Tiffany Morris for Women in Horror Month
1. Introduce yourself. What do you want people to know about you and your work?
Kwe’, teluisi Tiffany Morris—often on social media I’m called Tiff! I’m an L’nu’skw (Mi’kmaw) writer from Nova Scotia. I write speculative fiction and have two books that tackle apocalypse, climate change, and ecohorror, among other things. I also have a sapphic cannibalism novella due out from Nictitating Books later this year.
2. Who or what were your earliest horror influences?
I was a huge fan of the book Mostly Ghostly as a kid—it was an adapted-for-children book of short stories by classic horror authors like M.R. James, Washington Irving, and others. I also grew up on Goosebumps, Fear Street, and children’s horror tv like Are You Afraid of the Dark. As a teenager I moved onto Stephen King and then Shirley Jackson, who has remained a huge influence on me.
3. What about Indigenous identity do you find crucial to communicate when you write? Bonus question: What are the three most beautiful words in the Mi'kmaq language and why?
Many of my Mi’kmaw characters are urban like me—while I have a home First Nation community, I grew up in a small city about half an hour outside of it, and now live in a big city far from there—though still within Mi’kmaw lands, and in a place that used to be a gathering place for folks from around Mi’kma’ki. I’m so grateful to have those home connections, but it’s still a different experience than someone who grows up living in the First Nation itself, so it’s interesting to me to bring that forward. Beyond that, there are some common experiences of culture and also dealing with colonialism that I think are rich areas to explore, especially when working in the horror space – there is a lot of room to work with expectation, subversion, and anxiety, and to have some level of catharsis just through seeing it on the page.
For the bonus question—the Mi’kmaw language is verb-based, so there is a beautiful vitality and sense of relationship built into it. I couldn’t pick just three, so instead I’ll share a favorite: many things are known by what they do, and the word for squirrel is atu'tuwej, which translates to “the one who speaks like their own language”.
4. Take us through a day-in-the-life of Tiffany Morris.
I work for a nonprofit organization as my day job, so writing is something I do on the fly—on my lunch break, when inspiration happens, on my commute—my notes app and small physical notebooks are my best friends! Often inspiration comes in snippets, and then larger portions of time on the weekends are devoted to drinking many cups of strong coffee while I collect those snippets from the week, write more, and/or edit previous work. Sometimes I co-work with beloved friends at cute cafes around the city, and it’s one of my favorite things to do—that creative accountability and community can be so energizing.
5. Imagine you're standing in front of a crowd of every horror creative—authors, filmmakers, podcasters, journalists, etc. What would you want them to know about your experience as a queer Indigenous woman in the genre?
I’d be so honoured to meet with so many creative minds all working within the same ecosystem! I would probably want to lead an exercise where we think through what it means to be in relationship to each other—and what stories our stories tell. For me, my identity as a Mi’kmaw woman, as a bisexual, as a leftist, and as a fat woman all means occupying spaces that aren’t necessarily meant for me. Holding my own in those spaces, and even just being in those spaces, may be politicized in ways that other people do not experience. I love the multiplicities that I hold, and love that same complexity in others, because being a human is itself complex and there is always something to learn from each other. I think that when we are curious and open and do not treat our own perspectives as the default, creativity flourishes—and that flourishing extends beyond the individual into the community.
Wela’lin for these great questions, Mae, and happy Women in Horror Month to all!
Tiffany Morris is an L'nu'skw writer of speculative fiction and poetry from Mi'kma'ki. She is the author of the ecohorror novella Green Fuse Burning, the horror poetry collection Elegies of Rotting Stars, and the forthcoming horror novella Carnalis.