The story, written by Stephen King, was released without any warning or promotion, and it is available for readers to access in The Atlantic's June issue or online with a subscription or 30-day free trial.
Prolific author Stephen King is back with a surprise brand-new twisted horror story . Without any warning or promotion, Stephen King released his new short story," Dinah's Hat ," in The Atlantic on May 15 for the magazine's June issue.
The 6,000-word story takes place in Florida rather than King's typical Maine or New England setting, with the tale focused on the uncovering a family's dark secret. In addition to being available to read in The Atlantic's June issue, avid Stephen King readers can access"Dinah's Hat" online with a subscription or 30-day free trial to the magazine for those who qualify.
It's currently unclear whether the story will be published elsewhere, but its release has garnered speculation around a potential new short story collection for Stephen King, as the author also has two other uncollected short stories from 2025,"Hansel and Gretel" and"The Extra Hour.
" Despite the short story's quiet online release,"Dinah's Hat" has debuted to a warm reception from Stephen King book readers. On Reddit, user nibutz praised the twisted narrative as"really great. F***ed-up but really great.
" Meanwhile, user Gucci_Unicorns noted they"loved" the story while pointing out the"creepy" revelations about the titular character. Several other readers described"Dinah's Hat" as"fun," with the plot also receiving comparisons to the 2008 horror movie Let the Right One In and King's own 1987 short story"Popsy.
" "Dinah's Hat" marks Stephen King's first published story of 2026, with his highly-anticipated upcoming The Talisman trilogy-ending novel Other Worlds Than These being released on October 6. The latter is an epic dark fantasy horror that also connects to King's sprawling The Dark Tower book series, which published its last main entry in 2004. The last major novel of King's to be published before"Dinah's Hat" was Never Flinch, a crime story that was released in May 2025.
ScreenRant.com | SK The Castle Rock Call Interactive Quiz ScreenRant/ Books/ Stephen King/ Trivia Draft 1 · Bangor, Maine How Well Do You Know Stephen King?
“They all float down here. ” 🎈ITYou'll float too 🪓ShiningAll work and no play 🔨MiseryI'm your number one fan 🏰Dark TowerThe gunslinger followed ⛓ShawshankGet busy living OPEN THE BOOK → QUESTION 1 / 8THE DEBUT 01 King was a high school English teacher in Hampden, Maine, living in a trailer with no phone, when Doubleday paid him a $2,500 advance for his first hardcover novel in 1973.
He'd thrown the opening pages in the trash; his wife Tabitha fished them out and told him to keep going. What was the book? AThe Shining B'Salem's Lot CCarrie DThe Stand ✓ Correct! Carrie.
Doubleday paid a $2,500 hardcover advance in 1973, and the paperback rights sold to Signet for $400,000 — King's half let him quit teaching. He always credits Tabitha with saving the manuscript from the trash. Brian De Palma's 1976 film adaptation with Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie earned two Oscar nominations and cemented King as a screen-adaptation goldmine from day one. ✗ Wrong page.
The answer is Carrie, published April 5, 1974.
'Salem's Lot came next in 1975, The Shining in 1977, The Stand in 1978. Tabitha King rescued the Carrie opening from the trash, insisted he finish it, and the $400,000 Signet paperback deal that followed — split 50/50 with Doubleday — is what finally let him leave teaching.
NEXT → QUESTION 2 / 8PEN NAME 02 In the late 1970s, publishers believed no author could release more than one book a year without saturating the market. So King invented a pseudonym and published five novels under it — including The Long Walk, The Running Man, and Thinner — before a Washington bookstore clerk outed him in 1985. What was the pen name? AJohn Swithen BRichard Bachman CGordon Lachance DPeter Straub ✓ Correct!
Richard Bachman. King took the first name from Richard Stark and the last from Bachman-Turner Overdrive playing on the car stereo. Steve Brown, a Washington D.C. bookstore clerk, cross-checked copyright filings at the Library of Congress and phoned King. Rather than deny it, King wrote a mock obituary declaring Bachman had died of “cancer of the pseudonym.
” ✗ Wrong byline. The answer is Richard Bachman — a pseudonym King used for Rage, The Long Walk, Roadwork, The Running Man and Thinner between 1977 and 1985. Peter Straub is a real author and King's co-writer on The Talisman and Black House. John Swithen was a one-off alias for a 1972 short story.
Gordon Lachance is the narrator character in The Body . NEXT → QUESTION 3 / 8THE SHINING 03 King wrote The Shining after a one-night stay at the then-closing Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, in the fall of 1974. He and Tabitha were the only guests, and a dream about his son being chased down a corridor gave him the entire novel. The fictional haunted hotel is called...
AThe Overlook BThe Bates CThe Dolphin DThe Stanley ✓ Correct! The Overlook Hotel. The Kings checked into room 217 on the last night of the Stanley's 1974 season; Tabitha fell asleep and Stephen dreamed about his three-year-old son Joe being pursued by a fire hose. He woke up with most of the novel in his head.
The Stanley has been milking the connection ever since — and in 1997 King adapted his own novel for a TV miniseries filmed there, as a partial corrective to Kubrick's film. ✗ Wrong floor. The answer is The Overlook. The real-world Stanley Hotel in Estes Park inspired it — King stayed in room 217 on the last night of the 1974 season and had the fire-hose nightmare that became the book.
The Dolphin is a later King hotel . The Bates Motel is Psycho. The Stanley itself is the real place, not the fictional one, though it's leaned into the association ever since.
NEXT → QUESTION 4 / 8PENNYWISE 04 In IT , the shape-shifting entity the Losers' Club calls Pennywise the Dancing Clown emerges from the sewers every 27 years to feed on children. The novel — and Andy Muschietti's 2017/2019 films — are set in a fictional Maine town that also shows up in Insomnia, Dreamcatcher, and 11/22/63. Name it. ACastle Rock BJerusalem's Lot CDerry DChester's Mill ✓ Correct!
Derry. Loosely modeled on Bangor, Maine, where King lives. Derry recurs across IT, Insomnia, Dreamcatcher, 11/22/63 and parts of the Dark Tower series. Castle Rock is King's other signature Maine town .
Jerusalem's Lot is from 'Salem's Lot. Chester's Mill is the setting of Under the Dome. ✗ Wrong sewer. The answer is Derry — King's Bangor-coded fictional town, the setting of IT , Insomnia , Dreamcatcher and 11/22/63 .
Castle Rock is a different King town and Jerusalem's Lot is where the vampires show up. But Pennywise's home is always Derry.
NEXT → QUESTION 5 / 8MISERY 05 The 1990 film of Misery, adapted by William Goldman and directed by Rob Reiner, won its lead actress the Best Actress Oscar for playing obsessed “number one fan” Annie Wilkes — still the only acting Oscar ever won for a Stephen King adaptation. Who was it? AKathy Bates BSissy Spacek CJessica Lange DPiper Laurie ✓ Correct! Kathy Bates — winning Best Actress at the March 1991 Oscars for Misery.
Bates later came back for King adaptations Dolores Claiborne and The Stand . It remains the only Academy Award for acting in any screen adaptation of a Stephen King book; Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie both got nominations for Carrie, but neither won. ✗ Wrong fan. The answer is Kathy Bates, who won Best Actress at the 1991 Academy Awards for Misery.
Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie were both nominated for Carrie in 1977 but lost. Jessica Lange has been nominated and won for other films, but not for any King adaptation. Bates's hobbling scene with the sledgehammer is still routinely voted one of the most terrifying moments in horror cinema.
NEXT → QUESTION 6 / 8SHAWSHANK 06 The Shawshank Redemption — regularly voted the greatest film of all time on IMDb — is adapted from a King novella called “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. ” The same 1982 collection also contains the novellas that became Stand By Me and Apt Pupil. What is the collection called? ASkeleton Crew BDifferent Seasons CNight Shift DFour Past Midnight ✓ Correct!
Different Seasons — four novellas, three of them adapted into major films: Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption became The Shawshank Redemption , The Body became Stand By Me , and Apt Pupil became the 1998 Bryan Singer film. The fourth, The Breathing Method, is the only one never filmed. Different Seasons is the most-adapted single King book in Hollywood history. ✗ Wrong shelf.
The answer is Different Seasons . Night Shift is an earlier horror-story collection. Skeleton Crew contains The Mist and The Jaunt. Four Past Midnight has The Langoliers and Secret Window.
But three of the four novellas in Different Seasons — Shawshank, Stand By Me, Apt Pupil — all became celebrated films, making it arguably the single most cinematically influential King book. NEXT → QUESTION 7 / 8THE DARK TOWER 07 King started writing his sprawling magnum opus in 1970 as a college student and finally published the eighth and final volume in 2012.
The first line — “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed” — introduces a hero inspired by Clint Eastwood's Man with No Name. What's the gunslinger's name? AFlagg BRoland Deschain CJake Chambers DTed Brautigan ✓ Correct! Roland Deschain of Gilead, last of his line.
The Dark Tower series — eight novels plus The Wind Through the Keyhole — is King's spine work, connecting dozens of his other books into one multiverse. Randall Flagg is the series' recurring villain, Jake Chambers is the boy Roland meets, and Ted Brautigan is a Low Men minor character. ✗ Wrong ka-tet. The answer is Roland Deschain.
Randall Flagg is the recurring King villain who crosses from The Stand into the Dark Tower . Jake Chambers is the young boy Roland picks up in The Gunslinger. Ted Brautigan is a minor Breaker in Hearts in Atlantis. Roland alone is the king of Gilead's son.
NEXT → QUESTION 8 / 8THE FAMILY TREE 08 King has three children. His daughter Naomi is a Unitarian minister. His younger son Owen is a novelist. His older son is a bestselling horror writer in his own right — author of Heart-Shaped Box, Horns, NOS4A2, and The Fireman — and spent his early career using a pseudonym to hide the family connection.
What name does he publish under? AJoe Hill BPaul Tremblay CJosh Malerman DGrady Hendrix ✓ Correct! Joe Hill — a shortening of his real name, Joseph Hillström King. He used the pseudonym for a decade so his work would be judged on its own merits and not marketed as “son-of.
” His 2004 short-story collection 20th Century Ghosts and 2007 debut novel Heart-Shaped Box made his reputation before the family connection became public. He and his father have also co-written a handful of novellas including In the Tall Grass. ✗ Wrong branch. The answer is Joe Hill — pen name of Joseph Hillström King.
Paul Tremblay is a separate contemporary horror novelist. Josh Malerman wrote Bird Box. Grady Hendrix wrote Horrorstor and My Best Friend's Exorcism. Joe Hill hid the King connection for about a decade so his career would stand on its own.
REVEAL MY SCORE → Final Draft · Put Down the Pen Your Constant Reader Status ✍ / 8 Constant Reader — or still stuck in Derry? ⤴ START OVER After"Dinah's Hat" and Other Worlds Than These, many of the upcoming Stephen King projects in the works are adaptations of his stories.
On the TV front, Mike Flanagan's series adaptation of King's Carrie releases on Prime Video this October, with Andy and Barbara Muschietti currently working on IT: Welcome to Derry season 2 for HBO. Flanagan is also developing a TV adaptation of The Dark Tower novels, having recently revealed that he showed King his season 1 scripts and the author"is very happy with" them. Subscribe for in-depth Stephen King coverage and insights Curious about Stephen King's surprise releases and adaptations?
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Meanwhile, Mike Flanagan will also be adapting King's popular novella The Mist for a new movie, the author's 2015 Mister Yummy short story has a film treatment in the works, and Paramount is developing a new movie adaptation of The Stand with Doug Liman attached as the director. However, with Stephen King having surprise releases for projects like"Dinah's Hat," it's possible more works by the author will arrive sooner than expected in the near future.
Follow Followed Stephen King Birthdate September 21, 1947 Birthplace Portland, Maine, USA Notable Projects The Shawshank Redemption, The Shining, It, The Stand, Misery, The Dark Tower, Mr. Mercedes, Carrie Height 6 feet 4 inches Professions Author, Screenwriter, Producer, Director, Actor Expand Collapse
Stephen King Horror Story Twisted Narrative Dinah's Hat Florida Setting Family Secret Dark Secret Twisted Storytelling Florida Twist Creepy Revelation Fun Plot Random Release Creepy Revelation Fun Twisted Florida Twist Uncovering A Family's Dark Secret The Atlantic
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