Author Interview with Ivy Grimes

 1.  When did you start writing?

I played around with writing poems and stories as a kid. I got more serious about it in college, and then I got a Creative Writing MFA in poetry from the University of Alabama. I didn’t learn too much in school, but it was mostly a fun experience. While there, I also took some fiction classes and enjoyed writing absurdist tales. I stopped writing for a few years while I pursued a different career (one I found boring), but once I switched to something less stressful, I began regularly writing stories and occasionally writing poems again. 

2.  What was your journey towards becoming an author like?

Since I started out around academic types, my understanding was that the goal was to publish poems in academic journals and eventually collections with university presses, knowing very few people would read what I wrote. I knew how competitive that was. I’m forty now, and even that landscape has changed so much over the past couple of decades in terms of social media and online publishing. I changed, too, and I began writing more fiction than poetry. My reasoning for switching was realizing that I read a lot more fiction than poetry.

I still have few people reading my work, but I feel more in control of my own destiny since I publish many of my stories online and share them through social media. I feel like I can seek out likeminded people this way. 

I’ve also enjoyed publishing novellas, a novel, and a short story collection with small presses. I published Star Shapes originally with Spooky House and Glass Stories with Grimscribe Press. My novel The Ghosts of Blaubart Mansion is set for release on April 21 of this year with Cemetery Gates. My novella The Cellar Below the Cellar is set for release with Violet Lichen Press in 2026.

3.  What can you tell me about your latest book? (Feel free to include an excerpt.)

My latest book is The Ghosts of Blaubart Mansion with Cemetery Gates. It’s about two sisters, Ruby and Opal, who grow up with their mother in the woods without much contact with society. Their mother is always afraid of something she won’t explain, so she stays hidden. Their mother gets sick, though, and when they need money, Ruby marries a very rich man from an infamous local family, knowing she won’t have the position of “wife” for very long. Her sister Opal tries to rescue her and discovers some disturbing secrets about the mansion. The story is inspired by the fairy tales “Bluebeard” and “Snow-White and Rose-Red.” It’s a Southern gothic story, but in many ways, it’s also a comedy. It doesn’t stick closely to reality.

Here's a little snippet from the second chapter (narrated by Ruby):

As you might have guessed, I married the bad man. I doubt if we would have learned about each other if not for the sick possum and Phew. I wouldn’t have ventured far enough in that direction to find his mansion. Maybe I would have gone to Nashville instead. Memphis. Macon. Birmingham. Jackson. Hard to say. 

       The bad man’s name was Glaucon Blaubart, but I swear he wasn’t nearly as bad as Phew said. Finding his mansion was the first thing I ever did alone, without Opal. Once I married him, I was in charge of the festivities his family had held for centuries and centuries. As a kid, I never really went to a party, so it was strange that parties became part of my job. I soon realized I wasn’t up to the task. 

       A few weeks after our wedding, I had to host the St. Al’s Day event. It took place every March 1, when all the landowning families were invited to our mansion for a breakfast buffet, which was followed by a hunting competition, and ended with a supper buffet. Glaucon said he would be absent from breakfast because of his allergies or some other excuse, but he promised to be present with me at the supper. I was curious to meet the “finer families” around, even though I didn’t want to face them alone. Whoever brought the greatest number of dead little critters to supper was the winner. The catch was, they had to use their bare hands to hunt. No weapons.

       I didn’t like the idea at all, but what could I do? I put on the clothes the servants set out for me, nice jeans and high-heeled boots and a bright yellow sweater (canary yellow was the color of St. Al’s Day), and I did my best to be a good host.

4.  What sort of methods do you use for book promotion?

I experiment with various methods. I have a feeling I’ll never be an expert! I don’t write books that are for everyone, but rather for a small, specific audience. I have a hard time knowing exactly how to reach that audience, but I have tried methods like posting about the book on social media (especially on Bluesky), using BookSirens as a substitute for NetGalley, and generally doing my best to help my small press spread the word about the book. Book promotion doesn’t come naturally to me!

5. Where do you get your ideas for stories? 

I love taking the ideas/plots of fairy tales and myths and significantly messing with them. Often, readers will finish a story I’ve written and say they didn’t recognize the story I was referencing. I’m not writing retellings of fairy tales, but rather using the fairy tale as a place to leap from. What I love about fairy tales is their dark hiddenness, the way they feel like reading dreams. I try to keep that dream-feeling in my stories as I explore the always-relevant themes of fairy tales.

6.  What are you working on right now?

I’m working with Marissa Van Uden, editor of Violet Lichen books, on editing my novella The Cellar Below the Cellar (set for release in spring 2026). This story was inspired by elements of the fairy tale Vasilisa the Beautiful, as well as mythology around Frau Perchta, a witchy figure from the Alps.

Recently, I’ve been writing poetry again. I always knew I’d want to return to it from time to time. It allows me to express my feelings in an even more obscure language than I use in my stories.

7.  Any advice for other authors?

Do what you love, and try not to worry too much about anyone else. When you’re making art, your opinion matters most. With other kinds of writing (informing and entertaining), audience perception is perhaps most important, but not with art. It’s your world, and not everyone belongs there. 

ABOUT IVY:

Ivy Grimes is originally from Birmingham, Alabama, and she currently lives in Georgia. She has an MFA from the University of Alabama. Her stories have appeared in The Baffler, Vastarien, hex, Maudlin House, Cosmic Horror Monthly, Seize the Press, ergot., Potomac Review, and elsewhere. To read stories available online and learn more, please visit Ivy’s website.