TOD 057 Home Is Where the [Cosmic] Horror Is Panel at HPLFF 2019

In this podcast The Outer Dark presents ‘Home Is Where the [Cosmic] Horror Is’ Panel at H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival 2019 moderated by Gordon B. White and featuring Sam Cowan, Michael Griffin, Anya Martin, Evan Peterson, and Brooke Warra, plus an introductory interview with Brooke Warra and News from The Weird with Justin Steele. Home Is Where the [Cosmic] Horror Is was recorded live on Saturday October 5, 2019, and News from the Weird and interview with Brooke Warra were recorded Monday October 14, 2019.

News from The Weird & Interview with Brooke Warra

Justin Steele joins Anya for the latest Weird fiction publishing news from Lovecraft eZine, Nightscape Press, Floating World Comics, Trepidatio Publishing, Multiverse Con, and Vastarien: A Literary Journal. Then Brooke Warra joins Anya (0:06:36) to introduce the panel and delve deep into the creation of Luminous Body, her new novella chapbook from Dim Shores including working with publisher Sam Cowan and her artist daughter Zoe Leigh, writing about layered relationships among generations of women, living in the Uncanny Valley, how ‘grief makes you a time traveler’, Weird fiction as a mode that connects our experiences, when objects get Weird, response to the book, moving beyond certain women character tropes in horror, and what’s next. If you missed Gordon’s review of Luminous Body last week, listen here.

Show Notes

(0:34:10) In this podcast, The Outer Dark airs ‘Home Is Where the [Cosmic] Horror Is’ Panel at H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival 2019 moderated by Gordon B. White and featuring Sam Cowan, Michael Griffin, Anya Martin, Evan Peterson, and Brooke Warra. The panelists introduce themselves, then discuss what it is about home, whether defined by domestic relationships/social structures versus a physical place, that draws them personally to read and write (especially cosmic) horror in this context as well as why it resonates with audiences including roots in the Gothic tradition and recent family-based films such as The Babadook (2014), Get Out (2017), Hereditary (2018), The Witch (2015), and Richard Stanley’s The Color Out of Space (2019), which had its Northwest US Regional Debut at HPLFF. The conversation moves quickly from the cosmic horror of a family member with cancer to the Weird/monster as escape/savior from the horrors/monsters of everyday existence to how horror stories about home evolve when told from the point of view of The Other/marginalized groups and feature non-traditional families and settings such as apartment living. The panelists conclude with their votes for a trope they’d like to retire and one they’d like to see more of in domestic/home horror/Weird fiction.

The Outer Dark Symposium on the Greater Weird is the only annual conference centered around contemporary Weird fiction. Our mission is to foster conversation and connect communities among the diverse slate of creators and audience members under the umbrella of speculative fiction—inclusive, safe and welcoming to women, LBGTQ+, and writers of color. The fourth annual symposium will be held March 26-27, 2020 at Silver Scream FX Lab. Find out more, including a link to purchase supporting and attending memberships at TheOuterDark.org.