News

Oh how I love Amanda Trout’s New Letters review. In “Hellions by Julia Elliott,” Trout states, “In what reads as a spiritual successor to her debut collection The Wilds, Pushcart Prize-winning author Julia Elliott has once again proven her mastery of the sinister folkloric short story with Hellions. This set of eleven tales enchants its readers with legends of monstrous alligators, flying cabins, bewitched children, and more, all in Elliott’s signature Southern Gothic-meets-fairy-tale style. Match this expansive world with the exquisite poise of Elliott’s writing—the whimsical diction, the attention to detail, the bold blend of archaic chant with modern slang—and you have the makings of a masterpiece.”

Thanks, University of South Carolina, for showing Hellions (and my passion for horror) some love lately. I had a fascinating conversation with Valerie Weingart from the South Carolina Honors College for “The Horror!” as well as an insightful chat with Kristine Hartvigson for “USC Professor Holds Horror Fans Spellbound.”

Southern Review of Books chose Hellions as a July Southern Summer Book Club pick! Here’s a video of the delightful conversation I had with Bradley Sides and other book world voices. Sides also asked me some fantastic questions for “‘Stagnant and Delirious’: An Interview with Julia Elliott.”

I loved making a Hellions playlist for Largehearted Boy, so I’m extra stoked to see my collection on Largehearted Ledger‘s “Best Books of 2025 So Far.” According to Gutowski, “the stories in Julia Elliott‘s collection Hellions are marvelously diverse and divine magic from everyday lives.”

I’m thrilled with this review of Hellions (Tin House) from Chattanooga Free Times Press: “Julia Elliott’s ‘Hellions’ Stories Teem with Natural and Supernatural Creatures.” Erica Wright says, “In her new story collection Hellions, Julia Elliott embraces the grotesque, playing with a rich literary tradition and molding it into something wholly her own. These tales teem with supernatural creatures — demons, hags, changelings, and swamp apes — but it’s the humans who are most compelling.”

In a magical review from Cleaver, Hana S. Elysia writes, “Elliott has compelled me to expand my earthly boundaries, because, at its core, that’s what Hellions is about: reaching for more. Reaching beyond. Grasping for magic you thought you lost after childhood, prying apart your chest to see a heart pulsing with swamp water. Any fan of surrealism, fantasy, or body horror will find a home in these pages. So tear them open and slide in, smear your face with mud, and rise toward the moon to meet the wondrous and wild.”

Las Vegas Weekly asked the staff at Writer’s Block Book Shop for favorite summer reads, and Program Director Meagan Smith kindly recommended Hellions, calling it “the best short story collection I’ve read in a while. Elliott experiments with different types of horror in every story, from the fantastic to the domestic. Anyone who has spent a summer in a rural Southern town can recognize the collection’s harsh shadows, overbearing sun, and buzzing air.”

I’m pleased to report that Independent Book Review lists Hellions in “Literary Fiction Books that are Punk AF.” Nick Gardner writes, “Witches, Cryptids, Ghosts, and other supernatural entities plague the pages of Julia Elliott’s strange collection of longer short fiction. No flash stories here. But just like when you enter a DIY venue and feel surrounded by like minds, the pages of Hellions is a comforting place for those who have normalized the weird. . . . Elliott’s stories are filled with loners and weirdos outperforming their normative peers and youngsters challenging their parents’ conservative ideals. What’s more punk than that?”

In anticipation of my Piccolo Fiction reading at Blue Bicycle Books, I chatted with Henry O’Brien of  Charleston City Paper–mostly about Hellions and monsters: “Piccolo Fiction to Explore Monsters, Comedy, Sports on Saturday.”

It’s always enlightening to discuss politics and fiction with writers Whitney Terrell and V.V Ganeshananthan on the Fiction / Non / Fiction podcast. You can catch our latest conversation on Literary Hub: “Small Town Voters and Trump’s Tariff Trap.”