Horror Writing: Books & Podcasts
Featured writers: Quan Barry, Jeffrey Cranor, Joseph Fink, Scott Hawkins, and Juan Martinez
The creators and writers of the fiction podcast Welcome to Night Vale, Jeffrey Cranor and Joseph Fink, come together with novelists Quan Barry (The Unveiling) and Scott Hawkins (The Library of Mount Char) to discuss horror in fiction, and how the writing changes based on the medium. Moderated by fellow horror novelist and writing instructor Juan Martinez.
Book signing times (all signings take place in the First Floor Lobby of the library)
🖊️Quan Barry: 2:00 – 2:20
🖊️Jeffrey Cranor: 2:00 – 2:20
🖊️Joseph Fink: 2:00 – 2:20
🖊️Scott Hawkins: 2:00 – 2:20
About the writers:
QUAN BARRY is the author of eight books of fiction and poetry including When I’m Gone, Look for Me in the East; We Ride Upon Sticks, winner of the 2020 ALA Alex Award; and She Weeps Each Time You’re Born. Her most recent poetry collection, Auction, was named one of the five best collections of 2023 by the New York Times. Her first play, The Mytilenean Debate, premiered in 2022. She is the Lorraine Hansberry Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. More info at https://www.quanbarry.com/
JEFFREY CRANOR is the co-creator of the fiction podcasts Welcome to Night Vale, Within the Wires, and Unlicensed.
JOSEPH FINK is the co-creator of the hit fiction podcast Welcome to Night Vale and the Audible Original Unlicensed. He is also the creator of Alice Isn’t Dead, back this year for a sequel series. He has a bunch of books, a few of which are NYT best sellers, and his live work has been performed in almost every US state, on the West End, and on the main stage of the Sydney Opera House. He lives in LA with his wife, daughter, and chihuahua/pug mix (a “chug”).
SCOTT HAWKINS is the author of The Library at Mount Char. He works as a Linux engineer focused on big data. He and his wife live in a woodsy area about an hour north of Atlanta. She keeps a nice garden. He’s in his tenth year of failing to remodel the basement. Blacktail is his second novel.
JUAN MARTINEZ is a writer and an associate professor of English at Northwestern University. He is the author of the horror novel Extended Stay (University of Arizona Press / Camino del Sol, 2023) and of the story collection Best Worst American (Small Beer Press, 2017). He is also the fiction editor for Jackleg Press. Juan lives with his family near Chicago.
Extended Stay
by Juan Martinez
Haunting and visceral, Extended Stay uses the language of body horror and the gothic to comment on the complicated relationship between the Latinx undocumented experience and capitalism.
The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home: A Welcome to Night Vale Novel
by Jeffrey Cranor and Joseph Fink
In the town of Night Vale, there’s a faceless old woman who secretly lives in everyone’s home, but no one knows how she got there or where she came from, until now. Told in a series of eerie flashbacks, the story of The Faceless Old Woman goes back centuries… Interspersed throughout is a present-day story in Night Vale, as The Faceless Old Woman guides, haunts, and sabotages a man named Craig. In the end, her current day dealings with Craig and her swashbuckling history in nineteenth century Europe will come together in the most unexpected and horrifying way.
The Library at Mount Char
by Scott Hawkins
Populated by an unforgettable cast of characters and propelled by a plot that will shock you again and again, The Library at Mount Char is at once horrifying and hilarious, mind-blowingly alien and heartbreakingly human, sweepingly visionary and nail-bitingly thrilling—and signals the arrival of a major new voice in fantasy.
The Unveiling
by Quan Barry
A genre-bending Black literary horror novel exploring abandonment, guilt, and survival in the shadow of America’s racial legacy, The Unveiling follows a group of tourists turned disaster survivors on an Antarctica cruise over Christmas Eve. With sharp social satire, Quan Barry questions the limits of human bonds, the masks we wear, and the truths we hide even from ourselves.
Welcome to Night Vale
by Jeffrey Cranor and Joseph Fink
Welcome to Night Vale is a twice-monthly podcast in the style of community updates for the small desert town of Night Vale, featuring local weather, news, announcements from the Sheriff’s Secret Police, mysterious lights in the night sky, dark hooded figures with unknowable powers, and cultural events.