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Articles and Interviews

 

If you wish to contact J.A.W. McCarthy for an interview,

please visit the Contact page.

News and Notes

 

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June 2024:

SLEEP ALONE has been nominated for a 2023 Shirley Jackson Award! This is my second nomination. I'm so honored and grateful to see my queer succubi novella recognized. 

March 2024:

I'm now represented by Lane Heymont of The Tobias Literary Agency! You are still welcome to contact me via my webform, or you may contact Lane for future projects.

February 2024:

SLEEP ALONE is officially a 2023 Bram Stoker Award finalist for Superior Achievement in Long Fiction! Congrats to all the fabulous nominees!

January 2024:

SLEEP ALONE is on the 2023 Bram Stoker Awards preliminary ballot for Superior Achievement in Long Fiction! Voting for the final ballot begins in February. If you are a voting member of the HWA and would like to read SLEEP ALONE for consideration, please reach out via my contact form for a free PDF copy. 

November 2023:

It's that time of year again: awards eligibility post! Here's everything published this year with corresponding Bram Stoker Award categories. Please note I'm not fully aware of other awards and their categories. 

  • LONG FICTION:

    • Sleep Alone (novella, Off Limits Press, March 2023)​

    • Imago Expulsio (The Red Animal of Our Blood)  (novelette, Split Scream Vol 3, Dread Stone Press, July 2023)

  • SHORT FICTION: 

    • Seldom Place (Mooncalves, NO Press, March 2023)​

    • Consider This An Opportunity (Monstrous Futures, Dark Matter INK, April 2023)

    • These Small Violences (No Trouble At All, Cursed Morsels Press, June 2023)

    • All the Dead Astronauts (The First Five Minutes of the Apocalypse, Hungry Shadow Press, July 2023)

    • Every Form of Person (The Canterbury Nightmares, Crossroad Press, Sept 2023)

    • Meaningless Flesh (Open All Night, Atomic Carnival Books, Oct 2023)

    • RE: the hand (of god)  (Dead Letters: Episodes of Epistolary Horror, Crystal Lake Publishing, Dec 2023)

  • SHORT NON FICTION:

    • Thai Spirits & Longing to Belong (Unquiet Spirits: Essays by Asian Women in Horror, Black Spot Books, Feb 2023)

HWA Members should have received an email from me offering my Long Fiction (SLEEP ALONE and IMAGO EXPULSIO) for Bram Stoker Award Consideration. I have not sent out an email offering my Short Fiction, as I had quite a hassle with email daily limits and getting my account suspended for suspected spam. If you're an HWA member and would like to read any of these stories, I have PDFs of some of them--please reach out via my Contact Form. 

March 2023:

I'm selling signed copies of SLEEP ALONE for $16 (US only; includes shipping). If you'd like to buy directly from me, please visit the Contact page and submit the form there. PayPal payment preferred. 

February 2023:

I'm officially a 2022 Bram Stoker Award nominee! "The Only Thing Different Will Be the Body" is a finalist for Superior Achievement in Short Fiction. I'm humbled, elated, and incredibly grateful to not only the Horror Writers Association, but also to everyone who had a hand in bringing this story to life in A WOMAN BUILT BY MAN and at PseudoPod. Thank you to everyone who read, recommended, and voted! Free to listen and read here

February 2023:

My short story "The Only Thing Different Will Be the Body" is on the Bram Stoker Awards preliminary ballot for Superior Achievement in Short Fiction! First published in the anthology A WOMAN BUILT BY MAN (Cemetery Gates Media), then produced in audio by PseudoPod. Listen and read for free here. HWA Voting Members: I also have PDF copies available for your consideration. Contact me here

October 2022: 

SOMETIMES WE'RE CRUEL has been nominated for a 2021 Shirley Jackson Award for Single Author Collection! This is a huge and unexpected honor. Congrats to all the nominees!

January 2022:

My debut collection SOMETIMES WE'RE CRUEL AND OTHER STORIES made it onto the 2021 Bram Stoker Awards preliminary ballot! To be clear, this is not a nomination; Active and Lifetime HWA members will vote for which works will be included on the final ballot. If you're a voting HWA member and would like a digital copy for consideration, please contact me via the form below. 

November 2021:

It's that time of year again! I have some releases this year that are eligible for various awards. 

First, my debut short fiction collection, SOMETIMES WE'RE CRUEL AND OTHER STORIES, published by Cemetery Gates Media in August 2021.

This collection includes 6 new stories, all awards eligible:

With You As My Anchor

Black Doves

The Flame That Takes

When Your Ghost Comes In

Something All the Little Girls Want

Girls Tied to Trees (this is a novelette, so it would be eligible in the Long Fiction category)

Next, my story WITH ANIMALS was included in the anthology What One Wouldn't Do (ed. Scott J. Moses), published in October 2021.

Another short, ANOTHER NIGHT ON EARTH, was included in Issue 3: Summer 2021 of Underland Arcana. Read it for free here.

Next, THE SECOND REFLECTION was included in the anthology Paranormal Contact: A Quiet Horror Confessional, published by Cemetery Gates Media in March 2021.

And finally, my first and only piece of flash fiction, WITH TEETH, was included in Twisted Anatomy, published by Sci-Fi & Scary in February 2021.

These are all my original publications for 2021. Please note my other publications this year were reprints, which are not awards eligible for 2021. 

Please note that HWA members can recommend favorite works for the HWA Bram Stoker Awards Recommended Reading List. Even if you see your favorites already on the list, please recommend again! They tally the number of recommendations a work gets, and that helps determine which works get on the ballot. 

Thank you to everyone for your interest and support! 

October 2021:

I'm selling paperbacks of SOMETIMES WE'RE CRUEL. Signed or unsigned. $16 includes shipping anywhere in the US. Please contact me via the Contact form below, or on Twitter @JAWMcCarthy. PayPal payment preferred. Feel free to reach out with any questions. Thanks!

August 2021:

It's here! My debut collection SOMETIMES WE'RE CRUEL AND OTHER STORIES is now available! Ebook is live, but Amazon is still approving the paperback, which should be ready in a few days. Thanks for your patience!

March 2021:

I am thrilled to announce my debut collection SOMETIMES WE'RE CRUEL AND OTHER STORIES will be published by Cemetery Gates Media August 2021! 6 Reprints + 6 New Stories. Lovesick ghosts possessing the body parts of the living, a cult that reduces their corporeal form, a woman haunted by a childhood hazing ritual, a serial killer with a unique motivation, and more! 

December 2020:

It's time for an awards eligibility post! I have 5 short stories eligible for awards (like the Bram Stoker Awards) this year:

"Those Who Made Us" - LampLight Vol 8, Issue 3 & 4

"You Do What You're Told" - Apparition Lit Issue 12: Satisfaction (Free to read/listen)

"Cold-Blooded Old Times" - Places We Fear to Tread (Cemetery Gates Media) 

"Contrition (1998)" - Oculus Sinister (Chthonic Matter)

"You Are the Arm" - Vastarien Vol. 3 Issue 2

All are eligible in the Short Fiction Categories.

Thank you to the above publishers for giving my work a home. They were all wonderful to work with.

And thank you to everyone who has read my work, contacted me here and on Twitter and Instagram, and taken the time to consider and recommend my work for the HWA Bram Stoker Award Member Recommendations. This has been an amazing year for my writing, and I am so grateful for your support!

(Please note that any stories published in 2020 other than the five above were all reprints and not award-eligible this year.)

November 2020:

My story "Every Time She Kills Him" is now available on Tales to Terrify! This is my first podcast, and I couldn't be more pleased with the production. Please give it a listen and check out the chills and grace narrator Jasmine Arch delivers. 

July 2020:

Check out Fright Girl Summer, an online book festival spotlighting horror writers and artists in the margins. Plenty of short fiction, interviews, and essays, all free to read. I'm proud that I was able to participate with my story "Darling Jane". 

February 2020:

I was interviewed by author Vickie Lan for her Shoes Off blog. Check it out here. Also, it's Women in Horror Month!

November 2019:

Nightscript V was reviewed by The Des Lewis Gestalt Real-Time Reviews. Includes my story "Sometimes We're Cruel", reviewed here. 

October 2019:

Darling Jane, my first online publication, debuts this month at macabre-museum.com! Contact me via the form below for the password. And while you're there, have a look around and consider supporting them. 

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