Shoutout Q&A with Lizzie Challen Hubbard
Author of “Fear Theory” in X-R-A-Y Magazine
Welcome back to our Friday feature: Shoutout Q&A.
Check out our archives for access to great short stories published across the last half-year-plus, including this posting from March: an appreciation of Lizzie Challen Hubbard’s horror-adjacent thrill ride “Fear Theory” in X-R-A-Y Magazine.
Lizzie writes fiction and poetry in the United Kingdom. Her work was included in Desperate Literature’s Eleven Stories compilation for 2024 and her short story ‘Probably Just Foxes’ placed in the 2021 Aurora Prize competition. Her poetry has been published in experimental poetry magazine, STREETCAKE. Most recently, Lizzie’s short story ‘& The Beast’ was published in Snake Bite Books’ first Creature Feature Anthology.
Thanks for making time for us, Lizzie! “Fear Theory” in X-R-A-Y Magazine is a really entertaining read. Like so much that’s classified as horror these days—especially in film—there’s a fine line between what’s disquieting, and what’s funny. Can you tell us what the genesis of this story was and how it changed from its initial conception as you brought it to life?
I saw a writing competition with the theme ‘Fear’ and immediately was sure I should enter because I love horror as a genre. It was a really interesting exercise because at first I was confident I knew what fear was. It seemed like a straightforward prompt and an easy thing to write about but the more I thought about it, the stranger ‘fear’ became. Being scared isn’t just scary. It’s embarrassing. It’s a specific type of vulnerability, making you act in strange ways. Fear makes your body take control over your brain, just like love. All of these ideas got very muddled up in the drafting process.
The story really came together when I saw an online talk from the Recreational Fear Lab in Denmark, all about the work they do researching the human obsession with horror. It was the first time I thought about being scared as something that could be measured and studied, and I loved that real scientists were using the term ‘snuggle effect’ to describe the concept of holding hands in a haunted house. After that talk things started clicking into place and suddenly the narrator didn’t just have a goal but also had a method and a research hypothesis to prove.
While there’s a lot more to “Fear Theory” than horror and humor (it’s a great reflection on the current state of human relationships writ large), I have to imagine it wasn’t super easy getting it placed. As far as I know, there’s not a clamoring for rat-based fiction, generally :) What was your submission plan for it, and how quickly did X-R-A-Y bite? And if you don’t mind sharing, how many rejections did you weather before it found its home?
Once the story got going, I ended up going well over the competition’s 1,000 word limit and missing the deadline by a long way. I did keep going with the story, even though I no longer had any idea where I might submit it. Ultimately, I think not having a publication in mind freed me up to make the narrator more extreme and ridiculous. It was very fun to write.
X-R-A-Y was actually the first place I submitted the story to, which is the only time this has happened to me. It was a case of finishing the right story at the right time. I had pretty much typed ‘THE END’ and opened Instagram to see the submissions window open. I didn’t really have time to talk myself out of it. It was also the first of October which felt suitably seasonal for the story. By Halloween, it was accepted.
I want to stress that this was a really rare occasion. The other stories I’ve published have all had at least four rejections before being accepted, my poems have extremely embarrassing submissions success rates. I honestly think this submission worked because I’d been reading a lot of stories on X-R-A-Y at the time I was writing it, which probably influenced my writing and definitely influenced my Instagram algorithm.
What’s it like for a British writer submitting to American literary magazines? And how would you compare your experiences with U.S. vs. British publications?
My favourite magazines and online journals always have work from all over the world, so it didn’t feel like a big leap to start submitting my story to American publications. With this story, I did worry that some of the references were too British, but the editorial team at X-R-A-Y were supportive and encouraged me to keep them in. In the end, they were right that the Britishisms should stay in because it was part of the narrator’s voice. The editorial feedback from X-R-A-Y was amazing and it was really cool to work with people who were so engaged with the story. Alice really got what I was trying to say and made sure the story was true to that.
How would you say your poetry affects your approach to prose?
Reading and writing poetry has had a massive impact on my prose. It really taught me to slow down and speed up, as well as experiment with slipping syllables into different places. But maybe the most important thing poetry has taught me is the power of pausing and how meaning can grow in white space.
I love writing poetry but am much more protective of it than I am with stories. When something is published it becomes fixed and sometimes this doesn’t feel right for a poem. I do have a few poems online in STREETCAKE and Page Gallery Journal, but on the whole, my poetry is more of a performed medium, something shared with a glass of wine in the back of a dive-bar on a Tuesday night.
Can you shoutout a fellow writer / story / book that you think the world needs to have its eyes on now?
There are so many amazing writers out there, its really hard to just suggest one! There is a really strong community of literary horror writers in and around London. Jess Glaisher’s stories are worth seeking out.
Everyone should check out Pear Nuallauk, who writes gorgeous, disgusting stories as well as creating art in so many different mediums. If people like punchlines and conspiracy theories with their horror, they should read Oliver Davis’ new novella Hear Rational.
And finally, Harper Walton and Aled Turner are my favourite writers at the moment. Both of them are incredible poets (look out for their pamphlets) who write stories that more people need to discover.
What’s in the works for you? Anything we can look forward to in the near future? And are you setting your sights on long-form work? We’re holding out hope for a body-horror / rat-humor trilogy…
I have a longer story due to be published later this year, in an anthology of music-horror from Snake Bite Books. Sadly, there are no rats in this story but there are a lot of spiders which are possibly worse. Snake Bite Books is really close to my heart because they published one of my first stories in its first anthology and all their books are so fun. Spooky-fun.
I also have a few stories on my desktop which I’m currently trying to find homes for, while working on something longer form. It might be a novel, it might be something else, it’s too early to tell. At the moment, I’m writing this long-form piece by hand and there is something secret and scrappy about the even the computer not seeing the words yet.
Thanks again, Lizzie. We’re looking forward to those new stories, so shout when they’re coming so we can broadcast them :)
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