Queer Little Nightmares

The fiction and poetry of Queer Little Nightmares reimagines monsters old and new through a queer lens, subverting the horror gaze to celebrate ideas and identities canonically feared in monster lit. Throughout history, monsters have appeared in popular culture as stand-ins for the non-conforming, the marginalized of society. Pushed into the shadows as objects of fear, revulsion, and hostility, these characters have long conjured fascination and self-identification in the LGBTQ+ community, and over time, monsters have become queer icons. In Queer Little Nightmares, creatures of myth and folklore seek belonging and intimate connection, cryptids challenge their outcast status, and classic movie monsters explore the experience of coming into queerness. The characters in these stories and poems—the Minotaur camouflaged in a crowd of cosplayers, a pubescent werewolf, a Hindu revenant waiting to reunite with her lover, a tender-hearted kaiju, a lagoon creature aching for the swimmers above him, a ghost of Pride past—relish their new sparkle in the spotlight. Pushing against tropes that have historically been used to demonize, the queer creators of this collection instead ask: What does it mean to be (and to love) a monster? Contributors include Amber Dawn, David Demchuk, Hiromi Goto, jaye simpson, Eddy Boudel Tan, and Kai Cheng Thom. This publication meets the EPUB Accessibility requirements and it also meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG-AA). It is screen-reader friendly and is accessible to persons with disabilities. A Simple book with few images, which is defined with accessible structural markup. This book contains various accessibility features such as alternative text for images, table of contents, page-list, landmark, reading order and semantic structure.

David Ly is the author of the poetry collections Mythical Man (shortlisted for the 2021 ReLit Poetry Award) and Dream of Me as Water. He is the poetry editor at This Magazine.

Introduction Jessica Cho Declassified Amber Dawn Wooly Bully Matthew Stepanic ghost'd Anuja Varghese The Vetala's Song Victoria Mbabazi The Creation of Eve David Demchuk Nature's Mistake Kai Cheng Thom on the origin of trans femmes Emrys Donaldson Insert Coin Victoria Mbabazi You're No Longer Invited jaye simpson #WWMD Tin Lorica twin soul (kaladua) Levi Cain Wendigo My Love Ryan Dzelzkalns Godzilla, Silhouette Against City Kelly Rose Pflug-Back The Kyrkøgrim Andrew Wilmot Glamour-Us Anton Pooles Creature Not of This Lagoon David Ly Poem Made From Pennywise Hiromi Goto Moon Spun Round Justine Ducharme 75 Steven Cordova An Invisible Man is Humping A Vampire Ben Rawluk The Minotaur and Theseus Avra Margariti Cryptid Cruising Saskia Nislow Invert Eddy Boudel Tan Strange Case beni xiao naga mark ruffalo dream Matthew J Trafford In Our Own Image Kayla Czaga Dad Movie Cicely Belle Blain The Ghost of Pride Past Kai Cheng Thom floral arrangement i. David Ly The Call Jane Shi Hideous Creatures Daniel Zomparelli Like Me Contributor Biographies Editor Biographies