Biography
Gemma Files was born in 1968 in London, England, the daughter of actors Elva Mai Hoover and Gary Files. Her family relocated to Toronto in 1969, where she resides today. Files graduated Ryerson Polytechnic University in 1991 with a degree in journalism; various freelance assignments eventually led to a continuing position with entertainment periodical eye Weekly (www.eye.net), where she gained local repute as an insightful commentator on the horror genre, independent films and Canadian cinema. She was listed by Cameron Bailey of NOW Magazine as one of the Top 10 Coolest People In Canadian Cinema for 1996. She has also written reviews for www.film.com and for the Canadian horror magazine Rue Morgue.
In 2000 her award-winning story "The Emperor's Old Bones" was reprinted in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror Thirteenth Annual Collection (ed. Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow). In 2010 her Shirley Jackson Award-nominated novelette "each thing i show you is a piece of my death" was reprinted in The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Two (ed. Ellen Datlow). Her short story "The Jacaranda Smile” was also a 2009 Shirley Jackson Award finalist. Her first novel, A Book Of Tongues, won the 2010 Black Quill award for "Best Small Press Chill" from Dark Scribe Magazine.
Files was married in 2002 to upcoming science-fiction and fantasy author Stephen J. Barringer (with whom she co-wrote "each thing i show you is a piece of my death"). They have one son, Callum Jacob, born in September 2004.
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