Family and home can be difficult concepts to fully define, especially if you happen to live in an ever-shifting magical market full of goblins, fairies and the occasional human visitor.

In “Goblin Market” by Pacific Northwest author A.J. Hackwith, Toast, a goblin changeling girl, guides tourists through the market. Until one eventful day, the strange place she has a complex affinity with starts to fall apart.

Hackwith spoke with OPB’s “Morning Edition” host Jess Hazel to share more about the book.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Jess Hazel: A huge amount of the plot revolves around the concept of Toast finding her family. Plus, this book features quite a few queer characters, including Toast herself. Why did you choose to explore that theme of found family through a queer lens?

A.J. Hackwith: Found family is not a new trope, but I always always wanted to see more options and more versions of myself in books as a kid. Growing up as a queer kid in the middle of a small town in Nebraska there were not a lot of options for that. What better place to show a queer found family than in a world full of monsters and fey and goblins?

Hazel: Another strong theme explores the idea of belonging, sometimes through overcoming self-doubt. The market itself seems like a physical manifestation of that throughout the story. Can you tell me more about how you developed the relationship between Toast and the goblin market?

Hackwith: What I wanted to explore with Toast is the idea of sometimes the found family was there all along, you just needed a way to understand it and approach it. So the market seems very commerce- and capital-driven at first. There’s all these tricks and trades and things to be wary of. But Toast comes to appreciate that, in their own way, the goblins were trying to support and love her the whole time.

Hazel: The fantasy genre in general has grown so much in the past few years. Now there are more and more subgenres popping up. “Goblin Market” falls under the cozy fantasy subgenre. What do you think is driving the rise in cozy fantasy?

Hackwith: I think cozy fantasy is not just ‘the stakes are lower, so it’s not as intense.’ It’s also a very character-driven form of fantasy, where the risk, the conflict and the threat is at an emotional level within a core group of people. It’s been interesting in the last year or two that we’ve been expanding the idea of what is cozy fantasy. It’s like what cozy video games went through in recent years. Cozy video games are not just the same farm you’re building over and over in different games.

I call my fantasy a ‘cozy goblin fantasy’ because there is that cozy element, but it’s got that bit of grit and grime and weirdness. [It] has its dark places and its sharp edges. But it’s familiar enough that it allows you to be more focused on the emotions than the saving-the-world threat.

Hazel: Definitely. The author is almost in on a promise with the reader that things will work out in the end. Things might get a little bit tough. But you know that these characters that you become attached to will find a way to make it work by the time you’re done reading the book.

Hackwith: I’ve always been a writer that loves to have a hope ending. Not necessarily like happily ever after, everything is exactly as they wanted it at the beginning of the book — but an ending where things may be different, but things will be good. That’s just my naturally optimistic personality. I like writing and putting my characters through the wringer, but I want them to come to a place of growth.

Hazel: You said it was goblin cozy. Goblin mode used to be kind of niche, but then it got named the Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year in 2022. I had some issue with that because I think they got the definition wrong. They defined it as kind of being slovenly, but in my mind, goblins are very industrious. So, how would you define goblin mode?

Hackwith: I like to use the word feral. Not necessarily just purely animalistic, but I think that the essence of goblin mode is that you are ungovernable. You’re going to do things that you want, whether it’s logical or whether it’s aesthetic or whether it’s anything else. I think goblins are great because they are, in my mind, a culture that embraces being yourself, even if that’s a little weirdo.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/10/30/pacific-northwest-author-creates-cozy-feral-fantasy-with-new-book-goblin-market/