ZD Dochterman
@zddochterman.bsky.social
Dark & Weird Speculative Fiction | Seize the Press, Trollbreath, Quest & others | Assistant Professor of Writing at USC | Apophatic Utopianist
Author site: zddochterman.com
Author site: zddochterman.com
Pinned
Contract signed!! Beyond excited to have my story "Istanai" coming out in March 26 in Trollbreath.
@trollbreathmag.bsky.social
A dark fantasy love story about mountain lions, static on old TVs, the jealousies that underpin friendship, and keeping revolutionary desire alive beyond death.
@trollbreathmag.bsky.social
A dark fantasy love story about mountain lions, static on old TVs, the jealousies that underpin friendship, and keeping revolutionary desire alive beyond death.
Contract signed!! Beyond excited to have my story "Istanai" coming out in March 26 in Trollbreath.
@trollbreathmag.bsky.social
A dark fantasy love story about mountain lions, static on old TVs, the jealousies that underpin friendship, and keeping revolutionary desire alive beyond death.
@trollbreathmag.bsky.social
A dark fantasy love story about mountain lions, static on old TVs, the jealousies that underpin friendship, and keeping revolutionary desire alive beyond death.
December 12, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Contract signed!! Beyond excited to have my story "Istanai" coming out in March 26 in Trollbreath.
@trollbreathmag.bsky.social
A dark fantasy love story about mountain lions, static on old TVs, the jealousies that underpin friendship, and keeping revolutionary desire alive beyond death.
@trollbreathmag.bsky.social
A dark fantasy love story about mountain lions, static on old TVs, the jealousies that underpin friendship, and keeping revolutionary desire alive beyond death.
Just bought my wife ECO24 for the holidays. She's obsessed with native plants and California ecology (no, she doesn't use bsky-no secrets revealed).
Hopefully this stokes her burgeoning desire to write speculative ecofiction!
@apexmag.bsky.social @marissavu.bsky.social
Hopefully this stokes her burgeoning desire to write speculative ecofiction!
@apexmag.bsky.social @marissavu.bsky.social
December 12, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Just bought my wife ECO24 for the holidays. She's obsessed with native plants and California ecology (no, she doesn't use bsky-no secrets revealed).
Hopefully this stokes her burgeoning desire to write speculative ecofiction!
@apexmag.bsky.social @marissavu.bsky.social
Hopefully this stokes her burgeoning desire to write speculative ecofiction!
@apexmag.bsky.social @marissavu.bsky.social
TLDR: In recent months, tech giants including Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Oracle have been making gargantuan investments in new data centers, tying together their fortunes through circular financing deals, and borrowing huge piles of debt from lightly regulated lenders.
2008 anyone?
2008 anyone?
Something Ominous Is Happening in the AI Economy
The last time so much wealth was tied up in such obscure overlapping arrangements was just before the 2008 financial crisis.
www.theatlantic.com
December 11, 2025 at 6:18 PM
TLDR: In recent months, tech giants including Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Oracle have been making gargantuan investments in new data centers, tying together their fortunes through circular financing deals, and borrowing huge piles of debt from lightly regulated lenders.
2008 anyone?
2008 anyone?
December 10, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Check out this great, agonizing story by @kjy1066.bsky.social about childhood friendships and exploring the hidden spaces within the jungles of Puerto Rico.
www.typebarmagazine.com/2025/12/05/b...
www.typebarmagazine.com/2025/12/05/b...
Blanquitos - Typebar Magazine
Fiction by Karlo Yeager Rodríguez.
www.typebarmagazine.com
December 10, 2025 at 12:20 AM
Check out this great, agonizing story by @kjy1066.bsky.social about childhood friendships and exploring the hidden spaces within the jungles of Puerto Rico.
www.typebarmagazine.com/2025/12/05/b...
www.typebarmagazine.com/2025/12/05/b...
Great writing on the shadow that haunts LA. Mariana Enriquez “A Sunny Place for Shady People”. With visits from the mountain lion P-22 and Elisa Lam.
December 9, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Great writing on the shadow that haunts LA. Mariana Enriquez “A Sunny Place for Shady People”. With visits from the mountain lion P-22 and Elisa Lam.
Reposted by ZD Dochterman
A few other pieces that I was hoping would publish this year - my Jeffrey Ford essay, in particular - but I guess I'll go ahead and call it and say this is my 2025 summary. Go to doomsdayer.wordpress.com and follow some links to some criticism of weird fiction. Or don't, I'm not the boss of you.
December 8, 2025 at 3:14 PM
A few other pieces that I was hoping would publish this year - my Jeffrey Ford essay, in particular - but I guess I'll go ahead and call it and say this is my 2025 summary. Go to doomsdayer.wordpress.com and follow some links to some criticism of weird fiction. Or don't, I'm not the boss of you.
Just in case anyone was (foolishly) feeling all caught up on their reading lists, here's 100 books by small publishers including stuff from @tenebrouspress.bsky.social and @psychopomp.com
100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025
The idea of 100 Notable Small Press Books was born November 2024, after The New York Times’s annual 100 Notable Books list featured eighty-two books from the Big Five publishing houses (Pengu…
lithub.com
December 5, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Just in case anyone was (foolishly) feeling all caught up on their reading lists, here's 100 books by small publishers including stuff from @tenebrouspress.bsky.social and @psychopomp.com
No surprises here!
December 4, 2025 at 1:13 AM
No surprises here!
I was surprised how much love my KARP shirt got this week. Truly, a legendary band. Bourgeoisie denied!
open.spotify.com/track/6g2PLk...
#karp #krecords
open.spotify.com/track/6g2PLk...
#karp #krecords
November 20, 2025 at 10:55 PM
I was surprised how much love my KARP shirt got this week. Truly, a legendary band. Bourgeoisie denied!
open.spotify.com/track/6g2PLk...
#karp #krecords
open.spotify.com/track/6g2PLk...
#karp #krecords
A love story I can believe in: "Our fingers entwine so hard it hurts. It is always bone-on-bone with him, ribs on ribs, femur on femur. Our bodies lack the most basic defenses against each other, and the more we love the more we cut."
Haunting prose; a couple drifting between life and death.
Haunting prose; a couple drifting between life and death.
My favorite short story I wrote this year. Please read! Kind of an emotional thing for me.
"Stepan comes to me in a dream, sullen, with a bleeding lower lip split just where his lower canine has been knocked out."
today, beloveds!!
Punks Don't Die by @esedia.bsky.social
read it here 🥀
psychopomp.com/deadlands/is...
today, beloveds!!
Punks Don't Die by @esedia.bsky.social
read it here 🥀
psychopomp.com/deadlands/is...
November 20, 2025 at 6:50 PM
A love story I can believe in: "Our fingers entwine so hard it hurts. It is always bone-on-bone with him, ribs on ribs, femur on femur. Our bodies lack the most basic defenses against each other, and the more we love the more we cut."
Haunting prose; a couple drifting between life and death.
Haunting prose; a couple drifting between life and death.
Awards season means nominating my stories for oddly specific prizes that don't exist but should. Thanks to @gravesidepress.bsky.social for publishing this one in their "What Lurks: A Cryptid Anthology," which has some great stories in it!
Buy it here: graveside-press.com/product/what...
Buy it here: graveside-press.com/product/what...
November 20, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Awards season means nominating my stories for oddly specific prizes that don't exist but should. Thanks to @gravesidepress.bsky.social for publishing this one in their "What Lurks: A Cryptid Anthology," which has some great stories in it!
Buy it here: graveside-press.com/product/what...
Buy it here: graveside-press.com/product/what...
Awards season means nominating myself for made-up awards that should exist. Thanks to @seizethepress.bsky.social for publishing my weird fiction story Avila Beach in the Spring!
Read it here: www.seizethepress.com/2025/03/29/a...
#weirdfiction
Read it here: www.seizethepress.com/2025/03/29/a...
#weirdfiction
November 20, 2025 at 12:25 AM
Awards season means nominating myself for made-up awards that should exist. Thanks to @seizethepress.bsky.social for publishing my weird fiction story Avila Beach in the Spring!
Read it here: www.seizethepress.com/2025/03/29/a...
#weirdfiction
Read it here: www.seizethepress.com/2025/03/29/a...
#weirdfiction
It's awards season, so I've decided to nominate my own stories for some made-up awards that should exist, starting with my metaphysical science-fiction/horror hybrid "The Poem of the Yovel," which came out a week ago in Quest #1.
Read it here: read.quest/content/the-...
@readquest.bsky.social
Read it here: read.quest/content/the-...
@readquest.bsky.social
November 18, 2025 at 9:11 PM
It's awards season, so I've decided to nominate my own stories for some made-up awards that should exist, starting with my metaphysical science-fiction/horror hybrid "The Poem of the Yovel," which came out a week ago in Quest #1.
Read it here: read.quest/content/the-...
@readquest.bsky.social
Read it here: read.quest/content/the-...
@readquest.bsky.social
Initial fire reignited, leading to Palisades fire: "Firefighters were told to roll up their hoses and leave...a move that was made despite reporting to their superior that it was a “bad idea” to leave the burn scar because of visible smoldering–some rocks and tree stumps were still hot to the touch"
Scrutiny grows over LA fire origins after bombshell report: ‘Our Pearl Harbor moment’
Reports that fire crews were ordered to leave original site of blaze prompt tough questions for city and LAFD leaders
www.theguardian.com
November 16, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Initial fire reignited, leading to Palisades fire: "Firefighters were told to roll up their hoses and leave...a move that was made despite reporting to their superior that it was a “bad idea” to leave the burn scar because of visible smoldering–some rocks and tree stumps were still hot to the touch"
My story, "The Poem of the Yovel" out now in Quest magazine!
An alien race experiences the universe as one giant poem, replete with meaning until one of their ships discovers a transmission that threatens to upend their understanding of the cosmos. @readquest.bsky.social
Can't wait to read it all!
An alien race experiences the universe as one giant poem, replete with meaning until one of their ships discovers a transmission that threatens to upend their understanding of the cosmos. @readquest.bsky.social
Can't wait to read it all!
QUEST
An online magazine using sci-fi and fantasy to investigate politics, culture, and society. We publish literary, visual, and critical work that uses sci-fi and fantasy to reflect the world around us.
...
read.quest
November 12, 2025 at 4:04 PM
My story, "The Poem of the Yovel" out now in Quest magazine!
An alien race experiences the universe as one giant poem, replete with meaning until one of their ships discovers a transmission that threatens to upend their understanding of the cosmos. @readquest.bsky.social
Can't wait to read it all!
An alien race experiences the universe as one giant poem, replete with meaning until one of their ships discovers a transmission that threatens to upend their understanding of the cosmos. @readquest.bsky.social
Can't wait to read it all!
Picked up these two books from @vromansbookstore.bsky.social before watching Frankenstein.
Unlike the movie, I am sure these will not leave me disappointed.
@agustinabazterrica.bsky.social
& Mariana Enriquez
Unlike the movie, I am sure these will not leave me disappointed.
@agustinabazterrica.bsky.social
& Mariana Enriquez
November 10, 2025 at 3:47 AM
Picked up these two books from @vromansbookstore.bsky.social before watching Frankenstein.
Unlike the movie, I am sure these will not leave me disappointed.
@agustinabazterrica.bsky.social
& Mariana Enriquez
Unlike the movie, I am sure these will not leave me disappointed.
@agustinabazterrica.bsky.social
& Mariana Enriquez
Probably the best thing to ever happen at a beauty pageant is Chilean death metal being sung
www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsi...
www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsi...
From the Damnthatsinteresting community on Reddit: Miss World Chile semi-finalist stuns judges by performing a song from her own death metal band.
Explore this post and more from the Damnthatsinteresting community
www.reddit.com
November 7, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Probably the best thing to ever happen at a beauty pageant is Chilean death metal being sung
www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsi...
www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsi...
Happy Halloween!
October 31, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Happy Halloween!
If only I could press RT to accomplish this.
lol at Silent Hill f for making the subtext of every horror game into text
October 27, 2025 at 5:29 PM
If only I could press RT to accomplish this.
Hey everyone, my story "The Poem of the Yovel," is coming out next month in Quest Issue 1!. It's about an alien species who sees the universe as one giant poem full of meaning, until they come across something unexpected in the far reaches of space...
See full lineup below!
@readquest.bsky.social
See full lineup below!
@readquest.bsky.social
October 23, 2025 at 10:28 PM
Hey everyone, my story "The Poem of the Yovel," is coming out next month in Quest Issue 1!. It's about an alien species who sees the universe as one giant poem full of meaning, until they come across something unexpected in the far reaches of space...
See full lineup below!
@readquest.bsky.social
See full lineup below!
@readquest.bsky.social
I like this comparison. Imagine the darkest most absurdist day of high school then multiply by 100, and throw in a Minotaur.
Think that captures the vibe of my story pretty well.
Think that captures the vibe of my story pretty well.
Some lunch time reading from @seizethepress.bsky.social that gives me Sideways Stories from Wayside school vibes but way darker: www.seizethepress.com/2025/03/29/a...
“Avila Beach” by Z.D. Dochterman - Seize The Press
It was a Saturday, about two weeks before I was set to graduate from high school. I went to Avila Beach to work on my last English paper, the only thing between me and graduation. As the dour tide pre...
www.seizethepress.com
October 8, 2025 at 10:41 PM
I like this comparison. Imagine the darkest most absurdist day of high school then multiply by 100, and throw in a Minotaur.
Think that captures the vibe of my story pretty well.
Think that captures the vibe of my story pretty well.
Not quite the same but if anyone says Highway 10 or Highway 405 they are definitely not from LA.
Always use the definite article in front of your freeways numbers, folks!
If you are LA born and raised like me, you will also just refer to them by their names. E.g. Santa Ana Freeway
Always use the definite article in front of your freeways numbers, folks!
If you are LA born and raised like me, you will also just refer to them by their names. E.g. Santa Ana Freeway
Willis 😜
What’s the word where you’re from that, when pronounced exactly as it looks, identifies a tourist immediately?
October 8, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Not quite the same but if anyone says Highway 10 or Highway 405 they are definitely not from LA.
Always use the definite article in front of your freeways numbers, folks!
If you are LA born and raised like me, you will also just refer to them by their names. E.g. Santa Ana Freeway
Always use the definite article in front of your freeways numbers, folks!
If you are LA born and raised like me, you will also just refer to them by their names. E.g. Santa Ana Freeway