May 31, 2021
We are delight to return as the official podcast for 2021 Summer Scares! This episode is our first installment of a series covering the 2021 Summer Scares library summer reading program. The Horror Writers’ Association has partnered with Book Riot and Library Journal to curate the Summer Scares reading list, which includes three books each in the Adult, YA, and Middle Grade categories.
In 2019, we chatted with the liaisons from each category in LOTF 32, LOTF 34, and LOTF 36. In 2020, we had roundtable-style panel conversations with the authors from each category. You can find these here : LOTF 56, LOTF 57, and LOTF 58.
And this year, we're shaking things up yet again!
This first episode is extra special, because we begin with a conversation with author Silvia Moreno Garcia, this year's Summer Scares author spokesperson. She is the bestselling author of the novels Mexican Gothic, Gods of Jade and Shadow, Certain Dark Things, and Untamed Shore, among others. She has also edited several anthologies, including the World Fantasy Award-winning She Walks in Shadows (a.k.a. Cthulhu's Daughters). Gods of Jade and Shadow was the 2020 American Library Association Reading List winner in the Fantasy category, appeared on many year's best lists, and won the 2020 Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic. Silvia is also the publisher of Innsmouth Free Press, a columnist for The Washington Post, and a book reviewer for NPR. You can follow her on Twitter at @silviamg.
In the first half of the episode, we talk to Silvia about her writing and reading history, her previous experience with libraries, her passion projects with her small press Innsmouth Free Press, and her involvement with Summer Scares 2021.
Find Silvia: Twitter | Website | Innsmouth Free Press
In the second half of the show, Mackenzie and Lisa discuss the three adult books for Summer Scares 2021.
The adult picks for the 2021 Summer Scares program are:
The Hunger by Alma Katsu (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2018)
The Cipher by Kathe Koja (originally published 1991 by Dell but reissued Meerkat Press, 2020)
Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi, Translator Jonathan Wright (Penguin Books, 2018)
To discover more regarding the Summer Scares program (including excellent resources!), check out the Summer Scares information website. And for an in-depth resource, here is the Summer Scares Programming Guide.