Sapphic Inquiries – Getting Intimate With Sapphire Lazuli

Sapphire Lazuli (she/they), Author of Our Witchless Flesh (coming 2025 via Off Limits Press) and writer/director of Haunted Houses and Houses That Haunt and Those Were The Days, is an artist whose brush is dipped in weird horror and perverted desires. Their prose is often described as beautifully poetic and adjacent to the reader; Sapphire does not write stories that will hold your hand. Be it cosmic entities appearing as places, gross and erotic explorations of the boundaries of form, deep dives into the darkest ridges of the mind and desire, or even video essays divulging the many mechanisms that construct fear, her horror is bound to allure you.

Hi, Sapphire. I’m so pleased you could join us.

Your fiction flows through the mind like dark poetry. Some might call it “quiet” horror, but I think it speaks very loudly. How long have you been writing?

Oh I do love this description, and I’ll say that is certainly the intention of what I write.

I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember now. I started as a musician, which I think is still quite present in my lyrical prose style. It’s only recently that I switched focus into horror narrative and analytical writing, however; around two years ago I believe.

What inspires your writing?

I think I’m largely inspired by touch, with touch meaning for me the way that two bodies interact and influence each other. I find myself borderline obsessed with the relationship between The Built and the living, this idea of how Built Things are created by living things and thus necessitate each other’s existence. But alongside that, too, is the indifference to each other. Built Things will keep being built things even after living things perish and conversely, living things can continue to be living things even when they are forced to abandon their Built Things. Two bodies that require each other for their first breath and yet, afterwards they simply don’t seem to care.

The video essays on your YouTube channel are outstanding. I found myself learning about horror video games, and I’m not even a gamer! When you are passionate about something, you have the unique ability to project that passion onto your viewer. Do you think you’ll continue building your YouTube channel?

Oh, absolutely! The Sapphic Sapphire channel is one of my biggest passions and creative outlets. I’ve no intention of letting that die off. I will say that I’m certainly slowing my output of videos as my projects start to push more into film than strictly video essays. That, and my eyes move ever closer to feature films beyond the online platform, perhaps the one I’m currently writing is even hoping for something a bit more special… no spoilers though of course!!

You have a movie (for free!) on YouTube, and that’s pretty amazing! Can you tell us a little about it?

I’ve two actually!! My first, Haunted Houses and Houses That Haunt, is a video essay disguised as a film and a film disguised as a video essay. Two intersecting narratives, the first in which I analyse the various facets of Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves, and the other a “found footage” exploration of a house not too dissimilar to the one found in Danielewski’s book.

The second film, Those Were The Days, only pretends for about 30 seconds that it is an essay about Kyle Edward Ball’s Skinamarink before diving headfirst into a personal essay about my experience growing up transgender. This film shows the horror of dread, where we understand that pain is not just in endurance, but in continuing on after the event.

Why do you think you are drawn to the horror genre?

It’s the openness of it all. Horror allows us an extremely intimate and open eye through which we dissect our experiences. No other genre allows us that quite like horror, at least, I don’t think so. I am enamoured by the way I am able to confront both myself and my readers, and often in ways that are unique to us both despite using the same written words. And perhaps there’s something to be said for my analytical brain in that, too, where I am enamoured by horror fiction as it allows me to implore both my narrative and my essay creative styles.

What are your goals and hopes as an author?

I just want to create art that speaks to me. Which I suppose is what we all want as artists haha!

But more concretely, I want to move further into film. Haunted Houses and Houses That Haunt and Those Were The Days were some of the most fun I’ve had creating art in years. I see myself pushing more toward the medium of film in the coming years; alongside putting to paper the countless book ideas I have of course!

Any exciting news on the horizon for you?

Indeed there is! My debut novella, Our Witchless Flesh: a mechanical, witchy baptism of multi-flavoured liquids that begs to know whether your devotion is to a god, or an excuse, releases in 2025 via Off Limits Press. I’m ecstatic to have this book on its way and I truly cannot wait to start talking more about it in the coming year. I’ve already ideas for visual art to accompany it, but alas, I’ve already said too much!!

Elsewhere, I’m currently in the research plan for my next film which I won’t spoil just yet, but can say has involved studying Classical Greek, The Iliad, certain poets, and various influential painters thus far. I’ve also another written project I’m not to speak of just yet, but know it’s there and ready to pounce!

Thank you, again, for doing this interview. Where can we find you online?

I’m Sapphic Sapphire everywhere – Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, except for Instagram where I’m Sapphicsights

Official website: Sapphirelazuli.com