I was so pleased to get an interview from Dori Lumpkin as I have been elbow deep in edits for Cry Baby Bridge: A collection of utter speculation, in which they has a wonderful story. Dori has a unique voice and point of view and I am sure I will see their work show up more and more in anthologies and beyond.
Dori Lumpkin
https://dorilumpkin.carrd.co
@whimsyqueen on twitter, instagram, and tiktok
Tell us about the project/idea/publication etc. you’ve been working on:
At any given point in time, I’m working on at least 10 different projects. They’re usually short fiction, so I need a bunch of them to keep my mind occupied. More recently though I’ve been trying to move through revisions on the first draft of my thesis, which I’m super excited about!
It’s my first ever larger project, a novella-length retelling of the ’87 movie The Lost Boys, but with a lesbian coming-of-age turn to it. I’ve loved being able to study the intersection between the queer and punk communities of the 1980’s, and these characters have become very dear to my heart.
Tell us about any publications or finished works you would like to talk about:
I’m incredibly proud of my charity collection, “three stories by dori lumpkin” released with Ram Eye Press on June 24th! All of the proceeds go to support the Family Equality Council, so that was a special one for me. I’m also very very excited for my story appearing in Speculation Publications’ Cry Baby Bridge Anthology, titled “Carolyn and the Girl Under the Bridge”. That one was super fun to write, and I loved examining the relationships between all the women in the story throughout time, and approaching it from the perspective of solidarity and kindness and connection. It’s sad, but it has a hopeful sort of edge to it, which I don’t always write. That’s fun for me!
What books and movies would you like to recommend?
I feel like I have a responsibility to recommend The Lost Boys now that I’ve talked about it. It’s been living rent-free in my mind for months on end. But actually though, I managed to snag an early copy of Cat Voleur’s Revenge Arc, and if you can get your hands on that one?? Do it, ASAP. It’s fantastic. I’ve also loved Cursed Morsels Press’s anthology No Trouble At All and the Bound in Flesh anthology edited by Lord Gislason. I do a whole lot of horror short fiction reading. As far as movies (other than The Lost Boys) go, you can never go wrong with the original Candyman. Or Scream 6, I really really enjoyed that one.
Tell us something cool you’ve been into recently:
Maybe I’ve been talking about vampires too much, but something cool I’ve been studying recently is the resurgence of monster fiction from a marginalized perspective. There’s a really cool trend of wanting to make the “monster” the sympathetic point-of-view character instead of just wanting to follow the brave and like…indomitable monster hunter, and I think looking at that shift in storytelling through a queer lens (or through the lens of any marginalized community, I’m just studying the queer connections personally) is really interesting and impactful.
Tell us about an issue you’re trying to draw attention to:
I mentioned my charity anthology above, so I feel like this would be the place to mention the Family Equality Council in general. There’s a lot of very dangerous and scary legislation coming forward against the LGBTQIA+ community, and as a queer person myself, there will never be enough I can say about it. A lot of my work focuses on connection and community and belonging, and the Family Equality Council specifically is a group that strives to create a world where everyone can experience the unconditional love, safety, and belonging that a family should provide. This might not be a specific “issue” per se, but it’s something that is very important to me that I always try to bring to light in my work.
Tell us a few things about yourself that you are really proud of:
I’m really terrible at talking about being proud of myself honestly, but I’ve recently been able to acknowledge more and more exactly how much work I’m doing to get my stories out in the world, and it’s crazy to think about. One thing about me is that I simply don’t know how to give up, and I will just keep trying until something good happens. I’m very stubborn like that, and it’s been so fulfilling to watch my efforts finally start to pay off. I used to be incredibly rejection-sensitive, but now I’m able to just acknowledge them as part of the process and move on, and that’s very nice.
Don’t forget to drink water, and please stretch!
LC W. Allingham 
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