world tightened around us, sending us into our hollers to wait for the danger to pass. In that forced stillness, the stories grew restless. Now we emerge once more, searching the ridgelines and the wide world alike for our tribe. Writers, readers, and kindred spirits who hunger for dark tales and the strange beauty they carry.
Darkling Catalog
We publish grim collections, novellas, and forthcoming anthologies rooted in the haunted hills of Dark Appalachia.
Explore a moody grid of book covers that invites slow browsing, each jacket dripping with atmosphere and whispered dread.
Step beyond the covers and discover the stories, inspiration, and news from Darkling Press.
Lose yourself in haunting performances that bring every shadow, whisper, and legend vividly to life.
Our imprint guides aspiring voices through editorial rigor, worldbuilding craft, and atmospheric design, ensuring every page feels damp with curiosity and dread.
Darkling Press 