Welcome to our seventh installment of Ladies of Horror. While we’re huge fans of Women in Horror Month, we’ve taken a frequent comment that we hear to heart. Which is that we should celebrate women in horror year ’round. So, that’s what we’re going to do (as long as the ladies of horror keep volunteering for profiling!). If you are a woman (or identify as one) who writes horror, be it poetry, short stories, or novel length pieces, you qualify for this.
Please note: These are basic profile pieces, not tailored interviews.
Name? Christina Sng
Age? 45
Where are you from? Singapore
Social Media and Website Links?
Twitter: @christinasng
When did you write your first horror and/or dark fiction piece?
When I was 14.
Want to tell us about it?
It was apparently so dark that a friend I showed it to told me never to write again.
Who encouraged you to write and try to get your work published?
No one.
Tell us about your most recently published work (Feel free to include links!)
My painting “Waiting Together” is on the cover of Dreams & Nightmares 109! This is the first time my art has made the cover of a print magazine and I am especially thrilled because my first two poems ever published were in Dreams & Nightmares 52. Dreams and Nightmares 109 includes my fairy tale poem, “Rapunzel”. Ordering information: http://dreamsandnightmaresmagazine.com/order.htm
What do you have in the hopper right now?
In the works, a full-length haiku collection, a children’s speculative collection, my next horror poetry collection, a short fiction collection, and a novel series, in order of when they will be completed.
Do you think you have to write better than men to get noticed in the horror field?
No. I’d like to think that our work should speak for itself.
Who is a woman in horror that you admire?
There are so many, I wouldn’t know where to start. But women authors that I have known and admired for a long time include Linda Addison, Marge Simon, Charlee Jacobs, Jennifer Crow, and of course, Sylvia Plath who inspired me from the very beginning.
What is the most irritating trope you see in horror? How do you avoid it in your own work?
Women being victims and needing rescuing. I’ve made women the heroes in almost all of my stories and poems. My favourites are my fairy tale poems where women wield the power instead: Little Red Riding Hood as a sharpshooter guardian of the forest where everything is afraid of her, Snow White’s quiet grace that inspires others to protect her, Sleeping Beauty reclaiming her narrative, Rapunzel escaping on her own.
What’s the best horror movie you’ve seen in the past 3 years?
Without a doubt, Train to Busan.
What about the best horror book you’ve read in the past 3 years?
This is a tough one because I’ve loved so many but Mark Matthews’ On the Lips of Children haunted me for a good while.
What type of horror do you think we’ll see coming to the fore now that zombie horror seems to finally be dying down?
Nature fighting back. Plants eating people. Pollen that kills. It’ll be a reflection of our upcoming battle against climate change. We see it already in shows like the TV series, The Rain and the movie, The Happening.
Christa Sng Biography
Christina Sng is an award-winning poet, writer, and artist. Her work has been published in numerous print and online venues worldwide and garnered more than 70 awards and nominations, including the 2018 Jane Reichhold International Prize. She is the author of A CONSTELLATION OF SONGS, CATKU, Elgin Award nominees AN ASSORTMENT OF SKY THINGS and ASTROPOETRY, and 2017 Bram Stoker Award® Winner A COLLECTION OF NIGHTMARES. Visit her at www.christinasng.com.
A Collection of Nightmares
Bram Stoker Award® Winner, Elgin Award nominee, and one of LitReactor’s Best Books of 2017, A COLLECTION OF NIGHTMARES takes us through a surreal dreamscape of seasonal creatures, bone carvers, listless gods, vengeful angels, and post-apocalyptic survivors, to the end of all things good and evil.
- Ordering information: http://bit.ly/acollectionofnightmares
- Publisher website: http://www.rawdogscreaming.com
- Author website: http://www.christinasng.com
I really enjoyed reading this interview. Always great to discover new horror authors!