On November 26 & 27 we’re hosting our second-ever AugurCon, our virtual celebration of speculative literatures! We’re joined by over 45 amazing guests, including authors, poets, editors, and publishing professionals, to explore the intersections of the world we know—and the ones we dare to imagine.

We connected with Tiffany Morris, author of the horror poetry collection Elegies of Rotting Stars, who is a panelist at this year’s AugurCon.

Get your ticket to attend her panel:

Speaker, Voice, Persona: Exploring Speculative Poetry
Sunday, November 27 at 3–4:00 PM EST / 12–1:00 PM PST

To see the full weekend program schedule, visit our website.

What led you to explore horror in your poetry? Is there a subgenre of horror that’s intriguing you lately?

For me, poetry is a way to process and sort different emotions and ideas that have been haunting me. I also see horror as a revelation of a hidden or sublimated truth, so my turn to horror poetry is really a way to interrogate those aspects of the world around me—that’s why my work will often have a climate or apocalyptic or anarchafeminist aspect to it. I’m forever intrigued by folk horror and spiritual horror, especially if it’s formed in an abstract/psychedelic or pessimistic expression. In some ways I think it’s easier to say things in poetry than in prose—difficult topics get transmuted through obfuscation and image rather than clarity and directness.

As a horror writer and fan, who do you think is doing awesome work in the genre? Is there an emerging writer or poet you would you love to see SKYROCKET overnight?

If you haven’t read Paula Ashe’s We Are Here To Hurt Each Other, I’d strongly recommend it—it’s a remarkable collection of short horror fiction that balances exceptionally beautiful style with absolutely brutal stories. Avra Margariti’s poetry collection The Saint of Witches came out this year and it was fantastic, as well—it’s filled with poems that evoke dread and tell startling stories in a small space.

Tell us about your writing process! How did you start writing? Plus: Do you have any favourite writing haunts (i.e. places) or rituals?

My process can be a little chaotic—any time I am inspired with a word or phrase it will get thrown into my Notes app, then on a day off I will dedicate time with copious cups of coffee and a moody soundtrack to sort through them and see what they can become. I love to write on my lunch breaks during my day job—to take a seat outside and go old school with a notebook and see what strange fish swim through the stream of my consciousness.

We can’t wait to have you on our panel exploring Speaker, Voice, Persona in speculative poetry! Specpo opens up opportunities for voice and persona not available in realist literature. What techniques do you use to experiment with voice in your poetry? What experiences or media have shaped your voice as a poet?

Thank you, I’m so excited for it! I love the possibilities for voice and persona in poetry, in general, and how it becomes even more expansive when looking at the speculative. I’ve had a non-horror fixation lately on cyborg poetry, in exploring the melding of machine and human voice.There’s a plurality in it that becomes interesting to me – along with anything that defies hierarchy and plays with categorization and celebrates difference. I try to live in the experience of Etuaptmumk, or Two-Eyed Seeing, a Mi’kmaq concept brought forward by Elder Albert Marshall where Indigenous and non-Indigenous worldviews come together to create a more comprehensive picture of reality, because it’s both part of my culture and my experience as a Mi’kmaq/settler woman who was raised off-reserve as a non-speaker who is trying to reclaim the language. It’s an ongoing process of understanding how language shapes reality, and it’s beautiful.

Hear more from Tiffany: Get your ticket to AugurCon 2022

Tiffany Morris is a Mi’kmaw/settler writer of speculative fiction and poetry from Kjipuktuk (Halifax), Nova Scotia. She is the author of the horror poetry collection Elegies of Rotting Stars (Nictitating Books, 2022). Her work has previously appeared in Augur Magazine, Apex Magazine, and Uncanny Magazine, among others, and has been nominated for Aurora, Rhysling, and Elgin Awards. Find her at tiffmorris.com or on twitter @tiffmorris.

Join Tiffany at AugurCon! Our panel on Speaker, Voice, Persona: Exploring Speculative Poetry takes place on Sunday, November 27. Get your ticket to AugurCon 2022 now!