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 6 past classes  »

Stories

Cover Photo: I Didn’t Want to Miss Baby Night by A. E. Osworth
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
Culture | Queer Life