Welcome to Pride in Horror Month 2023
Hello, dear friends. I am once again thrilled to welcome you to our annual Pride in Horror Event, when we celebrate our community and our favourite genres with various features, reviews, articles, essays and so on! And if you want to take part, rest assured it is absolutely not too late to join us!
We encourage reviews of queer media, essays, articles, and we have a handy spotlight template now available if you wish to promote yourself, or even complete it on behalf of someone else! If you are part of the LGBTQIA+ community, please note your content does not have to only be about queer media - we’re pretty much open to anything!
We do ask that allies consider content that promotes the community, but if you are LGBTQIA+ feel free to send us anything you think might be suitable. We’ve published and republished short stories, poems, essays, listacles, and all sorts of other things in previous years, and we hope to do the same again this year. If you want more details about submitting, just head to our Now Taking Submissions post to read more.
And if you would like an idea of content we’ve published previously -
Aleister: A Poem by Avra Margariti
The Animals Are Coming Out: Internal Queerness Versus External Monsters by Hailey Piper
Audiobook: This Is How You Lose the Time War Review by Elle Turpitt
Queer Domesticity & The Pull of the Full Moon by Justin Moritz
And there’s plenty more we’ve featured over the years, but hopefully this shows what a wide range we’ve featured!
It’s hard not to feel like things are, in some ways, very different this year. There is increased hatred aimed at our trans friends and siblings, there are targeted campaigns against against drag queens, and big aspects of queer culture seem to be under a microscope right now. Make no mistake, this kind of hatred against any member of our community is hatred against us all, and if you are cis but fall under the LGB+ umbrella and buy into the transphobic crap, you are not part of this community, you are not welcome in this community, and when your ‘friends’ turn against you, you will find yourself very very alone.
Now, sometimes it feels quite…hard, to stand up in the face of bigotry and harm, and it’s not always easy working out what we can do. The whole point of Pride is to celebrate the community, our community, but it feels like external forces are digging in and driving us apart, and it doesn’t help when official ‘Pride’ events allow those who cause harm to march and participate, or become over commercialised, possibly alienating some folks who need the community the most purely because of the price point. More than ever, we have to stand together. We have to be aware of our history as a whole - you cannot untangle any element of LGBTQIA+ from one another. We match today because of the work put in by those who came before us, who were gay, lesbian, trans, bi, pan, and so on. I cannot emphasise this enough - we have to support each other. Because if we don’t, no one else will. We have to look out for each other, and we have to make sure our work is intersectional, that we acknowledge our privilege where we have it, and we focus on raising up others around us.
We are a community, and we forget that at our own peril.
So, what can we do to support each other? With it being Pride in Horror Month, it’s important to encourage people to read diversely, and read widely - don’t just read horror, or SFF, or Romance - dive into different genres, read non-fiction, educate yourself on the experiences of others. Boost the books you enjoy, whether it’s a review (and we’re always happy to host reviews, not just during Pride!) or just yelling on Twitter about how much you loved it.
There’s also other practical things we can do. Don’t allow those who harm our communities into our spaces. Where it’s safe to do so (and your safety should always be your priority!), make it clear however you can that you’re an ally to all. Look for GoFundMes and other fundraisers for folks raising money for surgery, or to get out of a hostile area, or just trying to make life a little better for themselves. Support each other, where you can. Listen, learn, donate to small charities trying to make a difference. Support queer creators! This month we hope to feature not just writers, but other bloggers, artists, musicians, etc - stream their stuff, listen to their podcasts, read their work. Even if you’re not directly spending money on something, doesn’t mean it doesn’t help. And, again, yell about their stuff - tell others how much you like this or that album, or the latest podcast you’ve listened to, or the blog you’ve read. Small things like that help build us all up and can really help brighten a creator’s day, maybe when they need it the most.
This community has always existed, sometimes in the shadows, but we’ve always been here, and it’s harder to push someone back into darkness once they’ve stepped out.
And this website will always be dedicated to uplifting margenalised voices. Divination Hollow, as you see it today, was created by two queer women, who looked at the horror landscape and grew frustrated at the way cis het white men dominated it. Things are different now, better, and we hope we’ve played some small role in that. The website is still run by a queer woman (me, Elle, one half of the duo) and most of the contributors are LGBTQIA+. We all know how important it is to be there for each other, support each other, and to, yes, celebrate. Celebrate the fact we are part of such a varied, diverse, artistic, wonderful landscape, celebrate the changes over the years in horror and dark fiction, and the rise in websites dedicated to uplifting margenalised voices.
So join us for Pride in Horror 2023, read what we have on offer or submit your own work. Support this community however you can, and never forget
We’re Here. We’re Queer.
And we’re never ever going away
Love
Elle
