The story was first published in 2018 through Margaret's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/margaretkilljoy

Pandemic special number one! I'm cooped up in my cabin so I'm going to release a bunch of my own stories, read by myself. This one first appeared in Fireside Fiction in 2016. It's a response to nihilism and misanthropy, but mostly it's about how quickly I start talking to myself when I'm alone.

Episode Notes

About the author: Izzy Wasserstein was born and raised in Kansas. She teaches writing and literature, writes poetry and fiction, and shares a house with a variety of animal companions and the writer Nora E. Derrington. She likes to slowly run long distances.

About the host: Margaret Killjoy is a transfeminine author and editor currently based in the Appalachian mountains. Her most recent book is an anarchist demon hunters novella called The Barrow Will Send What it May, published by Tor.com. She spends her time crafting and complaining about authoritarian power structures and she blogs at birdsbeforethestorm.net.

Episode Notes

About the author: Sofia Samatar is the author of the novels A Stranger in Olondria and The Winged Histories, the short story collection, Tender, and Monster Portraits, a collaboration with her brother, the artist Del Samatar. Her work has won several awards, including the World Fantasy Award. She teaches African literature, Arabic literature, and speculative fiction at James Madison University.

About the reader: Derek Johnson is a Queer, multi-ethnic POC and member of the African diaspora. Writer, comic book artist, cartoonist, documentary filmmaker and co-host of several past and current podcasts: The Authority Smashing! Hour, TASH: Radical Report, Critical Mass, and Where’s My Jetpack?! He identifies as a libertarian socialist and anarcho-syndicalist and does labor organizing through the IWW. He has been an advocate for children with mental illness, a civil liberties/human rights and homeless rights activist, and has volunteered at his local community radio station. He is a Philosophical Taoist and Spinoza-leaning non-theist/ agnostic/ freethinker under the Unitarian Universalist umbrella currently working on a series of speculative/ science fiction novels and graphic novels centering on Sci-fi, suspense, horror, weird fiction, noir, and fantasy, genre styles and Afrofuturism, Steampunk, anarchistic, humanistic, and Taoist themes.

About the host: Margaret Killjoy is a transfeminine author and editor currently based in the Appalachian mountains. Her most recent book is an anarchist demon hunters novella called The Barrow Will Send What it May, published by Tor.com. She spends her time crafting and complaining about authoritarian power structures and she blogs at birdsbeforethestorm.net.

Episode Notes

This story appeared in Nick Mamatas's collection The People's Republic of Everything, published in 2018 by Tachyon Publications.

About the author: Nick Mamatas is the author of seven novels, including Love is the Law, I Am Providence, and the forthcoming Hexen Sabbath. His short fiction has appeared in Best American Mystery Stories, Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, and many other venues. Nick is also an anthologist; his books include the Bram Stoker Award winner Haunted Legends (co-edited with Ellen Datlow), the Locus Award nominees The Future is Japanese and Hanzai Japan (both co-edited with Masumi Washington), and Mixed Up (co-edited with Molly Tanzer). His fiction and editorial work has been nominated for the Hugo, Locus, World Fantasy, Bram Stoker, Shirley Jackson, and International Horror Guild Awards. Mamatas lives in Oakland, California.

About the host: Margaret Killjoy is a transfeminine author and editor currently based in the Appalachian mountains. Her most recent book is an anarchist demon hunters novella called The Barrow Will Send What it May, published by Tor.com. She spends her time crafting and complaining about authoritarian power structures and she blogs at birdsbeforethestorm.net.

Episode Notes

This story appeared in the short story collection Alien Love Disaster Virus Stories, published by Small Beer Press.

About the author: Abbey Mei Otis is a writer, a teaching artist, a storyteller and a firestarter raised in the woods of North Carolina. She loves people and art forms on the margins. She studied at the Michener Center for Writers in Austin, TX and the Clarion West Writers Workshop, and has taught at Oberlin College in Ohio. Her stories have appeared in journals including Tin House, StoryQuarterly, Barrelhouse, and Tor.com.

About the host: Margaret Killjoy is a transfeminine author and editor currently based in the Appalachian mountains. Her most recent book is an anarchist demon hunters novella called The Barrow Will Send What it May, published by Tor.com. She spends her time crafting and complaining about authoritarian power structures and she blogs at birdsbeforethestorm.net.

Episode Notes

This story first appeared in der Freitag in 2015.

About the author: Laurie Penny is an award-winning author, journalist, screenwriter, essayist, public speaker and activist*. She has written six books, including Bitch Doctrine (Bloomsbury 2017), Unspeakable Things (Bloomsbury 2014) and Everything Belongs To The Future (Tor, 2016). Laurie has worked on The Nevers (HBO) and Netflix’s ‘The Haunting’. She writes essays, columns, features and gonzo journalism about politics, social justice, pop culture, feminism, technology and mental health and she gets time, she also writes creepy political science fiction.

About the host: Margaret Killjoy is a transfeminine author and editor currently based in the Appalachian mountains. Her most recent book is an anarchist demon hunters novella called The Barrow Will Send What it May, published by Tor.com. She spends her time crafting and complaining about authoritarian power structures and she blogs at birdsbeforethestorm.net.

Episode Notes

This story first appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction in 2018.

Since this interview was recorded, Cadwell's debut novel The Lesson was released.

About the author: Cadwell Turnbull is a graduate from the North Carolina State University’s Creative Writing MFA in Fiction and English MA in Linguistics. He was the winner of the 2014 NCSU Prize for Short Fiction and attended Clarion West 2016. His short fiction has appeared in The Verge, Lightspeed, Nightmare, and Asimov’s Science Fiction. His Asimov’s short story “When the Rains Come Back” made Barnes and Noble’s Sci-Fi & Fantasy’s Short Fiction Roundup in April 2018. His Nightmare story “Loneliness is in Your Blood” was selected for The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018. His Asimov’s novelette “Other Worlds and This One” was also selected by the anthology as a notable story. The Lesson is his debut novel.

About the host: Margaret Killjoy is a transfeminine author and editor currently based in the Appalachian mountains. Her most recent book is an anarchist demon hunters novella called The Barrow Will Send What it May, published by Tor.com. She spends her time crafting and complaining about authoritarian power structures and she blogs at birdsbeforethestorm.net.

This podcast was made possible by the generous supporters of Margaret's Patreon. In particular, thanks go out to Chris, Nora, Hoss the Dog, Kirk, Argawarga Press, Natalie, and Sam.