Margaret Killjoy

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Margaret Killjoy
Portrait of Margaret Killjoy wearing a black cloche hat and jacket
NationalityAmerican
Occupation
  • Author
  • musician
Writing career
Genres
Notable worksDanielle Cain series
Musical career
Genres
Occupation(s)
  • Singer
  • songwriter
  • instrumentalist
Associated acts
Websitebirdsbeforethestorm.net Edit this at Wikidata

Margaret Killjoy is an American author and musician. She has published fiction novels in the steampunk and folk horror genres, and is best known for her two-book Danielle Cain series. Killjoy is involved in several musical projects across genres including black metal, neofolk, and electronica. She founded the feminist black metal band Feminazgûl in 2018.

Life[]

Killjoy is an anarchist, feminist, and anti-fascist.[1] She is a transgender woman.[1][2] Killjoy spent much of her early adult life as a "squatter and wanderer", then in the late 2010s began building a small cabin in the Appalachian Mountains on an anarchist land project.[3]

Career[]

Writing[]

Killjoy's fiction writing includes queer anarchist steampunk and folk horror.[2] Killjoy published What Lies Beneath the Clock Tower, a steampunk interactive novel, in 2011.[4] In 2017, Killjoy published the first of two books in the Danielle Cain series, which features a group of genderqueer, anarchist demon hunters in the American heartland. In the first novella, The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion, the group is hunted by a demon that appears in the form of a stag.[2][5] The second book in the series, The Barrow Will Send What It May, follows members of the same group as they run from the events of the first book.[5] The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion was nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award in 2017.[6][7] The Barrow Will Send What It May was nominated in the 31st Lambda Literary Awards in the LGBTQ science fiction and fantasy category.[8] Killjoy contributed the short story "We Won't Be Here Tomorrow" to A Punk Rock Future, a 2019 anthology of speculative science fiction and fantasy.[7]

Killjoy has also edited and written non-fiction works, including the 2009 book Mythmakers & Lawbreakers: Anarchist Writers on Fiction, a collection of interviews with anarchist authors including Ursula K. Le Guin and Alan Moore.[9] She also was an editor of SteamPunk Magazine, which was in print from 2007 to 2016.[9][10]

Music[]

Killjoy founded the feminist black metal band Feminazgûl in 2018.[1] She released the band's first EP, The Age of Men Is Over, as a solo project the same year. Joined by Laura Beach as lead vocalist and Meredith Yayanos as violinist and theremin player, the band released its first full-length album, No Dawn for Men, in 2020.[2]

Killjoy is involved in several other musical projects: neofolk Alsarath, blackened doom Vulgarite, and electronica Nomadic War Machine.[2]

Podcasting[]

Killjoy hosts the anarchist survivalist podcast Live Like the World Is Dying.[11]

Written works[]

Fiction books[]

  • What Lies Beneath the Clock Tower (2011)
  • The Super-Happy Anarcho Fun Book (2013)
  • A Country of Ghosts (2014)
  • The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion (Danielle Cain series #1, 2017)
  • The Barrow Will Send What It May (Danielle Cain series #2, 2018)

Non-fiction[]

  • Mythmakers & Lawbreakers: Anarchists Writers on Fiction (editor, 2009)
  • A Steampunk's Guide to the Apocalypse (2012)
  • We Are Many: Reflections on Movement Strategy from Occupation to Liberation (editor, 2012)
  • Take What You Need and Compost the Rest: An Anarchist Introduction to Post-Civilization Theory (2013)

Discography[]

Alsarath[]

  • Come to Daggers (2020)

Feminazgûl[]

Main article: Feminazgûl § Discography
  • The Age of Men Is Over (EP, 2018)
  • No Dawn for Men (2020)

Nomadic War Machine[]

  • I have a gun. Give me all the money in the register. (2010)
  • Always /// Forever (2018)
  • Every Breath Our Last (2019)
  • Creatures of the Wind (2020)
  • Are We Not Monsters (2020)

Vulgarite[]

  • Fear Not the Dark Nor the Sun's Return (2020)

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c Kelly, Kim (November 12, 2020). "Inside Heavy Metal's Battle Against White Supremacy". Esquire. Retrieved June 22, 2021.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Kendrick, Monica (April 17, 2020). "Feminazgûl spins anarchy, feminism, and literature into atmospheric black metal on No Dawn for Men". Chicago Reader. Retrieved June 22, 2021.
  3. ^ Killjoy, Margaret (March 31, 2020). "Inside Margaret Killjoy of Feminazgûl's Self-Built Home in the Woods". Astral Noize (Interview). Interviewed by George Parr.
  4. ^ Colyard, K. W. (December 31, 2018). "20 Books Like 'Black Mirror: Bandersnatch' To Read After You Finally Finish It". Bustle. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b Liptak, Andrew (April 7, 2018). "Margaret Killjoy's Danielle Cain books are razor-sharp anarchist urban fantasies". The Verge. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
  6. ^ Stubby the Rocket (May 10, 2018). "The 2017 Shirley Jackson Awards Nominees have been Announced". Tor.com. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b Dunn, Thom (October 9, 2020). "This new fiction anthology is punk as f*ck". Boing Boing. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
  8. ^ "31st Annual Lambda Literary Award Finalists -". Lambda Literary. March 7, 2019. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
  9. ^ Jump up to: a b Baker, Jeff (February 27, 2010). "Northwest Writers at Work: Ursula K. Le Guin is 80 and taking on Google". Oregon Live. Retrieved June 25, 2021.
  10. ^ Allegra (2016). "Steampunk Magazine » Final Ever Issue! (and funding drive)". SteamPunk Magazine. Archived from the original on January 18, 2019. Retrieved June 25, 2021.
  11. ^ Sugar, Rachel (December 29, 2020). "Are we doomed? An investigation". Vox. Retrieved June 24, 2021.

External links[]

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