Carina’s poem The End of Days is a battle cry! A song to chant as we take our lives and rights back and it is such a thrill and honor to have in our anthology.
And so, we march,
a monstrous regiment
dressed in white,
trumpets blaring, winged justice,
talons sharp as knives.
– A small excerpt from The End of Days by Carina Bissett
Q (Crone Girls Press): Author Interview Question 1: What drove your story for this anthology? Tell us the “story behind the story.”
A (Carina Bissett): As a victim of domestic abuse and sexual assault, I’m rather ferocious when it comes to women’s rights. At the news of the potential that Roe vs. Wade would be overturned, my first response was denial. And then the rage settled in. This poem came out in a mad rush filled with references to the Furies, harpies, and stories of maidens in towers (Rapunzel in particular as it is connected to abortion).
Q: What does it mean to read and write horror when you’re competing with news headlines (for example, this anthology came about in response to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe V Wade)? How has it changed (or not!) your approach to the genre as a writer or as a fan?
A: I believe women’s horror is often a pushback against social constraints. In my own work, I use horror as a lens to talk about the things than enrage me the most including domestic violence, sex trafficking, missing and murdered women, gender bias, sexual abuse and assault, and other issues so many other issues women face.
Q: There are a number of different flavors of horror. Where does your story fit, and what drew you to this particular category?
A: When it comes to horror, my stories usually lives in the realm of body horror and transformation. However, as a whole, my writing tends towards fabulism.
Q: Why do you write horror? What about the genre appeals to you as an author?
A: I believe horror is more encompassing as a genre than the boundaries so often prescribed by popular opinion. In fact, for a long time, I considered my writing as fitting more inline with dark fantasy. However, horror works for me as a way to explore terror and trauma through the lens of fairy tales and myth. This gives me the distance to find ways to change these narratives in a safe way, which is important to me as I’m a survivor myself.
Q: What’s next in your writing journey?
A: I am currently revising my novel-in-progress, which already centers on themes related to violence against women, reproductive rights, and gender bias. The section I’ve been struggling with is an addition to the manuscript that details specific incidents of gaslighting, sexual abuse, and enforced impregnation. The overturning of Roe helped me find the strength to return to these pages, as much of the trauma described reflects my own personal experiences. This new material is more cutting and rawer than what I’ve written previously. I’m no longer worried about alienating readers with graphic depictions of the inherent ugliness and gritty reality of gender-based violence and discrimination. As far as I’m concerned, the Supreme Court’s decision is a blatant approval of violence against girls and women. Ironically, my novel is set in 1917, as I thought the period was far enough removed from current issues to comment on the continuing struggle for women’s rights. Yet as of June 24th 2022, that timeline is now only separated by fifty-six years instead of more than a century as it was when I first started working on this book in 2020. And I thought the biggest issue I’d have to overcome was the comparisons between the Spanish flu and COVID-19. Don’t I feel like a fool now.
About The Author
Carina Bissett is a writer and poet working primarily in the fields of dark fiction and fabulism. Her work has been published in multiple journals and anthologies including Upon a Twice Time, Bitter Distillations: An Anthology of Poisonous Tales, and Arterial Bloom. Her poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Sundress Publications Best of the Net and can be found in the HWA Poetry Showcase and NonBinary Review. She is also the co-editor of the award-winning anthology Shadow Atlas: Dark Landscapes of the Americas. Links to her work can be found at http://carinabissett.com.
Be sure to check out their story in A Woman Unbecoming
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