In the shadowy corners of American literature, few figures loom as large as Nathaniel Hawthorne - the master of the gothic tale and chronicler of moral complexity. Yet beneath the surface of his acclaimed works lies a more personal narrative intertwined with the very town that shaped him: Salem, Massachusetts. Once a bustling port known for its witch trials, Salem cast an indelible spell on Hawthorne’s psyche—one that fueled both his creativity and inner turmoil.

Our Guest: Nancy Brewka-Clark’s short stories of classic mystery, psychological horror, and speculative otherworldliness have been anthologized in the U.S. by Malice Domestic, in the U.K. by Flame Tree, and by Black Hare Press in Australia. Her short story "One Shy of Load" will appear in Crime Spell Books' forthcoming anthology Devil's Snare: Best New England Crime Stories 2024. A member of the Short Mystery Fiction Society, British Science Fiction Association, and New England Horror Writers, she is the author of the 2020 poetry collection Beautiful Corpus.