ALTOONA, Pa. — Penn State Altoona faculty members Brian Onishi, associate professor of philosophy, and Jeff Stoyanoff, assistant professor of English and of women's, gender and sexuality studies, have released a new episode of their "Horror Joy" podcast. In their latest episode, the hosts welcome award-winning writer and editor Dan Coxon to discuss his new book, “Come Sing for the Harrowing” (Clash Books, April 2026), and how it interrogates and reshapes folk horror’s rigid archetypes through humor, modernity, class, and hybridity.
The hosts and their guest talk through the connections between horror and joy, emphasizing the genre’s supportive community and Coxon’s preference for weird, uncanny, atmospheric horror that makes the world feel stranger and more exciting. Coxon explores how genre functions as a bookselling and marketing tool that can limit readers and publishers, and, together with Onishi and Stoyanoff, analyzes liminality, ecstatic tonal shifts and the writing process variability. Coxon recommends Will Maclean’s “Solace House” and Lucy McKnight’s “Hardy’s Night Babies” and the video game Disco Elysium.
The full episode can be accessed on podcast providers or on Red Circle.