Payton McCarty-Simas

Payton McCarty-Simas is a freelance writer and editor based in NYC whose work has appeared in The Brooklyn Rail, Film Daze, and Horror Studies among others. They grew up in Massachusetts devouring Stephen King novels, Edgar Allan Poe stories, and Scooby Doo on VHS. Later, they received their MA in film & media studies from Columbia University where they focused their research on horror film, psychedelic film, and conspiratorial thinking in particular. Payton is the author of One Step Short of Crazy: National Treasure and the Landscape of American Conspiracy Culture. I Am That Very Witch is their second book.