Josh Malerman is an American novelist, songwriter, movie director, film producer, cartoonist and rhythm guitarist for the rock band The High Strung. He is best known for writing horror and his post-apocalyptic novel, Bird Box (2014), which was the inspiration of the Netflix film Bird Box. In 2020, he founded the production company Spin a Black Yarn with manager Ryan Lewis.
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Career
Before his debut novel, Bird Box, was published by Ecco/HarperCollins, Malerman had written fourteen manuscripts, never having shopped one of them. Bird Box was published in the United Kingdom and United States in 2014 to much critical acclaim.
When a friend from high school, Dave Simmer, who had worked with authors and properties in Hollywood, asked Malerman's permission to send one of his books to some people he knew in the publishing industry, Malerman sent Goblin, a collection of novellas that take place in the titular city of Goblin. Malerman subsequently spoke with an agent and editors. He says this of the part Simmer played in his career: "There were two things at play at that point in time; one, Dave was a ghostly benefactor, golden-hearted and smart, descending from the sky to help me. And two, what may sound like luck couldn't have become good fortune if I wasn't armed with a dozen novels to talk shop with."
A limited edition of Goblin was published on Halloween in 2017, by Earthling Publications.
The song "The Luck You Got" from The High Strung album Moxie Bravo is featured as the theme song to the US version of the show Shameless.