Shape of Horror: A Pioneer Writer Feature with Carmen Maria Machado

Carmen Maria Machado is the author of the bestselling memoir In the Dream House, the graphic novel The Low, Low Woods, and the award-winning short story collection Her Body and Other Parties. She has been a finalist for the National Book Award and the winner of the Bard Fiction Prize, the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction, the…

Flaming fiddles, it looks like there’s a roadblock here! If you’d like to finish reading this piece, please buy a subscription—you’ll get access to the entire online archive of F(r)iction.
Carmen Maria Machado

Carmen Maria Machado is the author of the bestselling memoir In the Dream House and the award-winning short story collection Her Body and Other Parties. She has been a finalist for the National Book Award and the winner of the Bard Fiction Prize, the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction, and the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize, among others. Her essays, fiction, and criticism have appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, Granta, Vogue, This American Life, The Believer, Guernica, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has been awarded fellowships and residencies from the Guggenheim Foundation, Yaddo, Hedgebrook, and Millay Arts.

Shan Bennion

Shan Bennion is a queer illustrator and graphic novelist from the UK who loves exploring fantasy, horror, and sci-fi genres, monsters, and figuring out just how gay they can make a narrative. While they work on their own stories, they’re excited to lend their hand to comics, tarot, and TTRPG games, to help build colorful and meaningful worlds for others to dig into. Follow them on Twitter @anonbeadraws.


First Featured In: No. 20, winter 2023

The Bodies Issue

View/Purchase Magazine