The Monster She Wrote Podcast

Lisa Kroger and Melanie R. Anderson, authors of MONSTER, SHE WROTE (Quirk Books), discuss women in the horror genre.

Mary Wilkins Freeman's Luella Miller 11/11/2025

Mary Wilkins Freeman's Luella Miller In Mary Wilkins Freeman’s short story “Luella Miller,” a tale is told about a woman named Luella, who is prone to hysterics and drains the energy from everyone around her. Is she just a woman in need of help? Or something much, much more sinister? Read Freeman’s story on the Library of America site or listen to it via the Podcastle podcast, here: Recommended in this episode: and NEWS: We have a now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses. UP NEXT: Buy our books , including our newest /episode/index/show/monstershewrotepodcast/id/38495460

Jen Julian's Red Rabbit Ghost 10/28/2025

Jen Julian's Red Rabbit Ghost Last episode, we welcomed author Jen Julian on podcast. And this episode, Mel and Lisa discuss her book in more detail. College Freshman Jesse Calloway returns to his hometown of Blacknot in North Carolina after receiving mysterious anonymous texts in a college social media app with clues about his mother’s unresolved death. She died when he was an infant, so he doesn’t remember much of her–and he will do anything to learn more. Unfortunately, layers of secrets cover this small town tragedy (and other aspects of its past as well), and it will be hard for Jesse to uncover the truth while simultaneously facing his unresolved loss. Recommended in this episode: by Mo Moshaty NEWS: We have a now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses. UP NEXT: Mary Wilkins Freeman’s Buy our books , including our newest /episode/index/show/monstershewrotepodcast/id/38407725

Interview with Jen Julian 10/14/2025

Interview with Jen Julian Today, we welcome writer Jen Julian to discuss her book . Jen Julian is a writer from Eastern North Carolina. She holds a PhD in English from the University of Missouri, Columbia, and an MFA in Fiction from UNC Greensboro. Her short story collection, , was the winner of the Press 53 Fiction Prize and was published in 2018, and her debut novel, , is out now through Orbit/Redhook, 2025. Recent work has appeared in Gulf Coast Magazine, , , , , Third Coast Magazine, , and , among other places. She has won numerous awards, been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best Small Fictions, and Best of the Net, and had her work recognized as notable in The Best American Short Stories 2023. Recommended in this episode: Alisa Alering’s and Rebecca Baum’s forthcoming NEWS: We have a now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses. UP NEXT: We discuss in more detail. Buy our books , including our newest /episode/index/show/monstershewrotepodcast/id/38265525

Elizabeth Hand's A Haunting on the Hill 09/30/2025

Elizabeth Hand's A Haunting on the Hill In Elizabeth Hand’s , Holly Sherwin is living every writer's dream. She has grant money to finish her new play, which she uses to rent a mansion in the woods so that she can work in peace. The only problem? The mansion is Hill House, a living, breathing bad place that promises to turn Holly’s dream into a nightmare. Recommended in this episode: Laura Purcell’s NEWS: We have a now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses. UP NEXT: Interview with author Buy our books , including our newest /episode/index/show/monstershewrotepodcast/id/38238870

Tanith Lee's "Where All Things Perish" 09/16/2025

Tanith Lee's "Where All Things Perish" “She looks through water, / She looks through air, She leaps at the moon / And she looks in. Give her silver, Give her gold, / And bind her eyes With a brick and a pin.” “Where All Things Perish” by Tanith Lee was first published in Weird Tales #325 (Fall 2001). It’s available in full on , which also links to an interview with Lee by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer. Recommended in this episode: by Lindsey Fitzharris NEWS: We have a now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses. UP NEXT: by Elizabeth Hand Buy our books , including our newest /episode/index/show/monstershewrotepodcast/id/38141730

MSW Classic: "The Summer People" by Shirley Jackson 08/19/2025

MSW Classic: "The Summer People" by Shirley Jackson We are on a summer hiatus, but we will be returning with brand-new episodes soon! Please enjoy this classic episode on "The Summer People" by Shirley Jackson. Shirley Jackson once again proves that she is the queen of creepy short stories, this time with her story “The Summer People.” The story starts idyllic, like many of Jackson’s stories. The Allisons are a wealthy older couple who summer in a cabin by a lake in rural New England. Their picturesque existence quickly turns nightmarish, however, when they decide to extend their trip and stay past Labor Day. /episode/index/show/monstershewrotepodcast/id/36924425

MSW Classic: "Summer" by Tananarive Due 07/15/2025

MSW Classic: "Summer" by Tananarive Due We are on summer hiatus! So please enjoy this MSW Classic episode on Tanarive Due's "Ghost Summer" Tananarive Due’s “Summer” (from her story collection Ghost Summer) is set in her fictional town of Gracetown, Florida, where the humid and murky swamps hide bodies and demon leeches. It’s not a place to raise a baby–or maybe it is. /episode/index/show/monstershewrotepodcast/id/36924400

Interview with R. A. Busby (Part 2) 06/10/2025

Interview with R. A. Busby (Part 2) Author of , the eco-horror YOU WILL SPEAK FOR THE DEAD, and the Stoker-nominated story “Ten Thousand Crawling Children,” R.A. Busby spends her spare time running in the desert with her dog and thinking about weird things to write about. Recommended in this episode: and by R. A. Busby NEWS: We have a now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses. UP NEXT: Summer HIATUS! Buy our books , including our newest /episode/index/show/monstershewrotepodcast/id/36615195

Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games 05/27/2025

Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games Every year, two children from one of twelve districts in Panem are chosen to participate in the where they will fight each other to the death for the entertainment of the Capitol–and the chance to bring undreamt of wealth back to their poor families. When young Primrose is chosen as one of the tributes, her older sister Katniss sacrifices herself to go in her place. But now, 16-year-old Katniss must learn how to survive–and how to kill. Recommended in this episode: Julia Bartz’s and Paulette Kennedy’s Thanks to Fox and Wit for sending us their Nightshade . NEWS: We have a now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses. UP NEXT: Summer HIATUS! We will be back with new episodes soon! Buy our books , including our newest /episode/index/show/monstershewrotepodcast/id/36669930

MSW Classic: R. A. Busby 05/13/2025

MSW Classic: R. A. Busby Please enjoy this re-run of a classic Monster, She Wrote episode. Author of the novella Corporate Body and the Shirley Jackson Award-winning story "Not the Man I Married," R.A. Busby spends her spare time running in the desert with her dog and finding weird things to write about. /episode/index/show/monstershewrotepodcast/id/36487195

Interview with Tracy Cross 04/29/2025

Interview with Tracy Cross Tracy Cross is a dealer in dark fiction, her gripping stories featured in a range of podcasts and anthologies. Her debut novel, the gripping "Rootwork" (Dark Hart Publishing, November 2022), explores the strong bonds of family and draws on her own heritage in hoodoo. This is followed by "A Gathering of Weapons" (October 2024), the second book of the Rootwork series. Tracy resides in Washington, DC, where she is an active member of the Horror Writers Association. When she's not busy writing scary stories, she's dancing to disco. Keep up with her news and musings at her blog: . You can also follow her on Instagram @tracycrosswrites, on Bluesky @tracycrosswriter.bksy.social, and on Threads: @tracycrosswrites. Recommended in this episode: and by Tracy Cross NEWS: We have a now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses. UP NEXT: by Suzanne Collins Buy our books , including our newest /episode/index/show/monstershewrotepodcast/id/36096900

Reading Banned Books 04/15/2025

Reading Banned Books (launched in 1982) is normally in September/October, but given the state of things, we thought it was a relevant topic. Buying physical copies of books, when you can, seems to be a smart thing to do. PEN estimates that book bans have doubled in the past year; h Some of our sources: Data from the ; ; ; ; Recommended in this episode: and NEWS: We have a now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses. UP NEXT: Buy our books , including our newest /episode/index/show/monstershewrotepodcast/id/36066595

MSW Classic: Moths by Rosalind Ashe 04/01/2025

MSW Classic: Moths by Rosalind Ashe We are rerunning the classic episode to celebrate the upcoming release of Moths through Valancourt Books as part of their Monster, She Wrote series. Rosalind Ashe’s Moths was marketed as a book for fans of Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca. And there are some similarities: a beautiful old estate with a crumbling wing. A young wife who moves in determined to make it her own. And a dead woman haunting the home that was once hers. But what would happen if Rebecca had possessed the body of the new wife? That’s what Ashe’s book posits. So join us as we discuss Moths. UP NEXT: an episode on banned books and then an interview with horror author Tracy Cross /episode/index/show/monstershewrotepodcast/id/35869525

"The End of the Voyage" by Bora Chung 03/18/2025

"The End of the Voyage" by Bora Chung In “The End of the Voyage,” a short story in Bora Chung’s collection , a group escapes a pandemic here on Earth by jumping into a spaceship. As they search for a safe place to live, their trip takes a dark turn. Recommended in this episode: by Emily Henry NEWS: We have a now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses. UP NEXT: Banned Books Buy our books , including our newest /episode/index/show/monstershewrotepodcast/id/35606970

So Thirsty by Rachel Harrison 03/04/2025

So Thirsty by Rachel Harrison In by Rachel Harrison, Sloane Parker HATES birthday celebrations, but her husband and best friend Naomi conspire to give Sloane a weekend away at a posh lakeside cottage. The girls’ weekend away takes a dark and bloody turn, however, after a wild night out with some mysterious strangers. Recommended in this episode: by Isabel Canas and by Deanna Raybourn NEWS: We have a now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses. UP NEXT: “The End of the Voyage” in by Bora Chung Buy our books , including our newest /episode/index/show/monstershewrotepodcast/id/35220580

Linghun by Ai Jiang 02/18/2025

Linghun by Ai Jiang by Ai Jiang is set in the mysterious HOME, a suburb of Toronto, where the residents live among the ghosts. Winqi, a high school senior, must navigate her new town, where grief cuts everyone off from the rest of the world. Recommended in this episode: “The Center for Immortality Research” in by Bora Chung) and Mike Chen’s NEWS: We have a now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses. UP NEXT: by Rachel Harrison Buy our books , including our newest /episode/index/show/monstershewrotepodcast/id/35115850

You'll Like My Mother (film adaptation) 02/04/2025

You'll Like My Mother (film adaptation) Last episode, we read the Gothic horror You’ll Like My Mother by Naomi A. Hintze, which was recently re-released with Valancourt Books. In it, a pregnant widow named Francesca is trapped in her mother-in-law’s home and must escape. This episode, we are discussing , starring Patty Duke. Recommended in this episode: by David Ian McKendry and Rebekah McKendry, by Cassandra Rose Clarke, and by Malka Older NEWS: We have a now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses. UP NEXT: by Ai Jiang Buy our books , including our newest /episode/index/show/monstershewrotepodcast/id/34942135

You'll Like My Mother by Naomi A. Hintze 01/21/2025

You'll Like My Mother by Naomi A. Hintze Pregnant Francesca finds herself a widow at a young age after her husband is sent to Vietnam. Without support from her family, she embarks on a cross-country journey to her late husband’s family home in Ohio. While she’s never met her mother-in-law, she hopes that she will be welcomed in. His childhood home, though, is nothing like she was told it was–and her new mother-in-law might be more dangerous than she anticipated. Recommended in this episode: by Rebecca Yarros and by Cherie Dimaline NEWS: We have a now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses. UP NEXT: , starring Patty Duke Buy our books , including our newest /episode/index/show/monstershewrotepodcast/id/34888915

MSW Classic: The Woman in Black 01/07/2025

MSW Classic: The Woman in Black Mel and Lisa are busy gearing up for a new season in this new year! In the meantime, enjoy this classic episode of the podcast, perfect for the Gothic feeling that is January. UP NEXT: Season 6 kicks off with Naomi A. Hintze's You'll Like my Mother. /episode/index/show/monstershewrotepodcast/id/34719795

MSW Classic: Adaptation 12/24/2024

MSW Classic: Adaptation Enjoy this classic podcast episode and have a happy and safe holiday season! NEWS: We have a now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses. More info about the Canadian museum exhibit here: (Opening October 5 until December 20, 2024 - Temporary Exhibit) UP NEXT: The holiday season is approaching, and we are going to take full advantage. So the podcast will be on hiatus for the remainder of 2024. We will run a few of our favorite holiday episodes from years past. We will be back in 2025 with a brand new episode. Buy our books , including our newest /episode/index/show/monstershewrotepodcast/id/34139946

MSW Classic: Helen Oyeyemi's Gingerbread 12/10/2024

MSW Classic: Helen Oyeyemi's Gingerbread Enjoy this classic podcast episode and have a happy and safe holiday season! NEWS: We have a now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses. More info about the Canadian museum exhibit here: (Opening October 5 until December 20, 2024 - Temporary Exhibit) UP NEXT: The holiday season is approaching, and we are going to take full advantage. So the podcast will be on hiatus for the remainder of 2024. We will run a few of our favorite holiday episodes from years past. We will be back in 2025 with a brand new episode. Buy our books , including our newest /episode/index/show/monstershewrotepodcast/id/34139701

Jenny Kiefer's This Wretched Valley 11/26/2024

Jenny Kiefer's This Wretched Valley In Jenny Kiefer’s , there is a bad place just off a highway in a secluded forest in Kentucky. When a small group made up of geology grad students and rock climbers set up camp there to document a previously unknown rock wall, they find more than they bargained for. The place is old. And it isn’t always what it seems. Recommended in this episode: Grady Hendrix’s NEWS: We have a now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses. More info about the Canadian museum exhibit here: (Opening October 5 until December 20, 2024 - Temporary Exhibit) UP NEXT: The holiday season is approaching, and we are going to take full advantage. So the podcast will be on hiatus for the remainder of 2024. We will run a few of our favorite holiday episodes from years past. We will be back in 2025 with a brand new episode. Buy our books , including our newest /episode/index/show/monstershewrotepodcast/id/33916062

Interview with Jenny Kiefer 11/12/2024

Interview with Jenny Kiefer Jenny Kiefer is a debut author, avid rock climber, and Kentucky resident. She also owns and manages Butcher Cabin Books, a horror bookstore in Louisville, KY, with her mother. Her background is in copywriting and journalism, and she is the recipient of the Miracle Monocle Editor’s Award for Emerging Writers and four Society of Professional Journalism Awards. She was a 2021 Pitch Wars mentee and is a member of the Horror Writers Association. NEWS: We have a now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses. More info about the Canadian museum exhibit here: (Opening October 5 until December 20, 2024 - Temporary Exhibit) UP NEXT: Buy our books , including our newest /episode/index/show/monstershewrotepodcast/id/33792762

Halloween Special: Agatha All Along 10/29/2024

Halloween Special: Agatha All Along For Toil and Trouble, our book, we did a deep dive into research of the witch. And since the witch is a mainstay of this time of year, we thought it would be fun to do a little bit of a different episode today. We watched the first two episodes of Disney Plus’s Agatha All Along. NEWS: We have a now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses. More info about the Canadian museum exhibit here: (Opening October 5 until December 20, 2024 - Temporary Exhibit) Recommended in this episode: and (available for preorder) UP NEXT: An interview with Jenny Keifer. Her new book is available on our Bookshop! Buy our books , including our newest /episode/index/show/monstershewrotepodcast/id/33550517

Christa Carmen's The Daughters of Block Island 10/15/2024

Christa Carmen's The Daughters of Block Island In this episode, we are discussing Christa Carmen’s meta Gothic novel with special guest Crystal O’Leary-Davidson. Crystal O’Leary-Davidson, writing as C. O. Davidson has published fiction in PseudoPod, Cemetery Gates, and in anthologies, most recently Hard to Find: An Anthology of New Southern Gothic. Her story, “The Mark,” in Vastarien, was recognized by editor Ellen Datlow in her anthology of The Best of Horror of the Year, Vol. 15 as one of the works of “notable dark fiction in 2022.” An English professor at Middle Georgia State University, she teaches classes in the Gothic, the Weird, and slasher horror films, and she co-edited a book of critical essays, Monsters of Film, Fiction, and Fable. Currently she is writing on the American mall in teen horror. Davidson serves on the board of Broadleaf Writers, and is one of the founding members of the Atlanta Chapter of the Horror Writers Association.She makes her home in Georgia amongst the pine trees with her husband, the novelist Andy Davidson, and their clowder of beloved cats. NEWS: We have a now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses. Recommended in this episode: B.R. Myers’s and I Saw the TV Glow UP NEXT: a very special Halloween episode! Buy our books , including our newest /episode/index/show/monstershewrotepodcast/id/33327162

The Unmothers by Leslie J. Anderson 10/01/2024

The Unmothers by Leslie J. Anderson About : After the death of her husband, journalist Marshall is sent to the small town of Raeford to investigate a clearly ridiculous rumor—that a horse has given birth to a human baby. As she's pulled deeper into the town and its guarded people, she realizes Raeford may be harboring more dark secrets than she expected. NEWS: We have a now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses. Recommended in this episode: by Hildur Knútsdóttir UP NEXT: with special guest Crystal O’Leary-Davidson Buy our books , including our newest /episode/index/show/monstershewrotepodcast/id/32990262

Interview with Leslie J. Anderson 09/17/2024

Interview with Leslie J. Anderson Leslie J. Anderson has spent much of her life riding, training, and caring for horses. Her collection of poetry, An Inheritance of Stone, was nominated for an Elgin Award. She has a master’s in creative writing from Ohio University and lives in Ohio with her family. is her debut novel. NEWS: We have a now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses. UP NEXT: The Unmothers Buy our books , including our newest /episode/index/show/monstershewrotepodcast/id/32971557

Joyce Carol Oates's "The Long-Legged Girl" 09/03/2024

Joyce Carol Oates's "The Long-Legged Girl" Joyce Carol Oates’s story “The Long-Legged Girl” (collected in ) is part horror story, part cozy mystery…after all, the plot of the story revolves around a teapot. That tea contains poison, of course, but the sentiment is there nonetheless. Our story begins as a frustrated housewife hosts her professor-husband’s young, gorgeous, and yes, long-legged student at their home. NEWS: We have a now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses. Recommended in this episode: and Bonus Recs: and UP NEXT: Interview with Leslie J. Anderson () Buy our books , including our newest /episode/index/show/monstershewrotepodcast/id/32743047

Tananarive Due’s The Reformatory 08/20/2024

Tananarive Due’s The Reformatory Join Mel and Lisa as we discuss Tananarive Due’s . When 12-year-old Robert Stephens is sent to Gracetown School For Boys, a reformatory, he finds himself in a nightmare. Like many children in Gracetown, Florida, he has a special ability to see ghosts, a “talent” which the warden exploits, charging Robbie with the task of getting rid of the “haints” of the boys who died because of the warden’s cruel treatment. NEWS: We have a now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses. Recommended in this episode: Stephen Graham Jones’s and Julia Alvarez’s UP NEXT: “The Long Legged Girl” by Joyce Carol Oates (collected in ) Buy our books , including our newest /episode/index/show/monstershewrotepodcast/id/32544337

Lora Senf's The Clackity 08/06/2024

Lora Senf's The Clackity Join Lisa and Mel as they discuss . Young Evie lives with her aunt in Blight Harbor–a seemingly quiet small town where everyone knows each other and looks out for each other. There’s just one small problem: it is the seventh most haunted town in America. Nearly everywhere you go, there are ghosts. Most are friendly. Still, there are some places everyone avoids. Like the abattoir. But now Evie must go there to save her aunt, who has gone missing. NEWS: We have a now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses. Recommended in this episode: UP NEXT: Buy our books , including our newest /episode/index/show/monstershewrotepodcast/id/32258712

The Monster She Wrote Podcast

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