"Like Poe and Blackwood, Scofidio excels at exploring both sides of the human condition: the physical and the psychological; the corrupted sinews of the flesh and the sublime expanses of the soul."
--- M. Grant Kellermeyer MA, The Classic Horror Blog
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Marni and Gruff, above; Self-Portrait 1987
Marni Scofidio
was born in San Francisco, California, and raised in Buffalo, New York. Her fiction and nonfiction have been published in the UK, Canada, Australia, and the United States. Her first novel, Knucklebones, was published by PS Publishing, the UK's premier genre publisher whose catalogue includes Ramsey Campbell, Stephen King, and Joe Hill.
Marni comes from a creative family; her uncle is Ricardo Scofidio, the first architect to win the MacArthur Foundation genius grant, and her cousin is jazz guitarist Dana Scofidio.
Marni is married to her beloved Welshman, Kev, and is Wicked Stepmother to one stepson. The couple adopted a heterochromatic staffy cross named Gruff (a Welsh name that's pronounced 'Griff') whose alter ego is 'typewriter poet' Vanilla G. They divide their time between the top of a small Welsh mountain with the best view in Britain, and Malpas, in Cheshire, England.
For Attention Press, with assistance from Marni’s late mother, Margaret Elizabeth Bowen Santi, was founded in 2022 to publish all Marni’s works in affordable electronic and (eventually) print format. Marni also started Poems from the Doghouse to support the work of North Clwyd Animal Rescue (NCAR). Since 1997 Marni has managed ME/CFS which means it takes her a lot longer to do just about everything!
Inspirations (Why I Write)
Ricardo Merrill Scofidio 1935 - 2025
"One of the things that's important... is taking that leap of faith and believing in yourself that you're going to get there." - Ric Scofidio, New York Times
My paternal great-grandmother Mabel Matthews (R), and wonderful loving grandmother Junie May (the baby), who introduced me to
Alfred Hitchcock and DC horror comics
Mamacita, aka Margaret Elizabeth Scofidio Santi née Bowen , a theatre head nurse who taught me everything she knew about Poe, Bierce, Wharton (still only one of two horror writers, both women, to win a Pulitzer Prize), Hartley, and Lovecraft.
Lake View, NY, July 1989
Mustn't forget the menfolk: my great grandfather James Matthews, the handsome chap 2nd from the left, below: Welsh ancestry on both sides! And according to a recent DNA test, I'm Sierra Leonean and Nigerian on the paternal side.
Reviews
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Praise for Marni Scofidio’s work
Knucklebones is a brilliant debut novel written with a poetic eye, filled with characters that truly live, and a pace that had me barrelling through the last half of the book. For decades, Marni Scofidio has written such incredible short stories that I’ve long wished for a full novel, and Knucklebones is even better than I dared hope. It’s dark, chilling, and delicious, written with a unique and individual style. You’d be a knucklehead to miss it. A marvellous book.
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Scofidio has an inspired and unique way of looking at the world, and, what’s more important, is able to convey to us her vision, not only of the landscape that lies before her eyes, but the landscape of the soul . . . She is fully there in every word. She knows. And she can make us see.
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―Chet Williamson, author of Robert Bloch’s Psycho: Sanitarium, Murder in Cormyr, and A Step Across, amongst many others
[Scofidio is] a world-class writer whose stories have appeared in prestigious ‘Best of’ horror anthologies. To get an idea of her style, imagine the ghost story writer M.R. James colliding with Pats and Eddy from Absolutely Fabulous... If you consider yourself an aficionado of dark fiction, please do not miss the opportunity to read her works, exquisite macabre treasures to be cherished.
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―Mark McLaughlin, Bram Stoker Award winner and author of Injectables and Human Doll, amongst many others
Marni Scofidio’s Knucklebones is one of the sharpest horror novels I’ve read in the past two years, a truly fascinating study in human psychology, repression, and rage. . . Like Poe and Blackwood, Scofidio excels at exploring both sides of the human condition: the physical and the psychological; the corrupted sinews of the flesh and the sublime expanses of the soul.
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―M. Grant Kellermeyer MA, The Classic Horror Blog
[Knucklebones is] a page-turning novel-reader’s novel. A Horror novel that it never tries not to be; in fact it drops names. A work that is dreamcatching of some literary force. Lifecatching, too. And tantalisingly elusive and allusive, words where you hopefully find the Querent. Mighty or not.
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―Des Lewis, The Gestalt Real-Time Reviews of Books
Scofidio cites the fiction of Angela Carter as inspiration, but her ambiguous handling of the uncanny suggests the influence of Robert Aickman.
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—Stefan Dziemianowicz, editor and anthologist
[In] ‘Last Train to Amos Grove’ . . . Scofidio pulls off a work of originality and something I can only describe as creeping fear. This is the kind of story done to perfection by Ramsey Campbell and Thomas Ligotti, and which stands here as an equal to a story from those amazing gents.
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—Andrea Locke, Deathrealm review
Well crafted, with a satisfying click at the end.
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—Michael P. Belfiore, author of The Department of Mad Scientists
The more than 50 contributions (in Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror: Sixth Annual Collection, ed. Datlow and Windling) defy generalisation but are highlighted by (amongst others) . . . Scofidio’s piece about a party game/séance gone bad.
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—Publishers Weekly
Thank you for making me want to read again.
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—John McCloskey
Contact
For media inquiries, or just to say hello, please contact Marni Scofidio:
