contributors
Ashlee blackwell
Since creating Graveyard Shift Sisters in October 2013, I have co-written and co-produced the Shudder Original documentary, Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror. My research is focused on Black American women-identified filmmakers who write/direct in the horror genre and I have a chapter about it in the anthology, Bloody Women: Women Directors of Horror. I have been an adjunct professor of film studies and currently work with women and non-binary art students as an Academic Advisor.
Eden Royce
Eden Royce is a Shirley Jackson Award finalist for her short story work and has written articles for Writer’s Digest and We Need Diverse Books. Her debut novel Root Magic is a Walter Dean Myers Award Honoree and an Andre Norton Nebula Award Finalist for outstanding children’s literature. Find her online at edenroyce.com.
r. shanea williams
Robin Shanea Williams is an award-winning screenwriter and director best known for her short films, CONTAMINATION and PARALYSIS. She also co-wrote the short film SUICIDE BY SUNLIGHT which had its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. She has written several feature screenplays and has worked as a writer/researcher/consultant on documentary and other creative projects. Williams’ mission as a screenwriter is to continue to develop scripts with a clear, crisp voice centering the Black experience within various genres.
Photo by Shaun La
tarik r. davis
Tarik Davis is an actor/writer/avid pop culture consumer based in New York City with a 20-year history of acting, performing improv and writing comedy. He is best known as the sidekick and announcer on The Amber Ruffin Show on Peacock. In 2020 Tarik created the urban fantasy noir comic strip Apple City. He is also a principal performer in the 2021 special Tony Award recipient Freestyle Love Supreme on Broadway and coming to a town near you in 2022.
Tarik has appeared in multiple commercials and television shows such as The Undoing, Late Night with Seth Meyers, Ray Donovan, Friends from College, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and more.
Tarik is also an instructor at the Freestyle Love Supreme Academy.
Mary Kay McBrayer
Mary Kay McBrayer is the author of the book America’s First Female Serial Killer: Jane Toppan and the Making of a Monster. You can find her shorter nonfiction writing on Narratively and her reviews at Fangoria. She co-hosts Everything Trying to Kill You, a comedy podcast that analyzes favorite horror movies from the perspectives of women of color. McBrayer also enjoys building creepy dollhouse miniatures, performing Middle Eastern dance, and watching detective shows. You can follow her on Instagram @marykaymcbrayer and Twitter @mkmcbrayer.
carolyn mauricette
Carolyn Mauricette is a Toronto-based Rotten Tomatoes approved critic, film writer, Programmer/Development Coordinator for the Blood in the Snow Film Festival and Director of Canadian Programming for the Fantasia International Film Festival. You can find her writing on her website View From the Dark and Hollywood Suite. She has written reviews and articles for the online and print editions of Rue Morgue Magazine and Grim Magazine and is a contributing author to The Encyclopedia of Japanese Horror Films and The Encyclopedia of Racism in American Films. Carolyn has produced talks on Afrofuturism for The Black Museum, Afrofuturism and Black women monsters for Fantasia Film Festival in 2020 and 2021. She was an industry commentator in the 2020 documentary Clapboard Jungle: Surviving the Independent Film Business, directed by Justin McConnell. You can also hear her on Reely Melanated, a film podcast focusing on Black creators and performers, with her co-host Ashlee Blackwell.
sonia lupher
Sonia Lupher is a Visiting Lecturer in Film and Media Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, where she completed her PhD. Her research focuses on the post-2000s wave of women’s horror cinema, and particularly how the horror genre functions as a crucial tool for reconsidering the 1970s women’s cinema and film festival movements. Sonia is the founder and editor of the digital humanities project Cut-Throat Women: A Database of Women Who Make Horror, which catalogues the work of hundreds of female practitioners in horror media production.