Melanie Tem (née Kubachko; April 11, 1949 – February 9, 2015) was an American horror and dark fantasy author.
She attended Allegheny College as an undergraduate, and earned her master's in social work at the University of Denver in Colorado.
[3][4] Tem said that she prefers the term "dark fantasy" instead of being described as a horror author because she wants to disturb people, not scare them.
[3] Tem often used traditional horror and supernatural motifs to express psychological truth (i.e. using a werewolf to symbolize anger).
[3] The grieving process following the passing of her son inspired Melanie Tem’s short story, Lightning Rod.
[3] Tem described the writing process for Lightning Rod as therapeutic and how she felt the responsibility to protect her family from “feeling the pain”.
[6] Tem continues with a story of a road trip to Quebec, Canada where they talk about their family history that they cannot agree on.
[6] The short story "Dhost" exemplifies Tem's identification as a dark fantasy writer instead of horror.
[7] Well-known horror author, Stephen King, described her work as “spectacular, far better than anything by new writers in the hardcover field”.
[8] Edward Bryant described Prodigal as being written “surely and precisely” and compared it to Stephen King's Pet Sematary but she "digs even deeper into the disturbing, layered, complex, collective psyche of a family in deep trouble”.
[8] "Dhost"(2007) has been praised because ” small twists of this short story can trace a parallel to distant parent figures, to the loss of self in search and yearn for another.