10p060: Presenting the BRAVE NEW WEIRD Table of Contents
Hey Ho, Tenebrous Cult!
We’ve got a lot to cover—April is apparently the month when we bombard you with updates—so let’s get to it, shall we?
WEIRDER, WILDER, FURTHER INTO THE UNKNOWN
From well over one thousand entrants, to a shortlist of 60 well-deserved nominees, Alex and I have debated and chewed our fingernails down to nubs and bounced opinions off a select few trusted eyes and ears, and here we are:
BRAVE NEW WEIRD Volume Two Table of Contents
(not final order)
Amitha Jagannath Knight - My Mother, The Exoskeleton
Anemone Moss - Everything You Dump Here Ends Up in the Ocean
Chris Kuriata - Family Not Going To Heaven
Daniel DeRock - Guest Opinion: We must take action regarding the [REDACTED] High School janitor
David Simmons - Food is Poison
Eirik Gumeny - A Balanced Breakfast
Elena Sichrovsky - Embryo
Geneve Flynn - A Box of Hair and Nail
Hussani Abdulrahim - The Library Virus
Ivan Zoric - Our Roots Will Dry Out in the End
Judith Shadford - Endless Yearning
Karlo Yeager Rodríguez - Up In the Hills, She Dreams of Her Daughter Deep In the Ground
KS Walker - River Bargain Baby
LC von Hessen - Transmasc of the Red Death
M.M. Olivas - The Prince of Oakland
Michael Bettendorf - As the Music Plays Groovy
Nelly Geraldine García-Rosas - Lullaby for the Unseen
Patrick Malka - Show Me
Perfect Kiss Strickoll - punctum (o baked alaska for you i am a former american)
Premee Mohamed - Quietus
Rachael K. Jones - The Sound of Children Screaming
Simone le Roux - The Man Outside
Thomas Ha - In That Crumbling Home
In addition to the Table of Contents, we would also like to honor a few notable individuals for their contributions to the New Weird spectrum:
Bravest, Newest, Weirdest in Short Fiction:
BNW Anthology - Jolie Toomajan, ed. - Aseptic and Faintly Sadistic
BNW Special Issue - Suzan Palumbo, ed. - Strange Horizons Caribbean Special Issue
BNW Creative Format - Cormack Baldwin, ed. - Archive of the Odd
BNW Breakout Author - Simo Srinivas - “The Ballad of the Octopus” & many more
BNW Comic - Bri Crozier - Blackbird Hunting
BNW Magazine - Charles Tyra, publisher - Cosmic Horror Monthly
BNW Collection - Lindz McLeod - Turducken
BRAVE NEW WEIRD Volume Two is out June 26th.
We weren’t certain how people would take to the notion of BRAVE NEW WEIRD when we launched it last year. It was driven, primarily, by a sense of fun; if Alex and I couldn’t have fun drawing new eyes to some of the off-the-radar stories peppering the Weirdest corners of the independent publishing world, then why bother putting in the work? Honestly, it’s what drives everything Tenebrous does: we need to have fun doing it.
But it was also driven by a sense of listlessness at seeing the same group of names year in and year out cropping up on numerous “Best of” lists. One of Tenebrous’ primary goals is to jam the door open to new writers, always and forever.
And fun or not, Alex and I take this incredibly seriously. It is vital to the genre to constantly revitalize itself; to perpetually chase the future; to condemn stagnation.
A piss-take and a deadly serious manifesto; things can be more than one thing.
To celebrate the release of BRAVE NEW WEIRD Volume Two, we’re releasing a limited hardcover run of just 50 copies along with bookplates signed by both Alex and myself. And for you completists out there, we’re releasing an even more limited run of 30 hardcover copies of Volume One; also signed by both of us.
And where can you preorder these authoritative tomes of the very best that the New Weird scene as to offer?
Why, how about at…
The Brand New Tenebrous Webstore
We’ve got a flashy new shop in which to peddle our wares, and it’s now open for business!
And for the next 48 hours, everything is 10% off if you use code “10ebrous” at checkout.
FROM THE BELLY arrives MAY 30th
The hype for Emmett Nahil’s debut novel FROM THE BELLY is real, it is justified, and it is building feverishly. Polygon recently named it, “one of the must read books of spring.”
Obviously, we couldn’t agree more. Have you preordered a copy for yourself yet?
And I don’t think we’ve actually spoiled any of Megan Llewellyn’s phenomenal interior art for this sucker yet, have we? Allow me to rectify that now:
About FROM THE BELLY:
The whaling vessel Merciful has just made its strangest catch yet: a massive whale containing a still-living man secreted within its stomach lining. Sailor Isaiah Chase is tasked with keeping the enigmatic man alive.
As their relationship grows, a series of accidents, injuries and deaths quickly befall the ship and its crew. Isaiah is plagued by strangely prophetic dreams, even as the crew continues their endless quest for whale oil under the command of an increasingly unhinged captain.
As events spiral further out of control, the mysterious man confesses what Isaiah has begun to suspect: the crew of The Merciful has fallen into a cycle of punishment for their greed and destruction. Isaiah must confront the sea's vengeance made flesh, and choose between this new, strange love and the fate of the ship itself.
“Seeps into your skin, reaching as deep as the bone, [and] harbours a sense of dread that never dissipates.”
Clay McLeod Chapman, What Kind of Mother and Ghost Eaters
“Blends the vast, incomprehensible danger of the ocean with the queasy intimacy of body horror to create an atmosphere that feels both timeless and new. Wild, ominous, and darkly romantic."
Lindsay King-Miller, author of The Z Word
“A darkly sensuous dive…beautifully empathetic and character driven. I loved this book from start to finish.”
Laurel Hightower, author of Crossroads and Below
A SPECTRE IS HAUNTING GREENTREE is out August 15th
Carson Winter (Soft Targets, Posthaste Manor, stories in various) has been a busy contributor for Tenebrous the last couple years.
His latest book, The Psychographist, is out now from Apocalypse Party; but his next novel with us, A SPECTRE IS HAUNTING GREENTREE, arrives in just a few months!
We’ll be revealing Stefan Koidl’s incredible cover art and opening up preorders next week, on April 17th, but here’s a tease:
About A SPECTRE IS HAUNTING GREENTREE:
REAP WHAT YOU SOW
In the wake of a series of panic attacks, isolated and introverted Carina takes a friend up on an offer: go to Greentree, Oregon, escape her abusive ex, and start a new life.
But upon arrival, the town is stranger than Carina could have ever imagined.
For one, they still have a video store. For two, everyone is rich.
For three, what’s up with all these scarecrows?
As Greentree’s secrets begin to unravel, as the autumn sun bends below the corn, as scythes sharpen in the night—a violent revolution stirs.
Last Call for THE SKULL & LAUREL/Long Live THE SKULL & LAUREL
If you’re reading this newsletter on the day we sent it: there are less than 24 hours remaining in THE SKULL & LAUREL crowdfund campaign!
Year One of our venture into the Newest Weirdest corners of the short fiction world is FULLY FUNDED; but it’s not too late to help us build a forever home for these stories. Running a quarterly magazine is a new venture for us, and along with Editor Cameron Howard, we’re doing everything in our power to make sure THE SKULL & LAUREL flag flies high for a long time to come.
I feel like I’m just stepping on my own toes if we squeeze any more news into this sucker, so let’s stop there.
Let’s all cleanse our palates with some early-90s prog/death/jazz zaniness:
(Thirty years later, this song still makes me grin like a loon)
And we’ll see you back here next week.
Hail the Bravest, the Newest, the Weirdest.
Hail Indie Horror.
Hail the 10pCult.
Matt & Alex
Those covers and interior artwork look fabulous!
Omg there’s interior art in From The Belly??? I was already super excited for the book but this is phenomenal