Zachary Gillan
@megapolisomancy.bsky.social
Nonfiction about weird fiction at Seize the Press, Strange Horizons, Interzone, Los Angeles Review of Books, Nightmare, and Ancillary Review of Books, where I am also an editor. Also jazz, metal, leftism. he/him
https://doomsdayer.wordpress.com/writings/
https://doomsdayer.wordpress.com/writings/
Pinned
Profane Illuminations: An Initiation
Zachary Gillan Everyone knows that the short story is the ideal form for weird fiction. But why? What is it about the form and the genre that makes them so symbiotic? What might we learn by explori…
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
I've been threatening for a while to start a column on collections of weird fiction, and so: Profane Illuminations, a quarterly series where I'll look at a few in tandem and see what threads I can draw out about their stories and the genre at large. Quick intro here, first full entry next week.
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
For 2026 let’s remind ourselves what really matters: weird fiction
January 1, 2026 at 12:30 AM
For 2026 let’s remind ourselves what really matters: weird fiction
I’ve never read any Nina Allan, where should I start?
January 2, 2026 at 2:03 AM
I’ve never read any Nina Allan, where should I start?
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
Some enterprising publisher could clean up* by issuing a nice clothbound set of Jeffrey Ford’s The Well-Built City trilogy, one of the great unfairly-neglected works of 21st century fantasy. It’s a crime against humanity that they aren’t currently in print.
*earn my eternal gratitude
*earn my eternal gratitude
December 21, 2024 at 10:05 PM
Some enterprising publisher could clean up* by issuing a nice clothbound set of Jeffrey Ford’s The Well-Built City trilogy, one of the great unfairly-neglected works of 21st century fantasy. It’s a crime against humanity that they aren’t currently in print.
*earn my eternal gratitude
*earn my eternal gratitude
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
The Well-Built City (Jeffrey Ford, 1997-2001)
Sure is great that we're all forced to wander the rancid, stinking halls of an old sack of shit's mindrot palace
August 27, 2025 at 11:50 AM
The Well-Built City (Jeffrey Ford, 1997-2001)
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
Up now at @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social, I wrote about one of my favorite trilogies, Jeffrey Ford’s The Well-Built City, and what it has to say about living in a society in thrall, the fascist mindset, and the daily work of staying alive.
We Are Close, We Are Almost There | Los Angeles Review of Books
Zachary Gillan reflects on Jeffrey Ford’s ‘Well-Built City Trilogy’ in the era of resurgent fascism.
lareviewofbooks.org
December 30, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Up now at @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social, I wrote about one of my favorite trilogies, Jeffrey Ford’s The Well-Built City, and what it has to say about living in a society in thrall, the fascist mindset, and the daily work of staying alive.
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
Beginning of the year plea: I am always on the lookout for collections of weird fiction by nonwhite authors, especially those that will be published in 2026. If you wrote one or are publishing one or just know of one, please get in touch. doomsdayer.wordpress.com/contact
January 1, 2026 at 7:01 PM
Beginning of the year plea: I am always on the lookout for collections of weird fiction by nonwhite authors, especially those that will be published in 2026. If you wrote one or are publishing one or just know of one, please get in touch. doomsdayer.wordpress.com/contact
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
send Zach cool shit! send him current & upcoming collections you're passionate about, especially if you fear they'll slip between the cracks! advocate for yourself and for your peers you admire
Beginning of the year plea: I am always on the lookout for collections of weird fiction by nonwhite authors, especially those that will be published in 2026. If you wrote one or are publishing one or just know of one, please get in touch. doomsdayer.wordpress.com/contact
January 1, 2026 at 10:18 PM
send Zach cool shit! send him current & upcoming collections you're passionate about, especially if you fear they'll slip between the cracks! advocate for yourself and for your peers you admire
Sadly the pre-eminent scholar was unavailable so listeners were stuck with me
Oh yeah, that thing where we walk about second books: pre-eminent scholar of the weird @megapolisomancy.bsky.social has thoughts about Jeff VanderMeer's AUTHORITY and how the weird is more/other than ecological anxiety (though that's in there too):
A Meal of Thorns 32 – AUTHORITY with Zachary Gillan
Podcasts, reviews, interviews, essays, and more at the Ancillary Review of Books.Please consider supporting ARB’s Patreon!Guest: Zachary GillanTitle: Authority by Jeff VanderMeerHost: Jake Casella …
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
January 1, 2026 at 9:34 PM
Sadly the pre-eminent scholar was unavailable so listeners were stuck with me
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
Welp! Something I never envisioned in all my wildest dreams — my name on the front of Locus magazine.
January 1, 2026 at 5:53 PM
Welp! Something I never envisioned in all my wildest dreams — my name on the front of Locus magazine.
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
All eyes on NYC today
November 4, 2025 at 12:42 PM
All eyes on NYC today
Beginning of the year plea: I am always on the lookout for collections of weird fiction by nonwhite authors, especially those that will be published in 2026. If you wrote one or are publishing one or just know of one, please get in touch. doomsdayer.wordpress.com/contact
January 1, 2026 at 7:01 PM
Beginning of the year plea: I am always on the lookout for collections of weird fiction by nonwhite authors, especially those that will be published in 2026. If you wrote one or are publishing one or just know of one, please get in touch. doomsdayer.wordpress.com/contact
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
Call for Reviews and Essays: April 2026
Calls for Reviews & Essays: April 2026
The Ancillary Review of Books publishes reviews and essays with an emphasis on utopian impulses and systemic injustices. ARB seeks to build a community of radical thinkers writing about amazing, sp…
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
January 1, 2026 at 5:23 PM
Call for Reviews and Essays: April 2026
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
We're open for fiction submissions!
We publish unsettling bad time stories that straddle the horror, fantasy, and science fiction spectrum. But genre is made up so if you have a dark weird horrible story that could be a fit, send it in and let us worry about it.
No closing date, open indefinitely.
We publish unsettling bad time stories that straddle the horror, fantasy, and science fiction spectrum. But genre is made up so if you have a dark weird horrible story that could be a fit, send it in and let us worry about it.
No closing date, open indefinitely.
Submissions - Seize The Press
Submissions Guidelines Submissions are open for fiction. We publish dark, unsettling, dislocating stories that straddle the horror, fantasy, and science fiction spectrum, but genre is made up. If you ...
www.seizethepress.com
January 1, 2026 at 1:41 PM
We're open for fiction submissions!
We publish unsettling bad time stories that straddle the horror, fantasy, and science fiction spectrum. But genre is made up so if you have a dark weird horrible story that could be a fit, send it in and let us worry about it.
No closing date, open indefinitely.
We publish unsettling bad time stories that straddle the horror, fantasy, and science fiction spectrum. But genre is made up so if you have a dark weird horrible story that could be a fit, send it in and let us worry about it.
No closing date, open indefinitely.
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
The reviews in our AfroSurrealism special have stayed with me, too - @jsanchez-taylor.bsky.social, @hararereview.com and Asura Lewis all brought critical, productive perspectives on their texts. (Jou on Phillips: "the image of Black liberation freed from a linear model of progress is significant").
30 June 2025
The Afrosurrealist Special Issue, funded by our 2024 Kickstarter.
strangehorizons.com
January 1, 2026 at 5:35 PM
The reviews in our AfroSurrealism special have stayed with me, too - @jsanchez-taylor.bsky.social, @hararereview.com and Asura Lewis all brought critical, productive perspectives on their texts. (Jou on Phillips: "the image of Black liberation freed from a linear model of progress is significant").
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
Instead of eucatastrophes—allokatastrophes!
For 2026 let’s remind ourselves what really matters: weird fiction
January 1, 2026 at 2:31 PM
Instead of eucatastrophes—allokatastrophes!
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
Reviewed Ed Park's absolutely superb AN ORAL HISTORY OF ATLANTIS for @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social. Folks, go pick this one up.
chireviewofbooks.com/2025/07/30/a...
chireviewofbooks.com/2025/07/30/a...
Bracing Currents in "An Oral History of Atlantis" - Chicago Review of Books
Our review of Ed Park's first short story collection, "An Oral History of Atlantis."
chireviewofbooks.com
January 1, 2026 at 2:06 AM
Reviewed Ed Park's absolutely superb AN ORAL HISTORY OF ATLANTIS for @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social. Folks, go pick this one up.
chireviewofbooks.com/2025/07/30/a...
chireviewofbooks.com/2025/07/30/a...
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
Honestly ARB is what I'm most proud of this year: we edited and published ~160 posts (lol); some really great stuff. Particularly pleased with columns by @chloroformtea.bsky.social, @danhartland.bsky.social, @coimeas.bsky.social, & @megapolisomancy.bsky.social, and loads of good reviews & essays.
Archives
Visit the post for more.
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
January 1, 2026 at 2:06 AM
Honestly ARB is what I'm most proud of this year: we edited and published ~160 posts (lol); some really great stuff. Particularly pleased with columns by @chloroformtea.bsky.social, @danhartland.bsky.social, @coimeas.bsky.social, & @megapolisomancy.bsky.social, and loads of good reviews & essays.
For 2026 let’s remind ourselves what really matters: weird fiction
January 1, 2026 at 12:30 AM
For 2026 let’s remind ourselves what really matters: weird fiction
Music volume dilemma: too low, and I can’t hear it. Too loud, and the five year old hears it and realizes he can request the K-Pop Demon Hunters soundtrack for the millionth time.
December 31, 2025 at 11:36 PM
Music volume dilemma: too low, and I can’t hear it. Too loud, and the five year old hears it and realizes he can request the K-Pop Demon Hunters soundtrack for the millionth time.
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
Last post of the year! We present ARB's Notable Criticism of 2025—ten articles that highlight the vitality and possibilities of speculative criticism:
ARB’s 2025 Notable Criticism
In the field of speculative criticism, many of the challenges and positive developments we noted last year are still in full effect. 2025 has brought even more precarity for culture writers and aca…
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
December 31, 2025 at 10:24 PM
Last post of the year! We present ARB's Notable Criticism of 2025—ten articles that highlight the vitality and possibilities of speculative criticism:
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
Here's the last post--about a weird fiction story starring a talking piñata.
Before you laugh, KJ Bishop does incredible things with this story that turns what might have been an absurd premise into something immersive, disturbing, and sublime.
But also, yeah, it's about a piñata!
Before you laugh, KJ Bishop does incredible things with this story that turns what might have been an absurd premise into something immersive, disturbing, and sublime.
But also, yeah, it's about a piñata!
Weird #110: “Saving the Gleeful Horse” by K.J. Bishop (2010)
In which piñatas have feelings
matthewrettino.com
December 28, 2025 at 5:00 AM
Here's the last post--about a weird fiction story starring a talking piñata.
Before you laugh, KJ Bishop does incredible things with this story that turns what might have been an absurd premise into something immersive, disturbing, and sublime.
But also, yeah, it's about a piñata!
Before you laugh, KJ Bishop does incredible things with this story that turns what might have been an absurd premise into something immersive, disturbing, and sublime.
But also, yeah, it's about a piñata!
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
My #WeirdFictionChallenge is officially at an end. I've published all 110 blog posts on the VanderMeers' weird fiction anthology.
I finished this back in Spring but the last scheduled post jus went live. And of an era. Hopefully, 2026 will mean the dawn of something new.
I finished this back in Spring but the last scheduled post jus went live. And of an era. Hopefully, 2026 will mean the dawn of something new.
December 28, 2025 at 5:00 AM
My #WeirdFictionChallenge is officially at an end. I've published all 110 blog posts on the VanderMeers' weird fiction anthology.
I finished this back in Spring but the last scheduled post jus went live. And of an era. Hopefully, 2026 will mean the dawn of something new.
I finished this back in Spring but the last scheduled post jus went live. And of an era. Hopefully, 2026 will mean the dawn of something new.
“I agonized over just what I was doing. Whether it was building to something, whether I would eventually complete one of the dozens of projects I’ve outlined in my “Pandora’s Box” document, whether I could someday leave a mark on the field.“
December 31, 2025 at 7:22 PM
“I agonized over just what I was doing. Whether it was building to something, whether I would eventually complete one of the dozens of projects I’ve outlined in my “Pandora’s Box” document, whether I could someday leave a mark on the field.“