Join us for an evening with Jonah Barnett celebrating the re-launch of Moss-Covered Claws!
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Jonah Barnett is a genderqueer author, ex-filmmaker, art archivist, and multimedia-ish artist from the forests of Tenino, Washington. They take inspiration from their life in the mossy Pacific Northwest—with a love of prehistory, libraries, abandoned buildings, the sea, vast plains, and the weirde and fantastique. Jonah often releases content under the moniker “Malicious Wallydrags,” which is an old Tumblr URL, and that should explain enough, to be honest.
Jonah’s storytelling history reaches back all the way to the age of four, when they asked their parents to set up the family camcorder for them so they could act out Jurassic Park scenes with toys. They went on to learn stop-motion at age six (albeit it wasn’t very good) and began writing stories the following year. Almost every story, no matter what medium, featured dinosaurs in one form or another. They wrote their first script at age eleven on an old Corona-Smith typewriter–although again, it wasn’t very good (and also featured dinosaurs). Going on to create their own webseries in high school, Jonah received a Young Playwright’s Award in 2011 for a gay-themed one act in Seattle. In 2015 Jonah released their debut feature film, The Fabricated Partner of Cody McGuire, in collaboration with Jacob Earl of Save the Croissants, while simultaneously debuting their artist moniker “Malicious Wallydrags.” Overall, Jonah has directed and written three feature films, a dozen-ish short films, and four web series—with their film work being presented at the Olympia Film Festival, Northwest Film Forum, Grand Cinema, and Trans Stellar Film Festival. Their debut book, Moss-Covered Claws, came out from Blue Cactus Press in March 2021, and is being reissued in Fall 2023. It is essentially about gay people running around in forests being chased by monsters. Unlike the stop-motion and the typewriter script, it is actually pretty good. There is one dinosaur in it, though. Jonah has also been published in the Forest Avenue Press collections Dispatches From Anarres and City of Weird.
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Moss-Covered Claws, the debut short story collection from fantasy author Jonah Barnett, is filled with tales of anxiety-feeding demons, anti-fascists that travel dimensions, and the vengeful spirits of dead seabirds. Barnett mashes dreams and reality together in these ten macabre tales of speculative fiction. They offer a fresh, cheeky voice to Queer fiction and fantasy, delivered in this multiverse of forgotten dreams and broken promises. Moss-Covered Claws is a reminder that the Pacific Northwest is not known for its sunny days, but rather an overcast world of soaking gloom. From the salty beaches of the West Coast to foreboding forests in alternate timelines, from red light districts of 1906 San Fransisco to the childhood room of a troubled youth, creatures weirde and fantastique ooze out from the pages of Barnett's worlds. For the faint of heart, don't worry, Barnett's stories - though dark and heady - will always leave you with a sense of hope.