Al Sarrantonio (May 25, 1952 – January 27, 2025) was an American horror and science fiction writer, editor, and publisher who authored more than 50 books and 90 short stories. He also edited numerous anthologies.
Sarrantonio was born in New York City on May 25, 1952, and grew up on Long Island. He was of Italian and Scots-Irish descent. He began his career at the age of 16 with a nonfiction appearance in one of editor Ray Palmer's publications. He continued to write throughout university, and in 1974, after graduation from Manhattan College with a B.A. in English, he attended the Clarion Science Fiction Writers Workshop at Michigan State University.
Sarrantonio died on January 27, 2025, at the age of 72.
In 1976 Sarrantonio began an editing career at a major New York publishing house. His first short fiction, "Ahead of the Joneses," appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine in 1979, followed by a story in Heavy Metal magazine the following year. In 1980 he published 14 short stories. In 1982, after leaving publishing to become a full-time writer, he began his first novel, The Worms, followed by Campbell Wood, Totentanz and The Boy with Penny Eyes. He established himself in the horror field with such much-anthologized stories as "Pumpkin Head", "The Man With Legs", "Father Dear," "Wish", and "Richard's Head," (all of which appear in his first short story collection, Toybox). "Richard's Head" brought him his first Bram Stoker Award nomination.
Sarrantonio was writing a horror saga revolving around Halloween, which takes place in the fictional upstate New York town of Orangefield (novels: Halloweenland, Hallows Eve and Horrorween, the last of which incorporates three shorter Orangefield pieces: the short novel Orangefield, and novelettes
Hornets and The Pumpkin Boy). Other horror novels include Moonbane, October, House Haunted and Skeletons. He has also written Westerns (West Texas and Kitt Peak), mysteries (Cold Night and Summer Cool) and science fiction (the Edgar Rice Burroughs-influenced trilogy Haydn of Mars, Sebastian of Mars and Queen of Mars, omnibused as Masters of Mars by the Science Fiction Book Club, 2006).
Sarrantonio was book reviewer for Night Cry magazine, the short-lived digest-sized offshoot of the Twilight Zone Magazine, and had been a critic and columnist for other publications.
Underground (Crossroad Press, 2013, e-book)
Sisters in Mystery (Crossroad Press, 2012, e-book)
Summer Cool (Walker, 1993; Crossroad Press, 2011, e-book)
Kitt Peak (Evans, 1993; Leisure, 2006; Crossroad Press, 2011, e-book)
Skeletons (novel) Skeletons (Bantam, 1992; Crossroad Press, 2011, e-book)
House Haunted (Bantam, 1991; Crossroad Press, 2011, e-book)
West Texas (Evans, 1990; Leisure, 2006; Crossroad Press, 2011, e-book)
October (Bantam, 1990; Crossroad Press, 2011, e-book)
Moonbane (Bantam, 1989, paperback; Cemetery Dance, 2009; Crossroad Press, 2011, e-book)
Cold Night (TOR, 1989; Crossroad Press, 2011, e-book)
The Boy with Penny Eyes (TOR, 1987; Crossroad Press, 2011, e-book)