Introducing Katie Dirge - Owner/Publisher of 'Black Sunday Zine'

Hi everyone, recently I had the pleasure of meeting and working with the fabulous Katie Dirge. Ms Dirge produces the publication, 'Black Sunday Zine. Katie was kind enough to publish some of my work and in turn I would like to introduce you to her and what she does. She is a very interesting lady with a penchant for the dark macabre and I recommend you check out all the links at the bottom of the page.

Katie Dirge – from ‘The House of Dirge’ website introduction:

“Katie is my real name, Dirge isn’t. My love of the Victorian era and its death customs inspired me to take a name that reflects my love and interest. A dirge is commonly known as a song that is played at a funeral or a mournful poem or other literary work. The latter is the true reflection of both myself and my writing. This is not to say I do not like my birth name, I just like to keep my family life and my work separate.

I began writing at an early age, I begun as a poet and then moved into writing fiction. As the years went on I was published in a national magazine on a regular basis and then I started up my own publication in the form of a zine. Black Sunday Zine gives me the chance to write some interesting pieces and interview artists and writers. In the past it has featured pieces on cemeteries, satanists, hearses, horror films, zombies… the list goes on.

I am heavily tattooed and I only dress in black. I have been called “eccentric” and “different” which I can only take as a compliment. I have a fake stuffed crow called One Eyed Eric, I collect candles, I dry roses, enjoy draping everything in red velvet, I buy weird art, I love drinking copious amounts of tea, I love self-published works, I like taking photographs, I collect notebooks and I love religious imagery.”

Black Sunday Zine is Katie’s baby (slightly macabre baby at that!).

Black Sunday was born out of a lack of dark zines that covered the morbid, the macabre and heavy metal - all in one publication. So I wrote some pieces and then decided to get some really interesting and talented people involved like Loren Rhoads; writer and editor of the magazine Morbid Curiosity, artist Chuck Hodi, writer and artist William Cook and various others. No subject goes untouched. I have featured pieces on graveyards, satanists, zombies, hearses, horror films and lots more. As much as I enjoy writing the content I am always open to suggestions in the form of weird tales (both fiction and non-fiction), macabre features and poetry.

Heavy metal is my kind of music and is pretty much my soundtrack for life so it only felt right to include this. I openly invite unsigned bands to feature and I review new and old CD’s as a way of promotion and hopefully introducing readers to an album they have yet to discover! The House of Dirge is my emporium that quite literally houses Black Sunday Zine and soon there will be other items available that will include dark prints and chapbooks. You can get yourself a copy at http://thehouseofdirge.com and follow the links to the shop and the blog.