Billy Joe Stratton
@billyjstratton
prof, writer, cultural critic horror | native/indigenous lit | southern gothic | posthumanism spikes, leather, dark stompy beats
Fun fact: this Jones story titled, "Piegan Still Life," later seeped into his debut collection Bleed Into Me in an altered form. Cool literary crossover for me is that this story comes two stories after one by my grad school mentor and friend, Luci Tapahonso! #ReadNativeLiterature #BookSky
Great catching up with @stephengrahamjones.com today to talk all things horror, books & new writing! Generous as always, he also signed my copy of Maurice Kenny's Stories For a Winter's Night-his first anthology appearance. Big props to @igreggreene.bsky.social for the info in tracking it down.
Stoked to start @jrjisprobable.bsky.social's Skullcrack City for my read-walk today. Off my usual path & stumbled into @denverbooksociety.bsky.social w/ great horror shelves. Grabbed @buehlmeister.bsky.social's medieval horror; they stock @stephengrahamjones.com too-just can't keep on the shelves.
A good book never fails to take you to places of wonder and delight, mysterious and exotic lands where new knowledge and people live. #walkreading #Nabakov
Nothing like flying back in to Denver and finding an ARC of @stephengrahamjones.com Off the Reservation in the mail! Add that to the gorgeous new edition of The Buffalo Hunter Hunter w/ buffalo edge pages! 🦬 I got while visiting family and my read-walk list is set. #OffTheReservation #BookSky
Best kind of mail day w/ latest @fangoria.bsky.social hitting my doorstep and it is packed. From Hellraiser & Evil Dead Burn to new gen slasher Big Baby and the iconic @barbaracrampton.bsky.social, it's incredible. This is my ultimate bucket list publication to write for. A horror fan can dream! 🖤🦹🔪
Prep work for Shelley’s Frankenstein has me revisiting the Creature's own library w/ some walk-reading today of Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther. Having the monster learn the depths of human despair and sorrow from Shelley's novel is one of the greatest intertextual pairings in sci-fi/horror.
We all remember the terrifying sprint of the infected in 28 Days Later, but its most brutal bites are about class structure and military-industrial collapse. For its anniversary this week, here's my piece on the true cost of the Rage virus via social decay: hollywoodprogressive.com/film/28-days...
The nodal points aligned at Goodwill today: found a signed, physical copy of @greatdismal.bsky.social's Idoru. There’s a cool irony in unearthing a foundational novel about AI and virtual idols as a donated media artifact. Analog resistance is alive and well in the thrift store shelves.
Paranoia, shifting aliens, & total isolation. It's anniversary week for John Carpenter's THE THING. To celebrate one of the greatest sci-fi/horror films ever made (exceeding the source), here's a piece that speaks to why it's a favorite:https://hollywoodprogressive.com/film/john-carpenters-the-thing
Walking past this classic car while reading @chuckpalahniuk.bsky.social's Rant feels like real-life Party Crashing. "'Baiting' means to steer something cherry, virgin-perfect, clean, and polished down the middle of the boulevard..." Buster Casey is one of the 21st century's greatest anti-heroes.
Going back 250 years for my newest walk and read. It’s a departure from my usual literary haunts on this continent. It's one that beckoned me with its title alone: Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Reveries of the Solitary Walker, while I also enjoyed his writing as a student of philosophy...
Syllabus for life update: Playing the classic arcade version of T2 is no longer just early 90s sci-fi nostalgia. Now it’s looking more & more like required simulation training for our impending AI cyborg, dystopian future. #T2 #Terminator2 #Skynet #CyberdyneSystems #SciFi #Dystopia
Started a new walk-read this AM: Ishmael Reed’s The Terrible Twos. It’s a razor-sharp satire of the early Reagan years and a great reminder that even in the worst of times, we have to laugh. Reed shows us that history really is circular as 1982 feels like a perfect mirror to 2026 right now. #BookSky
Wow, @johnlangan.bsky.social's The Fisherman packs one helluva punch! Tentacles, grief & the weird. Starts with the polished, creeping dread of James Dickey, before hurtling you into a nightmarish realm where the woods are just a trap set by monsters & madmen. #BookSky #HorrorCommunity #WeirdFiction
Sometimes instead of working on a writing project or assessing final essays, it's fun to just take a meme. I feel like there are a lot of mongooses (or is it mongeese?) among my friends here.
"Thank God for Star Wars," said Joey the vampire in @buehlmeister.bsky.social's The Lesser Dead. He kinda liked Corvette Summer, too!
As a person who spends a lot of time reading for my classes, I often feel like I'm playing catch-up on all the cool books being published-& I don't just mean those by @stephengrahamjones.com😀 Getting around to Beowulf is a reminder that it's never too late-stories tend to find us when they need to.
Coming in softcover-Fall 2026! The Fictions of Stephen Graham Jones: A Critical Companion is the 1st book-length study of @stephengrahamjones.com work. 456 pages of insights, 70+ photos, SGJ Foreword, Afterword by @paultremblay.bsky.social, SGJ interview w/ yours truly! A must for horror fans.🧟♂️
The best apocalypse tales do more than warn-they force us to reassess our place in the food chain. @jrjisprobable.bsky.social's Extinction Journals nails it, reminding that "you're the only one who will ever truly know you were even alive." Read it. If you end up wanting a new suit after, it worked!
In the name of Michael's devil eyes--the FINAL "Slasher Nation" column from the master himself, @sgj.bsky.social just arrived from @fangoria.bsky.social! While all wicked things must come to an end, can't wait for what thrills & chills he'll be conjuring in his next bloody chapter! #Horror #Slasher
Down to the wire & just finished the final interview w/ @sgj.bsky.social bsky.social for my book on his horror canon. Some stories have teeth. This one bites back. Can't wait to share the blood, sweat & fears behind a life shaped by monsters. @fangoria.bsky.social @sagapressbooks.bsky.social
Saw this wild self-own circulating around the matrix today, which is also an excellent example of the absence of irony. 🥸
Lovin' the latest SlasherNation column by @sgj.bsky.social in @fangoria.com! The question Jones asks is not an easy one: "If not exactly justice, though, then what is it slashers are after? Jason, Leatherface, Jigsaw, Freddy & of course, Billy, they're all there, but you'll have to read to find out.
From this day onward, March 18th will forevermore be known as Buffalo Hunter Hunter day! @sgj.bsky.social's latest offers a powerful & haunting tale of loss & survival, the entanglements of memory, history & truth. At the same time, it's a reminder that books & stories never exist in isolation!
@sgj.bsky.social shared some cool insights w/ @paperbackbish.bsky.social at The Buffalo Hunter Hunter launch. Jones at his best: taut dialogue & brooding descriptions of the land, to heart-wrenching details of colonial violence, w/ an avenging vampire roaming Blackfeet territory to settle scores.
When the world seems to be burning around us, stories remind us that there's always a tomorrow. @sgj.bsky.social's The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, which lies after but also in & between Ledfeather & Good Indians, is confirmation in the best of ways. Such an honor to be there in the acknowledgements, too!