Last year, just in time for the spooky season, visual artist Sally Jane Brown and I produced an art and poetry book about West Virginia cryptids, What We Do In The Hollows. Because we’d been longtime collaborators in our day jobs, working together on Hollows was a natural extension of our professional lives and friendship. We launched the book during West Virginia, Morgantown’s annual Zombie Walk, where we both live. It was the perfect way to celebrate our truest and most important work: art and writing.

With Halloween coming up again, I’ve had time to reflect on why What We Do In The Hollows was so special. Not long after we emerged from Covid isolation, Sally and I began meeting once a month after work to check in about our shared projects and catch up on each other’s creative work. Sally has an impressive portfolio of feminist art, and I enjoyed hearing about her virtual residencies—soon to become residencies in exciting places like New Mexico and Argentina.

One Monday evening, I told Sally with a shy yet sly smile that I’d been working on a small collection of poems “just for my sanity.” And I had been—I’d imagined a world where cryptids like the Mothman and Flatwoods Monster encountered very human issues and problems. Mothman needed to update his LinkedIn profile, and Beauty School wasn’t going so well for the Flatwoods Monster. But they also heard the ambulances in the hills trying to help overdose victims and tried to make sense of abandoned mines and a fraught political landscape.

They also had some fun—like a night at the Ona Speedway.

Sally asked to read these poems, and I was touched. But I was floored when she asked if she might illustrate them. Because Sally had a track record of collaborating with other poets, I was simply delighted by the request. I had no idea, however, how much these illustrations would make my poems come alive—just a little like Dr. Frankenstein in Mary Shelley’s novel.

As I’ve been decorating my little home in Morgantown, Sally came by with exciting news: her artwork from Hollows will be displayed in downtown Morgantown during the month of October. Our monster month anniversary! If you’re heading to Monkey Wrench Books—which has been such a lovely addition to town—the display is right next door where Arrow Gift Shoppe used to be. The art will be exhibited in the front window, so all throughout the Halloween season, folks can stroll by and see Sally’s depictions of the classic West Virginia monsters that inspired my poems. It’s a great tribute to this haunting time and truly a joy for celebrating a year of the book.

But don’t think we’re stopping with our fun cryptid work! Sally is doing original artwork for my new full-length collection of poems, FEVERDREAM, which will be out from Redhawk Publishing in 2026.

We hope you get to stroll by and enjoy the display. If you want a copy of What We Do In The Hollows, you can get one on Amazon.

 Renée K. Nicholson, MFA is a writer and scholar based in Morgantown, West Virginia. Her creative and academic work have appeared widely, in such venues as The Gettysburg Review, The Millions, Electric Literature, Poets & Writers, Bellevue Literary Review, and elsewhere. A past Emerging Writer-in-Residence at Penn State-Altoona College, Renée recently directed the Humanities Center at West Virginia University (now emerita), where she regularly collaborated with health professionals and patients to tell authentic stories from healthcare. In October 2024, she became Series Editor for Connective Tissue at WVU Press. Renée holds a Certificate of Professional Achievement in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University where she is active in alumnx and affinity groups.

Sally Brown (formerly Deskins) is an artist, curator and writer currently based in Morgantown, West Virginia. Her artwork—including drawing, painting, and performance—explores womanhood, motherhood, and the body.

Sally has exhibited her work in spaces nationally and in the United Kingdom. She has won two awards for illustration for Intimates and Fools and Leaves of Absence, both with poetry by Laura Madeline Wiseman. Her writing has been published in Hyperallergic, Women’s Art Journal, and Artslant, among others. She has curated group shows in Omaha, Nashville, Pittsburgh, and Morgantown.

Sally holds a Bachelor of Arts-Studio Art, a Master of Public Administration, and Master of Arts-Art History and Feminist Theory. She is a member of the College Art Association National Committee on Women in the Arts, edited the online journal Les Femmes Folles, and currently serves as Curator for West Virginia University Libraries, art editor for Thimble Literary Magazine, and contributing writer to Borshch of Art Discover Database. Born in Oregon, she spent most of her upbringing in Omaha, Nebraska, and currently lives in Morgantown with her two children and her cat, Chalupa.

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