H. A. Spector hosted a well-attended “COLD Themed Reading” on Saturday, January 31, 2026 at Beaverton City Library in Beaverton, Oregon, featuring scary and very chilly poems and stories by Nathan Carson, Katherine Quevedo, Andrew Fuller, Vanessa MacLellan, Thomas Witherspoon, Richard Leis, Niyyah Ruscher-Haqq, and Jacy Morris. We had to keep bringing in chairs during the two-hour-long event as more people arrived! Attendees were also able to chat with the readers and buy books and candles at our author tables. The library was not sure there would be interest in a horror-themed reading outside of October; the number of attendees showed them there is enormous interest!
Niyyah Ruscher-Haqq is organizing the Muslim Storyteller’s Collective with a recently awarded Regional Arts and Cultural Council (RACC) grant to fund the project. The collective for local Muslim writers includes “a writing retreat, monthly craft sessions, local reading events and a publishing opportunity.”
Niyyah’s middle grade dark fantasy manuscript “Under” was selected as a 2026 mentee project for We Need Diverse Books. Lisa Moore Ramée will be her mentor this year, to help polish the manuscript with the aim of traditionally publishing the work.
Elizabeth Mitchell’s new book Joyce from Little Key Press was published in January.
Moonstruck Books published Tiffany Meuret’s latest horror novel Disco Mama, in which a 40-something woman reenters the industrial music world as an underground DJ with a taste for blood. The novel is accompanied by a limited edition 7” record featuring new, unreleased songs by Paul Barker (Ministry, Puscifer, Lard, Lead Into Gold) and Joel Shanahan (Golden Donna, Auscultation, Purpura). The record is now available for preorder and includes a digital download eBook of Disco Mama. The paperback is available for purchase.
Juleigh Howard-Hobson is a 2025 BRAVE NEW WEIRD Award winner and her weird sonnet “Death Doesn’t Sound Like It Looks” will be included in the fourth volume of the anthology series from Tenebrous Press.
Juleigh’s poem “About Those Hostels the Cute Guy You Met at the Underground Vampire Club in Salt Lake City Told You to Try” was published in No Exit: A Collection of Utah Horror (Timber Ghost Press.)
Her short story “Henry Cooper’s Obsession” appeared in The Lizzie Borden House Anthology (Riverdale Avenue Press.)
Kelsea Yu’s horror flash fiction “Swollen” was published on Sadie “Mother Horror” Hartmann’s Patreon and is publicly available to read.
J.S. Douglas’s eco-horror short story “When the Ghosts Come Tumbling In” was published in the newly minted online magazine The Rotting Leaf.
Katherine Quevedo’s story “The Sauce Packet King of the West Hills” was reprinted in Small Wonders in January 2026.
The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) Poetry Book Club in February is reading and discussing Katherine’s Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA) Elgin Award-winning chapbook The Inca Weaver’s Tales (Sword & Kettle Press.)
Thomas Witherspoon and Richard Leis received acceptances for flash fiction that will be included in the “Liminal” edition of Weird Fiction Quarterly later this year.