The Outer Dark presents The Weirder Side of the Fantastic panel at Virtual World Fantasy Convention 2020, featuring Brian Evenson, Craig Laurance Gidney, teri.zin, Michael Kelly, and Lesley Wheeler, and moderated by Anya Martin. PLUS Justin Steele returns with a News from The Weird round-up of 2021 publishing announcements. This episode’s content was recorded on Fri. Oct. 30, 2020 and Sun. Feb. 21, 2021.
Show Notes
The Outer Dark presents The Weirder Side of the Fantastic panel at Virtual World Fantasy Convention 2020, featuring Brian Evenson, Craig Laurance Gidney, teri.zin, Michael Kelly, and Lesley Wheeler, and moderated by Anya Martin. In the 21st century, Weird fiction has emerged as a powerful, dynamic, and expansive literary mode. The distinguishing factor of this “Weird Renaissance” is the proliferation and innovation of Weird fiction, increasingly penned by authors whom HP Lovecraft deemed “The Outsider” (women, BIPOC, LBGTQ+). Panelists explored their own definitions of Weird fiction and how those may have evolved over the past 5-10 years, the radical re-emergence of The Weird, how The Weird narrative is subverted when Outsider becomes author, the cross-genre elasticity of The Weird, current and future directions of The Weird in a Weird world, the often tense space where literary meets genre, examples of works in which the Weird acts as a positive force, current markets for Weird fiction, their recommended authors/books, and more. The panel took place via Zoom on Friday October 30, 2020, and we extend our thanks to Virtual WFC2020 Chair Ginny Smith for providing the recording, and to her, Vice-Chair Pamela Oberg, and all their Salt Lake City team for their hard work to make the world’s first Virtual WFC2020 happen.
(0:54:19) Justin Steele returns with a round-up of 2021 publishing announcements in a special edition of News from The Weird. Featured presses include Argawarga Press/Neuroqueer Books, Broken Eye Books, Centipede Press, Dim Shores, Grimscribe Press, Innsmouth Free Press, Meerkat Press, Nightfire (Tor), Nightscript, Nightscape Press, Saga Press (Simon & Schuster), Subterranean Press, Undertow Publications, Valancourt, Word Horde. Be sure to scroll down to Additional Links to find order/preorder info for these, as well as more info on the works recommended by the panelists. This segment was recorded on Sunday February 21, 2021.
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Additional Links
‘Angela Carter’s Feminist Mythology’ (New Yorker, 2017)
Ice by Anna Kavan (50th anniversary ed., Penguin)
The Doll’s Alphabet by Camilla Grudova
Year’s Best Weird Fiction series (Vol I-V, Undertow Publications)
TOD 079 Lesley Wheeler: All the Smart Women Are Practicing Magic
TOD 074 Craig Laurance Gidney: Dreaming a Weird That Shimmers
READ: ‘The Cares of a Family Man’ by Franz Kafka (tr. Willa and Edwin Muir)
James Baldwin on the first black president (Youtube)
Fever Dream by Samantha Schweblin (Penguin, 2014)
Nox Pareidolia, edited by Robert S. Wilson (Nightscape Press, 2020)
After the Flood: Monsters, Announcing Zin E. Rocklyn’s Flowers for the Sea (Tor.com)
Quichotte by Salmon Rushdie (Penguin, 2020)
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones (Simon & Schuster, 2020)
Weird Horror submissions guidelines
FIYAH: Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction
An Unkindness of Ghosts by River Solomon (Akashic Books, 2017)
Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet
Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline (Penguin, 2019)
The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma (Algonquin, 2015)
The Little Animals by Sarah Tolmie (Aqueduct Press, 2019)
Vastarien: A Literary Magazine
TOD 066 Helen Marshall: Migrating Towards a Weird Future
News from The Weird:
Spoon Knife 5: Liminal (NeuroQueer)
In That Endlessness, Our End by Gemma Files (Grimscribe)
Antisocieties by Michael Cisco (Grimscibe)
Secret Gateways by Matthew M. Bartlett and Jon Padgett (Nightscape)
TOD 078 Quarantine Readings: Inna Effress, Matthew M. Bartlett, Jon Padgett
The WXXT Subscription Chapbook Series by Matthew M. Bartlett
Weird Horror (Magazine subscription, Undertow)
Undertow Publications (Online Shop)
The Dead Hours of Night by Lisa Tuttle (Valancourt)
The Route of Ice and Salt by José Luis Zárate (Innsmouth Free Press)
My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones (Saga Press)
The Return of the Sorceress by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Subterranean)
Whether Change: The Revolution will be Weird, edited by Scott Gable (Broken Eye)
Eyedolon subscription (via Patreon)
Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw (Nightfire/TOR)
Sign up for (Tor) Nightfire newsletter
Punktown Trilogy by Jeffrey Thomas (Centipede Press)
Show Credits
Hosts/Producers: Scott Nicolay and Anya Martin
Co-Host, News from The Weird: Justin Steele
Co-Host, Reviews from The Weird: Gordon B. White
Symposium Assistant Director: Melanie Crew
Symposium Programming Coordinator: Jess Lewis
Symposium Logistics: Melissa Eisner
Logo Design: Nick “The Hat” Gucker
Music: Michael Griffin
