LOTF 60: Jessica Guess on 90s Horror, Cirque Berserk, & Pursuing Dreams

Ladies of the Fright

We want to remind you that we have a Patreon! We would like to give a special shoutout to our higher tier patrons Eli Ryder and Kerry Cox at the Satanic Panic level, and Bjorn Svartalfson, Jocelyn Codner, Nina Nahvi, Jason M., S. Velos at the Demon Possession level.

We’re offering cool rewards we’re offering at every tier (and we’re getting to revamp the whole thing!). If you’d like to check it out, head on over to patreon.com/ladiesofthefright.

Show Notes

We are delighted to bring you this conversation with Jessica Guess, a writer and English teacher who hails from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She earned her Creative Writing MFA from Minnesota State University, Mankato in 2018 and is the founder of the website Black Girl’s Guide to Horror where she examines horror movies in terms of quality and intersectionality. Her creative work has been featured in Luna Station Quarterly and Mused Bella Online Literary Review. Her debut novella, Cirque Berserk, is available for purchase on Amazon.

In this episode, we spoke with Jessica about her early writing life and experiences growing up with horror movies. She shares how horrible professor tried to crush her writing dreams and why it’s important to her now to uplift her own college students. Jessica also talks about her meandering path to writing and how she tried so hard to pursue a “stable career”—hear her story about how she decided pursuing her dreams was more important. She talks about creating A Black Girl’s Guide to Horror, intersectionality in horror, writing Cirque Berserk, and the importance of flipping (often racist) genre tropes.

Find Jessica: Website | Twitter

Check out A Black Girl’s Guide to Horror: Twitter

Disclosure: We are affiliates of Bookshop.org and will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. Support indie bookstores; support the show. Win/win!