Madhouse Author Interview: Bad Omens with Jessica Drake-Thomas

Hello Friends and Fiends--

Today in The Madhouse, I'm honored to hold space for Jessica Drake-Thomas, a poet who completely took my breath away with her collection Burials in 2022. When she reached out to me about her upcoming collection Bad Omens, I could not read it fast enough and I think most of you will feel the same. 

In her own words: "Bad Omens is a book of dark, gothic horror poetry that combines tarot, dark goddesses, Victorian era funeral rites, and baneful witchcraft as vehicles to explore feminism in the pandemic/Post Roe era."

Reading it was like drinking a hot cup of poisonous tea, like sleeping with a scorpion on your face. It was beautiful and dangerous and angry--which is just how I like my poetry.

I hope you'll all join us below for a fascinating interview and consider preordering or picking up a copy of the collection with it goes live. Also as a reminder, if you enjoy and appreciate the work we do here in The Madhouse, you can show your support for the blog by "buying a coffee" (or two!) for our madwoman in residence: me! As always, I thank you for your time and support and I look forward to serving you another dose of all things unsettling and horrifying soon.

In moonlight, 

Stephanie M. Wytovich

SMW: Hi Jessica! Welcome to The Madhouse. Since this is your first time joining us here, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what drew you to poetry in the first place?

JDT: Thanks so much for having me! I’m a gothic horror poet and novelist, a Ph.D. student at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, and a practicing witch, currently living and freezing in Wisconsin. I am one of several poetry editors at Coffin Bell Journal. I’m a dog mom to Poppy, a black lab. I’m also the author of two books of poetry, Burials, and Bad Omens.

I’ve had some really amazing teachers who got me turned toward writing and poetry. I was first drawn to poetry when I was in the second grade. My teacher read us a book called Sing a Song of Popcorn. Most of it was nonsense, but it was playful and good to read aloud. It taught me early on that poetry was something that you could have fun with. Then, when I was in the eighth grade, my English teacher gave us a whole hour every week to sit and write. It didn’t matter what, just that we were writing. I automatically started writing poetry, and I haven’t stopped since.   

SMW: What was your writing process like for Bad Omens?

JDT: I wrote Bad Omens in bed during 2020 while binge-eating a five-pound bag of gummy worms and binge-watching Penny Dreadful and Vikings. I wrote all the original drafts pretty quickly over a two-month period, and then I went back and revised extensively over the next two years.

SMW: In your opening poem “Speak to Me” you wrote: “as if I’m covered in blood:/a crimson dress/of sacrifice’s incarnadine, /or don’t speak/at all.” Something I loved about your collection was how assertive it was. It demanded my attention, held me accountable, and wasn’t afraid to ask for what it wanted. Can you talk a bit about how that relates to feminist horror poetry and themes of rage and empowerment?

JDT: At the time, I was taking a class for my Ph.D. program titled Gender and Anger. In the class, we were talking a lot about how women express or can’t express rage, and how speaking up and taking space is empowering. Something that I really love about feminist horror poetry right now is how the speakers confess their rage in a way that is really compelling. I wanted to do that for myself, especially with “Speak to Me.” I was raised by a man who was always very angry, and too comfortable with expressing it and taking it out on others. In my daily life, I don’t feel comfortable expressing anger because of that.  With that piece, I created a speaker who feels fully able to express herself without reservation. Writing that piece felt empowering. It was really refreshing. It was a nice way to start off a book that’s about female rage and empowerment.

SMW: You work with a lot of occult and spiritual images throughout the collection (Hel’s Horse, Fenrir, Tarot, The Book of the Dead). What draws you to these subjects and how do you like to work with them in your creative work?

JDT: When I was working on this book, I was working with those occult and spiritual images that I most feel a kinship with. It was 2020, and the height of the pandemic, so I was looking for ways to keep myself rooted, so I turned to the dark goddesses—particularly Hel, the Morrigan, Hekate—to pull through it and keep myself sane. There are several poems speaking from their perspectives, and that really helped me.  

SMW: In Bad Omens, you talk a lot about the beyond, peeking behind the veil, what comes after death. As such, I’m curious: have you ever had any experiences with ghosts or hauntings? Do you have any superstitions you feel comfortable talking about?

JDT: 100%. I totally believe in ghosts. I’ve lived in several apartments that were definitely haunted and I had to share space with them. Most recently, I was over my boyfriend’s house, and I saw a figure dressed in white muslin pass through a door on the landing. I saw her out of the corner of my eye, but I could see the way that the cloth of her dress swept across the floor—it was late 1800s period clothing, with that wide skirt. She didn’t feel threatening. I think she was just letting me know she was there. As far as superstitions go, I do think there is another world that we can’t see but is pressed right up against ours. I think the people who we’ve loved who have gone on are in that world, and they’re still with us. I believe there are spaces where these two worlds bleed into each other. I was thinking about it a lot while writing this book since a dear friend had died by suicide. I felt that she was close by during that time.

SMW: There’s no mistaking how you marry the macabre with the beautiful in this collection. Can you talk a bit about the beautiful grotesque and where you think its power exists for readers and horror creators alike?

JDT: I just think there’s something lovely about darkness. Over the years, I’ve done a lot of shadow work, and was able to connect with something within myself that I really loved. I think that’s a pretty common experience within the community of horror writers and readers. We’re curious about the darkness, and then when we go looking, we find something that’s beautiful and meaningful within the grotesque.

SMW: A question I like to ask poets who work with darker subject matters in their work is how you protect yourself when dealing with and exploring shadows. Can you speak to how you protect your mental health when spending time in the dark?

JDT: People laugh when they find out that I really love cupcakes, pop music, and romance novels. But that’s how I protect myself. There has to be a balance to the darkness—I can’t consume it one hundred percent of the time. I need a break, and that’s when I turn to more lighthearted things for comfort. I also have a lot of people and dogs in my life who bring me joy. They keep me really balanced. 

SMW: Bad Omens reminds me of a poisonous flower and if I had to connect it with/to anything, it would be The Witch. What about the archetype of the witch do you like playing with the most? Furthermore, why do you think the witch has gotten more and more popular over the years?

JDT: It’s funny that you say that because I was thinking of Belladonna/Deadly Nightshade a lot while writing this book, and the plant sort of became a character/speaker in my mind. The witch as an outsider is an archetype that I really relate to—someone who doesn’t quite fit in and is on a different path from the rest of society. I’ve never really felt like I’ve fit in—I’ve always stood out.

SMW: What poets are you currently reading? Are there any collections you’re looking forward to adding to your TBR list?

JDT: Recently, I’ve read Cynthia Pelayo’s Crime Scene, Zephyr Lisowski’s Blood Box, Doireann Ni Ghriofa’s To Star the Darkness, and torrin a. greathouse’s Wound from the Mouth of a Wound. I’ve been re-reading Lament for Art O’Leary, by Eiblin Dubh ni Chonaill, which is this gorgeous 300-year-old poem about a woman mourning her murdered husband. When she finds his body, she’s so upset she starts drinking his blood. I am really looking forward to Grace R. Reynolds’ new collection, The Lies We Weave.

SMW: What’s next for your readers?

JDT: I have a novel forthcoming from Cemetery Dance’s ebook and paperback line in March of 2024 called All Hollow Girls that is inspired by Hellier and The Blair Witch Project.

Praise for Bad Omens:

Bad Omens by Jessica Drake-Thomas is a seance, a collection of shadows. These poems are both plague and witch, a journey into the burning, a dance into the violent. Best enjoyed with a cup of black tea, readers will siphon the poison off these pages, kiss the death that awaits between each word. --Stephanie M. Wytovich, Bram Stoker award-winning poet of Brothel. 

BAD OMENS by Jessica Drake-Thomas begets a canticle of death and resurrection, a spell for love and revenge, a bellow to claw your way out of the dark and back into this world with fire in your heart. Gothic and mystical, this occult collection drips with saccharine siren songs that tear you apart and inspire righteous anger. Readers will be haunted, enticed, and moved to be true to the darkness in their hearts and ‘let the wolves loose.’⸺ Grace R. Reynolds, author of Lady of The House