02/13/2026: BLACK HISTORY MONTH: Jamal Hodge

As we do every year in the month of February, Uncomfortably Dark takes time out to honor Black authors and Black history from every era, past and present. If you already read widely and diversely or want to get started; please add these authors to your Must - Read lists and to those TBR piles!

A massive thank you to fellow author Eliza Broadbent for this huge undertaking for this month, enabling Uncomfortably Dark to honor at least one author a day, or more!

Today questions are a bit different for Jamal as I had previously asked him to be part of my Winter Author Spotlight series, but his schedule delayed his response a bit so rather than ask him to do two complete interviews, we are running the Author Spotlight interview for Jamal.

Jamal Hodge is a rising star not only in the horror industry but in film as well. He is quite an accomplished award-winning film director as well as an author, editor, and poet and I was thrilled to meet him at the Genre Blast film festival last year! Truly a genuinely kind and supportive person that I'm grateful to call a friend.

Today, we honor Jamal Hodge!

Introduce yourself in 4 sentences or less. 

Well, my name is Jamal Hodge I’m a Native New Yorker, a multi-award-winning film director, a Bram Stoker award Finalist and 3rd Place Elgin Award winner. My stories and poems are dark, vulnerable, and explore the extraordinary in the ordinary and the ordinary in the extraordinary. Oh, and I’m big, black, and loud. Even kind when I’m not being a full-blown New Yorker lol.

Describe your style of writing in 2 sentences or less.

If I had to be my own mirror, I guess mines would be lyrical prose in a chrysalis of tenderness and terror, with broad concepts stripped down to digestible empathic scale. How’s that? LOL.

What is your favorite type of horror to write?

Social and Psychological horror. I think I like when the monster is Man, and his cruel answers to the wrong questions. All for the right reasons of course, always for the right reasons. That tragic stain of absolute rightness on the circular road of ruin. I like to explore those themes, and what happens when we find the courage to doubt, and break free of that endless loop, only to land in our humanity.

What is your favorite book or character you’ve written so far?

Well, none of my novels have hit the shelves yet, so I’d have to say my favorite character is the personification of New York City in my upcoming 2026 Poetry collection I’m Not A Good Person I’m A New Yorker. The city is a whole damn character in that one. Something of an asshole, a bitch, and a saint rolled up into a loved one.

Who are your top 5 favorite authors?

Of all time? Octavia Butler, Stephen King, Maya Angelou, Orson Scott Card (yeah, I know.). In recent times I’ve gotten some big dopamine hits from Brandon Sanderson, Cixin Liu, Adrian Tchaikovsky, James Islington, Daniel Krauss, Jonathan Maberry, N.K Jemisin, Linda Addison, Victor LaValle, Joe Lansdale.

What most inspires you to keep writing when imposter syndrome hits the hardest?

Everything crafted in the material world started out as an intangible idea within the unseen of a person’s mind who then made it real. Since that is the case for basically everything, that means we live in a world of dreams made manifest so why should mines be any different, we’re all made up of the same stuff, so if they can do it why not me, why not you? That’s what keeps me going even when I know I’m full of shit or feel like I’m not full of anything at all.

Is there a genre, sub-genre, or trope you’ve not written, that you’d like to try?

Honestly, in genre I’d like to try non-fiction stories maybe do an anthology of real-life urban horrors. Also, Maybe write one of those damn Romantasies to rake in the dough, under the pen name Tyson Cummings or Maliek Stretc-her lol.

What is your hope for your writing career for the next five years, as in where do you see yourself?

I know I will be releasing a poetic collection every year for the next 3 years, and an anthology as well. In 5 years, I’d like to see myself regularly published with the big 5 publishers, attached to a powerful agency, both for literary and film. I should have my first trilogy of novels out by then.

Pitch your current WIP in three sentences or less:

What happens when the world's greatest horror writers embark on a retelling of the world’s greatest city’s darkest historical events, from the past, present, and future? Shards of Gotham is a speculative anthology set in New York City across every dimension of horror, history, and hope.

Where can we find you online and where can readers see you next?

You can find me at www.writerhodge.com links to all my books and upcoming writings are there. I appreciate you. Thanks for the time.