As Her Private Hell hits U.S. theaters, Mike Thorn sat down with Nicolas Winding Refn to discuss Her Private Hell, the unconscious, fantasy, the process of artistic exploration, and more.
Mike Thorn interviews Nicolas Winding Refn (In Review Online)
Craftwork Episode 31: Shakespearean Themes, Wang WPS Mishaps, & Stephen King’s Revisions w/ Caroline Bicks
In this interview, we chat with Caroline Bicks about combatting AI in the classroom, words clanging on readers’ ears, the uniquely portable magic of fiction, and so much more.
Caroline Bicks is the author of several academic books, including Cognition and Girlhood in Shakespeare’s World and Midwiving Subjects in Shakespeare’s England. After she was named the University of Maine’s inaugural Stephen E. King Chair in Literature, she became the first scholar to be granted extended access by Stephen King to his private archive. In her most recent book, Monsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephen King, Bicks documents her exploration of King’s early drafts and hand-written revisions, and her conversations with King about those changes. Her popular writing has appeared in the Modern Love column of the New York Times and McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. She is the co-host of the Everyday Shakespeare podcast.
Books, plays, stories, and poems mentioned in this episode:
- The Wizard of Oz — L. Frank Baum
- I Know a Place: Rest Stop and Other Dark Detours — Nat Cassidy
- “Cherrylog Road” — James Dickey
- “The Boogeyman”; Carrie; Cell; “Children of the Corn”; Christine; Cujo; Danse Macabre; “The Dark Man”; The Dead Zone; Insomnia; It; “Jerusalem’s Lot”; Lisey’s Story; The Long Walk; Misery; Night Shift; “Night Surf”; On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft; Pet Sematary; Rage; ‘Salem’s Lot; The Shining; The Stand; “Strawberry Spring” — Stephen King
- Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life — Anne Lamott
- Edward II — Christopher Marlowe
- North Woods — Daniel Mason
- A Swim in the Pond in the Rain — George Saunders
- Hamlet; Henry IV, Part I; Henry IV; Part II; Henry V; Henry VI, Part I; Henry VI, Part II; Henry VI, Part III; Macbeth; Richard II; Richard III; Romeo and Juliet — William Shakespeare
- Charlotte’s Web — E. B. White
- Our Town — Thornton Wilder
- How Fiction Works — James Wood
Craftwork Episode 30: Ghostwriting, Cold War Propaganda, & Coming Back from a Five-Week Coma w/ Luke Francis Beirne
In this interview, we chat with Luke Francis Beirne about literature versus entertainment, Atlantic Canadian textures, a literary marriage proposal, and so much more.
Luke Francis Beirne was born in Ireland in 1995 and now lives on Wolastoqey land in Saint John, New Brunswick. Beirne has published three novels with Baraka Books: Foxhunt, Blacklion, and Saints Rest. His stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in outlets such as Counterpunch, NB Media Co-op, Hamilton Arts & Letters, Honest Ulsterman, and CrimeReads.
Books mentioned in this episode:
- Monsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephen King — Caroline Bicks
- The Last Thing He Wanted — Joan Didion
- The Quiet American — Graham Greene
- The Maltese Falcon — Dashiell Hammett
- The Outsiders — S. E. Hinton
- The Bamboo Blonde; In a Lonely Place — Dorothy B. Hughes
- Hatchet — Gary Paulsen
- How Fiction Works — James Wood
Craftwork Episode 29: Gut Feelings, Sonic Recursion, & Raspberry Cordial w/ Cassidy McFadzean
Listen to Craftwork Episode 29: Gut Feelings, Sonic Recursion, & Raspberry Cordial w/ Cassidy McFadzean.
In this interview, we chat with Cassidy McFadzean about skewing prepositions, trusting the reader, opting for vibes over plot, and so much more.
Cassidy McFadzean is the author of three books of poetry, most recently Crying Dress (House of Anansi, 2024). Her fiction has appeared in Joyland, The Walrus, Hazlitt, and Dead Writers (Invisible Publishing, 2025). Cassidy was born in Regina, earned an MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, an MFA in fiction from Brooklyn College, and now lives in Toronto. She was the 2024-2025 Writer-in-Residence at Sheridan College, and is the 2025-2026 Poet-in-Residence at Arc Poetry Magazine.
Books mentioned in this episode:
- The Weak Spot — Lucie Elven
- Bird by Bird — Anne Lamott
- Slows: Twice — T. Liem
- Anne of Green Gables; Chronicles of Avonlea; Emily of New Moon; The Story Girl — Lucy Maud Montgomery
- Fever Dream — Samanta Schweblin
- Rock Crystal — Adalbert Stifter
- The Ice Palace — Tarjei Vesaas
Craftwork Episode 28: Earthy Language, Scary Cupids, & Lunar Portrayals w/ Michael Wehunt
Listen to Craftwork Episode 28: Earthy Language, Scary Cupids, & Lunar Portrayals w/ Michael Wehunt.
In this interview, we chat with Michael Wehunt about the administrative side of professional writing, the unanticipated weirdness of public selfhood, the “moment before the moment”, and so much more.
Michael Wehunt has been a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award, multiple Shirley Jackson Awards, and the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts’ Crawford Award. In Spain, his translated works have garnered nominations for the Premio Ignotus and Premio Amaltea, winning the latter. He haunts the woods of Decatur, Georgia, with his partner and their dog. Together, they hold the horrors at bay. Most recently, he is the author of the novels The October Film Haunt and Nightjars.
Books and poems mentioned in this episode:
- Ancient Images; The Grin of the Dark; Incarnate — Ramsey Campbell
- Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture — Douglas Coupland
- Poems 1962-2020 — Louise Glück
- Carrie — Stephen King
- Beings — Ilana Masad
- The God of the Woods; Long Bright River — Liz Moore
- Ghost Wall; Ripeness — Sarah Moss
- The Violent Bear it Away — Flannery O’Connor
- “Archaic Torso of Apollo” — Rainer Maria Rilke
- Coffin Moon — Keith Rosson
Craftwork Episode 27: Indie Publishing, Intentional Ambiguity, & the Tyranny of Structure w/ Daniel Braum
In this interview, we chat with Daniel Braum about exploring the ecology of the supernatural, finding inspiration in liminal spaces, cultivating a sense of awe, and so much more.
Daniel Braum writes short stories that explore the tension between the psychological and the supernatural. He intentionally adopts the term “strange tales” for his “Twilight Zone-like stories in homage to author Robert Aickman and the intentional ambiguities of his work. His latest collection is Phantom Constellations: Strange Tales and Ghost Stories from Cemetery Dance Publications (2025). His stories appear in places ranging from The Best Horror of the Year Volume 12, edited by Ellen Datlow, and Shivers 8, edited by Richard Chizmar.
Books and stories mentioned in this episode:
- Cold Hand in Mine — Robert Aickman
- The Artist’s Way — Julia Cameron
- Ancient Images; The Hungry Moon — Ramsey Campbell
- “Plunged in the Years” — Jeffrey Ford
- “Children of the Corn” — Stephen King
- The Ceremonies — T. E. D. Klein
- Beginnings, Middles & Ends — Nancy Kress
- Dreams of Dark and Light — Tanith Lee
- Rosemary’s Baby; The Stepford Wives — Ira Levin
- Story — Robert McKee
- Conjunctions 83: The Ghost Issue — Joyce Carol Oates and Bradford Morrow, eds.
- The Jaguar Hunter — Lucius Shepard
- Shadowland — Peter Straub
- Conjunctions 39: The New Wave Fabulists — Peter Straub, ed.
- Harvest Home — Thomas Tryon
- The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers — Chris Vogler
Craftwork Episode 26: Sculpture, Anaphora, & Writing by Hourglass w/ Hajer Mirwali
Listen to Craftwork Episode 26: Sculpture, Anaphora, & Writing by Hourglass w/ Hajer Mirwali.
In this interview, we chat with Hajer Mirwali about cross-disciplinary work, embodied writing, poetic mad libs, and so much more.
Hajer Mirwali is a Palestinian and Iraqi writer living in Toronto. Her first book, Revolutions (Talonbooks, 2025), is a collection of poetry on shame, pleasure, and Arab Muslim girlhood. Two poems from the collection also appear in an anthology of Palestinian poetry called Heaven Looks Like Us (Haymarket Books, 2025). Hajer’s work has been published in The Ex-Puritan, Brick Magazine, Room Magazine, and Joyland. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph, and a BA in Creative Writing from York University.
Books mentioned in this episode:
- Trust Exercise — Susan Choi
- The Butterfly’s Burden — Mahmoud Darwish
- Junie B. Jones series — Barbara Park
- Who by Fire; Who by Water — Greg Rhyno
- Harry Potter series — J. K. Rowling
Craftwork Episode 25: Braided Essays, Collective Solitude, & the Objective Correlative w/ Kasia Van Schaik
In this interview, we chat with Kasia Van Schaik about reverse outlining, asking “what if”, sublimating emotion through landscape, and so much more.
Kasia Van Schaik is the author of the Giller Prize-nominated story collection We Have Never Lived on Earth and the forthcoming book of memoir and cultural criticism, Women Among Monuments. With Myra Bloom, she is the co-editor of the essay collection, Shelter in Text: Essays on Dwelling and Refuge. Kasia’s writing has appeared in Electric Literature, the LA Review of Books, Room, The Rumpus, the Best Canadian Poetry, and the CBC. Kasia holds a PhD in literature from McGill University and is assistant professor of English and co-director of Creative Writing at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, Wolastoqiyik territory.
Books mentioned in this episode:
- Wuthering Heights — Emily Brontë
- The Secret Garden — Frances Hodgson Burnett
- Autobiography of Red — Anne Carson
- Boyhood; Youth; Summertime — J. M. Coetzee
- Outline; Transit; Kudos — Rachel Cusk
- The Days of Abandonment; the Neapolitan Quartet — Elena Ferrante
- “The Robber Bridegroom” — Brothers Grimm
- Sweet Days of Discipline — Fleur Jaeggy
- Lucy — Jamaica Kincaid
- Her Body and Other Parties — Carmen Maria Machado
- Housekeeping — Marilynne Robinson
- Rings of Saturn — W. G. Sebald
- Flights — Olga Tokarczuk
Craftwork Episode 24: Building Communities, Finding Guardrails, & Reading the Comments Section w/ Jean Marc Ah-Sen
In this interview, we chat with Jean Marc Ah-Sen about comic books, literary scenes, flipping the script on what a book can be, and so much more.
Jean Marc Ah-Sen is the author of Grand Menteur, In the Beggarly Style of Imitation, and Kilworthy Tanner. His writing has appeared in McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Literary Hub, Catapult, The Comics Journal, Maclean’s, The Walrus, and elsewhere.
Books mentioned in this episode:
- The Fall – Albert Camus
- I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp – Richard Hell
- The Talented Mr. Ripley – Patricia Highsmith
- Intimacy – Hanif Kureishi
- Biography of X – Catherine Lacey
- Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle – Vladimir Nabokov
- Anti-Woo: The Lifeman’s Improved Primer for Non-Lovers; The Theory and Practice of Gamesmanship: Or the Art of Winning Games Without Actually Cheating – Stephen Potter
- Lobotomy: Surviving the Ramones – Dee Dee Ramone
- Endling – Maria Reva
- The Dying Animal – Philip Roth
- Striptease – Georges Simenon
- The Handyman Method – Andrew Sullivan
- Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
- The Island of Doctor Moreau; The Time Machine – H. G. Wells
Craftwork Episode 23: Dreaming in Fire, Working in Clay, & Reaching for Awe w/ Ramsey Campbell
In this interview, we chat with Ramsey Campbell about creative instincts, happy accidents, eerie children’s tales, and so much more.
The Oxford Companion to English Literature describes Ramsey Campbell as “Britain’s most respected living horror writer”, and the Washington Post sums up his work as “one of the monumental accomplishments of modern popular fiction”. His awards include the Grand Master Award of the World Horror Convention, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Horror Writers Association, the Living Legend Award of the International Horror Guild and the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2015 he was made an Honorary Fellow of Liverpool John Moores University for outstanding services to literature. His latest novels are Fellstones, The Lonely Lands, The Incubations and An Echo of Children. His Brichester Mythos trilogy consists of The Searching Dead, Born to the Dark and The Way of the Worm. His collections include Waking Nightmares, Ghosts and Grisly Things, Told by the Dead, Just Behind You, Holes for Faces, By the Light of My Skull, Fearful Implications, and a two-volume retrospective roundup (Phantasmagorical Stories) as well as The Village Killings and Other Novellas. His non-fiction is collected as Ramsey Campbell, Probably and Ramsey Campbell, Certainly, while Ramsey’s Rambles collects his video reviews, and Six Stooges and Counting is a book-length study of the Three Stooges. Limericks of the Alarming and Phantasmal is a history of horror fiction in the form of fifty limericks.
Books and stories mentioned in this episode:
- The Atrocity Exhibition – J. G. Ballard
- Great Short Stories of the World – Barrett H. Clark and Maxim Lieber, eds.
- “A Dark-Brown Dog”; The Red Badge of Courage – Stephen Crane
- The Man Within – Graham Greene
- “The Residence at Whitminster” – M. R. James
- Rosemary’s Baby; The Stepford Wives – Ira Levin
- Tales of Mean Streets – Arthur Morrison
- Lolita; Pale Fire – Vladimir Nabokov
- “The Telltale Heart” – Edgar Allan Poe
- At the Foot of the Story Tree: An Inquiry into the Fiction of Peter Straub – Bill Sheehan
- Ghost Story – Peter Straub
- The Rupert Bear series – Herbert Tourtel & Mary Tourtel
- “Afterward” – Edith Wharton
- At Night, White Bracken; To Those from Below – Gareth Wood
Mike Thorn 