Shelfie

Kitsch and Horror

by  María Fernanda Ampuero
translated by Daniel Simon

A photograph of a book shelfI like this little area of my library a lot because it’s where I keep some of my horror books: H. P. Lovecraft, Stephen King, Mariana Enríquez, Amparo Dávila, Shirley Jackson. I also like that these books coexist with a ceramic bear and a painting of a puppy. Kitsch makes me happy. Along with horror literature, I think it’s what makes me happiest in the world. Strange? Of course.

Translation from the Spanish


Writer and journalist María Fernanda Ampuero (b. 1976, Guayaquil, Ecuador) has been published in newspapers and magazines around the world and is the author of two narrative nonfiction titles and two short-story collections: Cockfight and Human Sacrifices. In 2012 she was selected as one of the 100 Most Influential Latin Americans in Spain.

Daniel Simon is a poet, essayist, translator, and WLT’s assistant director and editor in chief. His WLT centennial anthology, A Compass on the Navigable Sea: 100 Years of World Literature, is forthcoming from Restless Books in spring 2026.

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