Stephen King will follow in the footsteps of Truman Capote and Norman Mailer, with his new novella to be published in Esquire magazine.

The venerable men's lifestyle title will publish King's new thriller The Gingerbread Girl in its entirety in the July issue, which hits newsstands Tuesday, the U.S. magazine said in a statement Monday.

Best-selling author Stephen King smiles after receiving a lifetime achievement award from the Canadian Booksellers Association in Toronto on Friday.
(Aaron Harris/Canadian Press)

The 21,000-word tale — which will cover 23 pages of the new issue — tells the story of a woman who flees to the Florida coast to mourn the death of her infant child but becomes embroiled with an ominous neighbour.

"Over the last year, we've been trying to breathe life back into magazine fiction," said Esquire editor-in-chief David Granger.

"The best way to do that is to publish nothing other than event fiction-stories that have something in addition to their literary merit to call attention to themselves."

Over the years, Esquire has included original fiction in its pages, including Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's and Mailer's An American Dream, as well as stories by Raymond Carver, Ernest Hemingway, Philip Roth and Vladimir Nabokov.

On Friday, the 59-year-old King received a lifetime achievement award from the Canadian Booksellers Association and made what was billed as his first official public appearance in Canada.

The bestselling author and columnist told a packed audience that he wanted readers to be "actively engaged" by his writing, which he equated to a heavy-metal record.

"I don't care if you laugh, scream, cry, throw up, whatever — but I like to get a reaction."

Canadian literary icon Margaret Atwood and British horror writer Clive Barker were among those who paid tribute to King on stage.

With files from the Associated Press