Linda Addison Will Scare You (In A Good Way) | Tempest Challenge BHM

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If the new movie Get Out is the first time you’ve heard of some Black folks creating media in the horror genre, then you seriously need to take your butt to the nearest online bookstore and check out Linda Addison’s work. Linda is most well known for her horror poetry, which has earned her multiple Bram Stoker Awards given out by the Horror Writers of America. My favorite collection is How To Recognize A Demon Has Become Your Friend, but her contribution to Four Elements is a close second.

Linda produces the kind of writing that draws you in whether you’re particularly into poetry or not, and even if you’re not so big on mainstream horror. Just listen to her read “Precious” to get what I mean (scroll down a ways).

Eden Royce, who is way more eloquent than I can hope to be, said this about How to Recognize a Demon Has Become Your Friend:

…her poetry is moody and melodic; the meter weaves a dimly lit path and you feel compelled to follow. The verse itself is seductive, almost playful—the picture of elegant disturbia. The prose included in the book is a combination of sub-genres, and you get a taste of homespun magic along with science fiction-laced Gothic horror.

You should read this excellent interview with her in the HWA’s Women in Horror Month series, then pick up a copy of one or all of her poetry collections, then visit her website for a list of other places to find her stuff, and also check out Sycorax’s Daughters, a horror anthology of fiction & poetry by African-American women (some new, some known), edited by Addison, Kinitra Brooks PhD, and Susana Morris PhD.

Previous in series Next in seriesTable of contents for Tempest Challenge: Black History MonthTempest Challenge: Black History Month EditionBlack Women in 19th Century American Life | Tempest Challenge BHMThe Temple of My Familiar by Alice Walker | Tempest Challenge BHMScott Woods: Just Read Everything He Writes | Tempest Challenge BHMEartha Kitt’s Biographies | Tempest Challenge BHMZora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters | Tempest Challenge BHMMelissa Harris-Perry at ELLE | Tempest Challenge BHMWhy Black Stories Matter – Adam H.C. Myrie | Tempest Challenge BHMSun Ra and Afrofuturism | Tempest Challenge BHMMy Life, My Love, My Legacy by Coretta Scott King | Tempest Challenge BHMParable of the Sower / Parable of the Talents by Octavia E Butler | Tempest Challenge BHMLinda Addison Will Scare You (In A Good Way) | Tempest Challenge BHMPushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools by Monique W. Morris | Tempest Challenge BHMKintu by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi | Tempest Challenge BHM