The following essay is a reflection on the nature of weird fiction by author and editor Helen Marshall, which serves as the introduction to Year’s Best Weird Fiction, Vol. 4. We also have an interview up today with Marshall about editing the fourth volume in the series. — The Editors *** I come to this Introduction […]
It’s no secret that we’re big fans of Undertow Publication’s Year’s Best Weird Fiction series. Each year we’ve interviewed the guest editor — our first interview was with both Laird Barron and Michael Kelly, then we interviewed Kathe Koja, and last year we spoke with Simon Strantzas. This year is no exception. Today we have an interview […]
Matthew M. Bartlett is the author of The Stay-Awake Men & Other Unstable Entities, Gateways to Abomination, and other books of supernatural horror. His short stories have appeared in a variety of anthologies, including Lost Signals, A Breath from the Sky, Year’s Best Weird Fiction Vol. 3, and the forthcoming Darker Companions, a tribute to Ramsey Campbell. He lives in a small brick house on a quiet, leafy […]
The last ten stories in The Complete Works of Leonora Carrington were written from 1950 and through the 80s, according to The Dorothy Project version. To know where exactly the three previously unpublished tales fit in, you have to consult the Silver Press edition, which organized its Table of Contents chronologically.[1] Perhaps because Carrington had […]
Nadia Bulkin is a Shirley Jackson Award-nominated author of short fiction. Her stories have appeared in outlets such as Year’s Best Weird Fiction, Vol. 3, Aickman’s Heirs, Walk on the Weird Side, the World Fantasy Award-winning She Walks in Shadows, and many more. Her debut collection, She Said Destroy, was released by Word Horde in August, […]
While Tanith Lee (1947−2015) is mostly known as a fantasy writer, much of her short fiction existed in that interstitial region between genres. Not quite horror, or fantasy, her work in this mode would most comfortably fit in the weird tale category. Lee’s ‘weird’ fiction had a distinct gothic tone, and was often underscored by her eccentric […]
This summer, I met David Leo Rice on the edge of the Gowanus Canal for tacos. Within five minutes of conversation, he was already explaining the ideologies of a Massachusetts evangelical preacher. Rice has an energy to his walk and talk the way young geniuses have. He is living in Brooklyn in his 30s, writing weird fiction […]
Weird fiction is increasingly international even as it returns to traditional themes and concerns. It was not so long ago that Finnish fiction from authors such as Leena Krohn, Johanna Sinisalo, and Jyrki Vainonen became prominent in English-language discussions of the weird. WorldCon 75 is being held this August in Helsinki. There exists a palpable sense […]
We are back and shaking things up a little in this read-along. As I began reading further and further into the collection, I found I wasn’t reacting to the individual story, so much, as reacting to patterns and themes that were building upon each tale. So, since we are two thirds through, I thought I’d start grouping stories, and in […]
Spells from Wakefield Press collects thirteen tales by Michel de Ghelderode, best known as a prolific dramatist, and includes work that has been anthologized alongside other such luminaries of the Weird as Jean Ray and Jean Muno. Each tale contains some unique take on the idea of “spells,” often with a focus on the realistic interpretations of […]