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
They're calling it urthpunk, it has all of the mystery and benighted wonder of the Book of the New Sun with none of the catholic conservatism
Word on the street is that in 2026 the next big thing in publishing is garish, avant garde science fantasy about anguished souls living in weird cities built on the bones of fallen civilizations they could never hope to understand
okay but: weird fantasy
January 2, 2026 at 5:00 PM
They're calling it urthpunk, it has all of the mystery and benighted wonder of the Book of the New Sun with none of the catholic conservatism
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
First link round-up of the year! Get'em before the bitrot sets in:
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2026/01/02/w...
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2026/01/02/w...
Wow! Signal: January 2026
Jake Casella Brookins Hello, all, and happy 2026! We’re shifting the Wow! signal to the beginning of the month, for reasons. I know there’s a few good articles from late December I have…
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
January 2, 2026 at 4:44 PM
First link round-up of the year! Get'em before the bitrot sets in:
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2026/01/02/w...
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2026/01/02/w...
January 2, 2026 at 4:11 PM
NONE OF YOU TOLD ME THERE WAS A NEW 'PEMI AGUDA BOOK ON THE WAY THIS YEAR?!?!
Sauúti Terrors
The Many x Sylvain Neuvel
Ode to the Half-Broken x Suzanne Palmer
One Leg on Earth x 'Pemi Aguda
Absence x Andrew Dana Hudson
The Temptation of Charlotte North x Camilla Bruce
Palaces of the Crow x Ray Nayler
The Many x Sylvain Neuvel
Ode to the Half-Broken x Suzanne Palmer
One Leg on Earth x 'Pemi Aguda
Absence x Andrew Dana Hudson
The Temptation of Charlotte North x Camilla Bruce
Palaces of the Crow x Ray Nayler
January 2, 2026 at 3:28 PM
NONE OF YOU TOLD ME THERE WAS A NEW 'PEMI AGUDA BOOK ON THE WAY THIS YEAR?!?!
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
January 2, 2026 at 2:46 PM
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
Weird fiction is the best successor we have to slipstream since the other potential heir, cyberpunk, did like most other punk genres and sold out to the man at the first opportunity. (Except for ol' Bill Gibson who just became a lit-fic author.)
For 2026 let’s remind ourselves what really matters: weird fiction
January 2, 2026 at 2:48 PM
Weird fiction is the best successor we have to slipstream since the other potential heir, cyberpunk, did like most other punk genres and sold out to the man at the first opportunity. (Except for ol' Bill Gibson who just became a lit-fic author.)
Vol. 1 was a triumph (more on that in Strange Horizons in a few weeks); here’s your chance to unsettle Vol. 2
Writers! Vol. 2 of 'The Best Weird Fiction of the Year' is open to your submissions. Please adhere to the guidelines.
undertowpublications.com/best-weird-f...
undertowpublications.com/best-weird-f...
January 2, 2026 at 2:52 PM
Vol. 1 was a triumph (more on that in Strange Horizons in a few weeks); here’s your chance to unsettle Vol. 2
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
December 13, 2025 at 12:24 PM
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
One thing I wrote about here is how technology has made buses *way* more convenient while techno-futurists were obsessed with flying taxis and self-driving cars.
January 2, 2026 at 2:17 PM
One thing I wrote about here is how technology has made buses *way* more convenient while techno-futurists were obsessed with flying taxis and self-driving cars.
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
Been meaning to read the Well-Built City trilogy for a while. Hopefully this is the year. In any case, @megapolisomancy.bsky.social is one of the best critics writing about the weird and weird fiction, and here is on this trilogy, fascism, Trumpism: lareviewofbooks.org/article/we-a...
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
January 2, 2026 at 9:03 AM
Been meaning to read the Well-Built City trilogy for a while. Hopefully this is the year. In any case, @megapolisomancy.bsky.social is one of the best critics writing about the weird and weird fiction, and here is on this trilogy, fascism, Trumpism: lareviewofbooks.org/article/we-a...
Word on the street is that in 2026 the next big thing in publishing is garish, avant garde science fantasy about anguished souls living in weird cities built on the bones of fallen civilizations they could never hope to understand
okay but: weird fantasy
January 2, 2026 at 1:08 PM
Word on the street is that in 2026 the next big thing in publishing is garish, avant garde science fantasy about anguished souls living in weird cities built on the bones of fallen civilizations they could never hope to understand
Reposted by Zachary Gillan
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
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
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.