The rise of zombie literature in the twenty-first century had its origins in a pair of anthologies entitled Book of the Dead (1989) and Still Dead: Book of the Dead 2 (1992) edited by splatterpunk pioneers John Skipp and Craig Spector. Securing permission from George Romero to invite horror writers to craft stories set in the world of Romero’s “Dead” (then) trilogy, the editors and contributors demonstrated a wide variety of narratives, styles, and zombies beyond what had been seen to that point. The volumes included stories from such horror luminaries as Stephen King, Joe R. Lansdale, David J. Schow, Ramsey Campbell, Kathe Koja, Robert McCammon, Gahan Wilson, Dan Simmons, and Elizabeth Massie. Subsequent anthologies inspired by the Books of the Dead as well as other collections edited by Skipp further expanded zombie culture and zombie literature, paving the way for the twenty-first-century zombie renaissance and the zombie fiction of writers such as Brian Keene, Colson Whitehead, Joe McKinney, and others.