Zachary Gillan
@megapolisomancy.bsky.social
Nonfiction about weird fiction at Seize the Press, Strange Horizons, Interzone, Los Angeles Review of Books, Nightmare, and Ancillary Review of Books, where I am also an editor. Also jazz, metal, leftism. he/him
https://doomsdayer.wordpress.com/writings/
https://doomsdayer.wordpress.com/writings/
Pinned
Forever in search of a vibe too unsettling for the sf crowd, not transgressive enough for the horror scene, and too avant-garde for either
The Ancillary Review of Books anti-billionaire promise:
February 4, 2026 at 3:45 PM
The Ancillary Review of Books anti-billionaire promise:
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
"The Cruelty is the Point" - for the latest Small Press Dispatch, @chloroformtea.bsky.social looks at tyranny, rebellion, and language in Ben Peek's RED LABYRINTH (@snugglybooks.bsky.social):
Small Press Dispatch: The Cruelty is the Point
Roseanna Pendlebury The Red Labyrinth is where people are sent when they break the Red King’s laws. Zoja Rose’s crime was learning to read, compounded by her use of this knowledge to learn more abo…
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
February 4, 2026 at 1:43 PM
"The Cruelty is the Point" - for the latest Small Press Dispatch, @chloroformtea.bsky.social looks at tyranny, rebellion, and language in Ben Peek's RED LABYRINTH (@snugglybooks.bsky.social):
Long Song Titles Aren’t Cool Anymore Because the Rest of You Fuckers Are No Good At It (Crime in Stereo)
Deleted a post about “what’s your least favorite song” because the vibes are bad enough already.
Instead: what’s your favorite song that has a long title, say at least 6 words long?
Mine: “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town” (Pearl Jam)
Instead: what’s your favorite song that has a long title, say at least 6 words long?
Mine: “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town” (Pearl Jam)
February 4, 2026 at 3:34 AM
Long Song Titles Aren’t Cool Anymore Because the Rest of You Fuckers Are No Good At It (Crime in Stereo)
My god, are books allowed to be this long?!?
February 4, 2026 at 2:00 AM
My god, are books allowed to be this long?!?
Read the essay that made someone on the internet say “My goodness is that long and wordy”
For the @strangehorizons.bsky.social 2026 Criticism Special, I wrote about weird fiction being constituted by weird reading, vis a vis Sederholm and Woofter’s The Weird and @undertow.bsky.social’s The Best Weird Fiction of the Year, Vol. 1., in tribute to Maureen Kincaid Speller. It’s a long one.
The Brackish Pool: Towards a Critical Practice of Reading Weird Fiction
The ideal reader of the weird has to embrace a kind of wilful suspension of foreknowledge or generic expectation.
strangehorizons.com
February 4, 2026 at 1:17 AM
Read the essay that made someone on the internet say “My goodness is that long and wordy”
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
Every day Mamdani comes out and is like "hey guys, I turned off the orphan-crushing machine. Literally just had to flip a switch. Took less than 5 minutes."
After decades of dem leadership pissing and moaning and fundraising about how complex an issue it is and how difficult the process is etc
After decades of dem leadership pissing and moaning and fundraising about how complex an issue it is and how difficult the process is etc
February 3, 2026 at 3:58 AM
Every day Mamdani comes out and is like "hey guys, I turned off the orphan-crushing machine. Literally just had to flip a switch. Took less than 5 minutes."
After decades of dem leadership pissing and moaning and fundraising about how complex an issue it is and how difficult the process is etc
After decades of dem leadership pissing and moaning and fundraising about how complex an issue it is and how difficult the process is etc
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
Fusion foods are good and we should say they’re good
February 3, 2026 at 3:43 AM
Fusion foods are good and we should say they’re good
Fusion foods are good and we should say they’re good
February 3, 2026 at 3:43 AM
Fusion foods are good and we should say they’re good
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
"Reject productivity!" I said to myself and the Internet, while worrying incessantly about the fact that I've accomplished so little in life.
February 2, 2026 at 11:20 PM
"Reject productivity!" I said to myself and the Internet, while worrying incessantly about the fact that I've accomplished so little in life.
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
your first draft isn't perfect? what? that's weird. i've never heard of that happening before. maybe you should give up
February 2, 2026 at 9:44 PM
your first draft isn't perfect? what? that's weird. i've never heard of that happening before. maybe you should give up
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
This intersects some not only w/ Delany's "reading conventions"/"reading protocols" but also Stanley Fish's "How to Recognize a Poem When You See One". Genre as interpretive community. The limit is only the meaning for the reading community & the productivity of the interpretation.
February 2, 2026 at 4:17 PM
This intersects some not only w/ Delany's "reading conventions"/"reading protocols" but also Stanley Fish's "How to Recognize a Poem When You See One". Genre as interpretive community. The limit is only the meaning for the reading community & the productivity of the interpretation.
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
There is a baby in here thinking "Of course McCoy Tyner was left-handed. Makes absolute sense, does that!"
February 2, 2026 at 4:42 PM
There is a baby in here thinking "Of course McCoy Tyner was left-handed. Makes absolute sense, does that!"
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
I'm particularly interested in the suggestion here of genre as something that can be read into a work—like, a set of reading protocols you might apply to the work whether or not that was the original idea; contemporary genre influencing how we read work from before it was codified.
And then the first of our essays: the inestimable @megapolisomancy.bsky.social on (what else?) the weird.
What is really striking about this piece is the way in which it advocates for critical reading as productive practice, for "weird reading as a way of thinking critically about the world."
What is really striking about this piece is the way in which it advocates for critical reading as productive practice, for "weird reading as a way of thinking critically about the world."
The Brackish Pool: Towards a Critical Practice of Reading Weird Fiction
The ideal reader of the weird has to embrace a kind of wilful suspension of foreknowledge or generic expectation.
strangehorizons.com
January 31, 2026 at 12:36 AM
I'm particularly interested in the suggestion here of genre as something that can be read into a work—like, a set of reading protocols you might apply to the work whether or not that was the original idea; contemporary genre influencing how we read work from before it was codified.
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
"Weirding, in this sense, is an active unsettling, expressed both in the reading and the affective poetics that trouble, unsettle, and actively weird its material."
Welcome to the 2026 Criticism Special Issue!
The Brackish Pool: Towards a Critical Practice of Reading Weird Fiction
by Zachary Gillan @megapolisomancy.bsky.social
Link ⬇️
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...
The Brackish Pool: Towards a Critical Practice of Reading Weird Fiction
by Zachary Gillan @megapolisomancy.bsky.social
Link ⬇️
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...
![NON-FICTION
Quote
the ideal reader of the weird has to embrace a kind of wilful suspension of foreknowledge or generic expectation. This affected tabula rasa perspective requires, in turn, a critical approach, a practice of weird reading [1] hyper-attuned to the weird poetics of a piece as it signals its own weirding and becomes weird fiction.
end Quote
The Brackish Pool: Towards a Critical Practice of Reading Weird Fiction
by Zachary Gillan
26 January 2026
Strange Horizons](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:sxw2th36klmpelvkrux2pa3y/bafkreiddzptg5esulvbs7mnjcyp4mdxt7m6jffkjqncqob4xcrp4sqcqx4@jpeg)
January 27, 2026 at 11:05 PM
"Weirding, in this sense, is an active unsettling, expressed both in the reading and the affective poetics that trouble, unsettle, and actively weird its material."
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
Friends! Our 2026 titles are up for pre-order. And our 2025 print titles are on sale. Pre-orders help us immensely. Take a look at our site for all the details. I hope you'll consider grabbing something, if you're able. Thank you all so much.
undertowpublications.com/shop
undertowpublications.com/shop
February 2, 2026 at 2:56 PM
Friends! Our 2026 titles are up for pre-order. And our 2025 print titles are on sale. Pre-orders help us immensely. Take a look at our site for all the details. I hope you'll consider grabbing something, if you're able. Thank you all so much.
undertowpublications.com/shop
undertowpublications.com/shop
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
Feeling very grumpy about the void here so l've channeled that into a list of weird or weird-ish or weird-adjacent or theoretically-weird collections by Black authors (some of which I’ve read and too many of which I have not)
February 11, 2025 at 12:31 AM
Feeling very grumpy about the void here so l've channeled that into a list of weird or weird-ish or weird-adjacent or theoretically-weird collections by Black authors (some of which I’ve read and too many of which I have not)
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. I’m adding Liliana Colanzi’s WE GLOW IN THE DARK and ‘Pemi Aguda’s GHOSTROOTS as my unsuggested picks
February 1, 2026 at 8:58 PM
Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. I’m adding Liliana Colanzi’s WE GLOW IN THE DARK and ‘Pemi Aguda’s GHOSTROOTS as my unsuggested picks
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
CHOTINER: *undergoes a wild transformation, an opening of borders, a renegotiation of ontologies*
ME:
ME:
February 2, 2026 at 4:32 AM
CHOTINER: *undergoes a wild transformation, an opening of borders, a renegotiation of ontologies*
ME:
ME:
CHOTINER: And you actually think it’s important for writers to provide space for productive ambiguity?
ME:
CHOTINER:
ME:
CHOTINER:
ME:
ME:
CHOTINER:
ME:
CHOTINER:
ME:
February 2, 2026 at 3:42 AM
CHOTINER: And you actually think it’s important for writers to provide space for productive ambiguity?
ME:
CHOTINER:
ME:
CHOTINER:
ME:
ME:
CHOTINER:
ME:
CHOTINER:
ME:
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
Read THE BEST WEIRD FICTION OF THE YEAR, VOL. 1, people (I also think you should read UNCERTAIN SONS, but, well, you know, I’m biased there)
February 1, 2026 at 6:03 PM
Read THE BEST WEIRD FICTION OF THE YEAR, VOL. 1, people (I also think you should read UNCERTAIN SONS, but, well, you know, I’m biased there)
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
On January 24th, my parents home burned down. They and my disabled brother escaped with only minor burns but they lost everything they've ever had.
I'm running a GoFundMe to help them recover and rebuild. I would be deeply grateful for any donations but also for any shares!
I'm running a GoFundMe to help them recover and rebuild. I would be deeply grateful for any donations but also for any shares!
Donate to We Lost Everything to a Fire. Help My Family Rebuild., organized by Chloe Clark
On January 24th, our childhood home burned down. Our parents lost 50… Chloe Clark needs your support for We Lost Everything to a Fire. Help My Family Rebuild.
gofund.me
February 1, 2026 at 11:17 PM
On January 24th, my parents home burned down. They and my disabled brother escaped with only minor burns but they lost everything they've ever had.
I'm running a GoFundMe to help them recover and rebuild. I would be deeply grateful for any donations but also for any shares!
I'm running a GoFundMe to help them recover and rebuild. I would be deeply grateful for any donations but also for any shares!
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
Renee Gladman is famous to me, but I also feel like a lot more people should still be reading for her! You could try Theory for Moving Houses: www.wavepoetry.com/products/the...
Theory for Moving Houses by Renee Gladman
You are asking me where I live and it’s making me think all these things about space, where I start and end in space and where space starts and ends in me and when, in space, I am a body and when I’m ...
www.wavepoetry.com
February 1, 2026 at 11:51 PM
Renee Gladman is famous to me, but I also feel like a lot more people should still be reading for her! You could try Theory for Moving Houses: www.wavepoetry.com/products/the...
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
Read The Works of Vermin, people
February 1, 2026 at 6:00 PM
Read The Works of Vermin, people