Welcome to issue #155 of Nightmare Magazine! It’s an issue I’m calling “Don’t Lose Your Head,” because we’ve got a bunch of terrific horror work focused around, well, parts of the head. Kristina Ten is serving up “Bunny Ears,” a novelette about the terrors of summer camp. In “Eight Ball,” a new flash piece from Martin Cahill, a woman discovers her husband has a very strange nocturnal condition. Angela Liu returns to our pages with “Swallow Text,” an unsettling story of family trauma and the haunting nature of memory. We also have a wrenching new poem called “Turnip Heads” from Pedro Iniguez.
For nonfiction, we’ve got spotlight interviews with Kristina Ten and Martin Cahill, who both have new books coming out this fall. Our H Word column features an essay from David Agranoff about Philip K. Dick’s use of horror elements in his SFnal work. We also have a brand-new installment of our Plumbing the Depths column—this month’s deep dive is into the realm of archaeological fiction, written by scholar Rebecca Gordon Stone. It’s riveting stuff, so don’t miss it.
If this month’s editorial seems a little on the short side, it’s because I’ve been so busy, I feel like I might be losing my head. I’ve been enjoying a ton of travel, including attending the epic American Library Association Conference in Philadelphia, and I’ve been meeting a ton of wonderful horror readers. The world is tough place right now, with conflicts and struggles playing out all across the globe, and many of us are feeling anxious about what’s going to happen to each other and our beautiful planet. I sometimes lose heart, myself! But if there’s one thing I’ve learned from working with so many amazing horror writers over the years, it’s that when things get dark, humans have the capacity to come together and shine.
So if you are feeling down, spend some time away from the news by enjoying a great horror read. And after that, maybe get yourself to your local library, where you can find everything you need to connect to other people working for a better world.
Enjoyed this article? Consider supporting us via one of the following methods:
Wendy N. Wagner
Wendy N. Wagner is the author of the horror novels Girl in the Creek and The Deer Kings, as well as the gothic novella The Secret Skin. Previous work includes the SF thriller An Oath of Dogs and two novels for the Pathfinder Tales series. Her short fiction has been nominated for the Theodore Sturgeon and Shirley Jackson awards, and her short stories, poetry, and essays have appeared in more than seventy venues. A two-time Locus award finalist for her editorial work here, she also serves as the senior editor of Lightspeed Magazine, and previously served as the guest editor of our Queers Destroy Horror! special issue. She lives in Oregon with her very understanding family, a large cat, and a Muppet disguised as a dog.
