A. E. Osworth

Instructor & Writer
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A. E. Osworth is part-time Faculty at The New School, where they teach undergraduates the art of digital storytelling. Their novel, We Are Watching Eliza Bright, about a game developer dealing with harassment (and narrated collectively by a fictional subreddit) was long listed for The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. They have an eight-year freelancing career and you can find their work on Autostraddle, Guernica, Quartz, Electric Lit, Paper Darts, Mashable, and drDoctor, among others.

Classes

view 8 past classes  »

Stories

Cover Photo: A green spiraly ribbon
After the Green Ribbon

The story of the girl with the green ribbon was once a generic tale of horror. Now, it is about about gender.

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A. E. Osworth
Feb 01, 2022
Columns | Scaring Children
Cover Photo: This photograph shows a blue miniature Lego Doctor Who TARDIS sitting on a patch of grass. It's a bright sunny day and the sky behind the TARDIS is clear and blue.
Creating Scenes for Discovery

Storytelling is like the TARDIS in ‘Doctor Who’—the narrower and more specific we get on the outside, the bigger it gets on the inside.

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A. E. Osworth
Jan 12, 2022
Don’t Write Alone | Free Write
Cover Photo: A detail from the movie poster for "The Omen," depicting a small child whose shadow takes the shape of a cross
I Didn’t Want to Miss Baby Night

Children appear in horror all the time because to parent one is naturally terrifying.

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A. E. Osworth
Oct 25, 2021
Columns | Scaring Children
Cover Photo: A book cover from the Goosebumps series: a tent in the terrifying woods at night; a creature with glowing eyes prowls about the tent's opening
Ingredients of a Goosebump

All the things I would have shielded my younger self from, they crop up in books, too. And they are not the monsters with the glowing eyes.

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A. E. Osworth
Sep 16, 2021
Columns | Scaring Children
Cover Photo: A detail from the movie poster for the film Beetlejuice, depicting the titular character with a bride and a decapitated groom
The Handbook for the Recently Deceased

In the film ‘Beetlejuice’, death is exaggeration. To die is to become a different size, to be viewed as grotesque by an outside observer.

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A. E. Osworth
Jul 20, 2021
Columns | Scaring Children
Cover Photo: close-up photograph of a pencil, a marker, and several multicolored Post-it notes on a desk, with a laptop in the background and a black notebook in the foreground
Revise Toward Praise, Not Away From Criticism

Revising toward praise gives a writer a direction to go, something to build to instead of something to run from.

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A. E. Osworth
Jun 14, 2021
Don’t Write Alone | Notes From Class
Cover Photo: A group of kids and teenagers staring entranced at a glowing orb
The Mothers and Their Daughters; The Leavers and the Stayers

I love to be a leaver. To be the one that steps out into the unknown, even as I am terrified.

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A. E. Osworth
May 05, 2021
Columns | Scaring Children
Cover Photo: An illustration from the Goosebumps book series featuring a sign that says "WELCOME TO HORRORLAND," held up by a horned monster
We Are All Still Children

A lot of my fears have been made real by the last year. And somehow, some way, I have returned to an insatiable appetite for things that scare me.

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A. E. Osworth
Feb 10, 2021
Columns | Scaring Children
Cover Photo: A photograph of the Peloton bike: a very fancy and expensive high-tech exercise bike
I Hate This Peloton That I Love, or I Love This Peloton That I Hate

Everything I do is done behind a desk. And now, now? Now I can even use this Peloton. I don’t even need to run in the rain.

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A. E. Osworth
Dec 08, 2020
Things | Borrowed
Cover Photo: A photograph of the author looking into the camera lens with a slight smirk
Taking Thirst Traps to Preserve Myself—and My Transition—in the Middle of the Pandemic

There is something attractive about being the subject and the artist all at once; of being entirely in control of how I am seen, who sees me.

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A. E. Osworth
Sep 28, 2020
Arts & Culture | Queer Life