The Scares That Shaped Us Episode 48: Where The Sidewalk Ends with Beck Spratford

I've been an admirer of Becky Spratford's work for some time, so I was thrilled when she agreed to join the podcast for a discussion centered on her new book of essays, Why I Love Horror.

It's a great collection of arguments for and love letters to the genre from some of the best writers doing it right now, and it's guided by Becky's practiced, enthusiastic hand as a librarian, a teacher, and a curator of horror stories. I was excited to talk with Becky about that, but I was even more excited when she chose an unconventional book as her formative horror story.

Where The Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein is not something you'd ever shelve in the horror section, but it is a book brimming with frightening ideas that, upon closer inspection, serves as an amazing introduction to various horror concepts and fears. It's a book about finding wonder in unexpected places, and wonder and terror are often siblings in the human experience, so these poems and their accompanying drawings contain everything from creature features to cosmic horror. It's something Becky and I had so much fun unpacking, and you can listen to it right now:

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