Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you contribute to the horror genre.
I write in a lot of different subgenres, but much of my work has to do with shining a light on the quiet horrors of domestic spaces, as well as exploring the uncanny peeking out from beneath everyday lives. My seventh book will be out this summer with Uncomfortably Dark, run by Candace Nola and Christina Pfeiffer. It's a collection of poetry that blends horror with fairy tales, folklore, and mythology, called A Curse Thrown from the Hanging Tree. I've been fortunate to have my work recognized with awards and nominations, as well. My first book, a poetry collection called In Memory of Exoskeletons, won the 2024 Imadjinn Award for Best Poetry Collection, Creep This Way was nominated for a Golden Scoop Award, Self-Made Monsters was a finalist for the 2025 Imadjinn Award for Best Story Collection, and Six O'Clock House & Other Strange Tales won a bronze medal in the North American Book Awards and is currently a finalist for the 2026 Imadjinn Award for Best Story Collection. Individual poems and stories have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Best of the Net Award. 

Aside from publishing my own fiction and a bit of poetry, I am the editor-in-chief of Undertaker Books, a small press formed in April 2024. My partners there are D.L. Winchester and Cyan LeBlanc, and I couldn't ask for better team members. We're proud to have published a diverse array of voices, styles, and subgenres, with an excellent lineup for the rest of 2026 and for 2027, including Nicole Givens Kurtz, L. Marie Wood, Leticia Urieta, Chloe York, Kathleen Palm, and many more. 

I'm also an adjunct professor of creative writing at a SUNY school, so I'm always doing my best to recruit young writers into the genre. I've already converted a few who have helped out at Undertaker as interns, and encouraged many many more. We just started workshopping in my Intermediate Fiction classes this semester, and some of those stories have already blown me away. One of my (many) dreams is to sign former students on as Undertaker Books authors someday. We're quite a small press, and we struggle with limited resources, but whenever we can publish a writer's first book, it's really special for us. We're so happy to be a first step for debut authors, and I hope they know we will cheer them on when we see them on bestseller lists one day.
 
What drew you to the horror genre?
I've always been a bit of a solitary kid. Even before I got to know death and grief intimately (my mom died when I was nine), I was in the local library on summer vacations looking up ghost stories in the card catalogue. I've always been drawn to gothic settings and stories--I collect vintage paperback gothics, and I'm such a screaming fangirl for Lisa Kroger and Melanie R. Anderson, who are doing fascinating feminist work (and their book, Monster, She Wrote, is one of the biggest reasons I got back into writing a handful of years ago). If a book's back cover synopsis mentions the word "haunted," I'm shoving my money at the bookseller. 

I maybe should mention that there is a huge cemetery up the road from my childhood home. It's where we'd take walks, where we learned to ride our bikes, and where our dad taught me and my siblings how to drive. Now, it's where my mother is buried. So, in a way, it's almost like death has just always BEEN there. And my childhood home is haunted, or at least was. But that is a longer story. 

If you could recommend one creation of horror that everyone should consume, whether that be a book, podcast, movie, art, etc., what would you recommend?
Definitely everyone, not just women, should read Monster, She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror and Speculative Fiction, by Lisa Kroger and Melanie R. Anderson. I am not kidding when I say it changed my life. I read about all of these women who had to hide their art from their husbands and everyone else, sneaking their writing in by candlelight, publishing under masculine pen names; women who buried so many feminist themes just below the surface of what others, at the time, may have viewed as cheap sensationalism; women who were writing for love or money--and I asked myself what the hell was stopping ME. Those long-dead women told me, or showed me, that it was time to get off my ass and do the thing I think I was born to do. Write creepy stories. 
 
What advice would you give to the next generation of women coming into the horror genre?
I would tell them, and my former self, if I could go back, to be unapologetic about what they love. To write what they want to. To NOT be swayed by fears of what is too feminine, or too quiet, or too genre-heavy, or too literary, or too domestic. To not listen to teachers who made their passion feel like shame. I'd also tell them they don't just have to be or do one thing--that they can write in any genre, any style, any form. That one story can be heartbreaking grief horror with gorgeous prose that makes readers cry, and the next can be ridiculous nursing home comedy horror that makes people laugh so hard their stomachs hurt. That they can contain multitudes, and that there's no such thing as clashes within the self: the gardener and the teacher and the canner and the baker and the horror writer can be one and the same. I have learned this from experience. It would be nice if I hadn't spent so many years fighting it. I wish the young women coming after me wouldn't waste their time and energy like I did, trying so hard to be what they aren't, or to NOT be what they are (and what is frankly freaking awesome).
 
Where can folks find you these days?
Folks can find me on Facebook (Rebecca Cuthbert), Instagram (Rebecca_Cuthbert_Writes), and Bluesky  (@rebeccacuthbert.bsky.social). But my linktree has everything: linktr.ee/rebeccacuthbertwrites. My website is rebeccacuthbert.com, and people can find out about Undertaker Books projects and shop our titles at undertakerbooks.com. I'll be at StokerCon in June, and hope to see old friends and make new ones. Come say hello!

Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you contribute to the horror genre.
My name is Rebecca, and I remember everything. Wait—sorry, that’s Alice from Resident Evil. My memory is kinda shite, actually. 

I contribute to the horror genre by writing zombie apocalypse novels, inspired in part by Resident Evil, but with layered stakes. The first in the Undead Waters series, Waves of Undead, explores what would happen if a zombie apocalypse and a tsunami struck simultaneously. It’s a fresh spin on the genre that forces my characters to fight for survival against the infected, with an extra element of the environmental threat. 

The series takes place on British Columbia’s southwestern coast, specifically Tofino, Ladner, and Tsawwassen—all places I’ve called home. After many years of contemplating what an outbreak would look like where I live, I shared that vision with the world.

What drew you to the horror genre?
As a millennial, I grew up watching Goosebumps and Are You Afraid of the Dark. My dad is a Stephen King fan, so he had this vast collection of books and also showed us some pretty whacky 80s and 90s horror films. Then my brother began playing Resident Evil games, enlisting me to watch as his emotional support—despite being the younger sibling. The zombie nightmares began shortly after, and haven’t stopped.

What I seek from horror is that rush of watching people pushed to their limits, rooting for them to survive against all odds while contemplating what I’d do in their position.

Horror is a great way to explore social commentary in a hyperbolic way, though the most horrific stories are the ones that have elements of truth to them.

If you could recommend one creation of horror that everyone should consume, whether that be a book, podcast, movie, art, etc., what would you recommend?
One of my favourite horror reads of the past few years was Bloom by Delilah S. Dawson. What starts out as a cute, cottage-core sapphic novella takes a dark turn and has an unforgettable ending. I won’t get into the premise too much, but let’s just say I’ll never view strangers at the farmers market the same way again.

What positive changes have you seen happening in the horror community and what are some areas the community can still improve?
When I published Waves of Undead, I used an initial (R.) rather than my full name (Rebecca). I’d read online that readers may not be as receptive to a woman writing zombie fiction. So far that has not been the case at all! And to be honest, I think there are just as many female zombie authors as there are male, at least in the indie sphere that I’ve been interacting with.

That decision may have partly stemmed from internalized misogyny. I’m sure I’m not alone in that—that other women have felt pressure to soften themselves in subtle ways when entering the genre. Sharing one’s writing is a vulnerable thing. As a woman in horror, I’ve learned that others will accept my creations, but I must first learn to step up to the table unapologetically.

As women we face horrors every day—we are the authority on many aspects of the genre and have stories to tell that couldn’t be told through a male lens, so learning to not minimize oneself (even if that just means reducing a name to a letter) can help us show up and say we’re here, we belong here and we aren’t going anywhere.

What do you find scary within the horror genre?
Loss of control of oneself, or a loved one turning on you. To have a switch flip within someone who loved you unconditionally and suddenly they’re your greatest threat: to me that is truly terrifying. As a zombie author, it’s an interesting, and devastating, theme to explore.

What advice would you give to the next generation of women coming into the horror genre?
Don’t hold back. Don’t write what’s expected of you. Write authentically and unapologetically. If you feel you have a story within you, carve out the time and get it out—express yourself. You’re the only one who can.

Where can folks find you these days?
I’m most active on Instagram, and can be found at the same handle on Threads & TikTok:  rcuthbertson.writes

Blog & newsletter: rcuthbertsonwrites.com

Bio:
Rebecca Cuthbertson is a nature enthusiast intrigued by stories of survival. As a child, Rebecca was afflicted with nightmares of zombie outbreaks (and still is). At twenty she moved from her hometown of Ladner, BC, to Tofino, BC, where she enjoyed life on the rugged west coast while often contemplating “what if?” scenarios. Her love of hiking, surfing, and the great outdoors inspired the setting for the Undead Waters series. Rebecca now resides in the Lower Mainland where she feels unsettled living amongst more people than trees, lest an apocalyptic “what if” scenario should occur.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you contribute to the horror genre.
I am a writer based in Nashville, Tennessee. I've been working as a speculative fiction-- mostly horror-- screenwriter for many years and have my debut horror novel, INDIGENT, releasing this March! As for the content of my work, I gravitate towards psychological horror, body horror, and surreal horror with diverse casts of characters. 

What drew you to the horror genre?
I have been interested in horror since I was a child. Like many people, my intro to the genre was through Stephen King -- both the books and his television miniseries adaptations for IT and Salem's Lot. As an artist and consumer of art, I've always been drawn to macabre, surreal, and darker themes and imagery. I love horror for the extreme empathy it facilitates between the audience and the characters experiencing the horror, as well as the cathartic factor of being able to see fears and anxieties that are often taboo to talk about directly given space, given form and voice in a genre that not only allows for acknowledgement of the taboo but expects it.
 
If you could recommend one creation of horror that everyone should consume, whether that be a book, podcast, movie, art, etc., what would you recommend?

I will always enthusiastically recommend a short horror game called Anatomy, independently produced by game developer Kitty Horrorshow. It is a perfect example, to me, of what "horror" can do and how horror is all a matter of framing. Anatomy is a simple walking simulator game that takes about an hour to play. You play as an unnamed character walking around a basic, empty suburban house collecting cassette tapes about how various different rooms in a house can be seen as a metaphor for a part of the human body. Almost nothing happens. But the framing provided by the tapes, the discussion of a bedroom or closet or kitchen as something that exists in the same space as so many horrific ideas, makes it supremely unsettling. Find it: https://kittyhorrorshow.itch.io/anatomy  

When folks look back at the Women in Horror movement of today’s day and age, what do you think the defining characteristic will be?
I think women in horror will be remembered for the fresh voice they bring to old horror tropes. In a genre that relies on empathy, framing, and new lenses to find the horror in situations that were once deemed "normal" the point of view of women is integral. So many traditional horror tropes relied on women-as-written-and-understood-by-men to function and to derive their scares. With more and more women taking the reigns of our story back, new horror and overlooked over can finally be delved into. 

Who are some women in horror you think more people should discover?
If you are looking for more excellent horror, I love to suggest authors who exist at the intersection of multiple marginalization. Queer women, racialized women. Etc. Check out Tananarive Due, L Marie Wood, Eden Royce, Kailee Pedersen, Helen Oyeyemi, Monica Ojeda, V Castro, and Tiffany Morris when you get the chance! 

Where can folks find you these days?
You can find me giving many, many book (and sometimes film) recommendations on Threads and Instagram at @pedroparo2. I also do the occasional literary, film, and cultural criticism post on my Ko-Fi. For more information about me, my work, and where to find me, you can check out my website brianancoxwriter.com. You can also find me at the Licensed 2 Thrill horror/thriller book event in Nashville and the Horror on the Mississippi event this year, both in October

https://linktr.ee/briana.n.cox

Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you contribute to the horror genre.
My name is Jolene Marie Richardson and I am a costume designer, fashion historian and writer. I have costume designed films such as Cannibal Mukbang, Scare Package 2, and assisted on Hell House Lineage, along with a few other horror films. As a historian I’ve been able to take my role as a costume designer and further examine our work through the movies we love. I have a lecture series on various films, and genres and how costume design and history tie into the story telling. I have also written some bylines on costumes in horror for Fangoria. 
 

What drew you to the horror genre?
I’ve always loved Halloween, the idea of dressing up and getting scared was always fun for me. I found horror films through my dad who taught me not to be scared of them, and led me down the rabbit hole of learning how movies were made. Now as an adult I appreciate how the genre allows you to explore your inner emotions, thoughts, feels on small scales of the self and on larger societal scales. The genre brings comfort and allows the catharsis of the moment to be digested easily. It’s a place to come together, to be the outcast is celebrated, and it allows for others to feel heard. 
 

If you could recommend one creation of horror that everyone should consume, whether that be a book, podcast, movie, art, etc., what would you recommend?
As a history nerd I love the podcast After Dark, through the History Hit channel, it explores the dark side of real history. 


When folks look back at the Women in Horror movement of today’s day and age, what do you think the defining characteristic will be?
I hope that they see a group who is fearless in letting their voices be heard. Who has stories to tell and finds a way to tell them. This is a group of women that supports each other, protects one another, and lifts each other up. Cheering each other on from the sidelines. It really is a community of incredible women who are facing the real horrors of the world, with a pen, a camera, or for me safety pins, and creating beautiful humans (and non humans) on screen to comfort those that need it. 


Who are some women in horror you think more people should discover?
Shouting out my friends! Jackie Hughes an incredible makeup artist and my work wife, Aimee Kuge is a brilliant writer and director (Cannibal Mukbang) Sarah Lyons, another incredible writer/director (The Woods), and Molly Henery writer, lover of Werewolves and the feral women who hold up this genre. 
 

Where can folks find you these days?
You can find me on Instagram @JoleneMarie_Designs and that’s where you can see what I’m working on and when my next lectures will be.

Bio:
Jolene Marie Richardson is a costume designer and fashion historian whose work can been seen across theatre and film. Most notably in Cannibal Mukbang, The Last Drive In (S3&4), Scare Package 2, Crybaby Bridge, and Hell House Lineage (ACD). Jolene also has a lecture series on costume design in film that spans across genres, which you can find upcoming lectures through her IG. She also has a few bylines within the pages and online in Fangoria Magazine. 

Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you contribute to the horror genre.
My name is Christina Bergling, and I am a published horror author and genre enthusiast. I contribute to the genre by creating and promoting. My main creation is, obviously, writing novels, novellas, and short stories. However, I also promote the genre and knowledge about the genre. I write about horror, analyze horror, and speak about horror at conferences and events. Horror is often a misunderstood genre, and sometimes, people need help understanding its place and contribution to media and society. My writing tends to focus on the horror inherent in the people and the real world.

What drew you to the horror genre?
Horror always naturally spoke to me. When I was young, I preferred Halloween and the spooky.  I had a lot of nightmares as a child, so scary and macabre things felt familiar and made me feel more normal. My family never really understood. They always assumed it was some damage or delinquency in me. However, I was drawn to the choice, being able to decide that I wanted to be scared with the knowledge that I would be safe in the end.

If you could recommend one creation of horror that everyone should consume, whether that be a book, podcast, movie, art, etc., what would you recommend?
I obviously have to recommend books. The Reformatory by Tananarive Due, Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage, and Maeve Fly by CJ Leede are three very different horror novels written by women, all of which cracked me open and made a home inside my chest. The Reformatory is blistering historical fiction that weaves supernatural horror with the realities of racism to rival the experience of reading Kindred by Octavia Butler. Baby Teeth exploits the competitive dynamics in a mother-daughter relationship until they are positively terrifying. And Maeve Fly is raw, unhinged girlhood on a rampage. Each of these books is brilliant and mind-changing in their own ways, and I highly recommend them all.

What are some areas of horror you think are under-explored?
I think horror from the female perspective is still underexplored. As well as queer horror and horror from communities other than white men. Some of the most innovative recent horror comes from "new" voices. Movies like Sinners and The Substance broke out of genre cliches, and audiences really responded to them. Horror can live anywhere, and I love seeing the developing trend of exploring it in new places. 

One taboo I have encountered is an avoidance of motherhood horror. Beyond Rosemary's Baby where the mother is victim, I want to see more like Tantrum by Rachel Eve Moulton where it is the horror (a potentially demonic child, maybe) but also just the horror of motherhood and womanhood. I wrote a post-partum horror short that was challenging to publish, but I think horror is the perfect genre to explore these uncomfortable topics.

What do you find scary within the horror genre?
I find the same things scary within horror than I do in real life. Humans. I think most of society works to soften and hide our darkest natures. Horror flays humanity open and lays us bare in all our monstrosity. Seeing what we are capable of, what humans consistently do to each other, is the most terrifying thing there is.

Who are some women in horror you think more people should discover?
As far as women horror writers, I think people should seek out CJ Leede, Tananarive Due, Zoje Stage, Rachel Harrison, Alma Katsu, Jean-Nicole Rivers, Tatiana Schlote-Bonne, Ania Ahlborn, Lindsey King-Miller, Angela Sylvaine, Marissa Yarrow, and so many more! As far as filmmakers, I really enjoy the work of Coralie Fargeat (Revenge even before The Substance) and Toby Poser (Adams Family Films).

What advice would you give to the next generation of women coming into the horror genre?
Create under your name. Don't feel like you need to obscure your gender under initials or pen names. People need to see you. And create fearlessly. Horror is for breaking boundaries.
 
Where can folks find you these days?
My website is christinabergling.com. 
You can find me on Instagram/Threads @fierypen. 
All my other links are at linktr.ee/chrstnabergling.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you contribute to the horror genre.

I’m Hope Madden, horror obsessed lunatic. For the last dozen years, I’ve co-hosted a podcast and live event called Fright Club. We record a top-5 style podcast (best heartbreaks in horror, best feminist high school horror, that kind of thing) at a film center on Ohio State Campus, and then we screen one of the films on the list. That came first, then in 2022, my first horror novella, Roost, came out from Off Limits Press. The same year my first horror short story was published in an anthology, and since then I’ve had close to a dozen short stories and a second novella, Killer Pictures, published.

And in 2022 I also wrote and directed my first feature film, Obstacle Corpse, which is streaming now on Tubi, Prime and other platforms. I’ve also made nine short horror films.
 
What drew you to the horror genre?
I was afraid of everything as a little kid, and I think horror helped me control that fear. It’s a bit like a child re-reading the same children’s book again and again because knowing every word gives them a sense of control in an overwhelming world. Reading and watching horror made me feel better prepared for every scary thing.
 
If you could recommend one creation of horror that everyone should consume, whether that be a book, podcast, movie, art, etc., what would you recommend?
 
It seems obvious, but Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the original novel, for countless reasons. It’s a masterpiece, it’s an endlessly engaging and amazing read, it’s a revolution of science fiction and horror. But for me, also, I eventually came to see it as an account written by a teenage girl who’d given up her family and her life to be recreated by a grown man, in his libertine image; a man who looked no further than creation, and later realized that he had no real interest in her, his creation. In the context of her life and marriage, this aching masterpiece is also the most resonant, timeless, honest depiction of the harm men do that you’ll ever read. Plus, it’s a great story.
 
What positive changes have you seen happening in the horror community and what are some areas the community can still improve?
I think filmmakers like Jane Schoenbrun and writers like Hailey Piper are helping us redefine community and empowerment in horror, because their work is so undeniable and so genuinely new, fresh and necessary that the genre could not help but take notice. Just as a reader and moviegoer, I am overjoyed at seeing and reading stories from perspectives and based in experiences that nobody else has ever offered in 200 years of cinema and eons of literature.

And though I think, especially in literature, the horror genre has been at the forefront of presenting “unlikeable” women as protagonists, we could do better. This is my favorite, favorite thing to read and write. When I think of rejection notifications and less-than-stellar reviews I’ve received, they have almost always lamented the unlikeable main character. I love women who don’t care if you like them. I want to see more of them everywhere.
 
When folks look back at the Women in Horror movement of today’s day and age, what do you think the defining characteristic will be?
Rage. 
 
What advice would you give to the next generation of women coming into the horror genre?
Collaborate a lot and work across platforms. Turn your short story into a podcast script, turn your feature screenplay into a novella, write them simultaneously—the strengths in format and style one medium demands actually brings something to your work in another medium, and the more success you have with one medium the likelier you are to find success for the same project in another medium.
 
Where can folks find you these days?
 
Podcasts and short films are on all the socials at @maddwolfcolumbus and my own writing is at hopemadden.com.