GREETINGS, BOOKWORMS! I’m Aisha Kandisha, Head Librarian at Kandisha Press. Join me in the dusty stacks of the library I will never leave again as I chat with some of my favorite Women in Horror. Today we feature author Ev Datsyk!
Ev Datsyk is a queer, second-generation settler living on the land known today as Canada. She primarily writes short stories and is passionate about the Oxford comma and questionable puns. Her work can be found in Haunted Words Press and Divinations Magazine, with a full publishing history available on her social media. You can find her at @evdatsyk on most platforms.
What do you believe are your strengths in writing? And when you feel you need to improve on a particular writing skill, how do you go about it?
I know Kandisha is a horror press, and—credit where it’s due—the question “What are your strengths?” genuinely terrifies me. All the ghosts of self doubt and imposter syndrome are jump-scaring me as I try to come up with an answer.
I believe my writing strength is my writing—in a technical, pen-to-paper way. I feel generally confident in my ability to write a pleasing sentence with grammatical correctness. Is that the blandest strength you’ve ever heard?
Regarding improving writing skills: I read, read, read. I read within my genre a little and outside of it a lot. When I read, regardless of how I interpret the narrative style or relate to the experiences, I think I grow as a person exposed to new ideas and voices—and maybe (hopefully) as a writer too.
What are your thoughts on the book industry today, or more importantly, about the book community?
Optimistic? Pessimistic? Conflicted.
I think of the book community as split into two audiences: readers and writers. I’m not very involved in online groups, but, on the writing side, I see a community that’s more connected and supportive than ever. I imagine like-minded, creative folks are able to uplift one another by sharing work, giving advice, and finding useful resources to help them in their careers and strengthen them as artists.
In readers, we’re seeing people who haven’t read much lately getting back into it, exposed through Booktok and other virtual communities. Which is incredible! But this is where the book community meets the book industry … and sometimes my pessimism.
For better or for worse, marketability is just as important as creativity in a lot of literary spaces right now. Comps need to show increasingly recent commercial parallels. Writers tailor work around agents’ manuscript wishlists. These are practical things, which I don’t judge on their own. However, I do worry about the perpetuation of sameness in media, especially in genre fiction. While I believe there are many unique ways to tell stories that, at face value, are similar, I do also fear having a strong commercial mindset doesn’t make room for essential stories that don’t neatly fit under Booktok hashtags.
I don’t have such an essential story, by the way, I’m just on my soapbox. Take me with a grain of salt.
All of this coming to one final thought: f*ck AI. People’s willingness to adopt AI as a generative tool strikes me as a reflection of how commercially people can see this craft. I’m discouraged to see AI used for outlining, debates about if reading is worth it when AI exists, and how AI can fully draft any idea you want to read, so why should writers exist? It’s all selling stolen stories without heart or appreciation for the practice and investment in the craft.
Do you feel it is getting harder or easier to make it as an independent author these days?
Despite writing my entire life, I’m new to the publishing side of things, so I’m still building my thoughts on this. I imagine it’s easier and harder simultaneously. On one hand, markets are saturated with more and more voices; it’s very competitive and sometimes economically restrictive (time is money, and submission fees are, like, obviously money). On the other, independent authors can self-publish and, through social networks and media, take off and become massively successful—or even step into traditional publishing, if that’s their desire.
Tell us about your work. What story are you most proud of?
The pride I feel in a story is directly connected to how I feel when I’m writing it. Which is nonsense. I know that the end product speaks the loudest. But, the easier the story felt to write, the more emotionally connected I am to it—regardless of how much I revise it after the fact.
For sentimental reasons, I’ll always be really proud of my first publication, “The Necromancer’s Daughter” in Haunted Words Press’s collection Bleeding Hearts Beat Still. I’m also really excited about one upcoming publication in particular. It’s had a special place in my heart for a long time and has found a really good and fitting home, but my lips are sealed a while longer.
What are your upcoming works and plans for the future?
I’ll be continuing to write short stories for the foreseeable future. I always have a few ideas on the backburner, and I’m looking forward to putting pen to paper.
As for upcoming works, in June 2025, my piece “A Mortal Breaks Aphrodite’s Heart” will be published in Flame Tree Press’s Aphrodite: Myths & Legends anthology. Then, right in time for spooky season, my story “Pants of Fire” will be in Inked In Gray Press’s Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are! anthology. A few others have been accepted, but I can’t talk about them yet. (Is this an appropriate time to self-promote and say I’ll share more deets on social media when I can?)
KANDISHA PRESS 
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