Event Recap: Where are all the Boogeyladies?

Thanks to Page Turner Books in Kent, WA for hosting a special panel on "Where are all the Boogeyladies?" in March.

From Page Turner Books:

"Each year we devote at least one of our panels to empowering and showcasing the female voices of our genre and our local creative community, so long have they been stifled by subversive, societal, oppression and exclusion. This year, we’d like to look at what women in horror ARE accomplishing, where we can find those highly accomplished works, who the women creating them are, and of course, who are the best female characters in horror fiction today. IE: Where are all the Boogeyladies?

This panel was inspired by M. Leigh’s contribution to the Horror Inherent blog on the HWA Seattle website in 2024. In it, she explores the absence of women in horror fiction who are evil, just for the hell of it (pun absolutely intended, not sorry). Women, she posits, always must have some reason, some justification, some emotional trauma, or achilles heel that leads them down their path of darkness, whereas male monsters and villains, are often portrayed as evil without their motives or histories being questioned!"

A recap of the event: M. Leigh, Michele Cacano, and Tamara Sellman had an amazing discussion about the evolution of the female villain at Page Turner Books in Kent.

From witches to vengeful spirits they discussed how horror writers can create a space for truly evil women to achieve Boogey Lady status.