birth_place influences nationality birth_date period genre article_title name occupation
detroit , michigan , united states thomas , jorge luis borges , bruno schulz , u. g. bernhard krishnamurti , emil cioran , h. p. lovecraft , arthur , machen , edgar allan poe william s. burroughs , vladimir nabokov american 09 july 1953 1981 -- present horror fiction , dark fantasy thomas ligotti
 thomas ligotti short story writer
thomas ligotti

thomas ligotti -lrb- born july 9 , 1953 -rrb- is a contemporary american horror author and reclusive literary cult figure .
his writings have been noted as rooted in several literary genres -- most prominently lovecraftian horror -- and have overall been described by critics such as s.t. joshi as works of `` philosophical horror , '' often written as short stories and novellas and with similarities to gothic fiction .
the worldview espoused by ligotti in both his fiction and non-fiction has been described as profoundly pessimistic and nihilistic .
`` the washington post '' called him `` the best kept secret in contemporary horror fiction . ''
