Taylor Grothe
BIO
Taylor is a neurodivergent (ASD) NB writer passionate about voice-driven narratives centering on strong, compelling femmes and enbies. Taylor graduated cum laude with Honors from Duke University (2012), and is a 2024 Nonfiction MFA graduate of Fairfield University’s Creative Writing Program. Their shorts can be found in Coffin Bell, Bag of Bones Press, Haven Speculative, Shortwave Magazine, and various other places. Taylor was a Round 9 Author Mentor Match adult mentor, the graduate Assistant Managing Editor of Brevity Magazine for 2022-23, one of the founding members and the 2023-24 program coordinator of Round Table Mentor, and a host of Queer Author Talk (QAT) on Twitter. Taylor is represented by Victoria Marini of High Line Literary Collective. Their debut YA horror, Hollow, comes out from Peachtree Teen in fall 2025, with another standalone YA to follow in 2026. When not writing, Taylor can be found practicing cello or planting their the garden in the most haunted state in the US, Connecticut.
MSWL
Specific things I’m looking for:
I am committed to working with writers of all marginalizations, especially PoC, and to that end I’m looking for:
- compelling folk horror pieces that aren’t western-centric
- social horrors like Get Out, Ring Shout, and Tell Me I’m Worthless
- gothic manuscripts that can be comped to The Hacienda and Mexican Gothic (PoC only)
- vacation gothic manuscripts like Diavola
- thrillers with a horror edge like In My Dreams I Hold a Knife
- dark fantasy with horror features like The Whispering Dark
- dark academia with social ramifications and horror features like Never Let Me Go and The Meadows—and not only YA
- any horror piece set around a forest like Small Favors or The Bone Houses
- cult horror like Revelator or Hell Followed With Us
- haunted house books that twist traditional gothic tropes on their heads like The Invited
- creative reimaginings of older works, like What Moves the Dead
- nonfiction works in strange and experimental forms (hermit crab essays, for example)
- memoir that deals with queerness, especially in grounded vignettes like Her Body and Other Parties
Specific things I’m NOT looking for:
- Salem Witch Trial books—I think this story has been done
- vampire books
- smut (spice is fine!)
- books where the main character has a chronic illness/disability and “outgrows” it to succeed in the narrative
If you send me these things I will be upset, so please don't:
- child abuse/death on page
- visceral animal abuse/death on page
- anything bigoted, or that relies on bigotry to create shock
- sexual assault on page