Four Questions with Jamal Hodge
The latest author to join the series is multi-talented. I rarely use that term, but with Hodge it is fitting. He is an award-winning filmmaker as well as an award-winning poet and author who has multiple projects on the horizon, including his recent release, The Dark Between the Twilight. I am grateful that he made time to stop by.
Tamika Thompson: What is horror?
Jamal Hodge: Horror is life. It is the genre that represents the purest of emotions, fear, and our triumph over death, pain, and adversity. I would suggest that you think about it from a purely pragmatic perspective. Life is the ultimate horror movie in which everyone suffers; ultimately, no one survives. But by confronting this medium, we are reminded of our will to live even in the face of our frail mortality; we are reminded of the value of hope in the face of hopelessness, love in the face of cruelty, and that some deaths are worth dying, that some monsters are worth confronting. The horror genre engages our empathy like no other because since everyone suffers, then everyone deserves some level of compassion.
Thompson: What is the spookiest experience you've ever had?
Hodge: I can’t write it without depressing your readers. But, on a milder note, there was a time when I was living in the Martinique Hotel, which was the worst shelter in New York. A group of men were at our apartment door trying to kick it in, saying they were going to kill me and my brothers and do all types of unrepeatable things to my mother and sister (who wasn’t there). I was the oldest boy there at the time, and so me and my mom barricaded the door, my mother brought pots of water to boiling and we oiled the floor by the front door with crisco oil. I was given a butcher’s knife, so when the invaders slipped, and the boiling water was applied to their unsuspecting flesh, I could give them the hokey pokey with stabs to the groin, mind you I was like nine or ten years old at the time. Luckily they gave up before the door gave out. The cops were called, but they never came. Ever. That was probably the spookiest experience I’ve ever had besides the three I won’t mention. Hey, you asked.
Thompson: What is the scariest book you've read and what about it frightened you?
Hodge: George Orwell’s 1984 and Josh Malerman’s new classic Incidents Around The House. 1984 opened my young mind to concepts and grim realities of the world I had suspected but could neither conceptualize nor comprehend on my own. It scared me but left me forever changed, hyper-aware of the fragility of the mind and the fragile concept of identity. It's hard to say too much about Incidents Around the House other than it is told through the perspective of a little girl, which somehow makes it worse; she lives with her parents and Other Mommy… and holy shit!! It's a masterpiece.
Thompson: You are already a multi-award-winning filmmaker and writer, and now you’re out with a memoir and speculative poetry collection from Crystal Lake, The Dark Between the Twilight; on the horizon, you are editing an anthology, Bestiary of Blood: Modern Fables and Dark Tales, and you have an upcoming poetry collaboration with Linda Addison called Everything Endless. When you are inspired to create, what has been your process for deciding the form, the medium, and the mode?
Hodge: Silence, service, and pain. In the silences between waking up and dreaming, I pull inspiration from whatever is manifested; I ask myself how it can be appropriately applied to fulfill its function. Where will it alleviate pain in others? And will I make it of service to someone outside of myself. For instance, I wrote The Dark Between the Twilight as an emotional trojan horse. At first, it seems like it’s about me, but it’s really about being so vulnerable and honest on a journey of healing and redemption that it inspires the reader to do the same in their own life.
With Bestiary of Blood, I felt morality tales told by the world’s greatest horror writers would use darkness to show light, wildly entertaining yet profound with revelations. Finally, Everything Endless came as a way of not only selfishly working with Linda Addison, the most incredible dark poet of our time, forcing me to elevate my craft, but also predominately as a way of showcasing the black perspective on dimensions, science, and time. In exploring the galaxies within and without, from the micro to the macro, I promise you it is unlike anything else.
So, I’ve been working hard, I've been learning, but I’ve also been guided and supported by some of the brightest minds with the kindest hearts, many of whom believed in me before I fully believed in myself. To them, I’m eternally grateful, and I hope to be a good steward to the medium, bringing fresh ideas and perspectives from this unique amalgamation of choices and Ideas we’re currently calling Jamal. Thank you for having me, Tamika Thompson. Bless.
Jamal Hodge is a multi-award-winning filmmaker who has won over 100 awards. His writing has been nominated for a 2021 & 2022 Rhysling Award, and his poem 'Colony' won 2nd place at the 2022 Dwarf Stars. His collection The Dark Between the Twilight, published by Crystal Lake Publishing, opened as the #1 hot new American Poetry Release in June 2024 and as the #6 overall best-seller for Black and African American Poetry behind Maya Angelou at #5. His anthology, Bestiary of Blood: Modern Fables & Dark Tales (scheduled for an October 4th, 2024 release from Crystal Lake), has 35 contributors, 18 of whom are Stoker Award Winning Writers. Everything Endless, a poetry collaboration between Grand Master Linda Addison and Hodge, is scheduled for a 2025 release by Raw Dog Screaming Press. For more, visit www.Writerhodge.com
