Women in Horror: Interview with Victoria Nations

Victoria Nations writes Gothic and weird horror, often about creatures with emotional baggage. Her fiction has appeared in IN SOMNIO: A Collection of Modern Gothic Horror, Blood & Bone: An Anthology of Body Horror by Women & Non-Binary Writers, and Dangerous Waters: Deadly Women of the Sea, among other publications. Her poetry has appeared in Magpie Messenger Literary Magazine, HWA Poetry Showcase, Volume IX, and the Bram Stoker Award-nominated anthology, MOTHER: Tales of Love and Terror. Victoria lives in Florida, U.S.A. with her wife and son, who indulge her love of monsters. Find her online at www.VictoriaNations.com and on Twitter…

Women in Horror: Interview with Meg Hafdahl

Bram Stoker Award nominated Meg Hafdahl is the creator of numerous stories and books. Her fiction has appeared in anthologies such as Eve’s Requiem: Tales of Women, Mystery and Horror and Eclectically Criminal. The Wicked Library and The Lift produced her work into audio, and she is the author of three popular short story collections, including Twisted Reveries: Thirteen Tales of the Macabre. Meg is also the author of the three novels; The Darkest Hunger, Daughters of Darkness, and Her Dark Inheritance called “an intricate tale of betrayal, murder, and small town intrigue” by Horror Addicts and “every bit as…

Women in Horror: Interview with Christa Carmen

Christa Carmen lives in Rhode Island, and is the author of the short story collection, Something Borrowed, Something Blood-Soaked. Her debut novel, The Daughters of Block Island, is forthcoming from Thomas & Mercer in Fall 2023, and her second novel with the mystery, thriller, and true crime imprint will be out in Fall 2024. Christa studied English and psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and has an MA from Boston College and an MFA from the University of Southern Maine. When she’s not writing, she keeps chickens, uses a Ouija board to ghost-hug her dear departed beagle, and sets out…

Women in Horror: Interview with Jill Girardi

Jill Girardi is the internationally best-selling, award-nominated author of Hantu Macabre, a novel which was optioned for a film starring MMA Fighter Ann Osman and directed by Aaron Cowan (a senior member of the Visual Effects team that won four Oscars for Avatar and Lord of the Rings.) Jill is also the founder of Kandisha Press, a company dedicated to women horror authors from around the world. She loves writing darkly humorous stories and still believes in twist endings. Find her on Instagram or Twitter @jill_girardi. What inspired you to start writing? I've dreamed of being a writer since I…

Women in Horror: Interview with Rebecca Rowland

Rebecca Rowland is the dark fiction author of two fiction collections, one novel, a handful of novellas, and too many short stories. She is the curator of seven horror anthologies, including the best-seller Unburied: A Collection of Queer Dark Fiction and 2023’s American Cannibal. Her speculative fiction, critical essays, and book reviews regularly appear in a variety of online and print venues, and her most recent releases include the satirical horror novelette Shagging the Boss. The former acquisitions and anthology editor at AM Ink Publishing, Rebecca manages the small, independent publishing house Maenad Press and is an Active member of…

Women in Horror: Interview with Kelsea Yu

Kelsea Yu is a Taiwanese Chinese American writer and mother living in the Pacific Northwest. She’s eternally enthusiastic about sharks and appreciates a good ghost story. Kelsea’s novella, Bound Feet, is published by Cemetery Gates Media, and her upcoming novella, The Bones Beneath Paris, will be published by Dark Matter Ink. Her debut novel, It’s Only a Game, will be released by Bloomsbury Children’s in 2024. Kelsea’s short stories are forthcoming or published in magazines such as Fantasy, PseudoPod, and Reckoning, and in various anthologies. Find Kelsea on Instagram or Twitter as @anovelescape or visit her website, kelseayu.com. What inspired…

Women in Horror: Interview with K.P. Kulski

K.P. KULSKI is a Hawaii-born Korean-American author, historian, and career vampire of patriarchal tears. Channeling a lifelong obsession with history and the morose she’s birthed the gothic horror novel, Fairest Flesh, and novella, House of Pungsu. She bartered nine years of her life to the U.S. Navy and Air Force for food and later taught college history for the captive audience. Trapped by a force field, she currently lives in the woods of Northeast Ohio where she (probably) brews potions and talks to ghosts. Follow her on Twitter @garnetonwinter or garnetonwinter.com. What inspired you to start writing? Growing up wasn’t…

Women in Horror: Interview with Jo Kaplan

Jo Kaplan is the author of It Will Just Be Us and When the Night Bells Ring. Her short stories have appeared in Fireside Quarterly, Black Static, Nightmare Magazine, Vastarien, Haunted Nights edited by Ellen Datlow and Lisa Morton, Miscreations edited by Doug Murano and Michael Bailey, and elsewhere (sometimes as Joanna Parypinski). Currently, she is the co-chair of the HWA LA chapter and teaches English and creative writing at Glendale Community College. Find more at Jo-Kaplan.com. What inspired you to start writing? When I was a child of the ‘90s, I was obsessed with the Goosebumps books—and before I…

Women in Horror: Interview with Ai Jiang

Ai Jiang is a Chinese-Canadian writer and an immigrant from Fujian. She is a member of HWA, SFWA, and Codex. Her work can be found in Fantasy & Science Fiction, The Dark, Uncanny, among others. She is the recipient of Odyssey Workshop's 2022 Fresh Voices Scholarship and the author of Linghun. Find her on Twitter (@AiJiang_) and online (http://aijiang.ca). What inspired you to start writing? Instead of speaking about what inspired me to start writing, I want to talk a little about what inspires me now to continue writing and the direction that my writing has now taken. I’ve been…

Women in Horror: Interview with Lindy Ryan

Lindy Ryan is an award-winning author-editor of Into the Forest, Under Her Skin, and others. She is the founder of Black Spot Books, a small press that aims to amplify women’s voices in horror, and a contributor to Rue Morgue, Booktrib, and LitReactor. Lindy is an active member of HWA, ITW, the Brothers Grimm Society of North America, and one of Publishers Weekly’s 2020 Star Watch Honorees. She previously served on the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) Board of Directors and is currently co-chair of the HWA Publishers Council. Her debut horror novel, Bless Your Heart, is forthcoming from Minotaur…

Women in Horror: Interview with Stephanie M. Wytovich

Stephanie M. Wytovich is an award-winning poet, novelist, and essayist. She is the Poetry Editor for Raw Dog Screaming Press, and a recipient of the Elizabeth Matchett Stover Memorial Award, the 2021 Ladies of Horror Fiction Writers Grant, and the Rocky Wood Memorial Scholarship for nonfiction writing. Follow her at http://stephaniewytovich.blogspot.com/ and on Twitter and Instagram @SWytovich​ and @thehauntedbookshelf. You can also find her essays, nonfiction, and class offerings on LitReactor. What inspired you to start writing? I could answer this question a million different ways—and I have—but I think the simplest way to explain it is that I just…

Women in Horror: Interview with Premee Mohamed

Premee Mohamed is a Nebula, World Fantasy, and Aurora award-winning Indo-Caribbean scientist and speculative fiction author based in Edmonton, Alberta. She is an Assistant Editor of the short fiction audio podcast Escape Pod and the author of the Beneath the Rising series of novels as well as several novellas. Her short fiction has appeared in many venues and she can be found on Twitter at @premeesaurus and on her website at www.premeemohamed.com. What inspired you to start writing? I’ve always loved telling stories—I think that’s a very clichéd thing to say but it’s often true of writers. We like seeing…

Beating a Dead Cliché: Women in Horror Month Series Intro by Meghan Arcuri

Meghan Arcuri is a Bram Stoker Award®-nominated author. Her work can be found in various anthologies, including Borderlands 7 (Borderlands Press), Madhouse (Dark Regions Press), Chiral Mad, and Chiral Mad 3 (Written Backwards). She is currently the Vice President of the Horror Writers Association. Prior to writing, she taught high school math, having earned her B.A. from Colgate University—with a double major in mathematics and English—and her masters from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She lives with her family in New York’s Hudson Valley. Please visit her at meghanarcuri.com, facebook.com/meg.arcuri, or on Twitter (@MeghanArcuri). Welcome to the HWA’s Women in Horror Month…

Carina Bissett reads from POETRY SHOWCASE IX

Carina Bissett joins us today with a reading of their poem, "A Lacing of Lavender" from Poetry Showcase IX. If you haven't purchased your copy yet of the newest Poetry Showcase, it's just one click away. Better yet, collect the whole series! Reviews and shares are always welcome. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmw0QL5oNIk Carina Bissett is a writer and poet working primarily in the fields of dark fiction and fabulism. Her short fiction and poetry have been published in multiple journals and anthologies including What Remains, Upon a Twice Time, Bitter Distillations: An Anthology of Poisonous Tales, Arterial Bloom, Gorgon: Stories of Emergence, Weird…

Madison McSweeney reads from POETRY SHOWCASE IX

Madison McSweeney joins us today with a reading of their poem, "Cannibal Mutant Maneating Spider" from Poetry Showcase IX. If you haven't purchased your copy yet of the newest Poetry Showcase, it's just one click away. Better yet, collect the whole series! Reviews and shares are always welcome. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IGkcyHYjXQ Madison McSweeney is the author of The Doom That Came to Mellonville (Filthy Loot), The Forest Dreams With Teeth (Demain Publishing), and the poetry collection Fringewood (Alien Buddha Press). Her short fiction has appeared in American Gothic Short Stories and Zombie Punks F*ck Off. She lives in Ottawa, Ontario, blogs at…

Corinne Hughes reads from POETRY SHOWCASE IX

Corinne Hughes joins us today with a reading of their poem, "Meadows" from Poetry Showcase IX. If you haven't purchased your copy yet of the newest Poetry Showcase, it's just one click away. Better yet, collect the whole series! Reviews and shares are always welcome. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIXBEUR6b_8 Corinne Hughes is a queer poet and fiction writer. Her work has been supported by Tin House and the National Book Foundation. Her poetry can be found in Passengers Journal, Cathexis Northwest Press, Cirque Journal, Grim and Gilded, and is forthcoming in the next SMEOP anthology by Black Sunflowers Poetry Press. She currently serves…

Rook Riley reads from POETRY SHOWCASE IX

Rook Riley joins us today with a reading of their poem, "Strange Geometry" from Poetry Showcase IX. If you haven't purchased your copy yet of the newest Poetry Showcase, it's just one click away. Better yet, collect the whole series! Reviews and shares are always welcome. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OWxGKNuEUw Rook Riley is a horror author, game enthusiast, and all-around linguistic badass trained in Krav Maga and spoon warfare.  Hobbies include binge-watching Netflix and collecting tattoos.

Colleen Anderson reads from POETRY SHOWCASE IX

Colleen Anderson joins us today with a reading of their poem, "Our Lady of Holy Death" from Poetry Showcase IX. If you haven't purchased your copy yet of the newest Poetry Showcase, it's just one click away. Better yet, collect the whole series! Reviews and shares are always welcome. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYEZ_3YE0kI Colleen Anderson is a multiple award nominee, with poetry widely published in many venues, including Andromeda Spaceways, Lucent Dreaming, Shadow Atlas and Heroic Fantasy Quarterly. Colleen lives in Vancouver, BC and is a Canada Council and BC Arts Council grant recipient for writing and has performed her work before audiences…
Black Heritage in Horror: Interview with Nicole Givens Kurtz

Black Heritage in Horror: Interview with Nicole Givens Kurtz

Nicole Givens Kurtz, Publisher. Educator. Author. Mom. Nicole loves reading, writing, and anime. She enjoys reading works that promote women of color and futuristic settings. She also loves a good mystery. She started Mocha Memoirs Press to provide more diversity in speculative fiction. She’s also a scribbler of tales. She's the recipient of the Ladies of Horror Grant (2021), the Horror Writers Association's Diversity Grant (2020) and the Atomacon Palmetto Scribe Award-Best Short Story 2021. She's been named as one of Book Riot's 6 Best Black Indie SFF Writers and editor of Slay: Stories of the Vampire Noire. What inspired…