Latinx Heritage in Horror: Interview with Carlos E. Rivera

Carlos E. Rivera is a Costa Rican queer writer and former English teacher. His debut novel The Local Truth: White Harbor Book 1, peaked at #4 in Amazon's new releases in horror by LGBTQ+ authors. As an anxious, introverted kid growing up in Costa Rica during the 80s and 90s, he always felt like something of an outsider. His refuge was escaping into and devouring sci-fi, fantasy, drama, crime thrillers, and above all things, HORROR. For years, these books, movies, comics, and even video games became his life. He plunged into the horror-next-door of Stephen King, the ineffable cosmic abominations…

Latinx Heritage in Horror: Richard Z. Santos

Richard Z. Santos' debut novel, Trust Me, was a finalist for the Writer's League of Texas Book Awards and was named one of the best debuts of the year by CrimeReads. He's the editor of the collection A Night of Screams: Latino Horror Stories. He is the Executive Director of Austin Bat Cave, an organization that provides creative writing workshops to students in under-resourced areas. He is a former Board Member of The National Book Critics Circle and has judged contests for The Kirkus Prize, The NEA, and many more. Recent work can be found in Austin Noir (Akashic Books),…

Latinx Heritage in Horror: Interview with Luis Paredes

Luis Paredes is the author of the horror / urban fantasy novella, Out On a Limb. Other work includes the mob-inspired short story, Forgive Us Our Debts in Tangled Web’s latest issue and The Ammuntadore on Tall Tale TV.  Luis lives in Westchester, New York where you can find him training for marathons or chatting up strangers about a platypus’s life cycle.  Find Luis on Instagram @luisparedeswrites or on Twitter @Luis_Writes Q. What inspired you to start writing? A. I’ve joked that my writing career started when I was seven. That’s when I plagiarized Mark Twain's The Celebrated Jumping Frog…

Latinx Heritage in Horror: Interview with Carmen Baca

Carmen Baca taught high school and college English for thirty-six years before retiring in 2014. As a Chicana, a Norteña native to New Mexico, Carmen Baca keeps her culture’s traditions alive through regionalism to prevent them from dying completely. She is the author of six books and over 70 short publications in a variety of genres from prose to poetry. Q. What inspired you to start writing? A. When our rural community’s religious brotherhood disbanded in the mid-’80s, the brothers entrusted the relics from the prayer house, including a locked wooden box, into my care. The box revealed answers to…

Latinx Heritage in Horror: Interview with Sandra Becerril

Considered one of the most important writers of the horror genre in Latin America. Member of the Mexican Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences, Mexican writer and screenwriter, nominated for the Ariel 2015 and 2020 for Best Adapted Screenplay, Doctor Honoris Causa by the Ibero-American Congress of Education in Peru, member of the HBO scriptwriting team and the Horror Writers Association. 43 of her novels have been published in the most important international publishers and translated into ten languages, as well as adapted for feature films shown in various countries. She has to her credit 45 productions of scripts of…

Latinx Heritage in Horror: Interview with Karlo Yeager Rodriguez

Karlo Yeager Rodriguez is from the enchanted isle of Puerto Rico, but moved to Balitmore, Maryland some years ago. He lives there with his partner and one very odd dog. His work has appeared in Clowns: the Unlikely Coulrophobia Remix, Galaxy's Edge #32 and Nature Magazine. Connect with Karlo via his blog, alineofink.com or through Facebook at facebook.com/unalineanegra What inspired you to start writing? Reading. Really - I was an early reader, and was drawn from an early age to old fairy tales (Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen), which in their original forms always managed to contain elements of horror.…

Latinx Heritage in Horror: Interview with Ángel Isián

Ángel Isián is the Puerto Rican author of El cuco te va a comer (The Cuco’s going to eat you, 2020), a collection of horror short stories that received an honorable mention in the International Latino Book Awards, 2021. Together with Melvin Rodríguez, he helped edit the first anthology of contemporary horror stories from Puerto Rico, No cierres los ojos (Don’t close your eyes, 2016). He has published horror stories and poetry in various anthologies and magazines. He works as an English teacher and is coeditor of Libros Eikon, a small independent publisher of Puerto Rican horror, fantasy, and sci-fi.…

Latinx Heritage in Horror: Interview with Kevin M. Casin

Kevin (he/they) is a gay, Latine fiction writer, and cardiovascular research scientist. His fiction work appears (or forthcoming) in Idle Ink, Medusa Tales Magazine, Pyre Magazine, and more. He is Editor/Publisher of Tree and Stone Magazine, an HWA/SFWA/Codex member, and First Reader for Interstellar Flight Press. For more about him, please see his website: https://kevinmcasin.wordpress.com/. Please follow his Twitter: @kevinthedruid. Latine Statement I fully and completely respect my fellow latine who identify as latinX. This is statement is about my choice to use latine and shed light on this very important and vibrant debate around the term “LatinX”. I think…

Latinx Heritage in Horror: Interview with Diana Rodriguez Wallach

Diana Rodriguez Wallach is a multi-published author of young adult novels. Her most recent, Small Town Monsters, is a YA Latinx horror novel that published in September 2021 through Random House. Her next YA Latinx Horror, Hatchet Girls, comes out Fall 2023 through Delacorte. Additionally, Diana is the author of the Anastasia Phoenix Series (Entangled Publishing). The first book in the series, Proof of Lies, has been optioned for film and was chosen as a finalist for the 2018 International Thriller Awards for Best Young Adult Novel. Additionally, Bustle listed Diana as one of the “Top Nine Latinx Authors to…

Latinx Heritage in Horror: Interview with André Schuck

ADVERTISING More than 20 years in the advertising market, Andre has edited over 8,000 TV ads for major brands in Brazil, such as Nike, Unilever, Peugeot, Ford, and  Via Varejo.. He also edited TV shows for Discovery Channel, GNT, and Bandeirantes Channel. Nowadays he also works as a Post Production Director attending accounts which are the biggest ones in South America. FEATURE FILMS In 2012, Andre was invited to be the Associate Producer and Editor of the North American documentary “Making Light in Terezin”, shot in Prague, New York, and Los Angeles. In 2016, he edited the feature film “Attachments”,…

Latinx Heritage in Horror: Interview with K. Garcia Ley

K. Garcia Ley was born in the Dominican Republic, and moved from NYC, to northern New Jersey, to the Derwood, MD, graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice and specialized in why good people do bad things, a topic she frequently questions in my stories. She participated in VONA in 2020 with Tananarive Due, and A World of Black Writers/Hurston workshop with Dolen Perkins-Valdez. Her dark science fantasy, Long Live Anacaona Guey, was nominated for Pushcart Prize, and another piece placed second in the Voyage YA First Chapters contest. Currently, she has five…

Latinx Heritage in Horror: Interview with Greg McWhorter

Dr. Greg McWhorter is a Latinx (half-Colombian) writer who resides in Southern California. Since the 1980s, he has written for newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and film. McWhorter has been a guest speaker at several universities, TV shows, film documentaries, and the San Diego Comic-Con. Both his nonfiction and fiction have appeared in many newspapers, magazines, journals, and anthologies. He currently has two published books of his horror fiction available. He is an active member of the Horror Writers Association. He enjoys traveling and sharing his love of writing with writers around the world. What inspired you to start writing? My…

Latinx Heritage in Horror: Interview with Susan X. Bradley

Susan spent her childhood in South Texas, about ten miles from the U.S.-Mexican border. As a child, she spent the summers in Mexico with her grandparents and extended family. Inspired by Nancy Drew, Susan frequently created mysteries that her siblings and cousins could solve during these vacations. She began writing young adult mystery novels featuring strong Latina characters and is committed to creating and celebrating diverse characters. Her books, Unraveled and Uncovered, were published by Evernight Teen while she was completing her Master in Fine Arts: Writing for Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. Her class curriculum exposed her to…

Latinx Heritage in Horror: Interview with Juan Manuel Pérez

Juan Manuel Pérez, a Mexican-American poet of Indigenous descent and the Poet Laureate for Corpus Christi, Texas (2019-2020), is the author of numerous poetry books including Another Menudo Sunday (2007), O' Dark Heaven: A Response to Suzette Haden Elgin's Definition of Horror (2009), WUI: Written Under the Influence of Trinidad Sanchez, Jr. (2011), Live From La Pryor: The Poetry of Juan Manuel Perez: A Zavala Country Native Son, Volume I (2014), Sex, Lies, and Chupacabras (2015), Space In Pieces (2020), Screw The Wall! And Other Brown People Poems (2020), Planet Of The Zombie Zonnets: Seasons One And Two (2021), Casual…

Latinx Heritage in Horror: Interview with Robert Perez

Robert Perez sleeps at the bottom of the ocean. Urban legend whispers that the writer can be summoned into your dreams if you read his work to a jack-o-lantern. You can find his poems and stories in the Horror Writers Association Poetry Showcase Volumes II, III, IV (Special Mention), and V, The Literary Hatchet #13 & #14, Deadlights Magazine #1, Five Minutes at Hotel Stormcove, and Community of Magic Pens. He is currently working on obtaining a master’s degree in counseling psychology at the University of Colorado Denver. Follow @_TheLeader on twitter to keep up with future projects. What inspired…

Latinx Heritage in Horror: Interview with Michael J Moore

My name is Michael J Moore. I'm the author of Highway Twenty, which made the 2019 Bram Stoker preliminary ballot for Superior Achievement in a Novel, as well a other books and short stories. I'm an active member of the HWA, and a journalist who writes with an emphasis on social and racial justice. I'm Mexican on my mother's side, and though white-passable, I strongly identify with my Latinx heritage. Please feel free to Google "Michael J Moore author" to learn more about me. What inspired you to start writing? Life. Love. Hate. Joy. Instability. I’ve always been somebody who…

Latinx Heritage in Horror: Interview with Amparo Ortiz

Amparo Ortiz is the author of the BLAZEWRATH GAMES duology. She was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and currently lives on the island’s northeastern coast. She’s published short story comics in MARVEL’S VOICES: COMUNIDADES #1 and in the Eisner-award winning PUERTO RICO STRONG. She’s also co-editor of OUR SHADOWS HAVE CLAWS, a horror anthology featuring myths and monsters from Latin America. When she's not writing, she teaches ESL as a college professor and watches a lot of Kpop videos. Learn more about her projects at www.amparoortiz.com What inspired you to start writing? Horror and fantasy movies! I watched so…

Latinx Heritage in Horror: Interview with Rosemary Thorne

Rosemary Thorne (she/her) is a bilingual Spanish writer, researcher, and translator living in Madrid, Spain. She was born in 1968, year of shocking revolutions, beautiful women and great wine. Due to the fact that in the 90s Spanish publishing companies would not consider Horror, her first stories in her mother tongue are abominable entities that want to terrify but can’t. Her first novel, El Pacto de las 12 uvas, took her twenty years to finish, and she finally published it in December 2021. In 2019 she became an HWA member and began to write horror in English,  setting free her…

Latinx Heritage in Horror: Interview with María Pilar Conn

My name is María Pilar Conn and I am an established writer of gothic mystery and poetry in the Spanish language. I live in Spain, in the region of Murcia in a small fishing town, Cabo de Palos. My mother was born here, in Sevilla, and I grew up between both countries, though I am still a US citizen. I have two published mystery novels, La Casa del Marqués, and my new novel, La Canción del Baladre, two poetry books, La Almendra y el Maíz and Paseando con Schopenhauer, plus a book on cake sculpture. I am translating at this…

Latinx in Horror: Interview with Nathan Castellanos

I was born and raised in Highland Park, CA. My mother came to California in the 80s after my Abuelo had worked the fields here in LA county, saving money to bring his family from Guadalajara. She married my father, who came from an Anglo/Jewish background. Cultural differences instigated their divorce when I was fairly young, which led to me developing a very independent (and sometimes rebellious) nature early on. This sparked my interest in things such as punk rock music, existentialist philosophy, Buddhism, comic books, sci and horror novels, and alternative subcultures of various sorts. Essentially, having a mother…