TOD 094 Weirder Side of the Fantastic Panel at World Fantasy Con 2020

March 4, 2021
15 mins to read

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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Show Notes

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