The Wayward Curator

Explore history’s mysteries. Travel the globe. Dissect design. Expand your lifestyle. Hear a story.

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Recent Curations

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The Archive
What to Watch with Your Dad during the Holidays

The Beautiful Strange

Miniature room scene with pink wallpaper, yellow armchair with white floral pattern, vintage wooden desk with papers and items, small white crocheted rug, wooden bookshelf with books and small bottles, window with red lace curtain, and a partially open vintage suitcase on the floor.

Weird Travel & Places

A woman standing outdoors on a grassy field, looking up at three large standing stones against a clear blue sky, with distant hills in the background.

Hidden Histories
& Forgotten Women

Ancient Egyptian sandstone statues of seated pharaohs in front of a carved temple wall with hieroglyphics.

Film & Literature

Interior of a historic library with tall windows, ornate gold-colored architectural details, and dark wood furniture, including a bookshelf with journals and framed pictures on the wall.

Horror Studies

A religious altar with a stone sculpture of a woman holding up the structure, supporting an ornate marble and gold decorated space with a glowing skeleton of San Pedro.

Featured

The Archive
This Is What Happened at a Typical Scottish Witch Trial

New Book!

Uncover the life and legacy of policy queen, Madame Stephanie St. Clair, the Harlem legend whose tenacity and grit reshaped the legality of business as we know it.

Buy The Book
Book cover titled 'Madame Queen' featuring a black and white photo of Stephanie St. Clair wearing a hat and holding a drink, with gold decorative border.

Meet the Wayward Curator

Mary Kay McBrayer is the author of Madame Queen: The Life and Crimes of Harlem’s Underground Racketeer, Stephanie St. Clair and America’s First Female Serial Killer: Jane Toppan and the Making of a Monster. She has written short works about history, true crime, and horror at Oxford American, Narratively, Mental Floss, and FANGORIA, among other publications. She hosts and co-writes the podcast about women in true crime who are not just victims, The Greatest True Crime Stories Ever Told.

Close-up of Mary Kay with curly black hair, red lipstick, smiling, wearing a heart-shaped necklace and a blue top, against a pink background.
Meet the Author