C. Charles Knight is an American author of fiction, primarily in the horror and horror-adjacent genres. He grew up surrounded by books and was instilled with an appreciation for sciences, philosophy, religion, freedom of thought, and creativity by his parents. Having a unique upbringing in travel, he was afforded the benefits of long conversations with his father, a former US Marine who served multiple combat tours in the Vietnam War, and his mother, who had a remarkable life and love of teaching. He showed a draw toward creativity at a very early age with passion in writing, music, and art, channeling these into various pursuits with his first foray being the development of a short comic story (unpublished, mercifully for the world) at the age of 6.
As he grew up, his passion for creation continued through writing music, poetry, and short stories and he was eventually published for short works in local papers in his teens. He was always interested in writing longer works such as novellas and novels, with his first attempt at the age of 12, although the book was eventually abandoned as an exercise in the process rather than a true project. He continued to write music, lyrics, poetry, and short stories over time as well as other creative outlets of acting (at which he was not great and only did as a favor for his college friends in theater and film) while focusing on his primary career path. It was not until his late 20s that he began revisiting the concept of long-form writing for novels and wrote a number of stories in his spare time, purely as a creative outlet with no designs on publishing at the time. As time wore on, he came to find stories that he felt may be of interest to others and began writing with intention in his 40s. Since he began writing new stories for the purpose of publication in the fall of 2024, he has published a number of short stories in independent publications, magazines, and anthologies as well as a novelette coming in September 2025 and a collection of short stories coming in 2026 (see Works for links where you can find published stories). He currently has other works out for consideration, and, in the meantime, he has a large number of stories, novellas, and novels in various stages of completion. Stay tuned.
Knight recently agreed to become co-managing editor of Amaranth Publications horror imprint (which they named Vervain Horror) with his accomplished colleague, Poppy McDonald. They are planning a grand opening of the imprint with a haunted-themed anthology to be comprised of stories from new and established authors.
What editors and judges have said about C. Charles Knight’s writing:
Hallie Guidry, CEO and editor of Amaranth Publications, said his style of writing is “descriptive but minimal. It has this push and pull of existential dread punctuated by brutality and harsh realities,” comparing him to Cormac McCarthy and Kafka while Hannah Rebekah Graves, acquisition editor of Graveside Press compared his style to Jason Arnopp and Dan Franklin. Judges of the NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Competition called him “quite gifted at succinct writing.”
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