Meet Our Readers: Cynthia (cina) Pelayo

Cynthia (cina) Pelayo grew up in a haunted house with very superstitious parents in Chicago's northwest side. She is a recent graduate of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago's Master of Fine Art in Writing program, where she says she majored in the macabre. Her short story collection, Loteria, is a collection of 54 short stories based on Latin American folklore, superstition, legend and myth.

Her first horror novel, Santa Muerte, about the Mexican cult of death, will be released in October via Post Mortem Press. She is a member of the Horror Writers Association and is also the Publisher/Gravedigger of Burial Day Books, her boutique horror press that publishes emerging horror writers and has produced an anthology of Gothic stories. She wears black—most of the time—and she stays out of the sun as much as (un)humanly possible.

Please see Cynthia and the rest of our ghoulish readers at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, October 2, for our United States of Horror edition at Hopleaf's upstairs bar!