"Horror Helps Us Embrace What's Good About Ourselves." A Chat With Ashley Wagner, Editor of Ligeia Magazine

Poetry Editor takes us through her magazine for the gothic and strange

Good day!

One more editor interview has wrapped, friends. Today I spoke with Ashley Wagner, Editor of Ligeia Magazine. Ashley and I talked all things gothic and strange.

The journal takes its name from an early short story by Edgar Allan Poe. This is fitting, since the editors “embrace works of the modern gothic—absurd, grotesque, eccentric, derelict.”

Ashley and I spent a good chunk of time here discussing the essence of the horror genre, how it works and what distinguishes it from the gothic. For this journal, the blood and guts and other gory things are okay. But more welcome is a piece that evokes ambiguity, that digs more deeply into the existential reckoning of what it means to be a human being. Writers should “pour themselves into…the darker parts of life.”

As you might imagine, Ashley sees a lot of disturbing submissions. In addition to violence, many writers submit poetry dealing with grief and/or family trauma. I was touched to learn that she handles rejections with care. She tries to respond personally to submitters as much as she can.

I am not a writer of horror or gothic fiction, but I was particularly interested in what all writers can learn from these genres. How do we get under our reader’s skin? How do we elevate our strange obsessions, those things that we just cannot let go of, into an artful thing that someone else will want to read? And how do we tap into these very dark, unsettling places, on a weekday morning in the midst of other mundane life demands?

You’ll have to watch the interview to find out!

Ligeia is open for submissions four times a year, for one month only. They publish four issues per year, online. They seek fiction and nonfiction under 2k words, poetry and art.

Ashley mentioned she is particularly interested in seeing more work from Baltimore writers, which is where she is based.

This video is posted in two parts because—my worst nightmare—my internet connection stopped completely once we got rolling. Ashley was nice enough to wait while I booted up again. Apologies to all who came out and got cut off! Thank you for attending.

And thank you to Ashley for the time and great conversation.

Happy viewing!

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