I don’t think we talk about horror authors enough. There are plenty of things spotlighting filmmakers and directors, actors, even screenwriters, but horror authors are rarely mentioned. I’m a big reader and would love to hear more from these writers who can bring on the nightmares. This is one of the reasons I’m super excited about the new TV series by Philip Gelatt (The Spine of Night – read our interview with him HERE), First Word on Horror (read our review HERE). This docuseries profiles several popular horror authors (Paul Tremblay – read our interview with him HERE; Stephen Graham Jones – read our interview with him HERE; Elizabeth Hand – read our interview with her HERE; Laird Barron; Mariana Enriquez) as they discuss their writing, relationship with horror, and tidbits about their lives while reading some of their work.
To celebrate the release of the show, I chatted with author Mariana Enriquez (Our Share of Night; A Sunny Place for Shady People) about becoming part of the show, why she embraces the horror genre, and more!
PopHorror: I’m super excited to talk to you today! I really love First Word on Horror. I think it’s such a great idea to open people up to new authors and get people reading. How were you approached for the series and what made you want to say yes?
Mariana Enriquez: I think the proposal came when the director approached my publishers in the US and maybe it was from Paul Tremblay. We are friends with each other, and we read each other. I should say I read him because he can’t read me in Spanish, but I read his novels before they’re published sometimes. I think maybe he pointed out to Phil… It was like a triangle layout. Paul is fan, Phil really liked Our Share of Night. And I said yes because those writers that are featured are the writers that I read. Contemporary horror fiction writers that I read – Paul, Elizabeth, Laird, Stephen. I mean, they are the writers that I read of my age and of my generation. The writers that I couldn’t sometimes find in Spanish and I started reading them in compilations of short stories in English and then I would find the book and it was like, who are these people that are my age and in the same headspace. Admittedly, I said yes.
PopHorror: The other writers and you included, it’s really a who’s who of today’s writers, the hottest horror writers that are out there right now. They managed to get you all together to talk about writing and horror, and that’s pretty amazing to me. How did you decide on your short story, Adela’s House, to be featured in your segment?
Mariana Enriquez: I think Phil wanted it because he loves the novel, Our Share of Night, and the short story, it’s kind of in the… It’s kind of not. It’s in the novel like a metaverse kind of thing. It’s not that the novel grew up from the story but when I was writing the novel, I decided to put the story, a bit changed, in the novel and he really liked that. Also, I think it’s a microcosm. Most of what I do is suburban legend, the horror in childhood, disappearances, alternative realities in this one, but all in a very kind of familiar, everyday way because of social commentary, I think it’s a very simple way to say, okay, this is what she does in a nutshell. When he mentioned to me that he wanted this to be the story, I said yes because I understand that it’s a good presentation for someone that hasn’t read me. He was like, “This is her area.”
PopHorror: I thought it was a great choice. You said something in your segment that really stayed with me. You said that your parents said to you, “Don’t be strange. Go out and play with them,” and you were like, “I didn’t.” I was wondering if they meant like you, as a child, was strange and to not be that way and just go out and play, or if it was strange that you were not playing with the other children. I feel like as an adult, I say that to myself a lot. Don’t be strange, don’t be weird. But then on the other hand, I’m like, I want them to see how I really am. I’m weird and I’m strange.
Mariana Enriquez: I think they were worried, my mother especially. My father didn’t… But my mother especially, she was worried. She didn’t want me to be unhappy. She found that a child that prefers to stay by herself rather than playing with other children… I did like playing with other children but not all the time. I remember how I was and I remember I really liked it but not all the time, but she didn’t know what was going on inside of me so I think she was scared. I don’t have children but I can relate to how much you must feel at a loss when you see a child that is kind of different to the norm and how you despair, and instead of being adult about it. She must have, I don’t know, 31? That is a child to me now. So I think that’s what it was. She was worried. I don’t think she had a problem with me being strange, she just didn’t want me to be isolated and unhappy. I was an only child and it was like, don’t let the others know that you’re different.
PopHorror: It’s funny to me, that now as adults – and I can’t talk for you – we embrace that strangeness and that solitariness and want different things than when we were children. I also really liked it when you were talking about finding religion and that your mom passes out going into a church and you nonchalantly add, “Yeah, she’s the antichrist.”
Mariana Enriquez: She is, yeah.
PopHorror: What keeps drawing you back to the horror genre?
Mariana Enriquez: It gives me a lot of pleasure and I still think it’s the most daring and brave genre out there. Even with writers that get a lot of success, still their books are completely out there and you can get away with saying things about the human condition and our darkness and this that we say, embracing the weird, embracing our weird fantasies, that everything is trying to deal with our dark side, the dark side of other people, the dark side of the system, the system that we created as a humanity. Last night I was reading Eric LaRocca. Do you know him?
PopHorror: I do.
Mariana Enriquez: The thing that I was reading is his new novel that he sent me. It’s insane. It’s insane. It has necrophilia. It has all kinds of things. Nobody will get upset about that because it’s confined to horror fiction. You have a freedom there, where writers in this era that everybody’s very scared of, of being offensive, of overstepping, of this or that. In horror fiction somehow, because it’s looked upon as something that is minor and trashy, writers have a lot of freedom and are really pushing it. Like, wow! So, from an aesthetic and literary point of view, I think there’s a lot of value there. I think there’s a lot of freedom there and experimentation and daring when in other ways in a lot of other spaces in literature are very formulaic. And also, I just love it. I just get an adrenaline feeling over it. I’m still fascinated by the same things. I’m not a person that gets really upset by certain things in fiction. I don’t have a problem reading cruelty in fiction. To me, it’s thinking together about what the real world is, what reality is. It’s very, very horrendous. I really like to talk about it, and in horror fiction, you are talking about it all the time, and at the same time, you’re doing it from a relatively playful place. There’s a community there that I really like. I do other things, too. I do journalism, I do nonfiction, but horror is always the safe space.
PopHorror: I have just one last question for you today. What is your favorite scary movie?
Mariana Enriquez: It depends on the era. Classic scary I think is Rosemary’s Baby. Pop scary I think is A Nightmare on Elm Street. I’ve never been so scared in a cinema in all my life. Never. Nowadays, I think It Follows.
Thank you so much to Mariana for taking time to speak with us. First Word on Horror is now on Substack!
