NAME: A.M. Castro
CREATIVE FIELD: Author
AUTHOR LINKS:
Linktree: linktr.ee/alexmcanarneywrites
AUTHOR BIO:
Alex McAnarney Castro (A.M. Castro) is a human rights activist by day and a writer whenever she can be. Raised in Mexico and El Salvador, she’s worked across Latin America and the United States. Her fiction explores how memory, trauma, and history shape and twist bodies, families, and communities.
She studied journalism, literature, and creative writing at Florida International University and received a Master’s in Latin American Studies at the University of Chicago.
Her non-fiction has been published in outlets like Truthout, OpenDemocracy, El País, El Faro, CounterPunch, UpsideDownWorld; and her short stories in Defunkt Literary Magazine, Last Girls Club, Latin@ Literatures, LatineLit Magazine, A Sufferer’s Digest, Lowlife Press, The McNeese Review, Trinity College’s New Square Literary Magazine, The Brussels Review and The Argyle Literary Magazine.
Her collection of short stories Monsters Can Also Cry is expected in 2027 on Gnashing Teeth Publishing and her novella Feet First was a finalist for the Stephen Graham Jones Novella Competition at Subito Press.
Currently, she lives in Louisiana where she spends her time protecting her dog and husband from gators with her Mongolian horse bow.
INTERVIEW
What got you into horror to begin with – what’s your core Horror memory?
Nothing specific. Horror helped me contextualize and make sense of the political situation of my country (El Salvador), the stories that my grandmothers told at the table, and the lingering sensation that there was always something following me. As I got older, it was a way to cope with my very religious upbringing, my epilepsy, and my family’s reaction to it. Monsters seemed a bit more like friends than big bads.
Do you have a favourite horror subgenre (or more than one) and if so, what is it? What/Who are your favourite books/films/podcasts/artists/creatives working in that subgenre?
I grew up reading Clive Barker, Stephen King, and Christopher Pike novels, as well as a lot of Dark Romanticists/ Gothic writers like Sheridan Le Fanu, Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe, and Lord Byron; and their Latin American writers like Jorge Luis Borges, Horacio Quiroga, Juan Rulfo, and Maria Luisa Bombal.
These days I like exploring all horror subgenres. I love cosmic and folk horror including Thomas Ligotti, John Langan, Brian Evenson, and Hailey Piper. Latin American writers include Agustina Bazterrica, Mariana Enriquez, and while not exactly horror, Fernanda Melchor presents a stark and often horrific reality to living in Mexico and Vladimir Sorokin gets down and weird to unpack Russia.
I have TRULY tried doing podcasts, but the last time I tuned into one while driving I almost went over a bridge.
What is the horror project of your heart – perhaps something you’ve already got out there, something you’re working on now, or something you’d like to do?
I LOVE horror comedies (think Werewolves Within) that treat the genre with care but also have something to say about a subculture (think Spinal Tap).
My dream is to write a book about a failing Black Metal label whose owner makes a bum deal to increase sales, only to find himself in the center of a political malestorm he never bargained for, without any chance of getting his soul back. Unless he’s willing to do the ultimate sacrifice.
Which 5 horror books can you not stop thinking about, or have influenced you most in some way? (If not books, you can pick 5 films, 5 pieces of art, 5 songs… or mix & match!)
Father of Lies – Brian Evenson
The Inhuman Condition – Clive Barker
Dark Spring – Unica Zurn
The Devils – Ken Russell film (or the book by Aldous Huxley)
Meret Oppenheim “Glove“, 1985
If you had to describe the tones and themes of your own work in terms of movies, books, songs, or art, what would you choose and why?
I like exploring how memory, trauma, and history shape and twist bodies, families, communities, and institutions.
Introduce us to something you’ve created, and pitch it to the audience!
Before his death, Carl Theodore Jorgenson III (aka Teddy; aka Teddy Bear; aka Caramel Staxxx with three x’s) became obsessed with a musical travesty that no one asked for a cover of. The result was a retrospective reauthoring only he could spin into gold: Read the short story “A Eulogy for Caramel Staxxx’ here.