Craftwork

In this interview, we chat with Michael Wehunt about the administrative side of professional writing, the unanticipated weirdness of public selfhood, the "moment before the moment", and so much more.   Michael Wehunt has been a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award, multiple Shirley Jackson Awards, and the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts' Crawford Award. In Spain, his translated works have garnered nominations for the Premio Ignotus and Premio Amaltea, winning the latter. He haunts the woods of Decatur, Georgia, with his partner and their dog. Together, they hold the horrors at bay. Most recently, he is the author of the novels The October Film Haunt and Nightjars.  Books and poems mentioned in this episode:   Ancient Images; The Grin of the Dark; Incarnate — Ramsey Campbell Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture — Douglas Coupland Poems 1962-2020 — Louise Glück Carrie — Stephen King Beings — Ilana Masad The God of the Woods; Long Bright River — Liz Moore Ghost Wall; Ripeness — Sarah Moss The Violent Bear it Away — Flannery O'Connor "Archaic Torso of Apollo" — Rainer Maria RilkeCoffin Moon — Keith Rosson 

In this interview, we chat with Daniel Braum about exploring the ecology of the supernatural, finding inspiration in liminal spaces, cultivating a sense of awe, and so much more.  Daniel Braum writes short stories that explore the tension between the psychological and the supernatural. He intentionally adopts the term “strange tales” for his “Twilight Zone-like stories in homage to author Robert Aickman and the intentional ambiguities of his work. His latest collection is Phantom Constellations: Strange Tales and Ghost Stories from Cemetery Dance Publications (2025). His stories appear in places ranging from The Best Horror of the Year Volume 12, edited by Ellen Datlow, and Shivers 8, edited by Richard Chizmar.Books and stories mentioned in this episode:  Cold Hand in Mine — Robert Aickman  The Artist's Way — Julia Cameron Ancient Images; The Hungry Moon  — Ramsey Campbell "Plunged in the Years" — Jeffrey Ford "Children of the Corn" — Stephen King The Ceremonies — T. E. D. Klein Beginnings, Middles & Ends — Nancy Kress Dreams of Dark and Light — Tanith Lee Rosemary's Baby; The Stepford Wives — Ira Levin Story — Robert McKee Conjunctions 83: The Ghost Issue — Joyce Carol Oates and Bradford Morrow, eds.The Jaguar Hunter — Lucius Shepard Shadowland — Peter Straub Conjunctions 39: The New Wave Fabulists — Peter Straub, ed.Harvest Home — Thomas Tryon The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers — Chris Vogler 

In this interview, we chat with Hajer Mirwali about cross-disciplinary work, embodied writing, poetic mad libs,  and so much more.  Hajer Mirwali is a Palestinian and Iraqi writer living in Toronto. Her first book, Revolutions (Talonbooks, 2025), is a collection of poetry on shame, pleasure, and Arab Muslim girlhood. Two poems from the collection also appear in an anthology of Palestinian poetry called Heaven Looks Like Us (Haymarket Books, 2025). Hajer’s work has been published in The Ex-Puritan, Brick Magazine, Room Magazine, and Joyland. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph, and a BA in Creative Writing from York University.Books mentioned in this episode:  Trust Exercise — Susan Choi The Butterfly's Burden — Mahmoud Darwish Junie B. Jones series — Barbara Park Who by Fire; Who by Water — Greg Rhyno Harry Potter series — J. K. Rowling 

In this interview, we chat with Kasia Van Schaik about reverse outlining, asking "what if", sublimating emotion through landscape, and so much more.  Kasia Van Schaik is the author of the Giller Prize-nominated story collection We Have Never Lived on Earth and the forthcoming book of memoir and cultural criticism, Women Among Monuments. With Myra Bloom, she is the co-editor of the essay collection, Shelter in Text: Essays on Dwelling and Refuge. Kasia’s writing has appeared in Electric Literature, the LA Review of Books, Room, The Rumpus, the Best Canadian Poetry, and the CBC. Kasia holds a PhD in literature from McGill University and is assistant professor of English and co-director of Creative Writing at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, Wolastoqiyik territory. Books mentioned in this episode:  Wuthering Heights — Emily Brontë The Secret Garden — Frances Hodgson Burnett  Autobiography of Red — Anne Carson Boyhood; Youth; Summertime — J. M. Coetzee Outline; Transit; Kudos — Rachel Cusk The Days of Abandonment; the Neapolitan Quartet — Elena Ferrante "The Robber Bridegroom" — Brothers Grimm Sweet Days of Discipline — Fleur Jaeggy Lucy — Jamaica Kincaid Her Body and Other Parties — Carmen Maria Machado Housekeeping — Marilynne Robinson Rings of Saturn — W. G. Sebald Flights — Olga Tokarczuk 

In this interview, we chat with Jean Marc Ah-Sen about comic books, literary scenes, flipping the script on what a book can be, and so much more. Jean Marc Ah-Sen is the author of Grand Menteur, In the Beggarly Style of Imitation, and Kilworthy Tanner. His writing has appeared in McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, Literary Hub, Catapult, The Comics Journal, Maclean's, The Walrus, and elsewhere. Books mentioned in this episode: The Fall – Albert Camus I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp – Richard Hell The Talented Mr. Ripley – Patricia Highsmith Intimacy – Hanif Kureishi Biography of X – Catherine Lacey Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle – Vladimir Nabokov  Anti-Woo: The Lifeman's Improved Primer for Non-Lovers; The Theory and Practice of Gamesmanship: Or the Art of Winning Games Without Actually Cheating – Stephen Potter Lobotomy: Surviving the Ramones – Dee Dee Ramone Endling – Maria Reva The Dying Animal – Philip Roth Striptease – Georges Simenon The Handyman Method – Andrew Sullivan Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy The Island of Doctor Moreau; The Time Machine – H. G. Wells 

In this interview, we chat with Ramsey Campbell about the importance of tapping into creative instincts, the pleasure of happy accidents, the lingering impact of eerie children's tales, and so much more.The Oxford Companion to English Literature describes Ramsey Campbell as “Britain’s most respected living horror writer”, and the Washington Post sums up his work as “one of the monumental accomplishments of modern popular fiction”. His awards include the Grand Master Award of the World Horror Convention, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Horror Writers Association, the Living Legend Award of the International Horror Guild and the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2015 he was made an Honorary Fellow of Liverpool John Moores University for outstanding services to literature. His latest novels are Fellstones, The Lonely Lands, The Incubations and An Echo of Children. His Brichester Mythos trilogy consists of The Searching Dead, Born to the Dark and The Way of the Worm. His collections include Waking Nightmares, Ghosts and Grisly Things, Told by the Dead, Just Behind You, Holes for Faces, By the Light of My Skull, Fearful Implications, and a two-volume retrospective roundup (Phantasmagorical Stories) as well as The Village Killings and Other Novellas. His non-fiction is collected as Ramsey Campbell, Probably and Ramsey Campbell, Certainly, while Ramsey’s Rambles collects his video reviews, and Six Stooges and Counting is a book-length study of the Three Stooges. Limericks of the Alarming and Phantasmal is a history of horror fiction in the form of fifty limericks.Books and stories mentioned in this episode:The Atrocity Exhibition – J. G. Ballard Great Short Stories of the World – Barrett H. Clark & Maxim Lieber, eds. "A Dark-Brown Dog"; The Red Badge of Courage – Stephen Crane The Man Within – Graham Greene "The Residence at Whitminster" – M. R. James Rosemary's Baby; The Stepford Wives – Ira Levin Tales of Mean Streets – Arthur Morrison Lolita; Pale Fire – Vladimir Nabokov "The Telltale Heart" – Edgar Allan Poe At the Foot of the Story Tree: An Inquiry into the Fiction of Peter Straub – Bill SheehanGhost Story – Peter StraubThe Rupert Bear series – Herbert Tourtel & Mary Tourtel"Afterward" – Edith Wharton At Night, White Bracken; To Those from Below – Gareth Wood 

In this interview, we chat with Michael LaPointe about navigating the pipeline between impulse and expression, breaking the genteel picture of literature, finding liberation in failure, and so much more.Michael LaPointe is the author of The Creep, a novel published by Random House Canada. He has written for The New Yorker and The Atlantic, and he was a columnist with The Paris Review. His work has been anthologized in Best Canadian Stories and Best Canadian Essays, and he lives in Toronto.Books mentioned in this episode:Affliction; Continental Drift; Rule of the Bone; The Sweet Hereafter – Russell Banks Naked Lunch – William S. Burroughs The Adventures of Pinocchio – Carlo Collodi Bleak House – Charles Dickens Play it as it Lays – Joan Didion The Lover – Marguerite Duras Middlemarch – George Eliot American Psycho; Less Than Zero; The Shards – Bret Easton Ellis Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert Bad Behavior; Two Girls, Fat and Thin – Mary Gaitskill In a Lonely Place – Dorothy B. Hughes Snow Country – Yasunari Kawabata Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination; Sula – Toni Morrison The Sorrow of War – Bảo Ninh Inherent Vice – Thomas Pynchon All Quiet on the Western Front – Erich Maria Remarque Voyage in the Dark – Jean Rhys Catcher in the Rye – J. D. Salinger Last Exit to Brooklyn – Hubert Selby Jr.  Alice James: A Biography – Jean Strouse The Invisible Woman: The Story Of Nelly Ternan And Charles Dickens – Claire Tomalin Rejection – Tony Tulathimutte Ethan Frome – Edith Wharton 

In this interview, we chat with Gemma Files about horny monsters, Lovecraftian Airbnbs, the female gaze, and so much more. Previously a film critic, journalist and teacher, Gemma Files has been an award-winning horror author since 1999. She's best-known for her novel Experimental Film (Open Road Media) and her collections of short fiction, including the Bram Stoker Award-winning In That Endlessness, Our End and Blood From the Air (both from Grimscribe). Her next book, Little Horn: Stories, will be out in October from Shortwave. She is the autistic mother of an autistic son. For fun she sings, and doodles pretty monsters.Books mentioned in this episode: Empire of the Sun – J. G. Ballard D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths; Norse Gods and Giants – Edgar Parin d'Aulaire and Ingri Parin d'Aulaire Black Flame – Gretchen Felker-Martin The Rotting Room – Viggy Parr Hampton Barrowbeck; The Loney; Starve Acre – Andrew Michael Hurley Bright Dead Star; Zoetrope Bizarre – Caitlín R. Kiernan The Jungle Book; The Second Jungle Book – Rudyard Kipling The Magician's Nephew – C. S. Lewis The Reddening – Adam Nevill Metamorphoses – Ovid Cyrano de Bergerac – Edmond Rostand Frankenstein – Mary Shelley Dracula – Bram Stoker A Dark Matter – Peter Straub The Castle of Otranto – Horace Walpole 

In this interview, we chat with Emily Banks about posthumous publications, linguistic allergies, the atomic nuts and bolts of imagery, and so much more. Emily Banks is the author of Mother Water (Lynx House Press, 2020). Her poems have appeared in Plume, Copper Nickel, 32 Poems, The Rumpus, CutBank, Mid-American Review, and other journals. She publishes scholarship on American gothic literature, runs The Shirley Jackson Society, and is currently editing The Oxford Handbook of Shirley Jackson. She holds an MFA from the University of Maryland and a Ph.D. from Emory University. She lives in Indianapolis and teaches at Franklin College. Books, poems, and stories mentioned in this episode:"Filling Station"; "In the Waiting Room" – Elizabeth BishopAlice's Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis CarrollTurn Up the Ocean – Tony Hoagland"Dorothy and My Grandmother and the Sailors"; Hangsaman; The Haunting of Hill House; "The Lottery"; We Have Always Lived in the Castle – Shirley JacksonBliss Montage; Severance – Ling MaHow to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy – Jenny OdellMiddle Distance – Stanley PlumlyPamela – Samuel RichardsonModern Poetry – Diane Seuss

In this interview, we chat with Naben Ruthnum about character development, avoiding TV-brained writing, making sense of first-reader notes, and so much more. Naben Ruthnum is a Toronto-based writer of fiction, cultural criticism, film and TV. His novel A Hero of Our Time was released by Penguin Random House and was optioned for development by The Littlefield Company. His books include the YA novel The Grimmer, the World Fantasy Award-nominated horror novella Helpmeet and two thrillers penned as Nathan Ripley, both of which have been optioned for development and were published internationally. He has written for Canadian television series including Murdoch Mysteries and Cardinal. As a feature screenwriter, he’s collaborated with Kris Bertin for feature and TV projects in development at Oddfellows, BoulderLight Pictures, Automatik, Skybound, and Blink49. Kris and Naben's script Road Test made the 2024 Black List.Books mentioned in this episode:A Clockwork Orange – Anthony BurgessThe Sorceress in Stained Glass & Other Ghost Stories – Richard Dalby, ed.The Name of the Rose – Umberto EcoThe Black Dahlia; Killer on the Road; L.A. Confidential; My Dark Places – James Ellroy Black Flame – Gretchen Felker-MartinThe James Bond series – Ian FlemingThe Collector; The Magus – John FowlesThe Green Carnation – Robert HichensThe Americans; The Tragic Muse; The Turn of the Screw – Henry JamesThe Best of H. P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre; Supernatural Horror in Literature – H. P. LovecraftThe Beckoning Fair One – Oliver OnionsA Fatal Inversion; Master of the Moor – Ruth RendellFlicker – Theodore RoszakThe Tempest – William ShakespeareGhost Story; If You Could See Me Now; In the Night Room; Koko; The Throat – Peter StraubThe Secret History – Donna TarttA Dark-Adapted Eye; The House of Stairs – Barbara VineThe October Film Haunt – Michael Wehunt