Columns

On Leaving Social Media

June 14th, 2023

Original image via Cottonbro Studio A couple months ago I decided to step away from social media. I wanted to experiment with not living so online.  I failed gloriously. But the experiment wasn't a total loss.

Read Column →

We Go On: The Miracle of Perseverance

June 13th, 2023

I expect many readers will undoubtedly be frustrated after finishing my debut novel, Everything the Darkness Eats. I expect many readers will feel cheated, as though they had blindly submitted to the whims of some master manipulator. Of course, I welcome these criticisms and I am delighted whenever readers react so powerfully to my work. After all, I’ve been told time and time again that the worst public reaction to any creative piece of work is indifference.

Read Column →

ChatGPT Is A Menace

June 9th, 2023

Images via Cottonbro Studio & Pixabay I have two writing lives: by day I’m a mild-mannered content writer. By night I hug my Master’s In Creative Writing as I weep while staring at the blurry card a literary agent gave me in 2010.

Read Column →

9 Queer YA Books to Help You Celebrate Pride

June 7th, 2023

It’s the most magical time of the year: Pride! A whole month to celebrate queer and trans identities. This year there’s so much on the line — from anti-trans legislations to the proliferation of “don’t say gay" bills to the increase in book bans, it’s crucial that the LGBTQ+ community and our allies come together not just to celebrate but also to fight back!

Read Column →

Book vs. Film: "The Boogeyman"

June 5th, 2023

Stephen King adaptations are the very definition of “hit or miss.” For every Carrie, The Shawshank Redemption, and The Shining (1980), there’s a Graveyard Shift, Dreamcatcher, and The Shining (1997). Especially worrisome are those movies that take only a sliver of King’s original work and then set out on their own, as was the case with The Lawnmower Man. 

Read Column →

My Body is Ready for Craig Clevenger's "Mother Howl"

June 2nd, 2023

Cover image: craigclevenger.com Let me take you back to the mid-2000’s, and instead of giving you some cultural references to the time, I just want to say I was SO hot back then. Like, really, I peaked early. If you take nothing else away from this: Peter Derk was a catch in the mid 2000’s, and you missed out.

Read Column →

Celebrate Pride with These Speculative Graphic Novels

May 31st, 2023

I’ve been having a lot of discussions about gender and sexuality lately, and as a new mom (and a cisgendered woman), it’s something I’m hyper aware of now that I’m raising a little human, one who I forever want to be supportive of and able to intelligently talk to and interact with. As such, I’ve been reading a ton, not only for her, but because I want to be a source of comfort and allyship for my students and for those around me in my community.

Read Column →

Internet Archive Is NOT Like Your Library

May 29th, 2023

Image: Pixabay Because internet people get all hot about this and then go into a rage where they make terrible points, usually using the wrong form of “its,” let’s start this column at the end, then go back and fill in the rest.

Read Column →

Mystery Loves Company

May 24th, 2023

A few years ago, as I was on a Blue Line train on my way to the loop in Chicago, I was reading Tade Thompson’s Rosewater (Apex, 2016) and listening to Hole’s Celebrity Skin (DGC, 1998). At the exact moment that I read the phrase “all dressed in white” on page 57 of Rosewater, Courtney Love sang the same phrase in my ears on the song “Use Once & Destroy.” 

Read Column →

Meet the 2022 Bram Stoker Awards® Poetry Nominees

May 22nd, 2023

Once again the Bram Stoker Awards® have served up five incredible new collections for poetry readers and lovers of dark prose to enjoy. Here we look at each collection in turn, with quotes from the poets on what they hope readers learn from their poetry.

Read Column →