W. H. Pugmire (1951–2019)

Wilum Hopfrog Pugmire (born May 3, 1951) was a writer of horror fiction based in Seattle, Washington. His works typically are published as W. H. Pugmire. His adopted middle name derives from the story of the same title by Edgar Allan Poe.

Strongly influenced by the works of H. P. Lovecraft, many of Pugmire's stories directly reference "Lovecraftian" elements (such as Yog-Sothoth of the Cthulhu Mythos). Pugmire's major original contribution to the Cthulhu Mythos is the Sesqua Valley, a fictional location in the Pacific Northwest of the United States that serves as the primary locale for much of his fiction. According to his official biography, his "goal as an author is to dwell forevermore within Lovecraft's titan shadow."

Pugmire is a self-proclaimed eccentric recluse, "the Queen of Eldritch Horror, " as well as a self-identified "punk rock queen and street transvestite".

Pugmire began to write fiction while serving as a Mormon missionary in Omagh, Northern Ireland, under the inspiration of his friend and correspondent, Robert Bloch. When, upon returning to the States, he discovered Arkham House and the fiction and Selected Letters of H. P. Lovecraft, he became an obsessed Lovecraftian determined to join the ranks of modern Mythos writers, and to that end he has devoted himself as an author. After a brief stint as a male whore, he discovered punk rock, which saved his soul and gave him a new fictive voice.

His stories have appeared in major horror anthologies, and collections of his fiction and poetry have appeared under small press imprints such as Necropolitan Press, Mythos Books, Delirium Books, and Hippocampus Press. In October 2010 a major retrospective of his work was published by Centipede Press.