Literary Horror discussion

Hi. I'm wondering where people go online to find new, dark, weird indie writing.

Whether it's a short story zine, a blog, a review site, or anything else.

Places that would be publishing/talking about/reviewing favourably people such as Franz Kafka, William Burroughs, and Chuck Palahniuk, if they were indie writers today.

http://weirdfictionreview.com

Hi. I thought I ought to update this post with a list of recommendations I've got so far.


https://bizarrocentral.com/

As its name implies, Bizarro Central focuses on the Bizarro genre. What that is, though, is fairly fluid, so there's all types of weird darkness and dark weirdness going on here.


http://weirdfictionreview.com/

Fiction, non-fiction, interviews and reviews of all things weird fiction, from established authors, cult authors, and underground/unknown authors alike.


https://conquerorweird.wordpress.com/

Slightly bleaker and leaning towards more misanthropic or nihilistic tastes than some of the other blogs. Features reviews, excerpts, and guest posts.


http://www.fluland.com/archive/

Fluland is an active archive of weird, sometimes dark literature (short stories and poetry). It has a great punk ethos and a simple yet strange aesthetic indicative of its cause.


http://ttapress.com/blackstatic/

A long running monthly magazine, focusing primarily on horror but without too stringent a definition. Includes short stories, poems and illustrations, as well as reviews of both literature and film.


http://strangehorizons.com/

A weekly magazine focusing on speculative fiction, but with a fairly loose definition of what that means, including horror, slipstream and 'fantastika'. Includes fiction, poetry, reviews, non-fiction, and art. Plus a weekly podcast.


http://www.nightmare-magazine.com/

Monthly horror and dark fantasy magazine, including fiction, poetry, non-fiction, reviews, Q&A's, etc. Also features author spotlights, artist showcases, and a podcast on the website.

https://deadmanstome.net/

Themed monthly collections of unapologetically dark fiction.


http://www.unnervingmagazine.com/

Reviews and interviews focusing on challenging, provocative dark fiction.


I'll try to update this list as I find more sites and zines, and as more are recommended. Please feel free to recommend any more in the comments or in a message or something.

[Also, please note that I have no affiliation with the sites listed above]

http://www.ligotti.net/index.php
Excellent resource, and I've discovered a number of lesser known new writers as well as obscure older authors thanks to their discussions. Sadly, new registrations are closed for the time being, due to issues with certain banned members constantly making new accounts and ruining the fun for everyone else.

http://www.theplutonian.com/ Author interviews, film reviews, essays, etc.

Hi Joseph,

Have you also heard of Feral House:
http://feralhouse.com/

They have a wonderful selection ranging from the occult to history.

Thank you for putting together a list.

Joseph wrote: "Hi. I thought I ought to update this post with a list of recommendations I've got so far.


https://bizarrocentral.com/

As its name implies, Bizarro Central focuses on the Bizarro genre. What tha..."

I originated this list of New Weird works: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/8...

I started it with the 74 VanderMeer recommendations listed here:
https://mentatjack.com/2009/05/31/rea.... The list has proven really popular and new contributions from the many people who have joined it since I created it have almost doubled the number of books featured.

Hi Dan,

Thank you for starting this list. Is 'Acceptance' affiliated with VanderMeer's other novels? Are they in the same universe? Is the list also open to non-fiction?

Is there a non-fiction work that can be considered New Weird? I realize New Weird is all about defying genre boundaries, but I've never considered whether non-fiction could be one of those defiances.

I'm unfamiliar with VanderMeer's Acceptance or his Southern Reach trilogy as a whole. However, since the work is dated 2014, that would be five years after VanderMeer made the list I used as the reference source. To get on the GoodReads list then, a contributor to the list (who can be anyone, including you) would have to consider the work New Weird and add it themself. I think since Acceptance has both a haunted lighthouse and an alien, it combines horror and science fiction in a way the movie Alien (which is not New Weird, just science fiction horror) does not, and that Acceptance could be considered New Weird.

I myself don't add (or subtract) books to the list without having a source, unless I personally know from having read it whether it belongs (or not).

Wow Joseph. Those are some excellent links you posted in message 3. I found the Geoff Ryman articles on the African scene in Strange Horizons to be of especial interest. The African Speculative Fiction Society link (http://www.africansfs.com/) is one I'll use often.

My real life book club just read Vandermeer's Annihilation and we all liked it a lot. Acceptance is the third book in that trilogy.

I suppose that I envisioned New Weird processed non-fiction as something that is an unusual cross-pollination of topics or that tips its toes in the swampy muck of 'odd'. How would you describe New Weird non-fiction? Perhaps that would help me see if my idea of certain non-fiction titles in question might sync up.

My first message on the New Weird list provides the definition of New Weird (as best I can determine it). I would ask myself if the non-fiction work in question meets the definition criteria. If you think it does, please feel free to add it. If people want to challenge your addition, they can conduct a poll, like I did with Life of Pi, and if people vote it out, it will be removed.

Can we please move any further discussion of the New Weird list over to the list itself in order not to hijack (further) Joseph's topic?

The 2017 Shirley Jackson nominees have been announced:

https://www.shirleyjacksonawards.org/...

Of the novels, I've only read The Night Ocean. I'd have enjoyed it more if it were half as long (yes, I'm cut-throat). I can't say the other nominated novels sound very appealing to me, though I'll probably check out the LaValle novel.

Of the novellas, I loved Fever Dream, didn't care for Mapping the Interior (despite liking a lot of Jones' older work).

I loved Carmen Maria Machado's collection; great to see her two nominations. Much more mixed about Bulkin and Grudova's collections.

And I have to say Looming Low Volume I looks tempting, despite my usual negative reaction to horror anthologies. (Slogging through Best Horror of the Year Vol 9 as I type.)

Bill wrote: "The 2017 Shirley Jackson nominees have been announced:

https://www.shirleyjacksonawards.org/...

Of the novels, I've only read The Night Ocean...I can't say the other nominated novels sound very appealing to me, though I'll probably check out the LaValle novel."

I read The Changeling and found it uneven, with sections that were deeply dull. I think you'd find it too long and too artless (some of the language read like YA to me and I felt the whole thing was poorly structured). I plan to read The Hole because I'm really interested in contemporary Korean literature in and I'm a sucker for psychological suspense in general. The Bone Mother wasn't on my radar prior to this nomination but it does sound interesting and I may pick it up.

I really liked 'Fever Dream' and have considerable admiration for 'Mapping the Interior', although I felt it was flawed. I started The Asylum of Dr. Caligari a couple of months ago but got distracted and set it aside. I should start over as I often like Morrow's fiction. I have The Murders of Molly Southbourne on my Kindle and do plan to read it. I should bump it up the queue along with Morrow, I guess.

As you know, I also loved the Machado collection and am thrilled to see it get such wide recognition. I liked Grudova's book more than you did; haven't read the others in the single author collection category.

As for the anthologies, I have The Djinn Falls in Love & Other Stories and the new 'Shadows and Tall Trees' laying around here somewhere. I might check out 'Looming Low' as well.

Randolph wrote: "... I’m wary of awards and somehow have become adverse to anything contemporary in the horror genre."
It's only a matter of time before one runs out of Robert Aickman, y'know.

Of course I'm "wary of awards" too. If a Shirley Jackson nominee for novel or single-author collection sounds interesting, I'll try to read it. And I will be the first to tell you that I think a number of the past nominees suck. But I can say "I read it and I think it sucks".

Besides, I'm just about out of Robert Aickman. And Brian Evenson can only write so fast.

How are talented younger writers, even the ones who've been nominated for an award or two, going to develop an audience if we don't give them a chance and support them?

Bill, Looming Low Volume I is just $4.99 in the Kindle edition right now. I picked it up since the list of contributors is quite impressive. Would you (and anyone else here, of course) be interested in making this a buddy read?

Marie-Therese wrote: "Would you (and anyone else here, of course) be interested in making this a buddy read?"

Of course!

Randolph wrote: "I’ll give it a whirl too."

Fantastic! I will post a page for the book's buddy read so we can all congregate there as we work through the volume.

Well I spent some time with The Dark Dark, also a 2017 Shirley Jackson nominee. Gave up on it after 100 pages or so.

Next up is Things to Do When You're Goth in the Country: and Other Stories; then I'd have sampled all the 2017 nominees for single-author collection. Couldn't they have nominated Things We Lost in the Fire or Nona's Room instead?

One site I know is this one:

https://burningbulbpublishing.com/

This is a small publishing press that specializes in horror and bizarro fiction. Its also the key publisher for Night of the Living Dead author, John Russo. They have some good titles!

Not sure if this is old news, but I came across Gehenna Books and have been very impressed so far.

Their 'Hinnom' Magazine has interviews as well as short fiction and they release their back issues for free which is really nice.

I usually try the places where I myself submit such writing here on Goodreads, Wattpad(sometimes), Channillo, iAuthor and Bookbub even has some indies although you really have to look.

I have found a lot of indie stuff on Nightworms as well as Ladies of the Fright podcast.

I've written some weird and dark indie books. :$

Lots of new, dark magazines out there at the moment including the Dread Machine, Dark Fire Fiction, Dream of Shadows and Penumbric (to name just a few I happen to know about).

J.S. wrote: "Lots of new, dark magazines out there at the moment including the Dread Machine, Dark Fire Fiction, Dream of Shadows and Penumbric (to name just a few I happen to know about)."

Oh, interesting! I haven't heard of any of these so thank you for posting, J.S.!

Joseph wrote: "Hi. I'm wondering where people go online to find new, dark, weird indie writing.

Whether it's a short story zine, a blog, a review site, or anything else.

Places that would be publishing/talking ..."

You can find a lot of indy stuff on Facebook horror web pages, that where I and a lot of others show off out works, there are also YouTube horror reviewers, they find a lot of indy books which they talk about.

Amazon now. I used to use iAuthor but they shut down last year

Try this. Looks like a relatively new site, but they offer different benefits to horror writers.

https://www.toodat.com/read?ctg=hrr

If you are looking for something new with a little edge, check out Son Of Vlad, just released on KU and amazon. Link is in my bio.

C.L. wrote: "If you are looking for something new with a little edge, check out Son Of Vlad, just released on KU and amazon. Link is in my bio."

Authors, please stick to the Author Promotion area for information about personal work.