Six Authors, One Hot Weekend: The Bleeding Margin at Miami Book Fair
The November Miami heat was intense, not that DC is particularly chilly this time of year. But even though the sun had draped the campus of Miami Dade College—the home for the Miami Book Fair—like an over-heavy winter blanket, we were impervious.
The fair, now in its 41st year, was our people: thousands of readers, authors, publishers, and various other enthusiasts of the written word, all either crammed in the shaded streets lined with stalls, standing in lines holding hardbacks and felt-tip pens, or attending panels in classrooms and auditoriums.
And there was no shortage of opportunities for those readers who love horror and dark fiction.
Our purpose at the fair was to discover new authors and works, make connections, and conduct interviews for The Bleeding Margin magazine and podcast. To that end, the trip was a resounding success.
Our first interview is already available on our podcast, a lengthy conversation with DC author Lacey N. Dunham, whose first novel, The Belles, is garnering a lot of attention with its portrayal of a group of young girls in the 1950s at a private school in Virginia where past horrors refuse to leave the characters in peace…with terrifying results.
We also spoke with author Paul Tremblay about his recent novel Horror Movie and his own personal experience in the film industry during the making of the movie A Knock at the Cabin, based on his novel The Cabin at the End of the World and directed by M. Night Shyamalan.
Thanks to the wonderful media relations team at the fair, we also managed to secure an interview with horror fiction icon Stephen Graham Jones, with whom we discussed his approach to writing and his love affair with ’80s horror films.
Our conversation with Maika and Maritza Moulite, authors of the book The Summer I Ate the Rich, a chilling tale about a young Haitian immigrant’s penchant for a certain culinary idiosyncrasy, was a true pleasure. Writing duos are rare, and it was fascinating to get a window into their creative process.
Genre chameleon Quan Barry was with us to talk about The Unveiling, her fourth novel but first in the horror genre. The novel skirts the conventions of horror in favor of a tragic end-of-the-world tale of collective and personal trauma against the backdrop of the Antarctic wasteland.
Finally, Romina Garber spoke with us about her new YA novel, The Last Vampire, a story that both pays homage to the tradition of vampire lore in the genre while also forging a path entirely its own. Garber’s approach to world-building as a means of giving her characters familiar yet startlingly unique settings to inhabit was fascinating to explore.
In short, we had a blast. And we think you will, too, when you get to read and listen to these interviews. Look for them to be made available over the next several weeks.
Horror Is Hot (especially in Miami),
John Mark and Vivian