For Your Favorite Author’s Favorite Author, seeing how my interviewees select as their “favorite” author is always one of the most exciting parts of this gig. Influence and admiration can extend far back to childhood or be found much closer to the present. Today’s conversation is one that falls in the latter category. I was absolutely thrilled to chat with an author whose prodigious output in a relatively short period of time is truly remarkable and inspiring.

Hailey Piper is the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Queen of Teeth, All the Hearts You Eat, The Worm and His Kings series, and other books of horror. She's also the author of over 100 published short stories appearing in Weird Tales, Pseudopod, and elsewhere. See what I mean about prodigious?

Hailey brings an intriguing perspective to the conversation and demonstrates how authors are always learning, growing, finding new peers in the field to wear (or share) the mantle of favorite. In addition, she shares a welcome reminder of the joy of reading our favorites for the sake of reading alone!

Who is your favorite author and why?

This is probably a predictable caveat, or maybe just a Hailey Piper one, but I can't have one favorite author. Not don't—cannot. It's impossible. There are too many authors, their work a dizzying mix of incredible, insightful, talented, fearless, sweet, horrific, beautiful, morose, and awe-inspiring. No one is bringing the exact same thing to the table, and if you gave any number of my favorites the same premise, they would come back with utterly different and often deviant facets from each other.

That said, let's talk about Carmen Maria Machado!

When were you first made aware of this author and when were you first drawn to their work?

I believe it was while listening to Laurel Hightower’s appearance as a guest on the Staring Into the Abyss podcast, when she went on to discuss "The Husband Stitch." I was immediately intrigued and needed to read this story. "It's my ribbon" has wrapped around my brain ever since.

I love this. The thrill of learning about other writers from fellow authors is a key element behind this column. Could you talk a bit more about your experience of hearing Laurel talk about the story and then reading it for yourself? How did the work live up to or surpass expectations? Were there surprises in terms of craft or artistry that you noticed?

I don't remember. The time since listening and multiple reads of the story and book has erased whatever my impression was, I just know it was the catalyst.

Is there one particular piece of work from this author that you are especially fond of or that’s had a significant creative impact on you? What is that piece and what makes it so appealing or affecting for you?

I'm not sure how to select any one piece. Maybe "Real Women Have Bodies?" It is truly a gorgeous ghost story and feels like such a true experience.

Are those elements you cite above ones that you find again and again in Machado’s work? I would certainly think of the gorgeousness of the prose and the sense of veracity behind the words as present in much of her work. I’m wondering then what makes them stand out for you in “Real Women Have Bodies.”

On its surface it is both a fascinating speculative story and a genuine snapshot of a sapphic relationship, and underneath, the sense that the ending of the latter can't help but create the former. Heartbreak can be a haunting.

How often do you revisit that particular piece or the author’s work in general? What lessons have you learned at various times from the work?

I have reread her collection Her Body and Other Parties multiple times. I'm due for another. There's much freedom to be learned from Machado's work, both as an artist and as a person.

When re-reading the work of an author with whom you’re so familiar, is there a routine approach you have to revisiting the piece? Or do you take different tacks: reading straight through one time or picking and choosing favorite stories the next? Do you approach these re-reads with particular goals?

I read it again because I enjoy it. We put too much emphasis on gaining and progress and Type-A gear-grinding in every little activity, meanwhile reading is inherently beneficial to the human experience. If the act of rereading a book for pleasure is too hedonistic for our society, we're in real fucking trouble.

Are there any pieces in the author’s oeuvre that have not worked as well for you? If yes, which ones and why do you think that connection was not as strong?

Everything I've read of Machado's is powerful, so I don't think there's a weak place in there. I probably don't click as much with "The Resident," despite liking a lot about it, because I sometimes struggle with stories about writers.

What writing lessons have you taken, purposefully or accidentally, from your favorite author?

Again, freedom. This mainly pertains to structure. Stories like "Inventory," that tell a narrative via listing experiences, or "Especially Heinous," which breaks down a novella into bite-sized pieces. Even leaving fiction and approaching her memoir In the Dream House, she shows the beauty of an intense, theme-focused chapter. I can't wander in that sunlight without it leaving at least something of a burn.

It’s an intriguing notion: this idea of freedom being derived in part from structure. It might seem counterintuitive on its face. Could you expand a little more on how having these self-imposed limitations might allow Machado the freedom to craft these sorts of compelling, surprising stories? 

You would have to ask her. But to me, creativity sometimes flourishes under constraints. We're forced to try a different approach.

Are there any works in your bibliography that you feel are closest to the work of your favorite—whether in terms of style, subject matter, length, etc.? Talk a little about those similarities.

I'm sure by incident there has been influence in various works of mine, which should happen when reading, but more specifically my story in The Crawling Moon, "A Year in the Angel-Handed House," was an experiment that took "Especially Heinous" as permission to bound across a period of time in glimpses, albeit voyeuristic ones.

Where does your writing diverge from your favorite author’s? Are there any elements from your favorite author’s work that you would like to incorporate in your own? If yes, what are these?

That's really a question for others looking at two separate works. I don't know how to pull my own work apart that way, and I don't think I want to. As for elements, my preference is for an artist to let the digesting of another's work become part of them, and then let that influence them as it plays out naturally, but if I had to advise anyone, Machado's sex scenes feel humanly strange and fearless, and I hope I'm managing that too.

If a reader wanted to start reading your favorite author, what piece would you recommend they start with?

Her Body and Other Parties. In order, so beginning where I did, with "The Husband Stitch."

If you could ask your favorite author one question about their work, what would it be?

When is your next book coming out? I would promise I can keep a secret too!

What do you have coming out next on the writing and publishing front? What are you working on now?

My erotic cosmic horror novel A Game in Yellow releases from Saga in summer 2025, and after that another title TBA. I'm working on another book for them and another novel I can't discuss until it's announced.

Thank you for taking the time to chat with me about your favorite author. Well, one of your favorite authors!

Where can readers find you online?

www.haileypiper.com