Bio:Christian A. Larsen

Christian A. Larsen is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. Prior to beginning his writing career, he was an English teacher and radio host at several Chicago-area and downstate radio stations.

Radio
Larsen attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1993 to 1997, graduating with a bachelor of science in broadcast journalism. While in college, he worked as a radio host and producer at community radio WEFT-FM (90.1), modern rock WHZT-FM (105.9), and active rock WZNF-FM (95.3). Upon graduating, he accepted a position as a producer and on-air contributor at personality/sports talk WMVP-AM (1000), working for Steve Cochran and Kevin Matthews. In 1998, he returned to central Illinois as midday personality at classic rock WZNX-FM (106.7). He returned to the Chicago market at active rock WIIL-FM (95.1) in 2001. Between 2006 and 2009, he hosted the seven to midnight shift.

Teaching
In 2009, he accepted a position to teach English at Grayslake North High School in Grayslake, Illinois, where he taught units on Harper Lee's gothic opus To Kill a Mockingbird and the American Romanticism of Edgar Allen Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne. During his time at Grayslake North, he also served as the advisor for the yearbook (A Knight's Tale) and co-sponsored the school's speech team. After school, he announced home football and basketball games.

Writing
Larsen's first published story was "The Last Reflection of the Marionette Man," published in the now-defunct e-zine House of Horror in April, 2010. His work has since appeared in dozens of publications, including Earthbound Fiction's Sparks: Exciting New Fantasy from Today's Brightest Stars ("What the Moon Saw"), Midnight Screaming ("Ice Reduces Swelling"), and Aphelion ("A Factor of 'X'").

His short story, "Bast," was published by The Horror Zine in its September 2011 issue, and subsequently anthologized in What Fears Become along with writers such as Bentley Little, Graham Masterton, Ramsey Campbell, Joe R. Lansdale, Elizabeth Massie, Ronald Malfi, Cheryl Kaye Tardif, Melanie Tem, Scott Nicholson, Piers Anthony, and Conrad Williams. "Bast" finished second in the 2011 Preditors & Editors Readers Poll for horror short story of the year.

The Horror Zine
The acceptance of "Bast" in The Horror Zine's 2011 anthology, What Fears Become, led to regular appearances in the webzine as a reviewer of films and fiction. He accepted a position with the magazine as media director in 2011.