Margaret Killjoy

Last updated
Margaret Killjoy
Margaret Killjoy.jpg
NationalityAmerican
Occupations
  • Author
  • musician
  • podcaster
Writing career
Genres
Notable works Danielle Cain (series) The Sapling Cage
Musical career
Genres
Occupations
  • Singer
  • songwriter
  • instrumentalist
Website birdsbeforethestorm.net OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Margaret Killjoy is an American author, musician, and podcast host. She is best known for her speculative fiction in the fantasy and folk horror genres, in particular for her two-book Danielle Cain series. Killjoy is involved in several musical projects across genres, including black metal, neofolk, and electronica. She founded the feminist black metal band Feminazgûl in 2018.

Contents

Life

Killjoy is an anarchist, feminist, and anti-fascist. [1] She is a transgender woman. [1] [2] Killjoy spent much of her early adult life as a "squatter and wanderer", then in the late 2010s began building a small cabin in the Appalachian Mountains on an anarchist land project. [3]

Career

Writing

Killjoy's fiction writing includes queer anarchist fantasy and folk horror. [2] Killjoy published What Lies Beneath the Clock Tower, a steampunk interactive novel, in 2011. [4] In 2017, Killjoy published the first of two books in the Danielle Cain series, which features a group of genderqueer, anarchist demon hunters in the American heartland. In the first novella, The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion, the group is hunted by a demon that appears in the form of a stag. [2] [5] The second book in the series, The Barrow Will Send What It May, follows members of the same group as they run from the events of the first book. [5] The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion was nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award in 2017. [6] [7] The Barrow Will Send What It May was nominated in the 31st Lambda Literary Awards for the Lambda Literary Award for Speculative Fiction. [8] Killjoy contributed the short story "We Won't Be Here Tomorrow" to A Punk Rock Future, a 2019 anthology of speculative science fiction and fantasy. [7]

Killjoy has also edited and written non-fiction works, including the 2009 book Mythmakers & Lawbreakers: Anarchist Writers on Fiction (AK Press), a collection of interviews with anarchist authors of fiction including Ursula K. Le Guin and Alan Moore. [9] She also was an editor of SteamPunk Magazine, which was in print from 2007 to 2016. [9] [10]

Music

Killjoy founded the feminist black metal band Feminazgûl in 2018. [1] She released the band's first EP, The Age of Men Is Over, as a solo project the same year. Joined by Laura Beach as lead vocalist and Meredith Yayanos as violinist and theremin player, the band released its first full-length album, No Dawn for Men, in 2020. [2]

Killjoy is involved in several other musical projects: neofolk Alsarath, blackened doom Vulgarite, and electronica Nomadic War Machine. [2]

Podcasting

Killjoy hosts the anarchist survivalist podcast Live Like the World Is Dying. [11] She launched her history podcast Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff, described as highlighting "complex stories of resistance that offer lessons and inspiration for us today," on May 2, 2022 at IHeartRadio. [12]

Written works

Fiction

Non-fiction

Discography

Alsarath

Feminazgûl

Nomadic War Machine

Vulgarite

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steampunk</span> Subgenre of science fiction

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diana Wynne Jones</span> English childrens fantasy writer (1934–2011)

Diana Wynne Jones was an English novelist, poet, academic, literary critic, and short story writer. She principally wrote fantasy and speculative fiction novels for children and young adults. Although usually described as fantasy, some of her work also incorporates science fiction themes and elements of realism. Jones's work often explores themes of time travel and parallel or multiple universes. Some of her better-known works are the Chrestomanci series, the Dalemark series, the three Moving Castle novels, Dark Lord of Derkholm, and The Tough Guide to Fantasyland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Speculative fiction</span> Genre of fiction including science fiction, horror and fantasy

Speculative fiction is an umbrella genre of fiction that encompasses all the subgenres that depart from realism, or strictly imitating everyday reality, instead presenting fantastical, supernatural, futuristic, or other imaginative realms. This catch-all genre includes, but is not limited to, science fiction, fantasy, horror, slipstream, magical realism, superhero fiction, alternate history, utopia and dystopia, fairy tales, steampunk, cyberpunk, weird fiction, and some apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction. The term has been used for works of literature, film, television, drama, video games, radio, and their hybrids.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Symbol of Chaos</span> Symbol from the books of Michael Moorcock

The Symbol of Chaos originates from Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melniboné stories and their dichotomy of Law and Chaos. In them, the Symbol of Chaos comprises eight arrows in a radial pattern.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Di Filippo</span> American science fiction writer (born 1954)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catherynne M. Valente</span> American writer

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlie Jane Anders</span> American science fiction author and commentator (born 1969)

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<i>SteamPunk Magazine</i> Former subculture magazine

SteamPunk Magazine was an online and print semi-annual magazine devoted to the steampunk subculture which existed between 2007 and 2016. It was published under a Creative Commons license, and was free for download. In March 2008, SteamPunk Magazine began offering free subscriptions to incarcerated Americans, as a "celebration" of 1% of the US population being eligible.

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The role of women in speculative fiction has changed a great deal since the early to mid-20th century. There are several aspects to women's roles, including their participation as authors of speculative fiction and their role in science fiction fandom. Regarding authorship, in 1948, 10–15% of science fiction writers were female. Women's role in speculative fiction has grown since then, and in 1999, women comprised 36% of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America's professional members. Frankenstein (1818) by Mary Shelley has been called the first science fiction novel, although women wrote utopian novels even before that, with Margaret Cavendish publishing the first in the seventeenth century. Early published fantasy was written by and for any gender. However, speculative fiction, with science fiction in particular, has traditionally been viewed as a male-oriented genre.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dieselpunk</span> Subgenre of science fiction

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Neon Yang, formerly JY Yang, is a Singaporean writer of English-language speculative fiction best known for the Tensorate series of novellas published by Tor.com, which have been finalists for the Hugo Award, Locus Award, Nebula Award, World Fantasy Award, Lambda Literary Award, British Fantasy Award, and Kitschie Award. The first novella in the series, The Black Tides of Heaven, was named one of the "100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time" by Time magazine. Their debut novel, The Genesis of Misery, the first book in The Nullvoid Chronicles, was published in 2022 by Tor Books, received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, received a nomination for the 2022 Goodreads Choice Award for Science Fiction, and was a Finalist for the 2023 Locus Award for Best First Novel and 2023 Compton Crook Award.

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Feminazgûl is an American feminist black metal band from North Carolina. Founded by Margaret Killjoy in 2018, Feminazgûl released their debut EP, The Age of Men Is Over, the same year. The band released their first full-length album, No Dawn for Men, in 2020.

The Danielle Cain novels are a two-book series created by author and musician Margaret Killjoy. They concern the eponymous protagonist and her group of friends as they travel America's heartland in pursuit of magic, demons, and other supernatural events. The first novella, The Lamb Will Slaughter The Lion, was released in 2017 and was nominated for the Shirley Jackson Award. The second, and most recent, instalment, The Barrow Will Send What It May, was released the following year and was nominated for the Lambda Literary Award. The series has been praised for its portrayals of anarchism and its diverse cast of characters.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Kelly, Kim (November 12, 2020). "Inside Heavy Metal's Battle Against White Supremacy". Esquire . Archived from the original on August 29, 2021. Retrieved June 22, 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Kendrick, Monica (April 17, 2020). "Feminazgûl spins anarchy, feminism, and literature into atmospheric black metal on No Dawn for Men". Chicago Reader . Archived from the original on June 24, 2021. Retrieved June 22, 2021.
  3. Killjoy, Margaret (March 31, 2020). "Inside Margaret Killjoy of Feminazgûl's Self-Built Home in the Woods". Astral Noize (Interview). Interviewed by George Parr. Archived from the original on June 25, 2021. Retrieved June 25, 2021.
  4. Colyard, K. W. (December 31, 2018). "20 Books Like 'Black Mirror: Bandersnatch' To Read After You Finally Finish It". Bustle . Archived from the original on June 24, 2021. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
  5. 1 2 Liptak, Andrew (April 7, 2018). "Margaret Killjoy's Danielle Cain books are razor-sharp anarchist urban fantasies". The Verge . Archived from the original on June 24, 2021. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
  6. Stubby the Rocket (May 10, 2018). "The 2017 Shirley Jackson Awards Nominees have been Announced". Tor.com . Archived from the original on June 24, 2021. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
  7. 1 2 Dunn, Thom (October 9, 2020). "This new fiction anthology is punk as f*ck". Boing Boing . Archived from the original on June 24, 2021. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
  8. "31st Annual Lambda Literary Award Finalists -". Lambda Literary . March 7, 2019. Archived from the original on August 15, 2021. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
  9. 1 2 Baker, Jeff (February 27, 2010). "Northwest Writers at Work: Ursula K. Le Guin is 80 and taking on Google". Oregon Live . Archived from the original on May 11, 2021. Retrieved June 25, 2021.
  10. Allegra (2016). "Steampunk Magazine » Final Ever Issue! (and funding drive)". SteamPunk Magazine . Archived from the original on January 18, 2019. Retrieved June 25, 2021.
  11. Sugar, Rachel (December 29, 2020). "Are we doomed? An investigation". Vox . Archived from the original on July 17, 2021. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
  12. @magpiekilljoy (March 18, 2022). "on May 2, my new podcast is launching on @coolzonemedia. it's called Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff. it's about... cool people... who did cool stuff. come for the history of revolt, stay for the, i don't know, more history of revolt" (Tweet) via Twitter.
  13. "We Won't Be Here Tomorrow". AK Press . Retrieved August 15, 2023.
  14. "Escape from Incel Island". Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness . Retrieved July 11, 2024.
  15. "The Sapling Cage". The Feminist Press . Retrieved October 6, 2024.