Christi Nogle is another one of those writers who took me introducing myself with “I’m probably not going to like your [mostly horror] stuff” with a smile. I think if I read horror, I’d have a blast going through her backlist. She’s got some events coming up in the next couple of weeks (dates are listed below). Local readers should make a point of going to meet her.
Before we get into things, why don’t you give the reader a brief introduction to you and your work.
Hi! I’m a fiction writer, focusing on horror and horror-adjacent work. You can follow my writing journey at christinogle.com and at linktr.ee/christinogle
My first novel, Beulah from Cemetery Gates Media, won the 2022 Bram Stoker Award® for Superior Achievement in a First Novel and was one of five Shirley Jackson nominees in the Novel category for that year. The book has also been translated to Spanish by Dilatando Mentes Editorial. Beulah is a ghost story set in a fictional town of Beulah, Idaho. I’ve written two more novels also set in Idaho, which I hope will be available soon.
I‘ve had almost a hundred short stories published in a variety of magazines, anthologies, and my fiction collections from Flame Tree Press: The Best of Our Past, the Worst of Our Future, which is a current 2023 nominee in the Bram Stoker Awards®, Promise: A Collection of Weird Science Fiction Short Stories, and One Eye Opened in That Other Place.
I’ve co-edited two anthologies of horror, science fiction, and fantasy stories: Mother: Tales of Love and Terror with Willow Dawn Becker and Wilted Pages: An Anthology of Dark Academia with Ai Jiang, and I work as an Associate Editor for the horror fiction podcast PseudoPod.
Are you a native Idahoan? What is it about Idaho that keeps you here?
I moved to Idaho at the age of ten and have lived here ever since. Previously, my family moved around the country a lot.
I’ve stayed in Idaho because my family lived here, and now that my family members have passed, I have wanted to move closer to the ocean, but suppose I stay here because this still feels like my only home.
“Feels like my only home.” Is possibly the best answer I’ve received to this question.
Are you tied into some sort of local author/bookish group/culture? If so, tell us about it and how it helps you as an author. If you’re not, is there a reason for it?
Yes, I have a wonderful writing group here in Boise, the Sawtooth Alliance of Women Writers. [That name is a great way to say you’re an Idaho-based group without using the word Idaho. Also, I dig the initials.] I’ve known some of the members since college in the nineties and have been colleagues with others for almost that long, so it is a very comfortable and supportive group. The members of this group were among those who first encouraged me to send my work out for publication, and it has been wonderful to share my writing news and celebrate theirs each week. I’ve been meaning to check out the creative writing group at my local library, too, but so far I haven’t happened to be free during their monthly meeting time.
What kind of events in the area do you attend—either to sell/promote your books or to network with authors? Are there any outside of this area that you hit regularly and wish we had something like it here?
Just lately I have begun appearing at local events such as library book fairs, the library’s ComicCon event, readings, signings at Rediscovered Books and Barnes & Noble, and the like. One of the most successful events for me was a reading at the Star library hosted by Tina Johnson—the attendees were so receptive and kind! Krampus Con Bizarre Bazaar at ABU Games in Boise was fantastic as well. The well-attended event featured comics, art, books, games, and cosplay, and as you would imagine there were a good number of people open to talking about horror. On June 15, I will be signing at Rediscovered Books 11:00-12:30. June 29, I have plans to do a signing at local author Brian McBee’s store, Kuna’s Book Habit from 12-2:00.
I desperately wish there were more of a local horror community here and am always envious when I see that fellow horror writers can go to regular horror events in New England, the Pacific Northwest, and California. I’ve wanted to start a local group for some time, and I ran a workshop through The Cabin called “The Art of Dread: Crafting Contemporary Horror” in hopes of meeting and cultivating some horror friendships here in Idaho. I then began looking for other Idaho horror writers on Facebook in hopes of starting an Idaho Horror Writers Association (HWA) chapter. There simply weren’t enough people, but just recently, the Wyoming-based horror writer Josh Hanson and I were able to open a chapter of the HWA for the “Inland North States” region including Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and North and South Dakota, so I hope that will lead to more regional opportunities as well as more local and semi-local friendships. The HWA has been the most important organization of the several I belong to, as it offers opportunities to mentor and be mentored, other fascinating volunteering opportunities, and has put me in contact with some of my favorite writers. If any local writers reading this are thinking of joining the HWA, please reach out to me through my website contact form or through any social media and I’ll be happy to help you join our chapter.
What’s the breakdown of your audience—do you have a strong local base, or are your readers from other parts of the world?
My local friends read my work, and I’m trying to meet more readers locally, but most of my readers are from other parts of the U.S. and the U.K. Due to the translation of Beulah, I am also happy to have some readers and reviewers in Spain. I don’t read Spanish, but I can read their comments and reviews due to online translation, and it’s wonderful to see the response to the book.
Do you think there are particular challenges or advantages to being a writer in the Treasure Valley? (possibly both)
It’s been a bit challenging for me to be based here instead of in one of the places mentioned above that have a greater number of horror writers and readers. That said, there are some generous organizations in the area that have helped me, such as our local literary center The Cabin and the Alexa Rose Foundation—I’ll be in the Alexa Rose residency at The Common Well starting in November, and I hope to be offering a new workshop though The Cabin soon. We have a great library system here, and we have the wonderful independent bookstore Rediscovered Books.
With the Inland North States chapter, you’re on the front line of addressing one of the biggest challenges. I’ve had a few other authors talk about “maybe” starting something or wanting something that meets their genre/subgenre/specialty—it’s good to see that someone making progress in that direction, too.
Do you bring Idaho (or some sort of Idaho-sensibility, assuming one exists) to your work? Whether or not anyone else sees it, can you look at some aspect of your writing and think “That’s Idaho” or “I would do ____ differently if I was a Kentuckian or from Illinois?”
Yes, I think you would recognize a lot of the natural features of Idaho in my work, such as climate, the plants that grow here, the landscape. My settings are often rural or semi-rural and are drawn from the small towns where I’ve lived in Idaho as well as the country settings in Illinois and Indiana where I lived as a child.
One final question, is there a book (or two…or 18, if you get really carried away), that embodies Idaho/the Idaho spirit to you to recommend to my readers?
There’s no one book that expresses everything that would need expressing about the state, but Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover comes to mind. Westover’s work with theme of isolation really spoke to me.
Great pick.
Thanks for doing this–I hope you enjoyed it!
