265 – Yah Yah Schofield & Pretty Words for Ugly Things

2026-01-20

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We're Southbound for monster-loving this week on Talking Scared. Georgia writer, Yah Yah Schofield comes to discuss her Southern Gothic debut, On Sundays She Picked Flowers – a story of monsters, spirits, swamps, and generational trauma. There’s a very bad mama and a very haunted house. Yah Yah and I talk about mother-daughter relationships, the difference between ghosts and haints, the influence of elders, and why the rules are different for Black ‘weird girls.’ Plus, in Yah Yah’s own words – we discuss tongue-kissing monsters. ...

We're Southbound for monster-loving this week on Talking Scared.

Georgia writer, Yah Yah Schofield comes to discuss her Southern Gothic debut, On Sundays She Picked Flowers – a story of monsters, spirits, swamps, and generational trauma. There’s a very bad mama and a very haunted house.

Yah Yah and I talk about mother-daughter relationships, the difference between ghosts and haints, the influence of elders, and why the rules are different for Black ‘weird girls.’

Plus, in Yah Yah’s own words – we discuss tongue-kissing monsters.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

The Haunting of Hill House (1959), by Shirley Jackson
Haints: American Ghosts, Millennial Passions and Contemporary Gothic Fictions (2011), by Arthur Redding
The Colour Purple (1982), by Alice Walker
Beloved (1987), by Toni Morrison
Sula (1978), by Toni Morrison
In the Dream House: A Memoir (2019), by Carmen Maria Machado
The Lamb (2025), by Lucy Rose
We Are Here to Hurt Each Other (2022), by Paula D. Ashe
Between Two Fires (2012), by Christopher Buehlman