31 Days of Horror: Day 23- #LovecraftFridays with Library Journal Continues

This year on 31 Days of Horror I am working in partnership with @ItsNiaMya from Library Journal as we host #LovecraftFridays on Twitter and here on the blog. This is part of the larger Library Journal #LJReads program. Every Friday in October we will be dissecting LOVECRAFT COUNTRY the novel by Matt Ruff and the hit HBO show. We have come up with 4 larger themes and will be taking a deep dive into them each week.

Each Friday in October around 5pm eastern, Nia will post a thread on Library Journal's Twitter to start the larger discussion on the topic. To supplement the discussion, I have prepared some more reading lists and background information to help you put it into a broader context and help your library patrons.

You can engage with the conversation anytime using the #LJReads and #LovecraftFridays hashtags. Pass it on to your patrons and encourage them to participate too.

We also have a live, free, wrap up program planned for 10/30, the final Friday and you can sign up now. by clicking here or on the graphic.

Now it is time for the discussion and this week's topic-- H.P. Lovecraft and His Racism [or his issues with the "other."].

For this week's Twitter Nia combines biographical information about Lovecraft with quotes from Mary SanGiovanni's primer on Lovecraft and Cosmic Horror from this month's Library Journal.

This intersection of Lovecraft and his inspiration for those he would have hated in real life, is the main reason while he is still so relevant. The man's racisms, anti-semitism, misogyny, and just hatred of all "others," cannot be separated from his art, and yet, today we find the best stories in the Cosmic Horror subgenre are being created by the women and people of color who Lovecraft hated in real life.

In 2016, I explored this topic in a recorded book talk for the Massachusetts Library System, a talk which included Lovecraft Country, the book. You can click here to hear me discuss some of these titles. MLS made a video to go with the audio too.

Here are some of my favorite books that take Lovecraft's work as an inspiration. These are the titles that I like to say both acknowledge his influence and give him the middle finger at the same time, and I use these, and NOT Lovecraft's own works to introduce people to this complicated, modern conversation between the long dead racist and those who currently ply him as their muse. Clicking on the titles will give you more information about each.

• The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle is a retelling of the extremely racist [but also fascinating and terrifying] Lovecraft story, "The Horror at Red Hook," from the perspective of a black man in the 1920s.
• The Broken Hours by Jacqueline Baker is a fictional biography of Lovecraft but told from the perspective of a female author. I found it fascinating. I often suggest this novel to readers who know nothing about Lovecraft and want to "see what the fuss is about." It frames him and his process very well for a general audience.
• I Am Providence by Nick Mamatas is a fictional look at the intense Lovecraft fandom. Intense might not be a strong enough word even. All of the characters are caricatures of actual people, and some of them aren't even exaggerated that much. [I have met some of these people myself.] This is also a great place for beginners to enter the Cosmic Horror community. I love this book so much and for so many reasons. It is in the linked book talk, above, and this link goes to my star review from Booklist.
• The Innsmouth Legacy series by Ruthanna Emrys [begins with Winter Tide] is a fantasy series that combines Lovecraft's mythos with the Cold War, specifically introducing a Jewish perspective to the story. Emrys likes to describe this series as being in an argument with Lovecraft. Click here to read a longer piece about Emrys and her work via Tor.com.
• And while I could go on all day, this list would be incomplete without mentioning Caitlin Kiernan who has spent an entire, award-winning career working within a Lovecraftian framework as an openly gay woman. Kiernan and her work are both so intertwined with Lovecraft that recently,  her papers were acquired by the same archive that holds all of Lovecraft's papers at Brown University. Her most recent novella series that begins with Agents of Dreamland is a good place to start exploring her work. Kiernan applies the themes and cosmic horror issues first explored by Lovecraft in a way that is new and original. Her conversation with the man is less overt than the other titles in this list, but, I would argue, more important because she has made it her own.

This is really just the tip of the iceberg, and the popularity of Lovecraft Country on HBO is thankfully bringing this necessary conversation, a conversation many of us have been having within the milted confines of horror genre for years, out into the public discourse. And this is also the place where our live virtual conversation will begin next week.

So please join us as we gather a group of experts, many of us who identify as someone Lovecraft would have hated [personally I'm repping the Jews, oh and women], to have an honest conversation about Lovecraft and race.

I can't wait. I don't know if I am more excited that we all get to nerd out together or that I know our entire program will be making Lovecraft spin in his grave while we do it.

*Cue Evil Laugh*

See you next week. Signup now to join us for free.