Queer Horror Knows the Monster Rarely Stays Dead

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Southpoint AccessWes Platt

Horror fiction probably has always known what queer people know: That which wants to destroy you rarely stays dead. It returns wearing new faces, asking you to shrink, to hide, to become easier to understand.

For local writers Jes Malitoris and Michael G. Williams, queer fiction answers that threat not by softening the monster, but by claiming it and by turning fear, strangeness, and refusal into a source of power.

That idea should help shape Queer Fiction: Taking Pride in Our Writing, a June 18 event at Arcana in Durham, featuring Malitoris, Williams, and Natania Barron. It starts at 7 p.m. Readers and writers are welcome for a discussion of queer storytelling, horror, identity, community, and the freedom to write beyond the boundaries others try to impose.