Cover Reveal & Interview: Suzan Palumbo's SKIN THIEF
I'm so excited to be hosting my very first cover reveal (of many? one can only dream), for none other than Lesbian Satan herself, Suzan Palumbo. You might know Suzan from her Nebula-nominated short story "Laughter Among the Trees" or from her work co-founding the Ignyte Awards. Her debut short story collection, Skin Thief: Stories, will be coming out in the fall of 2023 from Neon Hemlock, and look at this cover. LOOK AT IT.
Cover Illustration by Mia Minnis. Cover design by dave ring.
The stories in this collection of dark fantasy and horror short stories grapple with the complexities of identity, racism, homophobia, immigration, oppression and patriarchy through nature, gothic hauntings, Trinidadian folklore and shape shifting. At the heart of the collection lie the questions: how do we learn to accept ourselves? How do we live in our own skin?
Neon Hemlock will be holding an online crowdfund for the entire 2023 Novella Series + Skin Thief soon. Sign up here to get notified when it goes live!
NC: What are the themes, questions, or interactions you find yourself returning to in your fiction? What makes a Suzan Palumbo (TM) story?
Suzan: Suzan Palumbo stories are about people who have been forced to deny aspects of their identity for various external and internal reasons and how they reconcile their fractured sense of self in the face of that denial. This theme is at the core of many of the stories in Skin Thief.
I’ve had an obsession with shape shifting and body horror for a long time and that is undeniably because, for most of my life, I’ve never been in a place where I could wholly be myself. I’ve changed who I am to fit in, to conceal, to appease, to gain approval, to be palatable, to be loved, to be safe. I tend to use Western and Trinidadian folkloric characters to depict the state of never fitting in anywhere and of always being haunted by the specter of the person you could be. That aspect of my life has at times been a lonely, heartbreaking and occasionally horrifying experience.
I think this personal internal conflict of mine is what has drawn me to the Gothic in general. No matter how much one tries to bury the truth, it tries to claw its way up, I’ve found. Secrets don’t like to stay hidden. This is also probably why a lot of my work centers the outdoors, animals, nature and plants. I like exploring the tension between what is natural and what is artificial and the liminal space between those two points. It brings me comfort to process my experiences that way.
That and I like plants a lot. I especially like growing tomatoes. If I could send everyone a home grown tomato, I would. I can’t do that so people get emotionally fraught dark stories instead!
Do you have a favorite story in the collection? Or one that you’re most excited for people to read?
Suzan: This is where people usually say: Oh choosing between stories is like choosing between children! Except, these stories are not my children. They are my monsters.
I’m looking forward to people reading “Kill Jar.” It’s a previously unpublished novelette and the longest piece I’ll have published when the collection comes out. It’s set on an isolated estate in Southern, Ontario in the late 1800s. Adelaide, our MC, doesn’t understand why she’s grown up without warmth or affection. As with all Gothic tales, through the course of the story, she unearths the terrible reason why. This story mashes everything I love together: the Gothic, graveyards, green houses, heartbreak and the struggle to reconcile who you are on the outside with who you are on the inside. Also, it is extremely gay. SURPRIZE! I am very happy with the way the story turned out and I’m hoping readers love it.
NC: What are you working on next?
Suzan: I am currently working on a queer, Trinidadian-Canadian, Edwardian, Gothic novel set in a city loosely based on Toronto. That’s a mouthful. It is, without a doubt, the most ambitious story I’ve ever tried to write. Our protagonist has fled impropriety and heartbreak and landed as a servant in the home of a very wealthy industrialist who has just returned from the West Indies with his wife. They have not returned home alone, however. They’ve brought a haunting along with them that they may not be able to escape! Dun! Dun! Dun!
Aside from the novel, I will have several stories out this year in anthologies. The one I can mention now will most likely be in The Crawling Moon Anthology from Neon Hemlock. All I can say is that the guidelines said be queer, Gothic, depraved and scandalous and so that’s where I went!
NC: Aside from your book, what else should we be reading? (Or watching/playing/aware of.)
Suzan: Queer horror! BIPOC horror! Queer BIPOC Horror! Indie Horror! Horror in general is having an upswing at the moment, in my opinion, and we are being treated to stories written by authors who are from the very demographics that have been historically cast as the other or the villain. These writers are blowing the genre and its tropes apart and refashioning them. It's glorious.
Palua E Dashe, H. Pueyo and Joe Koch all have stellar short story collections that I recommend. There’s been an explosion of horror from South America, particularly from Brazil, that has knocked me out.
Tell Me I’m Worthless by Alison Rumfit is at the top of my list to read. I loved Helpmeet by Naben Ruthnum last year. It is the perfect little Gothic book.
In terms of movies, His House is probably one of the best horror films I’ve seen in a long time because it is scary but also because it is so very human. I’m here for stories with morally gray main characters because I don’t believe most people are wholly perfect sweet cinnamon rolls in real life. I like storytellers who say: I am going to get you to empathize with this very, very flawed imperfect person who doesn’t always do the right thing. For me, that’s very brave story telling. I want to append however that when I say someone who “doesn’t always do the right thing” that I don’t mean presenting people who commit horrible atrocities in an empathetic light. I mean presenting regular people as full, whole human beings and not caricatures of good and bad.
Finally, I’m obsessed with the video game Cult of the Lamb. In it you are a lamb that starts and spreads a satanic cult. I named my cult “Lesbian Satan”. It is the cutest, most hilarious game I’ve ever played.
Suzan Palumbo is a Trinidadian Canadian, dark fantasy and horror writer. Her short story “Laughter Among the Trees” published by The Dark Magazine was nominated for a Nebula award as well as the Washington Science Fiction Association’s Small Press Award. She co-founded the Ignyte Awards with L.D Lewis and will edit a special Caribbean issue of Strange Horizons in October 2023. Her debut short story collection Skin Thief will be published by Neon Hemlock in Fall 2023. Her novella Countess will be published by ECW Press in 2024. When she isn’t writing she can be found drawing, growing vegetables, listening to music or being a chaotic goth. Find her full bibliography and contact info can be found at: suzanpalumbo.wordpress.com.
If you've read this far, here's a special treat: Skin Thief's book trailer, which captures the impeccable vibes of Suzan's fiction.