About
Hazel Dehn-Shimniok is a writer based in Southern Wisconsin. She lives with a lovely gelding, two ornery corgis, a slightly less ornery cat and a very patient husband. She is inspired by the writings of Shirley Jackson, Daphne du Maurier and T. Kingfisher (to name a few!)
Her short story, I Know You, was selected as the winning composition in the Buckham Gallery's 2025 anthology, Rain & Rot, juried by Leslie J. Anderson, author of The Unmothers, one of the New York Times Best Horror novels of the year for 2024. I Know You perfectly showcases Hazel's ability to blend atmospheric dread with visceral storytelling.
With her upcoming collection of horror stories, to be published by UW-Stevens Point's Cornerstone Press, Hazel sets about exploring horror through architecture—the way spaces hold violence, magic, and memory. Each story examines how a space can refuse to release its dead, asking what happens when grief, failure, and trauma literally inhabit the spaces around us, transforming houses into tombs, sanctuaries, and prisons all at once.