Not all horror comes from far away.

Join us at First Light for a special evening celebrating Beneath the Bluebonnets: Tales of Terror by Texas Women, a new anthology bringing together voices from across the state to explore what haunts us close to home.

Edited by Austin writer Carmen Gray, the collection gathers stories set across Texas, a land of haunted histories and increasingly restrictive laws that disempower women. These stories rise from the raw intersection of terror and endurance, moving through landscapes where the familiar can turn strange without warning, and where memory and place have a way of lingering.

Written by twelve Texas women, the collection is unflinching, urgent, and deeply haunting. The result is a body of work that is unsettling, darkly playful, and rooted in the textures of everyday life.

For this event, several contributing authors will be in conversation, offering a glimpse into the different corners of horror genre they inhabit. Expect a range of voices and approaches, from gothic and folk horror to the surreal and the visceral, each one shaped by its own sense of place and perspective.

Together, they will talk about writing fear, building atmosphere, and what it means to tell stories that unsettle while still feeling deeply human.

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About the Editor and Authors

Carmen Gray is a native Texan, writer, and editor whose work spans fiction, poetry, and journalism. A former dual language teacher in Austin, she brings a deep interest in storytelling across cultures and forms. Her writing has appeared in multiple Texas horror anthologies, and she is an active member of the Writers’ League of Texas. When she is not writing or editing, she teaches yoga, travels, and reads tarot alongside her animal familiars.

She is joined by several contributors to the collection:

Iphigenia Strangeworth writes horror with a sense of humor about its own necessity, once noting she turned to the genre because she could not afford therapy. When not writing, she can be found reading, drawing, or lecturing her family about shipwrecks.

Jae Mazer, originally from Canada, brings a love of gothic horror, splatter westerns, and folk traditions to her work. After years in the far north, she now calls Texas home, where she continues to write, experiment, and collect stories, often with chameleon hair and an ever-evolving point of view.

Jess Hagemann is the author of the novels Headcheese, which won an IPPY Award, and Mother-Eating, named one of the most anticipated horror books of 2025 by Paste Magazine. Her work blends the grotesque and the historical with a sharp, imaginative edge. She lives in Austin.

R.J. Joseph is an award-winning writer and editor whose work examines race, gender, and class through the lens of horror and popular culture. A Shirley Jackson and Stoker Award nominee, she brings both critical depth and creative range to the genre.