Interviews

Zac Smith: "Maybe I Think It Just Feels Fun"

February 1st, 2022

I was neck-deep in a murky depression when Tao Lin sent me a copy of Zac Smith’s new book, Everything Is Totally Fine, last December – I was burnt out, on autopilot, my pleasure-receptors frayed even for reading. But the way it’s formatted, I was able to take resentful little nibbles out of the weird white book, and I eventually found myself cackling out loud alone in my sad house where I had been taking myself way too seriously.

Read Interview →

David S. Wills on Hunter S. Thompson and the Rise and Fall of Gonzo Journalism

December 21st, 2021

Photo courtesy of the author High White Notes: The Rise and Fall of Gonzo Journalism is the new Hunter S. Thompson biography by David S. Wills, longtime editor of Beatdom literary journal. While another biography of a well-tread icon might seem superfluous, High White Notes is perhaps the most essentially human account of HST, one that dares to actually dissect his writing rather than his outlaw lifestyle.

Read Interview →

An Interesting and Unique History: A Conversation with Debut Author Robert Tomaino

November 22nd, 2021

Photo courtesy of the author One of the great things this year (a year not great for so many) has been the opportunity to work (and intersect with) a number of interesting authors writing about interesting things—monsters, caregiving, the environment and trauma to name just a few of those things—many of whom I’ve been able to interview on this very site.

Read Interview →

The Science of Meg Hafdahl and Kelly Florence

November 10th, 2021

Last year I read The Science of Women in Horror and reviewed it for Tor Nightfire. I was incredibly impressed by the amount of research that went into writing that book. This year, The Science of Serial Killers showed up, and as soon as I looked at the Table of Contents I knew I would have to reach out to Meg Hafdahl and Kelly Florence to learn more about the way they go about writing this series. The following is my interview.

Read Interview →

Tex Gresham: "This Is My Submission To The Post-Modern Library"

November 9th, 2021

Author photo courtesy of Tex Gresham Tex Gresham's new 800+ page epic, Sunflower (Space Boy Books), is an audacious and mold-breaking work. A braided and frayed dive into conspiracy and alternate realities as covertly dictated by the Hollywood dream machine, Sunflower grows where fiction eclipses into the familiarity of false memory syndrome. I knew nothing about it when it came in the mail, only that it instantly demanded my attention, then, my multi-disciplinary participation.

Read Interview →

An Interview with Hardcore-fiction Author Tia Ja'nae

October 26th, 2021

Author photo courtesy of Tia Ja'nae Ghosts On The Block Never Sleep is the debut novel by hardcore Chicago author Tia Ja'nae (out in October on Uncle B. Publications). A singular tale of a female car-jacker who, because of her high-demand, acts as conduit to some of the most dangerous criminal elements in the city. It's a fast-talking, relentless yet introspective meditation on life/death, survival/deceit, and how far a woman's constitution for death can stretch before the reader begins to question her own sanity.

Read Interview →

A Roundtable Discussion on Generative (or AI-assisted) Writing

October 7th, 2021

Generative portrait of Autocastratix/ZoeOzone/Rachel Lilim by Rachel Lilim It's safe to say that the future, which is now the present, turned out to be a total bummer. The good news is that literature will continue seeping into new uncharted voids, whether or not we're on board to evolve along with it. Yet, no one can deny: Communication is getting strange, man.

Read Interview →

Curating Horror: An Interview with Ellen Datlow

September 21st, 2021

Ellen Datlow's name is synonymous with horror. For more than four decades she has been curating horror for best selling and award winning anthologies. As a lover of short fiction myself, I have read dozens of horror anthologies edited by Ellen. She's the best in the business and knows everything about putting together a solid array of stories from the genre's most talented authors. 

Read Interview →

Rob Fromberg On His Memoir "How To Walk With Steve"

September 8th, 2021

Photo via Rob Fromberg By their very nature, memoirs can have the tendency to be self-indulgent, oversharing, name-dropping, sensationalistic and, yes, irresistible invitations into an exceptional person's charmed or cursed life. Yet, if a memoir falls into this kind of no-stone-unturned tell-all, something about the read remains surface-level, superficial, and predictable.

Read Interview →

Farah Rose Smith: Of One Pure Will

September 1st, 2021

Header image by Lucy La Riot Farah Rose Smith is the author of multiple works, including Anonyma and Eviscerator. Her latest is a rerelease of a once limited edition collection, One Pure Will, out from Trepidatio Publishing on September 10th.

Read Interview →