GARE Public Resources

About this Session: 

For as long as horror has existed as a genre, it has been an incredible device for both holding up a mirror to society and reflecting back the anxieties prevalent during any given era. This ability to act as a societal gauge, along with horror’s innate ability to explore the darker reaches of the human experience, makes it one of the most interesting and groundbreaking genres for exploring social commentary.

In this session, we will be joined by writers, editors, and scholars with a deep understanding of horror and its relationship to racial and social justice. Come ready to engage with our panel on this genre, how this genre can serve to deepen our empathy and understanding of the world we inhabit, and what we can take away from this genre as we work to advance racial equity within our communities and jurisdictions.

This session is a spiritual follow-up to last year’s session on Speculative Fiction for Just Futures, which is well worth a watch for anyone interested in genre storytelling.

Panelists:

• Chesya Burke, Ph.D. (she/her), Writer, Professor, and Director of Africana Studies at Stetson University

  • Dr. Chesya Burke is an Asst. Professor of English and U.S. Literatures and the director of Africana Studies at Stetson University. Having written and published over a hundred stories and articles within the genres of horror, science fiction, comics, and Afrofuturism, her academic research focuses primarily on the intersections of race, gender and genre. Her short story collection, Let’s Play White, is being taught in universities around the world, leading Grammy Award winning poet, Nikki Giovanni, to compare her writing to that of Octavia Butler and Toni Morrison, and Samuel Delany naming her the "formidable new master of the macabre.” Her monograph, Hero Me Not, examines Storm from the XMen as an amalgam of various Black stereotypes, from the Mammy and the Jezebel to the Magical Negro, resulting in a new stereotype she terms the Negro Spiritual Woman. Chesya’s episode for I hear Fear hosted by Carey Mulligan, Under the Skin, was produced by Wondery and Amazon Music and debuted on Halloween 2022 and her story, An American Fable, appears in the Jordan Peele anthology Out There Screaming. https://www.thechesyaburke.org/

• M.M. Olivas (she/her), Horror Writer & Chicanafuturist 

  • M. M. Olivas is an alumna of the 2022 Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop and the 2023 Under the Volcano Writers Residency. She received her bachelor’s degree in creative writing from the University of California Riverside and once worked as an Associate Editor for Escape Pod Magazine. Her short fiction has appeared in several publications, including Uncanny Magazine, Weird Horror Magazine, Apex, and Bourbon Penn. Her short story “If There May Be Ghosts” was on Reactor Magazine’s Must-Read Speculative Short Fiction list for July 2022, and her short story “The Prince of Oakland” was featured in Tenebrous Press’ Brave New Weird Anthology for 2024. Olivas also made the longlist for the 2021 Samuel R. Delany Fellowship and was a recipient of the 2022 George R. R. Martin Sense of Wonder Scholarship. As a trans, first-generation Chicana horror writer, Olivas explores the intersection of queer and diasporic experiences in her fiction. She currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area, earning her MFA in Creative Writing at San Jose State University and collecting transforming robots. Olivas’ debut novel, Sundown in San Ojuela, a gothic spaghetti western that follows Aztec Vampires in California’s Inland Empire is available now. https://olivasthewriter.wtf/ 

• Pedro Iniguez (he/him), Author

  • Pedro Iniguez is a Mexican-American Bram Stoker, Elgin, and Dwarf Stars Award-winning science-fiction and horror writer from Los Angeles. He has also been a Rhysling finalist and Puschart Prize and Best of the Net nominee. He is the author of MEXICANS ON THE MOON: SPECULATIVE POETRY FROM A POSSIBLE FUTURE, FEVER DREAMS OF A PARASITE, ECHOES AND EMBERS: SPECULATIVE STORIES, THE FIB, THE BUILD-A-MONSTER WORKSHOP, SYNTHETIC DAWNS & CRIMSON DUSKS, and the SF novel CONTROL THEORY. His fiction and poetry has also appeared in Nightmare Magazine, Never Wake: An Anthology of Dream Horror, Shadows Over Main Street Volume 3, Qualia Nous Vol. 2, Latin American Shared Stories, Beyond the Bounds of Infinity, Of Shadows, Stars, and Sabers, Dark Spores, A Night of Screams: Latino Horror Stories, Speculative Fiction for Dreamers, Worlds of Possibility, Infinite Constellations, Tiny Nightmares, Apex Magazine, Shortwave Magazine, Star*Line, Eye to the Telescope, Space and Time Magazine, and Savage Realms Monthly, among others. Apart from leading writing workshops and speaking at several colleges, he has also been a sensitivity reader and has ghostwritten for award-winning apps and online clients. https://pedroiniguez.com/  

• Tananarive Due (she/her), Writer, Educator, and Producer

  • Tananarive Due (tah-nah-nah-REEVE doo) is an award-winning author who teaches Black Horror and Afrofuturism at UCLA.  A leading voice in Black speculative fiction for more than 20 years, Due has won an American Book Award, an NAACP Image Award, and a British Fantasy Award, and her writing has been included in best-of-the-year anthologies. Her books include The Reformatory (winner of a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Chautauqua Prize, Bram Stoker Award, Shirley Jackson Award, World Fantasy Award, and a New York Times Notable Book), The Wishing Pool and Other Stories, Ghost Summer: Stories, My Soul to Keep, and The Good House. She and her late mother, civil rights activist Patricia Stephens Due, co-authored Freedom in the Family: A Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights. She was an executive producer on Shudder's groundbreaking documentary Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror. She and her husband/collaborator, Steven Barnes, wrote "A Small Town" for Season 2 of Jordan Peele’s "The Twilight Zone" on Paramount Plus, and two segments of Shudder’s anthology film Horror Noire. They also co-wrote their Black Horror graphic novel The Keeper, illustrated by Marco Finnegan. Due and Barnes co-host a podcast, "Lifewriting: Write for Your Life!" She and her husband live with their son, Jason.  https://www.tananarivedue.com/

Moderator:

• Scótt Russell Dúncan (he/him), Editor, Maiz Poppin’ Press

  • Scótt Russell Dúncan, a Xicano writer, edited the first Chicano sci-fi anthology, El Porvenir, ¡Ya!: Citlalzazanilli Mexicatl and is creator and editor of the Xicanxfuturism: Gritos for Tomorrow codex. He is director of Palabras del Pueblo writing workshop and co-creator of Maíz Poppin' Press. His novel, Old California Strikes Back, a magic memoir and meta-novel described as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas meets Yo Soy Joaquin, is published through FlowerSong Press. www.scottrussellduncan.com

Additional Session Notes:

• Horror Recs from the Panel:

  • Tananarive Due - Buffalo Hunter Hunter (written by Stephen Graham Jones)

  • Pedro Iniguez - The Thing (directed by John Carpenter); I Am Legend (written by Richard Matheson); Something Followed us Home:Tales of Latiné Horror (anthology edited by Cynthia Pelayo)

  • M.M. Olivas - La Llorona (directed by Jayro Bustamante); The Only Good Indians (written by Stephen Graham Jones)

  • Chesya Burke - From (TV Show); Black Horror: Canonical Voices from Then to Now (anthology edited by Maurice Broaddus and Dr. Chesya Burke); Wild Seed, Parable of the Sower, and Fledgling (written by Octavia Butler)

  • Scótt Russell Dúncan - Born in East LA (directed by Cheech Marin). Other than that, Scótt just wants you to check out the amazing writing from our panelists

  • Jarred's Recs: Check out The Reformatory by Tananarive Due, Sundown in San Ojuela by MM Olivas, Let's Play White by Chesya Burke, and Fever Dream of a Parasite by Pedro Iniguez! 

• Horror Recs from the Chat:

  • • Movies:

      • Send Help

      • Obsession

      • The Substance

      • Primate

      • Get Out

      • Forbidden Fruits

      • Evil Dead Burn

      • Talk to Me

      • Sinners

      • Shaun of the Dead

      • The Exorcist

      • They Will Kill You

      • Chucky

      • Amityville Horror

      • Children of the Corn

      • Friday the 13th

      • Videodrome

      • When a Stranger Calls

    • TV:

      • Widow’s Bay

      • Lovecraft Country

      • Los Espookys

      • From Tananarive Due: The Keeper will stream on Samansa later this year

    • Books:

      • It by Stephen King

      • The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

      • Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones

      • Dead Girls Don’t Dream (and short stories Finna and Defekt) by Nino Cipri

      • I’ll Watch Your Baby by Neena Viel

      • Dracula by Bram Stoker

        • Chat note: For folks who want something fun, Dracula Daily will email you the chapters in chronological order! If you prefer an audio format, Re: Dracula does the same thing as an audio drama

      • Xicanxfuturism: Gritos for Tomorrow (speculative fiction anthology edited by Scótt Russell Dúncan)

      • The Changeling by Victor LaValle

      • The Shoemaker's Magician by Cynthia Pelayo

  • Considerations Corner:

    • Important Note from a Former Librarian: It's important for folks to request these books from your library. Or, if you buy them, donate them to the library, or both!

    • Trigger Warnings!

      • For folks who have content that they can't tolerate, DoesTheDogDie.com will tell you for visual media a lot of the different kinds of themes that you might choose not to expose yourself to.

      • The StoryGraph has content warnings for books (they're crowdsourced so if it's new you might be out of luck)

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