The Crushing Weight of Horror: A Conversation with Emma E. Murray

By Steve Neal

I’m a fan of Emma E. Murray. Maybe fan is underselling it. Emma’s stories burrow themselves inside my head and replay their scenes of woe and grisliness when I’m sitting around absent-minded. From the bizarre beauty of A Constellation of Wounds to the disturbing eroticism of Mother of Machines, she has established herself as one of the most unique and talented voices currently in indie horror.

With the release of Crushing Snails out on August 6th through Apocalypse Party, A Performance of a Lifetime out on August 24th through Archive of the Odd, she’s set to make 2024 her biggest yet. Having read and loved both stories, I jumped at the chance to chat with her about everything from genre to gore to growing up. 

Emma E. Murray explores the dark side of humanity in her fiction. Her work has appeared in publications like Vastarien, Strange Horizons, and Cosmic Horror Monthly. Her debut collection, The Drowning Machine and Other Obsessions, will be out February 21, 2025 from Undertaker Books, and her second novel, Shoot Me in the Face on a Beautiful Day, will be out summer of 2025, from Apocalypse Party. When she’s not writing, she’s either playing pretend with her daughter or her D&D group.

Follow her:

Website: https://emmaemurray.com/

Twitter: https://x.com/emurrayauthor

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emmaemurray_

(more…)