Carla E. Dash is a mom, a gamer, a teacher, a person who manages to keep a moderate number of plants alive, and the author of Monsters and Other Tales of Humanity, a collection of speculative fictions stories about how terrifying and how heroic individuals can be when untethered from relationships.
What inspired you to write Monsters and Other Tales of Humanity?
During my first foray into graduate school, I took a science fiction course. We read a lot of cool stuff, one of which was James Tiptree Jr’s collection Her Smoke Rose Up Forever. One of the stories, “The Girl Who Was Plugged In,” is a sort of retelling of the Cupid and Psyche myth where a lover is kept from knowing the true nature of his partner and looking upon the truth destroys their relationship. There’s a lot of other stuff going on in the story about technology and the relationship between it and women’s bodies. I thought it was cool to use a myth in this way, to use such an old story as a vehicle to explore modern issues, and my writing in Monsters and beyond often takes inspiration from myths, fairy tales, folk tales, etc.
If your book were turned into a movie or TV series, who would you want to play the main character and why?
If I could turn one story from the collection into a TV show or movie, it would be the novelette, “Hack n’ Slash #999,” a story about a video game character (Takahiro) with little control over the actions the player (and thus he) takes. Purely for the reason that Takahiro’s “I need to avenge my family” mentality has similar energy as Prince Zuko’s “I need to regain my honor” in Avatar: The Last Airbender, I can envision Dallas Liu in this role.
What’s the strangest or funniest research you’ve ever done for a book?
Honestly, I’m not sure. I’ve done a lot of strange googling over the years that would likely seem deranged upon investigation. For this collection, a smattering of things I remember researching or brushing up on are poisonous plants, the river Lethe, what color blood scorpions have, Hades and Persephone, chiton, Beauty and the Beast, northern constellations visible in winter, roses, postal workers, photography, greenhouses, differences between types of citrus fruits, irises, and olive trees.
If you were a character in one of your books, what kind of role would you play and how would you contribute to the story?
I would probably be one of the protagonists going through something weird and sad, but the reader isn’t sure if something truly supernatural is happening, if they’re going mad from isolation and grief, or if they’re just an unreliable narrator spinning events for sympathy. I’d probably end my narration at the cusp of a momentous decision, leaving you wondering if I made it out of the weirdness or leaned more heavily into it and spiraled out of control.
Share one interesting or quirky fact about yourself that readers may not know.
I played 690 hours of The Sims 3.
If you could have a superpower for a day, what would you choose and how would you use it?
If I could have any superpower for a day, it would be teleportation. I’d use it for terribly boring things like instantly picking up my kids from school, getting that one thing we always forget to include in our grocery delivery order, and traveling to and from my day job.
If you could step into the shoes of one of your characters for a day, who would it be and what would you do?
From this collection, I’d choose the little girl from “The Thing in the Water.” She is a creature who lives under the sea. Not being a strong swimmer myself, I think it’d be lovely to explore the depths of the ocean and see all of the strange and alien creatures there without fear of the dark, of drowning, of the crushing weight of the water pressing down on you, and of the vastness stretching out all around you.
If you were stranded on a deserted island, which three books would you want with you?
1. Burning Your Boats by Angela Carter for the fairy tale retellings and the beauty.
2. Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson for the inventiveness and rebelliousness.
3. Gideon the Ninth because I can’t be expected to survive without lesbian space necromancers.
If you had to choose a different career outside of writing, what would it be and why?
I would choose audiobook narrator because I like reading aloud, and I could work from home in my pajamas.
If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
You’re not a writer if you don’t write. The magic story elves aren’t going to show up and finish that story for you. What’s that? You don’t know how to end the story, though? Guess what? You’re just going to have to keep writing until you figure it out. There’s no way around this. Sorry?
How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?
Books? Two or three. Stories? … more than I have fingers and toes and brain cells, probably.
How can we find out more about you and your book?
You can check out my website (carlaedash.com) as well as my publisher’s (meerkatpress.com). Signing up for my newsletter through my website is great way to stay up to date and so is following me on Instagram (@carla.e.dash).
About the Author
Carla E. Dash (she/her) lives in Braintree, MA with her husband, children, and cats. She teaches middle schoolers, procrastinates via video games and anime, and occasionally buckles down and writes. Her writing has appeared in The Kenyon Review Online, Cosmorama, Eucalyptus Lit, and others. Her debut collection, Monsters and Other Tales of Humanity, will be published by Meerkat Press in July of 2025. Visit her at carlaedash.com or follow @carla.e.dash on Instagram.
