Nick Medina is a member of the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana, and he drew on his heritage and stories passed down by his paternal grandmother, along with research into the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) epidemic, as inspiration for his novels including Sisters of the Lost Nation, which earned a Junior Library Guild Standard Selection Award, and Indian Burial Ground. He has degrees in organizational and multicultural communication, and has worked as a college instructor. He also enjoys playing guitar, listening to classic rock, and exploring haunted cemeteries and all sorts of spooky stuff.
Medina’s new release, The Whistler, takes readers back to the reservation for a thrilling blend of Native folklore, mythology, and horror. Much like the paranormal investigators the author writes about, Medina has gone in search of Resurrection Mary, the “Italian Bride,” and the “Devil Baby,” and other spirits of Chicago’s ghost lore.
Medina sat down with Cemetery Dance to discuss his new release, The Whistler, Native lore, and his favorite reads of the year.
(Interview conducted by Haley Newlin)
CEMETERY DANCE: What first led you to horror as a way of telling Indigenous stories?
NICK MEDINA: I’ve always been drawn to horror, and just about every story I’ve ever written has had elements of horror in it. Scary things stand out to me. They get my attention, and get my imagination going. When I read about the alarming epidemic of Native and Indigenous women and girls going missing, my natural response was to write about the issue from a horror perspective. Since much of Native and Indigenous folklore, which I tend to include in my work, revolves around frightening characters and events, it felt natural to pair the real-life issues faced by many Native and Indigenous peoples with horror fiction.
A standout element of The Whistler is the use of local and Native lore. How did you create the story “The Boy With Two Faces,” which is interwoven between chapters about Henry and the Cadow house, in your new release?
The primary function of “The Boy With Two Faces” is to reinforce themes in the book, which deal with deception and the consequences of living an inauthentic life. The tale is inspired by Native lore about two-faced creatures, some of which kill simply for the sake of killing. I tried to give those characters more purpose in The Whistler.
Readers are so thrilled to revisit characters from your previous releases. What was it like evolving these characters into who they become in The Whistler?
Getting to revisit characters has been a lot of fun. For some, it’s nice to see that they’re doing all right. Others aren’t so lucky. I was especially glad that I was able to bring closure to a couple characters from my previous two books who’d been left hanging. I thought they deserved some peace, and I was relieved to give it to them.
What inspired you to channel social media-fed gratification in The Whistler? How did this help you tell Henry’s story?
Henry is a young man who craves attention and who will take it however he can get it. With the rise of influencers and the wannabes they’ve inspired, it seems like everyone’s chasing followers, shares, and likes. I figured Henry would be no different, and since it’s so easy to misrepresent oneself online, it gave me the opportunity to make Henry face the consequences of deceiving others in his attempts to be seen.
You share real-life mysteries and injustices in The Whistler and have made readers aware of social issues they’d never thought of before. What does it mean to you to use horror for social awareness? Do you think this will help audiences recognize the depth of this genre?
Horror tends to stop people in their tracks. It makes them uncomfortable. And it lingers. That’s precisely why it works so well with social issues, which are usually pretty horrific on their own. By pairing them with horror, it makes them stand out and harder to ignore. Done well, I think it can also create a sense of urgency. Plenty of brilliant novels have already proven how effective horror is at spreading societal fears and concerns, and I hope my work has the same impact.
What do you hope readers take away from reading The Whistler?
I hope The Whistler works on two levels. I want readers to enjoy it — to be thrilled and scared and to feel like they’ve just escaped danger themselves. And, especially if they haven’t had experiences with people whose abilities are vastly different from their own, I’d love readers to come away with a better understanding of what it’s like for those who have to negotiate a world that rarely thinks about them first.
Who are some fellow authors you hope readers discover alongside your work?
There are a number of Indigenous writers who are must-reads for me, like Erika T. Wurth, Vanessa Lillie, Stephen Graham Jones, and Tommy Orange. I was lucky enough to read The Bone Picker (a collection of short stories) by Devon A. Mihesuah in advance, which I really loved, and I’m looking forward to Carson Faust’s debut, If The Dead Belong Here, which will be out in October.
What 2025 horror titles have you enjoyed most this year?
I really love When the Wolf Comes Home by Nat Cassidy, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix, and Cold Eternity by S.A. Barnes. It’s been a great, diverse year for horror.
You can catch Nick Medina at Read If You Dare: A Night Full of Horror brought to you by Berkley and Exile In Bookville in Chicago, Illinois on Wednesday October 15th. Fama will be accompanied by fellow horror authors Rachel Harssion, author of Such Sharp Teeth and Play Nice, Christina Henry, author of The House That Horror Built, and Daphne Fama, author of House of Monstrous Women.
The event begins at 7 p.m. CST and you can register here. Visit Nick’s website for more events.
You can find Nick Medina on Instagram and TikTok at @nickmedinawrites.
