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Galleries / Around Town

Homegrown Horror

Photography Albert Mitchell; Grady Hendrix & Shirley HendrixPhotos 20Issue January 2023
Homegrown HorrorHomegrown HorrorSlayed: “When I was a kid I didn’t take my mom seriously,” Hendrix writes in the author’s note to The Southern Book Club Guide to Slaying Vampires (Quirk, 2020). To a young Hendrix forced to endure long evenings when his mom hosted book club, “they [the book club women] seemed like a bunch of lightweights.” He sets the record straight in the novel inspired by the Literary Guild of Greater Charleston (pictured above in the 1990s), which has been meeting for 43 years.Ominous Oeuvre: Though the titles and cover art of Hendrix’s books evoke classic horror genre tropes (with the exception of Horrorstör, which evokes classic Ikea catalogs), his prose and plots are brilliantly original, appealing to readers who’d never otherwise read horror.Dynamic Duo: Hendrix is hardly the only creative, accomplished one in the family. His wife, Amanda Cohen (left with Hendrix at their rehearsal dinner, which in a plot twist for guests was revealed to be their 10th wedding anniversary) is the chef-owner of the Michelin-star-awarded New York restaurant, Dirt Candy. With Ryan Dunlavey, they co-authored a graphic novel cookbook based on it.A fierce bruiser on the Porter-Gaud football team, Hendrix got his first taste of fame thanks to an inadvertent interception.Kindergarten thespian Hendrix in The Future Giant Killers of America at Mount Pleasant PresbyterianHanging with his cousins in Mount Pleasant’s Old VillageReady for cotillion class.(Above) Hendrix (second from left) in Chopstick Theater’s An Abbreviated Midsummer Night’s Dream at Middleton Place.As a Boy Scout; “I’m not sure he earned many badges, but his troop leader said as an entertainer, Sunshine was invaluable,” says his mom.Starring in a film he made one winter on Sullivan’s Island.As a Porter-Gaud senior, Hendrix shared superlative honors with his longtime friend and fellow author Katie Crouch.Holding his own as the lone son in the Hendrix family (from left: Grady, his mom Shirley, and sisters Julia, Kat, and AnnFan Fave: Hendrix’s author events—more of a show than a traditional book signing—attract legions of fans......who in turn offer their own creations, including portraits...Homegrown Horror...a tiny box of vampire slaying gear...and even a song by metal band Dark Ride devoted to his work.Homegrown Horror

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Charleston native Grady Hendrix and best-selling horror author wants to terrify you, and you’ll never be more happily horrified
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