Meet Brianna Malotke, writer from the PNW with a penchant for poetry, coffee, and horror.
To start, please introduce yourself:
My name is Brianna Malotke and I’m a writer based in the Pacific Northwest. I love coffee, sewing, boxing, and dancing.
In addition to being an active member and on the social media team for the Horror Writers Association, I’m also co-chair of the Seattle Chapter. I’m a staff writer for Monstrous Femme and I’m involved in the second season of the Hallow Ian Horror Hour TV show.
I have two published poetry collections, Don’t Cry on Cashmere (love poems) and Fashion Trends, Deadly Ends (horror poems). My next poetry collection will be published this fall with January Ember Press and it’s titled Lost Cherry.
Some of my more recent horror work can be found in Dark Town, Lost Souls, and The Nottingham Horror Collective. I also have some horrifying poems and short stories in the anthologies Beautiful Tragedies 2 and 3, The Dire Circle, Out of Time, Their Ghoulish Reputation, Holiday Leftovers, HorrorScope: A Zodiac Anthology (volumes 1 and 4) and Under Her Skin.
During October 2023 I was a “Writer in Residence” at the Chateau d’Orquevaux in France. While most of my work is within the realms of horror and nightmares, I also enjoy writing about love. My romance novella series, Sugar & Steam, is written under the pen name of Tori Fields. I’ll be an attending author at Smut Lovers Conference this fall 2024.
What is horror to you, what makes a work of art one in the horror genre?
Horror to me is making people have intense feelings. With body horror I definitely want to make people cringe and feel uncomfortable. I think making a work of art within the horror genre is making your audience feel uneasy, scared, or disgusted.
What made you want to work in horror?
Honestly, I’m not sure why I decided to take my love poetry and just dive into horror. But I’ve always enjoyed reading horror and decided to take a chance on seeking publication for some of my more eerie poems. Things just seemed to click into place after that and I can’t imagine not being in the world of horror.
Where do you get your inspiration?
A lot of my poetry is inspired by textures or scents. My background is in Apparel & Costume Design, so I am a very hands-on person. I love choosing fabric for the way it feels or how it looks based on its texture. My horror poetry collection, Fashion Trends, Deadly Ends is all inspired by historical fashion trends over the years and involves a lot of body horror pieces. I like to be able to write something that makes you feel as though you’re right there in the poem – you can smell the perfume, feel the fabric against your skin, and fully imagine the horrors occurring.
Another example involves scents and my upcoming poetry collection, Lost Cherry. The collection is named after one of the poems of the same title. The poem is inspired by the perfume by Tom Ford of the same name. It’s a warm and spicy scent with notes of black cherry, tonka bean, and almonds. In the poem I use the notes of the fragrance to build up the female’s descriptions.
I find a lot of times it’s how these things – perfumes, fabrics, and artwork – make me feel and then they become my main sources of inspiration.
What would you like your legacy to be in the genre (or elsewhere)?
In the world of horror, I would love my legacy to be something along the lines of “she helped a community of writers become ingrained into their community and grow.” I love being head of the HWA’s Seattle Chapter and organizing different events such as workshops and bookstore signings for the members. I would love to just be remembered for helping others in the genre.
What is Women in Horror Month to you and why is it still important this many years later?
Women in Horror Month is a celebration of the genre from a breadth of female voices. While I believe there’s enough to celebrate year-round, it’s nice to see such a concentrated celebration where all eyes are on a set group within the world of horror.
I love hearing from other indie authors and femme/non-binary writers. I think everyone out there should get a chance to shout about their work and having Women in Horror Month is just one way to do that and allow some of the smaller voices to shout more loudly above the others for once.
Who are some of the Women in Horror who you look up to and who do you want to bring attention to in your field or others?
There are so many women in horror that I love! Here are a few fellow writers I think should always get more attention – Shawnna Deresch, Eden Royce, Angela Yuriko Smith,Yvette Tan, Xtina Marie, Angela Sylvaine, Harriet Everend, and Lylith Nyx, Naching T. Kassa, Corissa Grant, and Linda Bloodworth.
Honestly though, so many women in horror out there, it’s difficult to pick just a few to share. Podcasts, comic writers, novelists, all those different formats of horror to indulge in, definitely just deep dive and find the ones you enjoy.
What are you currently working on that you can tell us about?
I am currently in the editing stages for my upcoming horror poetry collection, Lost Cherry. It’ll be published this fall (2024) with January Ember Press. The collection is divided into different types of evil-centered beings. Examples of sections include demons, vampires, sirens, shapeshifters, and even the Devil herself.
Normally in love poetry it’s about finding your soulmate, falling in love, and living happily ever after together. This collection would instead look at how someone who wants this monumental experience and feeling of love, even if they know that they’ll lose a piece of themselves in the process. They continue the pursuit of love despite knowing that they’ll never be the same (possibly even dead) after loving the other person.
It will be written within the realm of mortals falling in love with these evil and supernatural beings. Where the creatures are so obviously bad for you that you know you shouldn’t go down that road, but you still crave the passion of what could be. Knowing the potential end, would you still pursue it?
I wrote most of it during my Writer’s Residency at the Chateau d’Orquevaux in France this past October.
Also, I’m working on the second season of the Hallow Ian Horror Hour TV show, and I cannot wait to share my interview & the mini segment I’m running with them that features members from the HWA Seattle Chapter. You can find more about my horror work online at www.malotkewrites.com or find me on Slasher & Instagram @briannamalotke
Please credit: KATE METZGER PHOTOGRAPHY @thefreckledphotographer