Committee Reads — September edition

Titi

What are you enjoying at the moment/wish to recommend?

Plant Lady and The Story Game. 

Why is this particularly enjoyable/relevant to you now?

[The Plant Lady is] earthy – grounded – self assured.

I really loved this read. It really demonstrated to me that I love the horror genre or – like Nailah always says – horror written by BPOC Women is it!! It’s really worth while.

The only thing that I enjoyed reading almost as much as the book itself, were the bad reviews by cis het men who completely missed the point!

I recently re-read Shze-hui Tjoa‘s The Story Game – it’s a very emotional book, and it’s a perfect model when it comes to form in memoir writing.

It’s also a book for organisers and us who try and take action out there – it’s a humbling read that helps you connect, dig deeper and maybe ask the hard questions of your own values and relationships 💖

Is there anything you’re looking forward to? (ie book releases, upcoming theatre productions, etc) And why?

Sinthujan Varatharajah has a new book out soon and I cannot wait!

Sean

What are you enjoying at the moment/wish to recommend?

banana [] by Paul Hlava Ceballos.

Why is this particularly enjoyable/relevant to you now?

I’ve been thinking a lot about the use of found text in work exploring experiences of migration and intercultural grief and this poetry collection looks at both those topics in very emotive yet accessible ways.

Is there anything you’re looking forward to? (ie book releases, upcoming theatre productions, etc) And why?

Three Durians by Troy Wong, as anything which uses food as a metaphor for interrogations of identity and history is an instant must-read for me.

Debbie 

What are you enjoying at the moment/wish to recommend?

(book) Splasher, Billie Host / (book) Woman Mapped, Ed. Jennifer Wong/ (series) Widow’s Bay

Why is this particularly enjoyable/relevant to you now?

My other current read is a collection of poetry and essays that explore the complexities of womanhood, I began reading this as research for my dissertation, but am enjoying the diversity of voices.

Finally, I watched the TV show Widow’s Bay a few weeks ago, but I still find myself rewatching certain episodes or compilations of Patricia’s best moments. If you enjoy spooky/mysterious tales of haunted islands with a great amount of absurdity and surprisingly heartwarming moments, Widow’s Bay is the show for you. Bring on season 2 as soon as possible, please!

Is there anything you’re looking forward to? (ie book releases, upcoming theatre productions, etc) And why?

I am very much looking forward to the release of Dead Pretty, by The Nottingham Horror Collective, a collection of essays that explore themes of beauty in the horror genre. Horror AND essays? My two worlds colliding!

Kelly

What are you enjoying at the moment/wish to recommend?

Cursed Daughters, by Oyinkan Braithwaite.

Why is this particularly enjoyable/relevant to you now?

It’s magic realism once removed, where the magic is under the surface but immediately recognisable to those of us who live in such worlds. (I’m thinking here of Chris Lau Manson’s statement – shared at our ESEA Heritage Month event – about how ‘realism’ for our peoples *is* magic realism, in the sense that we inhabit worlds where gods, ghosts, monsters, etc. are just kind of doing their thing.)

In Cursed Daughters, the intertwining of curses and magic with what we might call generational trauma hits my bones’ resonant frequency. The patterns we internalise despite our best efforts to run from them; the measures taken to keep curses at bay becoming the conduits for said curses; the ancestral tragedies we’re taught to laugh off because otherwise the anguish would take us apart – it’s all here, distilled into the frustratingly human story of the women in a single family.

Is there anything you’re looking forward to? (ie book releases, upcoming theatre productions, etc) And why?

I’m really hoping to catch Digger when it hits cinemas! I don’t fully know what it’s about – all I know is that Tom Cruise plays a super rich and powerful guy, and that there’s maybe some kind of environmental apocalypse that he’s involved in + has to prevent? – but I do know that Alejandro González Iñárritu is directing it, and the trailers convey a general sentiment of “Birdman but eat the rich, especially now that the Musks and Bezoses [Bezi? Bezodes?] of our society are killing the planet”.

Nailah

What are you enjoying at the moment/wish to recommend?

POP! by Angel Luis Colon. 

Why is this particularly enjoyable/relevant to you now?

It’s kind of like a coming of age book…but the main character is an assassin. It’s very pulp and noir which I’m a huge fan of. It also blends crime and horror really well. So, I’m having a great time truly. 

Is there anything you’re looking forward to? (ie book releases, upcoming theatre productions, etc) And why?

I’m looking forward to the next Nuzo Onoh book, The Turning of Sally-Mae, which is about supernatural vengeance and duelling deities. Onoh has been called the “Queen of African Horror” for a reason so I know I’m in for a scary and darkly comedic time. 

On the lit fic side of things, I have been inundated with reads for my podcast, so I’m looking forward to circling back to Cenac Rollins‘  book, Now Burns Blue, and finishing it. Before I had to pivot it had beautiful prose and such interesting characters. 

The last thing I’m looking forward to (shameless plug) is my essay being published in DEAD PRETTY: Beauty in the Horror Genre, published by The Nottingham Horror Collective. I haven’t submitted a lot of non-fiction, so was so happy to put myself out there and publish with such a supportive press. 

These are just some of the works inspiring us right now, and we hope they spark something for you too. Conversation around art is always richer when it’s shared, so share this with your community, and feel free to tell us about your current favourites on social media!