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Explore the program
Festival month has arrived! But before the Festival officially kicks off, we want to introduce you to some of the participants who have travelled from near and far to discuss their books, writing and ideas with us. Throughout this Q&A series, get to know favourite and unfamiliar writers and consider the 2025 theme, In This Together.
Mariana Enriquez is the queen of macabre political and queer horror. Her latest short story collection, A Sunny Place for Shady People, is about all kinds of hauntings in the suburbs of Argentina.
How does your work as a journalist inform your creative practice?
It helps to keep curious, informed and aware of what’s going on culturally – I’m an arts & culture journalist – that really helps me creatively.
Your work is firmly grounded in horror and the supernatural, what compels you to write about these themes?
Basically it’s the genres I like and they give the metaphors I need to talk about the things I’m obsessed with or I care about. I use horror to talk about reality and politics, which I don’t think is weird at all, I think many horror writers are social commentators. But we don’t use the language of realism.
What’s on your TBR pile now?
The Plains by Gerard Murane and Fantasma de la dictadura de Mariana Tello Weiss, a non-fiction book about ghosts and the Argentinian dictatorship.
What is the first book you remember reading?
The Never Ending Story by Michael Ende.
What book do you wish you could read for the first time again?
Beloved by Toni Morrison.
What events at this year’s Festival are you looking forward to attending?
What do you hope readers take away from your work?
I just hope they like it, in whatever way they prefer.