The Horror Writers Association today removed Sèphera Girón as Trustee from its Board of Trustees. The action followed publication of Girón‘s comments about AI and its opponents in her “In the Trenches” column in the August 2026 installment of the HWA Member Newsletter. (Girón‘s comments are excerpted below.)

The HWA Board of Trustees published the following statement on Facebook.

Statement from the HWA Board of Trustees:

The Executive Leadership and Trustees on the Board of the Horror Writers Association has voted to remove Sèphera Girón from her position as Trustee effective immediately.

The Horror Writers Association is committed to the promotion of Horror and Dark Fantasy literature and the broadening of intellectual and cultural horizons by way of good works in these genres. In support of this mission, the Board established a robust artificial intelligence policy, following input from all levels of membership. This policy emphasizes the organization’s sincere commitment to not only uplifting creators but also protecting a culture of labor compensation in the arts, aligning with principles that safeguard our community.

To this end, the HWA Board firmly and resoundingly rejects the opinion piece of Trustee Sèphera Girón as included in the August 2026 installment of the HWA Member Newsletter in the “In the Trenches” column. This piece does not meet the standards of care and support to which we hold ourselves as elected members of this writer’s organization. We regret that it was published in our newsletter without proper vetting. The HWA will review all newsletter submission procedures, including those submitted by Trustees.

Further, we reject the assertions in the piece, particularly those calling authors with genuine and sincere concerns regarding the proliferation of genAI (more commonly referred to as simply AI) Luddites and/or gatekeepers. Additionally, in keeping with the organization’s ongoing commitment to the uplift and promotion of diverse voices in Horror literature, we firmly denounce the comparison of concerns over AI data center proliferation to the ongoing struggles over Indigenous water rights and ways. As the leadership of the Horror Writers Association, we sincerely apologize for the hurt that these words have caused.

We have heard your concerns and write today with a full understanding of the severity of the error made by way of this opinion piece’s publication. It is not in keeping with opinion of the HWA, the Board, and the general consensus of membership. In the future, we will do more to better to review and vet material included in the newsletter so that a repeat of this incident does not occur.

Given that the column in question fails to uphold the principles of the organization, does not reflect the consensus of leadership and membership alike on the subject, and demonstrates a failure to fulfill the responsibilities of a Trustee, the Board has voted to remove Giron from her position effective immediately.

We have always been an organization meant to protect writers and that is what we will continue to stand for.

— The Board of Trustees of the Horror Writers Association

While the newsletter is available only to members, Hailey Piper posted these screencaps from Girón’s article on Bluesky. [Correction: The HWA Member Newsletter August 2026 is accessible to the public.]

SÈPHERA GIRÓN

Here is a sampling of the response in social media.

RESPONSE

HAILEY PIPER

https://bsky.app/profile/haileypiperfights.bsky.social/post/3msciqp7z5k2g

DIANA WALLACH

“Thank you to the HWA for listening to its members and acting swiftly to remove this trustee from her position with the organization.”

GABINO IGLESIAS

MICHAEL PATRICK HICKS

“In Response to Sèphera Girón and the HWA’s Pro-Slop Stance”

…Sadly, it’s not much of a surprise to see Girón’s pro-AI missive in an HWA newsletter, even if they claim Girón views are not that of the organization or representative of the HWA as her role within the group as a trustee. In my estimation as a former HWA member, the Horror Writers Association has been willfully and woefully ill equipped to tackle issues surrounding artificial intelligence for some time now, and has appeared, more than once, to be both outright supportive of it and completely dismissive of its membership’s concerns over the use of AI in the creative arts. When news broke about the widescale book piracy perpetrated by Meta, Anthropic, and others, HWA authors demanded the organization take appropriate measures against these thefts and to establish appropriate anti-AI guidelines and policies. Their concerns, as I recall, were brushed aside with HWA leadership feigning a complete misunderstanding of the issues at hand and arguing that writers here in the 21st Century commonly use spellcheck in their word processing programs, which is AI, and that we were decades late in worrying about these issues. Too bad, so sad. Of course, this was then followed by a further and complete misreading of the room altogether, wherein they advertised an upcoming, and subsequently canceled, seminar they were holding in conjunction with some AI techbro or other. Naturally, I was more than happy to let my membership lapse immediately thereafter.

HWA’s apologia, obfuscations, and false equivalencies then are remarkably similar to Girón’s now. It reminds me a bit of the right-wing’s willful misunderstanding of the paradox of tolerance. Or, as author Chuck Wendig wrote in his blog post today, “We are the people that have had all our work stolen immorally and illegally. We’re the ones turned into Soylent Green, so it’s a little fucking rude to have an essay piped hot and fresh into our inboxes that dares to be mad at us for criticizing anyone who eats Soylent Green. We’re getting cannibalized, turned into sausages, and you’re mad that we’re mad about it.”…

CHUCK WENDIG

“Regarding The Pro-AI Tantrum In The HWA Newsletter”

… I don’t know that pumping gas and self check-outs are relevant technological innovations here, but okay. But talking about film vs TV, electric instruments, photography, and so forth, leads into an argument that pro-AI (“AI” — again, we’re talking LLMs and what Tobias Buckell calls LIMs, Large Image Models) really like to use a lot, which is, “You stupid Luddite, you’re just afraid of the new technology.” And then sometimes they say something about horse-and-buggy versus the car, or some other false equivalency.

(Also, please look up the actual story of the Luddites.)

The reason all of this is false equivalency is that prompting your way to art or to writing is not the same as having a new tool that allows you to make art or tell a story. AI, here, is not a tool —

It’s not allowing you to do the work. You’re allowing it to do the work. Which is to say, you’re the tool.

The AI makes decisions. (Not literally. AI isn’t smart. It knows nothing. But programmatically, it takes pathways based on the chaos of its code.) You don’t make the decisions. You may guide them. But you don’t make them….

… “Are you watching TV? Are you using Alexa? Do you have home security? What kind of car do you drive? Do you go to the doctor? Do you watch TV? Do you go to the movies? Do you have shopping apps on your phone?”

What?

What does this even mean?

Am I participating in society, you mean? I’m not new here. Yes, we’re all doing these things all the time. This is very shallow and quite silly. “DO YOU BREATHE AIR? DO YOU USE THE TOILET? ARE YOU CLAD IN FLESH AND ACKNOWLEDGE CORPOREAL REALITY? AH! THEN YOU EXIST IN THE SAME PLANE OF EXISTENCE AS AI! HYPOCRITE!”

Like, what are we even doing here….

MARK ALLEN

on Facebook

…I’ll admit I’m something of a Luddite, but I also realize, accept, and agree that AI is here to stay whether anyone likes it or not. I can see useful and beneficial functions and applications across multiple industries and fields of endeavor. Medicine, business, accounting, etc.

For reasons I see as artistic integrity, I do not utilize AI in my profession, but AI in and of itself is no different from a hammer, a screwdriver, or the internet. It’s a tool. Nothing more. How and where it is applied is where the rubber meets the road. In writing, editing, advertising and publishing, AI has already infused itself into our neck of the woods. You just can’t avoid it. Hell, MS Word spellcheck/grammarcheck has a certain amount of AI driving it now.

Where I draw the line, where I have a HUGE problem both personally and professionally, is the use of generative AI to produce novels, short stories, screenplays, etc. I ordinarily eschew making public statements regarding most issues of the day. I have opinions like anyone else, but I normally choose to keep my mouth shut in public. That’s just me.

But AI is a different animal altogether.

Let me be clear: When it comes to the writing profession, if someone uses generative AI to create blank diaries, writing journals, wall calendars, Day Planners, or something similar I think that’s probably all right.

HOWEVER… if someone uses generative AI to conceptualize, plot, and then generate for them something that they claim is a literary work, and then, without actually sweating out any of the WORK that goes into a novel or other work, they proclaim themselves a writer or an author — THEY ARE NEITHER.

They’re cheats. They’re hacks….

THE MIDNIGHT SOCIETY