After leaving Vienna, and long before you come to Budapest,
@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/
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Profane Illuminations: An Initiation
Zachary Gillan Everyone knows that the short story is the ideal form for weird fiction. But why? What is it about the form and the genre that makes them so symbiotic? What might we learn by explori…
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
I've been threatening for a while to start a column on collections of weird fiction, and so: Profane Illuminations, a quarterly series where I'll look at a few in tandem and see what threads I can draw out about their stories and the genre at large. Quick intro here, first full entry next week.
Reposted by After leaving Vienna, and long before you come to Budapest,
Never-Ebbing Story: @casella.bsky.social reviews Eva Meijer's SEA NOW, translated by Anne Thompson Melo (@catransitnerd.bsky.social)
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/11/26/n...
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/11/26/n...
Never-Ebbing Story: Review of Eva Meijer’s Sea Now
Jake Casella Brookins Under Review:Sea Now. Eva Meijer, translated by Anne Thompson Melo. Two Lines Press, October 2025. Ironically, it’s the very dry humor of Eva Meijer’s Sea Now—a story entirely…
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
November 26, 2025 at 2:14 PM
Never-Ebbing Story: @casella.bsky.social reviews Eva Meijer's SEA NOW, translated by Anne Thompson Melo (@catransitnerd.bsky.social)
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/11/26/n...
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/11/26/n...
Reposted by After leaving Vienna, and long before you come to Budapest,
A voice says, “Cry out.” And I said, “What shall I cry?”
More blanks, more voids, more left unsaid, more productive ambiguity
November 25, 2025 at 5:14 PM
A voice says, “Cry out.” And I said, “What shall I cry?”
Reposted by After leaving Vienna, and long before you come to Budapest,
Extremely excited that my essay "Gothic Phenomena and Weird Noumena: On Writing Dark Numinous Fiction" appears in American Gothic Studies, 1.2!!
I propose a genre metaphysics through the act of writing (vis Blanchot, Poe, Lovecraft, King, & others).
tinyurl.com/3jbkmck6
@ssag.bsky.social
I propose a genre metaphysics through the act of writing (vis Blanchot, Poe, Lovecraft, King, & others).
tinyurl.com/3jbkmck6
@ssag.bsky.social
November 25, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Extremely excited that my essay "Gothic Phenomena and Weird Noumena: On Writing Dark Numinous Fiction" appears in American Gothic Studies, 1.2!!
I propose a genre metaphysics through the act of writing (vis Blanchot, Poe, Lovecraft, King, & others).
tinyurl.com/3jbkmck6
@ssag.bsky.social
I propose a genre metaphysics through the act of writing (vis Blanchot, Poe, Lovecraft, King, & others).
tinyurl.com/3jbkmck6
@ssag.bsky.social
Reposted by After leaving Vienna, and long before you come to Budapest,
Neither horror nor romance but a secret third thing (weird)
November 25, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Neither horror nor romance but a secret third thing (weird)
November 25, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Neither horror nor romance but a secret third thing (weird)
November 25, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Neither horror nor romance but a secret third thing (weird)
Reposted by After leaving Vienna, and long before you come to Budapest,
AI will never have its pedal short out in the middle of the song and have to improvise what to do to get to the end. AI will never have to kick someone out of the band.
@timkabara.bsky.social on Suno, Alzabo, and Missing the Entire Point of Being Alive in this week’s ANYTHING FOR A WEIRD LIFE ↓
@timkabara.bsky.social on Suno, Alzabo, and Missing the Entire Point of Being Alive in this week’s ANYTHING FOR A WEIRD LIFE ↓
November 25, 2025 at 3:03 PM
AI will never have its pedal short out in the middle of the song and have to improvise what to do to get to the end. AI will never have to kick someone out of the band.
@timkabara.bsky.social on Suno, Alzabo, and Missing the Entire Point of Being Alive in this week’s ANYTHING FOR A WEIRD LIFE ↓
@timkabara.bsky.social on Suno, Alzabo, and Missing the Entire Point of Being Alive in this week’s ANYTHING FOR A WEIRD LIFE ↓
Reposted by After leaving Vienna, and long before you come to Budapest,
Reposted by After leaving Vienna, and long before you come to Budapest,
When someone says genre is nothing but a marketing tool and/or shelving system for bookstores
February 7, 2025 at 2:59 PM
When someone says genre is nothing but a marketing tool and/or shelving system for bookstores
Reposted by After leaving Vienna, and long before you come to Budapest,
November 24, 2025 at 9:03 PM
November 24, 2025 at 9:03 PM
Reposted by After leaving Vienna, and long before you come to Budapest,
I'm in the final stages of getting the 2026 new horror list ready to launch, so a reminder: please let me know about your books if you haven't already! RTs very appreciated
do you have a horror/horror-ish book coming out in 2026? tell me about it here, please! I'm working on the 2026 horror list and while I'm very good at sniffing out new books, I still miss things - help me help you!
forms.gle/KxLNwVDVbbRS...
forms.gle/KxLNwVDVbbRS...
2025-2026 Horror Master List Book Submissions
Because I'm out of my mind, I maintain a running list of the year's new horror releases. If you're an author/editor/marketer/publicist/agent who'd like one of your books included, please fill out the ...
forms.gle
November 24, 2025 at 4:27 PM
I'm in the final stages of getting the 2026 new horror list ready to launch, so a reminder: please let me know about your books if you haven't already! RTs very appreciated
November 24, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Reposted by After leaving Vienna, and long before you come to Budapest,
In a time… it’s time to
November 23, 2025 at 10:55 PM
In a time… it’s time to
Reposted by After leaving Vienna, and long before you come to Budapest,
In a time of slop, AI or not, it’s time to lean into niche communities and odd work by passionate weirdos with well-honed clarity of intention and craft
This is so relevant to my day-to-day thinking at @hubcitypress.bsky.social. instead of being demoralized and saying, let AI do all the publishing work and pump out more slop to boost sales, our new focus is carefully curated + clearly human created. Hence the focus on short stories, novellas, etc.
November 23, 2025 at 8:07 PM
In a time of slop, AI or not, it’s time to lean into niche communities and odd work by passionate weirdos with well-honed clarity of intention and craft
Reposted by After leaving Vienna, and long before you come to Budapest,
That short stories exist in the cracks and interstices of the capitalist system is how you know they’re the superior form
Yeah, unfortunately. Outside the world of magazines, anthologies, and small presses sustained by obsessive volunteer labour, the capital-I industry rather does seem to find short stories an unwanted form electricliterature.com/i-love-short...
I Love Short Stories. Do I Have to Write a Novel? - Electric Literature
The publishing world’s insistence on the novel as default fails to imagine what a book can do
electricliterature.com
October 3, 2024 at 3:11 PM
That short stories exist in the cracks and interstices of the capitalist system is how you know they’re the superior form
In a time of slop, AI or not, it’s time to lean into niche communities and odd work by passionate weirdos with well-honed clarity of intention and craft
This is so relevant to my day-to-day thinking at @hubcitypress.bsky.social. instead of being demoralized and saying, let AI do all the publishing work and pump out more slop to boost sales, our new focus is carefully curated + clearly human created. Hence the focus on short stories, novellas, etc.
November 23, 2025 at 8:07 PM
In a time of slop, AI or not, it’s time to lean into niche communities and odd work by passionate weirdos with well-honed clarity of intention and craft
Reposted by After leaving Vienna, and long before you come to Budapest,
Thrilled about this collection that reads as if Denis Johnson wrote Over the Garden Wall--coming out in 2027!
November 18, 2025 at 9:51 PM
Thrilled about this collection that reads as if Denis Johnson wrote Over the Garden Wall--coming out in 2027!
[Todd Gitlin voice]
I’ve invented a hot tub from which you can point the finger of blame. I call it the j’accuzzi
November 23, 2025 at 4:47 PM
[Todd Gitlin voice]
Reposted by After leaving Vienna, and long before you come to Budapest,
Zachary Gillan's foreword highlights the "occulting," or obscuring Ha uses on the terrors of the wider world, creating an effect of more localized menace for his characters, who are always the focus. I love lore, but I also love the power of the reader's imagination to furnish empty spaces.
November 22, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Zachary Gillan's foreword highlights the "occulting," or obscuring Ha uses on the terrors of the wider world, creating an effect of more localized menace for his characters, who are always the focus. I love lore, but I also love the power of the reader's imagination to furnish empty spaces.
Reposted by After leaving Vienna, and long before you come to Budapest,
Is there a critical essay/overview on Stephen Graham Jones’s short fiction anywhere out there?
November 21, 2025 at 11:51 AM
Is there a critical essay/overview on Stephen Graham Jones’s short fiction anywhere out there?
Is there a critical essay/overview on Stephen Graham Jones’s short fiction anywhere out there?
November 21, 2025 at 11:51 AM
Is there a critical essay/overview on Stephen Graham Jones’s short fiction anywhere out there?
Reposted by After leaving Vienna, and long before you come to Budapest,
Before you have kids, you intellectually understand they need to eat dinner every day. But you do not understand what this means. You can't. They need to eat dinner EVERY day
November 20, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Before you have kids, you intellectually understand they need to eat dinner every day. But you do not understand what this means. You can't. They need to eat dinner EVERY day
Reposted by After leaving Vienna, and long before you come to Budapest,
receive an email. send an email. receive an email. send an email. one must imagine sisyphus happy
November 20, 2025 at 4:44 AM
receive an email. send an email. receive an email. send an email. one must imagine sisyphus happy
Reposted by After leaving Vienna, and long before you come to Budapest,
we should feed everybody actually
all the time
there is no reason for anyone to be hungry and/or homeless
all the time
there is no reason for anyone to be hungry and/or homeless
November 19, 2025 at 12:16 AM
we should feed everybody actually
all the time
there is no reason for anyone to be hungry and/or homeless
all the time
there is no reason for anyone to be hungry and/or homeless