12/13/2025: 2025 Fall & Winter Author Spotlight Series: Geneve Flynn

This series will be showcased on my Patreon first, every Friday this fall and winter, through early 2026. If you are not a patron, look for the new author spotlight to appear here on the blog every Saturday! These will be for incredibly talented, but lesser known, authors that truly deserve a spotlight on their work!

As is our mission here at Uncomfortably Dark, we want to be a community support and while how we do that may change over time, we will always find a way to shed light on the many wonderfully talented people in this space. Please check out their interviews, click on their links, and check out their work for yourself. I promise you will not be disappointed.

Geneve Flynn is a gracious and gentle human, kind, fun-spirited, and deeply talented. Her work blends stunning imagery with powerfully thought-provoking lines. She is an author and editor and is one to seek out.

Meet Geneve Flynn!

Introduce yourself in 4 sentences or less.

Hello! I’m Geneve Flynn, I’m a multi-award-winning horror author, editor, and poet. I’m one half of the editing team (with Lee Murray) of Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women, the acclaimed anthology which launched the current groundswell in Asian women’s dark fiction. I’m Chinese, born in Malaysia, and I now call Australia home. I like cats, dogs, cups of tea, and B-grade action and horror movies.

Describe your style of writing in 2 sentences or less.

My work tends towards feminist, weird, and pointed, often with an Asian folkloric spine and a (hopefully) satisfying ending payoff. The themes I return to time and again are diaspora, intergenerational trauma, gender, and monstrosity.

What is your favorite type of horror to write?

I love to write horror that’s quieter, horror with an aching heart, psychological horror, and Asian folk horror.

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

My two favourite characters I’ve written so far are Little Sister and Big Sister from my short story, “A Box of Hair and Nail.” One is underestimated because of her disability; the other has a final moment that makes me grin every time I revisit it.

Who are your top 5 favorite authors?

I could fill pages and pages of my favourite authors! Off the top of my head, I’ll say Lee Murray, Yi Izzy Yu, Kristy Park Kulski, Sarah Read, Stephen Graham Jones, Tananarive Due, Lauren Elise Daniels, Pamela Jeffs, Grace Chan, Carina Bissett… Oh dear. That’s ten…I’ll stop there.

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

My Australasian Horror Writers Association mentor gave me the best advice for coping with imposter syndrome (and how to bounce back when things don’t turn out the way you’d hoped in this difficult business): don’t focus on the outcome, focus on the output. You can’t control how your work is going to be received; you can only control what you make. The other thing that keeps me writing is when a story idea has a hold of me. I want to see that thing come to life on the page, whether or not I actually get to publish it anywhere. I want to see if I can get it to work. It’s the same if I’m experimenting with a storytelling technique. Can I get the damn thing in my head on the page.

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

I love movies with explosions and frenetic action, and I’ve been watching a lot more anime lately, so I’d love to try my hand at manga and high-action horror. Or maybe horror science fiction. I think that would be a lot of fun.

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

It’s a little scary to say it out loud, but I’m putting together an application for a PhD in creative writing. I hope I’ll be Dr Flynn in five years (my brother is a dentist, the first “doctor” in the family, and I plan to be utterly insufferable as the second), with a couple of novels and story collections to my name. I still want to teach, to attend conventions, to be part of the horror community, to be having fun.

Pitch your current WIP in three sentences or less.

For those outside the walls, the Forbidden Palace is a gilded dream, an escape from the desperate poverty and filth of the streets. But the golden promise is only for a select few. For the thousands of concubines, maids, and eunuchs who serve beneath the feet of the mighty Qing emperor, life is rigid, treacherous, and haunted by the spirits of those who have been consumed by the machinery of the Mandate of Heaven. This is the story of Step Empress Nara—the woman who transgressed so greatly she was nearly erased from the annals—and a reimagining of how she would bring the system to its knees.

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

You can learn more about me on my website: www.geneveflynn.com.au. You can also find me at:

· Facebook: www.facebook.com/gene/flynn.750

· Instagram: @geneveflynn

· Bluesky: @geneveflynn.bsky.social

· Amazon: amazon.com/author/geneveflynn

My latest poem and short story are in Silk & Sinew: A Collection of Folk Horror from the Asian Diaspora, edited by Kristy Park Kulski and published by Bad Hand Books. I also have a short story in Darkness Most Fowl, edited by Elaine Pascale and published by The Godmother of Horror Press.

I’ll be at GenreCon in February 2026. If you’re in Brisbane, come say hi!

BIO FOR GENEVE

Geneve Flynn is a speculative fiction editor, author, and poet. Winner of two Bram Stoker Awards, and the Shirley Jackson, Australasian Shadows, and Aurealis awards; recipient of the 2022 Queensland Writers Fellowship. Her work has been short/longlisted for the British Fantasy, Locus, Carl Brandon Parallax, and Elgin awards.

Co-editor of Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women, the dark fiction anthology which launched the grassroots movement in Asian women’s horror writing.

Her work has been published by Weird Tales, PS Publishing, Flame Tree Publishing, PseudoPod, among others. She is Chinese, born in Malaysia, and now calls Australia home.

Read more at www.geneveflynn.com.au.