The One of Us horror book fair returns Saturday with a Pulitzer-winning guest

Like an indie horror film that unexpectedly smashes box office records, the One of Us horror book fest was destined for a sequel. Ran by Ames-based Filthy Loot Press and its founder Ira Rat, last year’s inaugural event celebrated horror fiction and independent writers at Public Space One’s Close House.

With the groundwork laid from its first iteration, Rat and co. are focused on beefing up the one-day fest, which is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 5. Snagging Pulitzer Prize-winning author Daniel Kraus for the author lineup certainly helps with that. Little Village talked with Rat about how he settled on Iowa City for the book fest, why there haven’t been more horror festivals in the area and what’s next for Filthy Loot.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

So it’s the second iteration of One of Us. How did the first go? Any major takeaways or lessons that you’re bringing to this second year?

The first one went actually amazingly compared to what I thought it would be, I just always have that bad feeling in the back of my brain that it will be just like five people showing up to anything that I’m involved with. But a few hundred people came and it was jam-packed the entire time. So I was shocked by that and happy this time around. We have Daniel Kraus coming and with the attention that we got, I’m just doubling down and trying to capitalize on it enough that the writers and publishers can get more people to read their stuff more so than anything else.

You and Filthy Loot Press are based in Ames. Why the decision to hold One of Us in Iowa City? How did you connect with PS1?

I’ve been going to Public Space One for years for their I.C.E. C.R.E.A.M. festival to sell zines and whatnot. Also, just the, for lack of a better word, prestige of Iowa City. I’m wearing a Kurt Vonnegut shirt right now because he taught there, and I got into him because he taught there. Whenever I think about literary things, I think of Iowa City. I don’t think of Ames, but I’m happy to be from Ames. Plus some authors are coming from Chicago, so it’s easier for them. Some authors are coming from Minneapolis. It just seemed like a good middle spot for people coming to the Midwest from the Midwest.

It especially worked out this year because [of those Chicago authors] the Chicago HWA was very supportive of getting the word out this year. The HWA is the Horror Writers Association. It’s like — not quite a union, but they try to use their collective bargaining to make sure that people are taken care of.

You mentioned Iowa City has this big literary component and community but I think it’s also worth talking about horror, specifically. You mentioned in other interviews that there’s only maybe one horror film fest in the state. There used to be a horror anime fest that’s not happening anymore–

Yeah, [the horror anime fest] only happened one year, and I was there that morning. They came over the announcement, and were just like, “This is the last year. Bye.”

It’s such an interesting thing to think about, with these pockets of fandoms or concentrations of fans, you would think that horror fests of all types would already be established, right?

Well, I’ve been actually looking into it, and other than Halloweenapalooza in Ottumwa, which is the film festival one, I just found out about Coffin-Con in Mason City. This will be their second year right after we do ours. But it’s a very underserved community. I’ve looked to see if there was ever anything before One of Us, and I’m not seeing any evidence online, but you know how the internet wipes away anything that’s not above a certain level.

I’ve been a horror fan since I was 6 years old, so I’ve just always been going, why isn’t this happening here? And I’m like, well, it’s not happening here because people like me aren’t making it happen.

I think it’s safe to say the “headliner” for authors this go is Daniel Kraus. How did that come to be? What is the process for securing the authors for One of Us? I see that there was a table lottery.

Last year, I contacted Chicago HWA, and they said a couple of people were interested in coming this year. [Kraus] was one of those people, and this was before he won the Pulitzer. So, basically, right after he won the Pulitzer, I was just sitting here crossing my fingers, going, “He’s still coming, right?” I’ve been a fan of his for years. I really enjoyed the book he did with George Romero. [The pair collaborated on the novelsThe Living Dead in 2020 and Pay the Piper in 2024.]

The first year, I had about 50 people saying they were interested. Only maybe 30-some actually signed up, and that’s why I started the lottery: to make sure everybody at least got their name in. A lot of it is based around the lottery, but there are a handful of people I invite personally just because I’ve known them for so long. I’ve been friends with Weirdpunk Books for eight years, and I’ve been friends with Cursed Morsels for about as long.

This year, we also have Ghoulish Books coming, which just transplanted from San Antonio to Minneapolis. The second I saw that, I was like, “Oh, they can come now.” So, yeah, a lot of it is the lottery, but I do invite a few friends just because I’ve known them for so long.

And Joe Koch — they’re a great writer. He’s been up for the Shirley Jackson Award and has been in about half of our books.

Got to ask about Filthy Loot. How have things been with your press? Any things coming up that you have planned or are looking forward to?

We have six books coming out, or that have come out recently. First, my new book, Peel Slowly and Bleed, which is a collection of my first novella and my best short stories from my other two collections. We just put out Xanadu, Pennsylvania by Alex Osman. We also have Saoirse’s  new book, Cráite — I think that’s how you pronounce it. It’s a Gaelic word, so I’m not the person to try to say it.

Then we’re reissuing Police Force Like a Corrupt Breeze by Shane Jesse Christmass.

Right now, I’m also working on Body Punk 2 and Fucked Up Stories to Read In the Daytime, Part Three. That one is actually going to be really cool because Cody Goodfellow, who’s big in the weird fiction community, is going to be in it. The guy who just wrote the next Terrifier movie is going to be in it, too. And the guy who wrote the screenplay for Kaufman’s next movie is going to be in there as well, so I’m really excited about that.

Editor’s note: Little Village is a sponsor of One of Us.