Margaret Killjoy is an American author and musician. She has published fiction novels in the

steampunk Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction that incorporates retrofuturistic technology and aesthetics inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery. Steampunk works are often set in an alternative history of the Victorian era or ...

and folk horror genres, and is best known for her two-book ''Danielle Cain'' series. Killjoy is involved in several musical projects across genres including

black metal Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include Tempo#Beats per minute, fast tempos, a Screaming (music)#Black metal, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted Electric guitar, guitars played with t ...

neofolk Neofolk, also known as apocalyptic folk, is a form of experimental music blending elements of folk and industrial music, which emerged in punk rock circles in the 1980s. Neofolk may either be solely acoustic or combine acoustic folk instrumenta ...

, and

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to r ...

. She founded the

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

black metal band Feminazgûl in 2018.

Life

Killjoy is an

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...

, and

anti-fascist Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were ...

. She is a transgender woman. Killjoy spent much of her early adult life as a "

squatter Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...

and wanderer", then in the late 2010s began building a small cabin in the Appalachian Mountains on an anarchist land project.

Career

Writing

Killjoy's fiction writing includes

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the lat ...

and folk horror. Killjoy published ''What Lies Beneath the Clock Tower'', a steampunk interactive novel, in 2011. In 2017, Killjoy published the first of two books in the ''Danielle Cain'' series, which features a group of

genderqueer Non-binary and genderqueer are umbrella terms for gender identities that are not solely male or femaleidentities that are outside the gender binary. Non-binary identities fall under the transgender umbrella, since non-binary people typically ...

, anarchist

demon A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in religion, occultism, literature, fiction, mythology, and folklore; as well as in media such as comics, video games, movies, ani ...

hunters in the American heartland. In the first novella, ''The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion'', the group is hunted by a demon that appears in the form of a

stag Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the reindeer ...

. The second book in the series, ''The Barrow Will Send What It May'', follows members of the same group as they run from the events of the first book. ''The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion'' was nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award in 2017. ''The Barrow Will Send What It May'' was nominated in the

31st Lambda Literary Awards The 31st Lambda Literary Awards were held on June 3, 2019, to honour works of LGBT literature published in 2018. The list of nominees was released on March 7.Ryan Porter"Vivek Shraya, Joshua Whitehead among Canadian finalists for Lambda Literary Aw ...

in the LGBTQ science fiction and fantasy category. Killjoy contributed the short story "We Won't Be Here Tomorrow" to ''A Punk Rock Future'', a 2019 anthology of speculative science fiction and fantasy. Killjoy has also edited and written non-fiction works, including the 2009 book ''Mythmakers & Lawbreakers: Anarchist Writers on Fiction'', a collection of interviews with anarchist authors including Ursula K. Le Guin and Alan Moore. She also was an editor of ''SteamPunk Magazine'', which was in print from 2007 to 2016.

Music

Killjoy founded the feminist

band Feminazgûl in 2018. She released the band's first EP, ''The Age of Men Is Over'', as a solo project the same year. Joined by Laura Beach as lead vocalist and

Meredith Yayanos Meredith Anne Yayanos is a California-based violinist, vocalist and thereminist. Her work has been featured on tracks with artists including The Dresden Dolls, The Vanity Set, Revue Noir, David Garland and The Walkmen. Since 2021, Yayanos is a me ...

as violinist and theremin player, the band released its first full-length album, ''No Dawn for Men'', in 2020. Killjoy is involved in several other musical projects:

Alsarath, blackened doom Vulgarite, and

Nomadic War Machine.

Podcasting

Killjoy hosts the anarchist survivalist podcast ''Live Like the World Is Dying'' and launched her new podcast ''Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff'' on May 2, 2022.

Written works

Fiction books

* ''What Lies Beneath the Clock Tower'' (2011) * ''The Super-Happy Anarcho Fun Book'' (2013) * ''A Country of Ghosts'' (2014) * ''The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion'' (''Danielle Cain'' series #1, 2017) * ''The Barrow Will Send What It May'' (''Danielle Cain'' series #2, 2018)

Non-fiction

* ''Mythmakers & Lawbreakers: Anarchists Writers on Fiction'' (editor, 2009) * ''A Steampunk's Guide to the Apocalypse'' (2012) * ''We Are Many: Reflections on Movement Strategy from Occupation to Liberation'' (editor, 2012) * ''Take What You Need and Compost the Rest: An Anarchist Introduction to Post-Civilization Theory'' (2013)

Discography

Alsarath

* ''Come to Daggers'' (2020)

Feminazgûl

* ''The Age of Men Is Over'' ( EP, 2018) * ''No Dawn for Men'' (2020)

Nomadic War Machine

* ''I have a gun. Give me all the money in the register.'' (2010) * ''Always /// Forever'' (2018) * ''Every Breath Our Last'' (2019) * ''Creatures of the Wind'' (2020) * ''Are We Not Monsters'' (2020)

Vulgarite

* ''Fear Not the Dark Nor the Sun's Return'' (2020)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Killjoy, Margaret 21st-century American musicians 21st-century American women singers 21st-century American singers 21st-century American women writers American anarchists American anti-fascists American horror writers American podcasters American women writers Anarchist writers Black metal musicians Electronica musicians Feminist musicians Living people Singers from North Carolina Steampunk writers Transgender women musicians Writers from North Carolina Year of birth missing (living people) American women podcasters Women in metal 20th-century squatters Transgender singers American transgender writers