TOD 044 Michael Wehunt: Things Devolve from There

March 7, 2019
7 mins to read

In this podcast Scott Nicolay interviews Michael Wehunt, author of Shirley Jackson Award-nominated Greener Pastures (Apex, 2016) and The Outer Dark Symposium 2019 guest. The podcast was recorded on Tuesday March 5, 2019.

The Outer Dark Symposium on the Greater Weird is a unique immersive one-day event featuring more than 40 program participants and approximately 16 hours of panels, readings, signings and social activities centered around contemporary Weird and speculative fiction. The third annual event will be held March 22-23, 2019 at Silver Scream FX Lab and Hotel Indigo-College Park in Atlanta, GA. Limited to 75 attendees. Buy your memberships here or support the Indiegogo campaign here.

Show Notes

In this podcast Scott Nicolay interviews Michael Wehunt, author of Shirley Jackson Award-nominated Greener Pastures (Apex, 2016) and The Tired Sounds Awake (Dim Shores), and a guest at The Outer Dark Symposium 2019, where he will be kicking off the Weird festivities as part of Friday Night Readings Presented by Pseudopod, with Kristi DeMeester and Damien Angelica Walters, 8 p.m, March 22, at Hotel Indigo-College Park. Scott and Michael start by reminiscing about World Horror Con 2015, which had a key role in the genesis of The Outer Dark, then discuss Michael’s stumbling from horror into Weird fiction, his poetry obsession and the recently deceased Mary Oliver, his story “Root-Light” (Shadows and Tall Trees, Vol. 7), James Dickey, Pablo Neruda, his favorite Aickman story, bringing Southern gothic into the bedroom, his first love Flannery O’Connor, a legacy of memes, the success of Greener Pastures, a cicada-like career trajectory, looking forward to his next collection which won’t include his Looming Low (Dim Shores) story ‘In Canada’, Justin Steele’s favorite story ‘October Film Haunt: Under the House‘, and working on his first novel. (0:42:30) In an extra special treat, Michael reads an excerpt from the previously unpublished ‘Vampire Fiction’, which will be included in his second collection. (0:48:47) The conversation concludes with ‘The Pine Arch Collection’, a growing interest in meta-horror, things under the house, his obsession with making tired tropes new again, Laird Barron, writing found footage, his love for epistolary, and his reading recommendations including next week’s The Outer Dark guest Kristi DeMeester, Nadia Bulkin, Sarah Moss (Ghost Wall), Toni Morrison (Beloved), and finally Michael’s new novella ‘Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Bad Can Ever Happen Here’ coming out later this year from Nightscape Press, with about a third of the proceeds supporting Southern Poverty Law Center.