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Nevermore: A Haunted Literary Reading at AWP26
Pioneer Valley Writers' Workshop hosted Nevermore: A Haunted Literary Reading, at the 2026 AWP conference in Baltimore! The event took place in the theater of the (reputedly) haunted Lord Baltimore Hotel, just blocks from where Edgar Allen Poe lies buried, and featured acclaimed authors Carmen Maria Machado, Sequoia Nagamatsu, GennaRose Nethercott, Matthew Lansburgh, as well as the hosts of the event, Joy Deva Baglio and Jennifer Pullen. The authors shared ghostly readings and craft tips for writing speculative and otherworldly stories, while (flameless!) candles flickered in the dark theater. Learn more about Pioneer Valley Writers' Workshop and find out what events we're hosting at www.PioneerValleyWriters.org! 00:00:00 - Welcome / Theory of Poe's Death 00:04:42 - Matthew Lansburgh 00:13:14 - GennaRose Nethercott 00:25:09 - Jennifer Pullen 00:34:10 - Joy Deva Baglio 00:47:43 - Carmen Maria Machado 01:03:00 - Sequoia Nagamatsu FEATURED AUTHORS (in reading order) MATTHEW LANSBURGH’s collection of linked stories, Outside Is the Ocean, won the Iowa Short Fiction Award and was a finalist for the 30th Annual Lambda Literary Award and the Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBTQ Fiction. His fiction has appeared in journals such as One Story, VQR, and New England Review, and has been shortlisted in the Best American Short Stories series and the Pushcart Prize series. Matthew received his MFA from NYU and has received fellowships from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, MacDowell, and Yaddo. GENNAROSE NETHERCOTT is the author of a novel, Thistlefoot, and a short story collection, Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart—winner of the Vermont Book Award for Fiction. Her first book, The Lumberjack’s Dove, was selected by Louise Glück as winner of the National Poetry Series— and as a folklorist, she serves as the head writer behind the podcast Lore. Nethercott’s work has been dubbed best-of-the-year by NPR, The Wall Street Journal, the Washington Independent Review of Books, BookPage, and more—and she spends her time touring widely, performing strange tales (sometimes with puppets in tow). She lives in the woodlands of Vermont, beside an old cemetery. JENNIFER PULLEN holds a PhD from Ohio University. Her books include Fantasy Fiction: A Writer's Guide and Anthology from Bloomsbury Academic, the first and only comprehensive history of fantasy and craft guide, A Bead of Amber on Her Tongue, winner of the Omnidawn Fabulist Fiction Award, and Beastly: An Anthology of Shapeshifting Fairy Tales from Lanternfish Press. Her debut novel, Once Upon a Burning World, will be released in 2027 by Meerkat Press. She grew up running wild in the forests of Washington State but has since been sufficiently domesticated to become an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Ohio Northern University. JOY DEVA BAGLIO is the founder of Pioneer Valley Writers’ Workshop, a literary arts organization offering writing workshops & literary community, based in Northampton MA and virtually. Her short stories are widely published in journals such as One Story, Ploughshares, The Missouri Review, The Iowa Review, American Short Fiction, and Tin House, among others. She’s received grants & residencies from Yaddo, Ragdale, Vermont Studio Center, The Kerouac Project, Bread Loaf Writers Conference, and Sewanee Writers Conference, among others. She lives in Northampton MA, where she can also be found playing the bagpipes & searching for portals to other worlds. CARMEN MARIA MACHADO is the author of the bestselling memoir In the Dream House and the award-winning short story collection Her Body and Other Parties. She has been a finalist for the National Book Award and the winner of the Bard Fiction Prize, the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction, and the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Prize, among others. Her essays, fiction, and criticism have appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, Granta, Vogue, This American Life, The Believer, Guernica, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has been awarded fellowships and residencies from the Guggenheim Foundation, Yaddo, Hedgebrook, and the Millay Colony for the Arts. SEQUOIA NAGAMATSU is the author of New York Times Editors' Choice and national bestselling novel, HOW HIGH WE GO IN THE DARK, and the story collection, WHERE WE GO WHEN ALL WE WERE IS GONE. He's been named a finalist for the Ursula K. Le Guin Award and Locus Award, shortlisted for the Barnes & Noble Discover Prize and longlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Award in addition to fellowship support from the Breadloaf Writers Conference and the U.S. Embassy. His short fiction has appeared widely in publications such as Conjunctions, The Southern Review, Tin House, among others. He teaches creative writing at St. Olaf College and also serves as a faculty mentor at the Rainier Writing Workshop Low-Residency MFA based at Pacific Lutheran University.
