Megan Warner is a graduate from Southern Utah University with a BA in English Creative Writing and a minor in Graphic Design. She has had poetry and prose published in the Kolob Canyon Review. When not writing, reading, or painting, she is playing with her two cats, Paper and Clip, cooking new recipes with her significant other, and watching as many animated movies as she can.

To welcome her into the fold, we decided to bombard her with a few questions!

How did you first hear about peculiar?

I first heard about peculiar through a class assignment about different types of literary magazines with specific themes or for specific groups of people.

What activities most preoccupy your waking hours at the moment?

Weekdays: Working, playing with my cats, and cooking. Weekends: Hosting game nights, reading, and hiking

What do you want to be doing in five years?

In five years I would like to be working for a publisher making and editing books.

What were you like as a child?

As a child I was creative, artistic, and perfectly content to entertain myself.

If you could tell your child self one thing, what would it be?

I would tell my child self to not be afraid to express myself. Write what you want, paint what you want, say what you want, and dress how you want. Don’t be afraid of the opinions of others because in a few years you won’t remember their names.

Do you remember the first thing you ever wrote or created out of a self-imposed impulse? What was it?

The first thing I can remember creating without prompt was a short story I wrote where the main character was a leaf on a tree that never fell during fall and had to live out the winter still attached to its tree.

What’s your creative process?

My creative process is impulsive and nonlinear. When I write, I start with an idea but not with any specific point in a story or poem. I let the words come and then stitch everything together afterwards in some kind of Frankensteinian conglomeration of a working piece of writing before editing the hell out of it.

What subjects/genres/locations interest you the most?

I enjoy science fiction and fantasy genres more than anything. I like stories with a focus on found family and where romantic love is more of an afterthought.

What poets/authors/creators do you most admire?

I admire Neil Gaiman, Brandon Sanderson, and Mary Shelley.

What’s it like being queer where you live?

Living in Utah and growing up Mormon, being queer was never presented as an option to me until I was in high school. Even then, it took me years to filter through what was expected of me and figure out who I was. I don’t dress or present myself all the time as someone who screams to the world that I am queer so often me being queer is something people only find out about me after they get to know me.

What makes you “peculiar”?

I am peculiar because I have the hobbies of an 80-year-old woman, dress like a 20-something with an identity crisis, and have the movie taste of a ten-year-old. Ie. I enjoy knitting, embroidery, and jigsaw puzzles, wear a different aesthetic near daily, and will choose to watch an animated movie over anything else any day.

What are you most looking forward to about being on the peculiar staff?

I am excited to work with something creative with a message and a goal I can relate to.

What are you working on right now?

I am working on a series of poems and a fantasy novel.

What are your social handles/URLs?

Instagram: meganwa67