thank you to everyone who touched this essay, from inception to editorial, and to the crushers and crushees who read and shared it this year! and thank you Alexander Chee for selecting it—and for encouraging queer, trans, and authors of color to submit work for consideration ❤️

“Sofia Samatar, one of our most gifted fabulists, uses fantasy to stage her own cross-cultural exchange: in this case, a transhistorical talking-back-to, a wistful intervention from the present to the past.”—Megan Milks on “The White Mosque” Catapult 4columns.org/milks-megan/th…

Oh no. I just tried this and it's... comfy. Am I going to have to start holding pens for revenge?

'Maybe this makes me a bad writer, or an undermotivated, poorly disciplined one. But it’s the only kind of writer I feel capable of being.' Katie Okamoto on omamori, luck, how to find your way back to writing: catapult.co/stories/i-soug…

H. Dair Brown is on a roll with #flash fiction #horror right now with a review of Tiny Nightmares: Very Short Stories of Horror! Ed. by @thelincoln & Nadxieli Nieto, this collection of 40 stories will hit the spot when you need a quick bite of horror! 📚😱
unsettlingreads.squarespace.com/blog/tinynight…

As Natasha “Boo👻 Bees🐝” Oladokun 🎃 writes, The Witch is terrifying because it depicts the deep levels of cruelty humans are capable of—especially when they believe their religion condones it: 'We are capable of so much destruction on our own, without the aid of devils.' catapult.co/stories/natash…

Wrote about my obsession w crosswords for Catapult and wrote a real puzzle too! Go solve! catapult.co/stories/why-i-…

🎃 This spooky season, I’m happy to share my latest essay in Catapult on Robert Eggers’ THE WITCH (2015)!

The occult, theology of hell, religious trauma, Evangelical Puritanism, demonic goats—it’s all here.

catapult.co/stories/natash…

'When I envision language as a place of struggle, I imagine that I am leaning into the tension inherent to my identity as a Black woman writer in a country and field that were not created with me in mind.' Najya Williams chats with Gabrielle Bellot: catapult.co/dont-write-alo…

'The very concept of the crossword relies on the belief that there is a body of common knowledge that most people will or should know . . . But who decides what’s common knowledge?' @celiamattison on her journey into crossword puzzles: catapult.co/stories/why-i-…

'I must listen to callings higher than writing, like loosening a stiff body to prepare for a long day of pain.' aditi natasha kini on how writing advice is made for able bodies: catapult.co/dont-write-alo…

Sofia Samatar and Kate Zambreno discuss Sofia's new THE WHITE MOSQUE in person at Strand Book Store tonight! 7pm!
Get your last minute ticket here!
eventbrite.com/e/sofia-samata…

'The frightening underbelly of wealth has powered our image of the haunted house for decades.' Nour Abi-Nakhoul on the horrifying minimalism of the modern haunted house. Read here: catapult.co/stories/nour-a…

Florida kitsch swirls together with magical realism in this glittering debut novel about a young Black and Indigenous woman who learns to change the color of her skin—NOTES ON HER COLOR arrives with a bang next May!
penguinrandomhouse.com/books/719497/n…

'Over the last decade, more and more horror films have begun to use fashionable modernist structures as settings for terror.' Nour Abi-Nakhoul on the horrifying minimalism of the modern haunted house: catapult.co/stories/nour-a…