The Oregon chapter, serving Oregon and southern Washington, was founded in 2023 by Sarah Walker, Chair, and Frances Lu-Pai Ippolito, Secretary, while Elle Mitchell and J.B. Kish stepped in as Co-Chairs in 2024. They organized two years of fantastic talks, readings, and other events and opportunities.
In June, we welcomed H. A. Spector as our new HWA Oregon Chair, Sarah Walker as Co-Chair and Advisor, and Richard Leis as Secretary. We’re excited to continue regular monthly meetings (including quarterly in-person events) while organizing new events and opportunities for our members.
If you would like to join or learn more about HWA Oregon, please contact us at oregonhwa@gmail.com and visit our website at https://oregonhorror.com/.
New Virtual Book Club
We launched our virtual book club in June in time for HWA’s 2025 Summer Scares series, and we’re reading the Adult Selections in June, July, and August:
Member News
HWA Oregon members continue to reach exciting new writing and publishing milestones.
Zachariah O’Keeffe’s dark short story collection Tales From Port Astor was published late last year. Check out his website here.
Kelsea Yu’s short story “In Our Skin” was published in the February 2025 issue of Nightmare Magazine.
Her second horror novella, Demon Song from Titan Books, will be out September 30, 2025.
And Kelsea’s debut adult horror novel, Stormraven, was just announced! From the Publisher’s Marketplace Announcement:
“Shirley Jackson Award-nominated author Kelsea Yu’s STORMRAVEN, pitched as a Rebecca-inspired gothic horror rooted in Chinese American history, in which an ambitious artist uncovers the chilling secrets of a haunted mansion on a private Pacific Northwest island with a whitewashed past—secrets that threaten to turn her dream life into a nightmare, to Ed Schlesinger at Gallery, at auction, for publication in 2026, by Jennifer Azantian at Azantian Literary Agency (NA). Rights also to Daniel Carpenter at Titan Books (UK).”
Check out Kelsea’s website here.
J.B. Kish reviewed the French horror film MadS in the March 2025 issue of Nightmare Magazine. Check out his website here.
Sarah Walker’s flash fiction “Twins” was published in Weird Fiction Quarterly – Spring 2025: Ghosts on April 10, 2025.
David Barker’s flash fiction “That Lonesome Cry” was published in Weird Fiction Quarterly – Spring 2025: Ghosts on April 10, 2025. Check out his website here.
Larina Warnock’s poem “Failed Start” was published in SpecPo Verse Issue 1 on April 30, 2025.
Her poetry collection American Rural: Monologues is available from Amazon.
Her newsletter Larina’s Lit Lounge publishes original poetry while providing analysis and writing tips, prompts, resources, and pictures of her adorable dogs.
She also organizes member writing challenges and provides prompts on our Discord server.
Check out Larina’s website here.
Juleigh Howard-Hobson’s poem “When the Ten of Swords Shows Up, No Matter How Big or Toxic an Issue Is, Realize Something” was published in the Teacakes and Tarot anthology from Spell Jar Press on May 1, 2025.
Five more poems, including “The Reading”, “Talking to the Depressed Ghost Who Haunts my Cellar About Self-Acceptance”, “Rest in Peace”, “A Sugar Spell to Keep Life Sweet”, and “If You Pay In Advance You Can Choose Where you Sit” were published in Alien Buddha Zine #75 on May 29, 2025.
Elle Mitchell of Little Key Press edited and published the anthology Claw Machine, available on June 13, 2025. Elle Mitchell, Erik Grove, J.B. Kish, Katherine Quevedo, Sarah Walker, along with 12 other authors have stories in the anthology.
Synopsis:
When you hear of claw machines, what do you picture?
In this anthology, claw machines aren’t just beacons for lost dollars and frustration, filled with cheap toys that rarely make it home with us. The claw machine is a game, a curse, a tool, even a drug-induced metaphor. It gives omens of death, portals to other dimensions, plushies that aren’t what they seem, eggs filled with things you’d never imagine, and so much more.
Claw Machine is a collection of stories, with a special introduction, written by 18 established and emerging authors. Their unique speculative stories and dark fiction will grab and pull you in. Unlike the arcade game, you’ll definitely walk away with something after reading these stories.
Elle Mitchell (Editor-in-chief and writer), Frances Lu-Pai Ippolito (Editor, mastermind, and writer), J.B. Kish (Editor and writer), and Sarah Walker (Editor and writer) with Demagogue Press published and held a launch party on May 24, 2025 for Art Born Words, featuring 32 etchings by artist Steve Graziani and original stories and poems by 19 authors.
Kate Boyes’s poem “One Bright Moment (International Research Station, Nili Fossae, Mars)” in the 2024 SFPA Valentines Day Reading is a 2025 Rhysling Award finalist.
Remy Nakamura, Katherine Quevedo, and Sarah Walker will have stories in the upcoming anthology The Muddy Goose Guide to the Weird Northwest: A Playable Adventure, from Demagogue Press.
Tom Witherspoon has a new website where he provided writing prompts and essays in June.
Katherine Quevedo’s debut fantasy novella Thrice Petrified will be published by Of Metal and Magic Publishing on July 15, 2025. Check out her website here.
H. A. Spector launched the Ink to Paper: Stories & Interviews podcast this year and recently finished the first draft of a dark fantasy novel for his MFA program. Check out his website here.
Richard Leis’s horror flash fiction “End the Beguine” was published in Weird Fiction Quarterly – Spring 2025: Ghosts on April 10, 2025.
His dark poem “The Bird is Not Heralding Itself” was published in Larina’s Lit Lounge, Issue 17 on May 9, 2025.
His poem “We Carry Our Ghosts to the Stars,” originally published in Star*Line 47.3, is a 2025 Rhysling Award finalist.
Check out Richard’s website here.