Taylor Ikehara was a listener before he was a reader and fondly remembers falling asleep to his dad reading the Magic Tree House series. He uncovered an early interest in horror with his first pick from the school library, The House on Hackman’s Hill. In high school, his favorite English class books were The Catcher in the Rye and The House on Mango Street; their influence pushed him to pursue literary studies. His undergraduate thesis centered around gender, class, and violence in the horror-thriller In the Miso Soup. He currently works at his local library and an independent bookstore.