It is a dark and stormy night. You pull your blanket tight around your shoulders. Rain lashes the windows, but you’re safe on your couch with your popcorn and your scary movies...until there comes a gentle rapping, rapping, tapping on your chamber door...

What is it about the horror genre that has fascinated us for so many years? For long enough that we roll our eyes at long overdone tropes, that we laugh at old horror films that just seem a little too silly. What keeps us going back to theaters, picking up mystery or thriller novels, just to sit on the edge of our seat, adrenaline pumping through our veins?

Horror as a genre is the lens through which we understand our fears as a society. They reflect wider cultural anxieties salient in the current moment. They allow us to critique systems of oppression, to question humanity’s darkest urges and desires. They give us a safe place—on our couch wrapped in our blanket, popcorn in hand—to confront those fears.

We present this themed issue of Paper Dragon in the hopes it can help you face the unknown with bravery. We are proud of this curated collection of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and art, each piece of which provides its own take on horror. Nonfiction by Mark Liebenow “Poking Death’s Boundary,” and poem “Picturing Her Skin” by m.l. Bach both explore the perennial themes of death and temporality. “Ghostfishing” by Nicole Sconiers examines the erasure—figurative and literal—of Black women. Surreal ekphrastic poem “After Magritte’s The Lovers” by Lorna Wood takes on intimacy and temporality. “Pet” by Justin Johnson and “Minotaur” by Emma Johnson-Rivard explore what it means to be human.

But there’s a lighter side of horror too. Eric Brown’s “Vampire Finds Out You’re Low on Blood Sugar” offers a humorous twist on the sensuous bite. Donald Platten’s series of artworks on the senses are both adorable and eerie. In Lindsay Lennox’s “Wendover Street” the Beast stumbles on a taste of Joy on his search for despair.

We’d like to thank all our contributors for sharing their work and trusting us with it, our editors and readers for their tireless efforts on this issue, and Drexel Publishing Group and our co-ops for their support.

Now cozy up and grab your popcorn. Nothing in here can get you, we promise.