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Billy Joe Stratton

@billyjstratton.bsky.social
272 followers 322 following 113 posts

prof, writer, cultural critic horror | native/indigenous lit | southern gothic | posthumanism spikes, leather, dark stompy beats

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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Super excited to dive back into the nightmare. Can’t wait to see where the latest chapter of Resident Evil takes us. #ResidentEvil #SurvivalHorror #HorrorGaming #RacoonCity
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
For a long stretch, this was the only card in my wallet. No credit, a little cash, and the promise of new releases every Friday. But what this laminated card provided was an endless supply of great movies before the streaming algorithms. An education for an apocalypse that always seemed a day away.
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Even in sleep, our cat--Agent Cooper--bares his fangs. But what else would you expect when nestled between @fangoria.bsky.social and the nightmarish stories of @stephengrahamjones.com mjones.com? Coffee anyone? #HorrorSky #CatsOfBluesky #BlackCat
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Published a new piece today on #AI, #empathy, and the #SouthernGothic. Getting this one how I wanted it took some work while it highlights my student's sharp instincts in the face of AI. Added bonus, I also got to talk about the brilliance of Carson McCullers. #DU theconversation.com/the-importan...
theconversation.com
The importance of teaching students what AI can’t do
Educators can confront AI head on by distinguishing its pattern-recognition skills from its inability to daydream, embody other people and authentically express itself.
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
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.
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
​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.
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
On this day in 1921, Sid Hatfield was murdered for standing up to coal company thugs in defense of striking miners. John Sayles captured this forgotten hero in his powerful film, Matewan. Here's a piece I wrote on the film’s history and ongoing relevance: hollywoodprogressive.com/film/john-sa...
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
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
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
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
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Seated for The Odyssey, written by Matt Damon! 😎
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
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! 🖤🦹🔪
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
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.
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
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...
Cillian Murphy hiding at the military check point.
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
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.
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
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
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
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.
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
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...
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
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
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
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
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
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
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
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.
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Fortune is absolutely killing it with their inhuman vibes. Love* this story about mechanizing food service! Why not also innovate the dining experience by having customers lay on a conveyor so food can be pumped in! One robot server could easily handle 500 diners an hour! fortune.com/2026/06/09/m...
fortune.com
Marc Lore’s robots make 500 burrito bowls an hour. A human can make 45. | Fortune
The Wonder founder is automating fast-casual food with machines that make salad and poke bowls, sauces, and eventually drinks but there are few roles for humans in these kitchens.
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
While media talking heads keep pronouncing the "death of reading," it just doesn't track with what I see from my students. Over the last year they've read everything from Faulkner & McCullers to Jones, Bazterrica, & @stephenking.bsky.social's IT w/ great insight. fortune.com/article/gen-...
fortune.com
Gen Zers are arriving to college unable to even read a sentence—professors warn it could lead to a generation of anxious and lonely graduates | Fortune
With Gen Z students struggling to read, academics have been forced to adapt—a move critics describe as “coddling” the next generation of workers.
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
Awards & recognition are nice, but it's the stories and history that literature can only convey that are the true winners in the recognition given to @stephengrahamjones.com's masterpiece, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter. Long live Good Stab, long live the memory of Weasel Plume, never forget the Marias!
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Reading deep into the night. Rest in Power Marjane...
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Took me a sec to come to grips with this list of the 100 all-time best novels, with Middlemarch as #1. Don't get me wrong, I read it as an undergrad & didn't hate it, but back then I was in awe of being able to go to college & talk lit with others. What's your #1? www.theguardian.com/books/ng-int...
theguardian.com
The 100 best novels of all time
The top 100 novels of all time published in English, as voted for by authors, critics and academics worldwide. How many have you read?
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
This year's Locus Award for horror goes to @stephengrahamjones.com's riveting historical vampire novel: The Buffalo Hunter Hunter! Thankful to @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social for giving me a chance to write on it & for giving space to celebrate Jones' amazing work! lareviewofbooks.org/article/how-...
lareviewofbooks.org
How Can You Stop a Country from Happening? | Los Angeles Review of Books
Billy J. Stratton examines Stephen Graham Jones’s “The Buffalo Hunter Hunter.”
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Oh, hell yes, so well deserved and congrats to all the other great writes/novels nominated! Long live Good Stab and long live the horror renaissance! locusmag.com/2026/04/2026...
locusmag.com
2026 Locus Awards Top Ten Finalists - Locus
Congratulations to all of the Locus Awards top ten finalists! These results are from the February 1 to April 1 voting by readers on an open public ballot. The Locus Awards winners will be announced Ma...
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
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.
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
Wrapping up my dystopian class-or is it just the daily news cycle at this point?-w/ @agustinabazterrica.bsky.social’s tour-de-force Tender Is the Flesh. Nothing says "happy Summer" like a biting 👀 critique of consumer culture. Here, too, is my review on it: hollywoodprogressive.com/literature/t...
hollywoodprogressive.com
Agustina Bazterrica’s Dobbsian Vision of Dystopia in Tender Is the Flesh
Agustina Bazterrica has extrapolated structures and practices of our contemporary world as the basis for a bleak dystopian vision.
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
so well said...
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
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.🧟‍♂️
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
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!
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
Oh man, "there is no future, and England's dreaming..."
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
Posting a little late, but loved DaCosta’s 28 Years Later! It doesn't just give us zombies; it gives us the banality of evil. Jack O’Connell channels the ghost of Jimmy Savile in a role that is also a terrifying reflection for our own time. My review: hollywoodprogressive.com/literature/d...
hollywoodprogressive.com
The Dark Age of Rage: Garland’s and DeCosta’s Apocalyptic Monument to the Ruins of History
28 Years Later picks up precipitating virus now settled into a slow burn through United Kingdom and affected areas of Europe nearly three decades removed from the original outbreak
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
Hmm, sure, call it a cult. But as far as I know Pynchon's books have a body count of zero. My Gravity's Rainbow undergrad class was among the best I've ever taught. The students loved it, too—or so the letter I received through the W.A.S.T.E. postal system assured me. #KeepCoolButCare
the-independent.com
Inside the cult of the elusive Thomas Pynchon
As the legendary American author releases his long-awaited new novel, Martin Chilton explores Pynchon’s reputation as one of the most ‘reclusive’ writers working right now
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 04/10/2025
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
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 16/08/2025
Last night's @nin.com show was a brutal history lesson. We were the kids in Doc Martens raging against the machine's surveillance state; all that's changed is now we pay a monthly subscription. Reznor's still feeding the perfect drug for our downward spiral. hollywoodprogressive.com/literature/r...
hollywoodprogressive.com
Reading Fight Club in America’s New Society of the Spectacle
The political right's nostalgic indulgence in its own mythic portrayals of America’s past throws Fight Club’s cultural ironies into even sharper relief.
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 18/07/2025
Stoked to see words from my first piece w/ @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social on @sgj.bsky.social's Mapping the Interior blurbed on the back of the new @torbooks.bsky.social 🔥ed! Just as cool-seeing his previous indie classics getting their own swanky new skins #horror lareviewofbooks.org/article/in-t...
lareviewofbooks.org
In the Habitations of Specters: On Stephen Graham Jones’s “Mapping the Interior” | Los Angeles Review of Books
Readers can feel confident following Stephen Graham Jones into the dark and obscure landscapes of his fiction.
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 29/06/2025
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
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 15/06/2025
My review of @sgj.bsky.social's 'The Buffalo Hunter Hunter,' is up at @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social. It confronts the haunting specter of American genocide through the vampire tale, charting the depths of trauma & vengeance in the wake of the Marias Massacre. lareviewofbooks.org/article/how-...
lareviewofbooks.org
How Can You Stop a Country from Happening? | Los Angeles Review of Books
Billy J. Stratton examines Stephen Graham Jones’s “The Buffalo Hunter Hunter.”
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
And talking about not talking about fight club . . . More are breaking those rules as I'm honored to be on @sgj.bsky.social latest "Best Reads" list at his official website via my article on Fight Club! It's a treasure trove, check it out at WWW.DemonTheory.net. www.demontheory.net/best-reads-f...
demontheory.net
Stephen Graham Jones – writer dude
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 10/05/2025
I def broke the first rule of fight club in this one! @chuckpalahniuk.bsky.social's critique of consumerism is hitting hard in 2025! My latest examines its enduring relevance within our new "Society of the Spectacle." hollywoodprogressive.com/literature/r... #FightClub #SocietyOfTheSpectacle #NIN
hollywoodprogressive.com
Reading Fight Club in America’s New Society of the Spectacle
The political right's nostalgic indulgence in its own mythic portrayals of America’s past throws Fight Club’s cultural ironies into even sharper relief.
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
@greatdismal.bsky.social Neuromancer predicted our AI reality decades ago—the problem is not sentient machines, but human exploitation of tech. My latest article considers why our fear is better directed at the corporate powers controlling AI, rather than the tech itself. #AI #cyberpunk #posthuman
theconversation.com
AI isn’t what we should be worried about – it’s the humans controlling it
The dread that AI evokes seems a distraction from the more disquieting scrutiny of humanity’s own dark nature.
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
Saw this wild self-own circulating around the matrix today, which is also an excellent example of the absence of irony. 🥸
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 05/04/2025
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.
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
As @sgj.bsky.social's tour for @sagapressbooks.bsky.social #TheBuffaloHunterHunter kicks into high gear w/ books flying off the shelves, it seems time to add a song to the soundtrack in honor of Good Stab's success. After all, the future seems very bright indeed! www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qrr...
youtube.com
Timbuk 3 - The Future's So Bright
YouTube video by Timbuk3VEVO
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
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!
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
Oh, and the hits just keep coming...
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Billy Joe Stratton @billyjstratton.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
@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.
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