Bad Banana

LISTEN: https://redcircle.com/shows/97996083-5fe9-41d5-824e-f069a412ed76   Shane Hawk on Meet Your Maker 43m | Jul 13, 2026 Brian and Jeff welcome Shane Hawk, a Cheyenne and Arapaho horror writer and editor, creator of the Native Horror Index, and contributing editor at Counterpoint Press acquiring and editing Indigenous North American writers. Hawk explains how horror can produce joy through safe distance, catharsis, and the chance to rewrite grim histories by letting Native characters survive and resist stereotypes. He recounts early influences (Goosebumps, Are You Afraid of the Dark, a childhood Halloween scare), returning to intense reading in adulthood, and self-publishing Anoka in 2020 before COVID led him to spearhead Never Whistle at Night with co-editor Ted Van Alst, evolving from a Discord/Twitter idea to a Vintage deal and major sales. He discusses horror community support, the anthology’s themes of revenge and community, his comfort centering Native perspec...

 Spooky? Established, emerging Indigenous authors produce disturbing fiction for dark anthology Tension, horror and then terror are the elements of a good scary story, and Never Whistle at Night has it all in 26 tales that will keep readers turning the pages and listening for things that go bump in the dark.  Co-editor Shane Hawk talks with Windspeaker about the collection. Gatekeepers, says Shane Hawk, co-editor of the dark fiction anthology Never Whistle at Night , are one reason why Indigenous writers have only broken into the horror genre in the last decade or so. “I think it's a marketability thing where there’s been historically gatekeepers who have allowed who can be published,” said Hawk. “I think now more people are seeing that, ‘hey, Indigenous people can write genre as well’,” says Hawk, who calls San Diego home. He and co-editor Theodore G. Van Alst Jr. were in the position of gatekeepers in 2021 when they put out an open call for eme...