The BRAVE NEW WEIRD Vol. 2 Shortlist is here!

Plague and madness cannot kill us, they can merely slow us down. We’d intended to have this announcement ready closer to the new year, but what even is time anyway in a world as unhinged as this?

Cover art by Matt Blairstone

Good news is, the extra time has let us give due consideration to the over one thousand submissions sent in for the BRAVE NEW WEIRD anthology; and if you were in any way concerned about the State of the Weird in 2023, rest assured its quality (and quantity) is as sterling as ever. The New Weird is horrifically healthy.

***Just to clarify: this is not the Table of Contents. We will cull the final ToC from this list of sixty, sculpting something that speaks to a wide range of voices, subject matter and tone, and hits that sweet spot of +/- 70,000 words, and showcases independent publishers and writers from across the Speculative fields.

This year, we're going to be giving out awards to releases, as well. Several full anthologies and magazine issues will be receiving a BNW Award, and several publishers will be honorably mentioned in our pages. Those aren't represented on this shortlist, so you'll need to stay tuned for the winners!

Even though most of these stories will not be in the final BRAVE NEW WEIRD Volume Two, each of these creators deserves a huge slap on the back for their contributions to another excellent year in Weird Fiction:

The Shortlist

1. Akis Linardos - Daughter, Mother, Charcoal

2. Alexander James - The Tumour Room

3. Amitha Jagannath Knight - My Mother, The Exoskeleton

4. Andrew Kozma - Mr. Balloon

5. Anemone Moss - Everything You Dump Here Ends Up in the Ocean

6. C.H. Pearce - Jimmy Flip Brings His Little One To Work, And It Comes My Turn To Hold It

7. Chelsea Pumpkins - If Anyone Could Catch the Moon

8. Chris Kuriata - Family Not Going To Heaven

9. Colin Hinckley - A Fire, A Wave

10. D. Matthew Urban - The World of Iniquity Among Our Members Is the Tongue

11. Daniel DeRock - Guest Opinion: We must take action regarding the [REDACTED] High School janitor

12. David Simmons - Food is Poison

13. Eirik Gumeny - A Balanced Breakfast

14. Elena Sichrovsky - Embryo

15. Ephiny Gale - Nowhere, Australia

16. Geneve Flynn - A Box of Hair and Nail

17. Gordon B. White - Godhead

18. Gwendolyn Kiste - Melting Point

19. Hailey Piper - The Girls with Claws that Catch

20. Hussani Abdulrahim - The Library Virus

21. Ivan Zoric - Our Roots Will Dry Out in the End

22. Ivy Grimes - The Swallowed

23. J.A.W. McCarthy - Seldom Place

24. Jacob Steven Mohr - Truth Serum

25. Jennifer Marie Brissett - The Healer

26. Jordan Kurella - The Wreck of the Medusa

27. Judith Shadford - Endless Yearning

28. Karlo Yeager Rodríguez - Up In the Hills, She Dreams of Her Daughter Deep In the Ground

29. Kelsea Yu - China Doll

30. Kev Harrison - Crawlspace

31. Kim Harbridge - Summer Soup to Cure Magical Thinking

32. KS Walker - River Bargain Baby

33. Kurt Newton - Lawn For Sale

34. LC von Hessen - Transmasc of the Red Death

35. Lex Chamberlin - Cherry's Strawberry Revenge

36. Lindz McLeod - Turducken

37. M Olivas - The Prince of Oakland

38. M. Regan - Abbadon, 1861

39. Mark Galarrita - Kuya

40. Matthew Mitchell - Release the Horse

41. Michael Bettendorf - As the Music Plays Groovy

42. Nelly Geraldine García-Rosas - Lullaby for the Unseen

43. Osahon Ize-Iyamu - Chop Chop Chop

44. Patrick Barb - The Scare Groom

45. Patrick Malka - Show Me

46. Perfect Kiss Strickoll - punctum (o baked alaska for you i am a former american)

47. Premee Mohamed - Quietus

48. Rachael K. Jones - The Sound of Children Screaming

49. Rajiv Moté - The Troubling History of Boddington’s Inlet

50. Ryan Marie Ketterer - East Marion

51. Samantha H. Chung - Baby

52. Samir Sirk Morató - PENNSYLVANIA FURNACE (Refrain)

53. Simone le Roux - The Man Outside

54. Steve Neal - Ipomoea Sanguineus

55. Susan L. Lin - House of Reverie

56. Thomas Ha - In That Crumbling Home

57. Tim Major - Far From the Tree

58. Will McMahon - Notes on the Burning Place

59. Z.K. Abraham - The Typewriter

60. Zohair - Quietus

Congratulations to everyone on this list, and a heartfelt, exhausted thank you to everyone who submitted, on their own behalf, or on behalf of their peers.

We’ll announce the final Table of Contents…well, sooner than later. Remember, time→what is→even→anyway. You won’t have to wait too long.

**UPDATE: Submissions now Closed** SPLIT SCREAM is open for NOVELETTE submissions

SPLIT SCREAM NOVELETTE SERIES SUBMISSIONS: OPEN January 17 - January 31

SPLIT SCREAM has a new home at Tenebrous Press!

Editor Alex Ebenstein is seeking novelette length weird horror stories for SPLIT SCREAM: A Novelette Double Feature. Each book in the series will contain two stories from different authors. The goal is to provide an outlet for that “hard-to-sell” length of story, as well as give more individual exposure to authors in a multi-author setting. Remember Split Albums/EPs that the music industry used to do? Kind of like that.

Submit your novelette! Here are the deets:

Word Count: 10.000 to 20.000

Payment: Modest advance + Industry standard royalties

Reprints: No

Simultaneous Submissions: Yes

Genre: New Weird Horror. Wanna know what that means, and what floats our boat? Read this.

Target Age Group: Mature Audiences

Rights: World English first rights in print, electronic, and ebook, and a three-year exclusivity period. All copyright belongs to the author.

Submissions portal here.

SPLIT SCREAM Volume Four is out now!

SPLIT SCREAM has a new home at Tenebrous Press! Editor Alex Ebenstein brings his acclaimed split-novelette series back for a fourth round featuring:

Nonsense Words by D. Matthew Urban

An aging professor of ancient history strikes up a friendship with her new colleague, Dr. Paul Duncan, a scholar of undecipherable inscriptions. As she finds herself drawn into Dr. Duncan's life—his brilliant wife and mystical daughters, frightened students and uncanny associates—darker forces behind his research emerge, plunging her into a nightmare of mythical absurdity and ritualistic death. Dark academia meets cosmic horror in Nonsense Words, where the incomprehensible is granted a conjured form—but too much imagination can be a dangerous thing. If the cosmos is nonsense, merely a divine or demonic joke, will she live to have the last laugh, or will she die a punchline?

Bone Light by Holly Lyn Walrath

An icy surf batters Bone Light as its beacon calls to weary souls at sea. This edifice built of bone and wretchedness sits atop a cursed rock, surrounded by death, watched over by the ghosts of light-keepers past. Their records tell of the inhospitable environment, but it is Mary Long’s writings that show the heart. Misfortune necessitates the arrival of her dear Ida, laying bear to the obstacles that shaped their history—a husband and taboo among them. These log entries illuminate Mary’s world—the banality, the heartbreak, the magic. In Bone Light, a beacon of death might finally be the thing to give life to a long-denied romance.

Cover art by Evangeline Gallagher.

Interior illustrations by Echo Echo.

Purchase SPLIT SCREAM print edition.

Purchase SPLIT SCREAM eBooks.

THE BLACK LORD by Colin Hinckley is out now!

THE BLACK LORD

by

Colin Hinckley

OUT NOW

“Combine Shirley Jackson’s haunted claustrophobia, Stephen King’s nail-biting plots, and the cosmic otherworld-horror of Stranger Things, and you get one wholly original Colin Hinckley. Spend a few hours in [his] mind, and I guarantee you’ll be drawing the curtains tight for weeks.” - GennaRose Nethercott, author of Thistlefoot

Eddie’s parents may be arguing about the disappearance of his infant brother Danny, but Eddie’s facing a terror all of his own. There’s a strange figure outside that claims it has Danny safe and sound—all Eddie needs to do to get his brother back is open that window. 

Eddie’s father is filled with guilt over his relationship with his own lost brother. His mother has been abandoned to navigate her grief and terror alone. And his grandmother carries a disturbing, all-too-relevant truth about their shared family history. 

As minutes tick by and hope for Danny grows ever smaller, the very fabric of their world disintegrates, welcoming eldritch terrors of unspeakable provenance to their doorstep. The family is losing a decades-long struggle against an entity that is not of this world, and its hunger threatens to swallow them whole.

“A deeply moving, horrifying fairy tale, woven from grief, sorrow, and monsters. Full of characters you will relate to—even when you wish you didn't—The Black Lord will leave you broken.” - Jessica Leonard, author of Conjuring the Witch 

“The Black Lord brings to mind a low-lit tavern; you there with your drink, overhearing the hushed talk from a nearby table. Start this book at dusk, within view of a tree line. Feel something stare back. This is my first Hinckley, but it won’t be my last.” - Scott J. Moses, author of Our Own Unique Affliction

Cover art by Matt Blairstone.

Interior illustrations by Echo Echo.

BUY THE BLACK LORD HERE.