There’s a lot going on in Karen Schoemer’s new album August, which blends her wide-ranging approach to writing lyrics with musical contributions from the likes of Mike Watt and Amy Rigby. We spoke with Schoemer about the making of this album, her work with Bernadette Mayer, and how August differs from her earlier musical and literary ventures.
The guiding principle of Six Ridiculous Questions is that life is filled with ridiculousness. And questions. That only by giving in to these truths may we hope to slip the surly bonds of reality and attain the higher consciousness we all crave. (Eh, not really, but it sounded good there for a minute.) It’s just. Who knows? The ridiculousness and question bits, I guess. Why six? Assonance, baby, assonance.
Travis Egedy has a lot going on. You may know him best from his musical work under the name Pictureplane or the designs he’s created for the clothing company Alien Body. Pictureplane has a new album out this fall, titled Sex Distortion, and we got together over email to discuss that record, Egedy’s approach to collaboration, and how the aesthetics of horror have shaped his work.
Robert Lopez is the author, most recently, of The Best People (2025), the third installment of interconnected “People” books, which began with Good People (2016) and continued with A Better Class of People (2022). Similarly, Molly Gaudry is the author of Fit Into Me: A Novel: A Memoir, which is the third installment of interconnected “tea house woman” books, which began with We Take Me Apart (2010) and continued with Desire: A Haunting (2018).
Writer and visual artist Aubrey Hirsch knows Clarence Thomas won’t be reading Graphic Rage – and that’s fine. Her new book isn’t meant to convert opponents; it aims to witness, validate, and give readers a steadier sense that they’re not alone.
How best to describe Mattie Lubchansky‘s new graphic novel Simplicity? It’s a nestled narrative about how a futuristic society remembers the past; it’s an unsettling account of an academic learning too much about the history of an isolated community; and it’s a psychedelic-infused story where bizarre creatures lurk just out of sight. There’s a lot going on, basically, and Lubchansky deftly balances these seemingly disparate elements throughout. I spoke with her about utopias past and future, the legacy of The Wicker Man, and the follies of jetpacks.
I’m Kris Bertin, author of a few books of short stories, screenplays that never got made, and Hobtown Mystery Stories, a collection of surrealist small-town folk-horror stories published with ONI Press, and I’m here to introduce you to Little Visitor & Other Abductions and interview its author Adam Szym.
When I got on the phone with David Scott Hay this summer, we had plenty to discuss. He’s running Headless, a new horror-centric imprint at Whiskey Tit, the indie press on which we’ve both released novels. The first book published under this imprimatur is an anthology featuring work from the likes of Eric LaRocca and Tananarive Due, Connoisseur Volume 1: Feast. Next February will see the publication of The Butcher of Nazareth, Hay’s next novel, which takes a visceral look at religious history. Our conversation touched on both projects as well as Hay’s experience in theater — and the uncanny appeal of horror stories.