Weirdpunk Books
Love Skull - Emma Alice Johnson
Love Skull the latest collection from the original Weirdpunk herself, Emma Alice Johnson, is now available here.
Pizza cults! Barn ghouls! Carpet zombies! Skulls and kisses!
A background skull from a popular 80s horror novel comes to life and becomes obsessed with the book’s reader. Two women fall in love as a giant monster destroys the town around them. Friends band together to haul their BFF’s corpse to the ocean for the ultimate funeral-by-shark.
This collection includes the New York Times-mentioned “5 Ways to Kill Your Rapist on a Farm” and 11 other stories that blend horror, sci-fi, weird, and romance into a unique mix from award-winning author Emma Alice Johnson.
We’re beyond excited to help bring this into the world, to get to work with the founder of Weirdpunk Books in releasing a collection unlike anything we’ve published so far. One full of heart and horror and imagination and dread.
Two new releases
On 6/5 we have our first wide-release zine, Sam Richard’s All Will Writhe. Four bleak weird horror stories focusing on grief, work, obsession, and the horrors of corporate onboarding videos. Signed, numbered, Ltd to 150, and only available from Weirdpunk, you can grab one here.
We’ve also got Profane Altars: Weird Sword & Sorcery coming 6/15. Crossing the bridge between weird horror and S&S, Profane Altars conjures new stories from Emma Alice Johnson, Matthew Mitchell, Adam Smith, Sara Century, Charles Austin Muir, Edwin Callihan, and editor Sam Richard.
Pre-order it here.
Infinity Mathing at the Shore & Other Disruptions - M. Lopes da Silva
Infinity Mathing at the Shore & Other Disruptions the debut collection by M. Lopes da Silva is now available for preorder here.
A heartfelt, disquieting collection of short stories focused on body horror, transness, anti-capitalism, queerness, decay, transformation, living buildings, rot, ruin, vintage arcade games, and so much more. With Infinity Mathing at the Shore & Other Disruptions, M. Lopes da Silva has solidified themself as an essential and sharp voice in the canon of 21st century queer horror. Don’t miss this fucking book.
With cover art by legendary punk artist Cristy Road!
“Every new da Silva is a dopamine hit. I was excited going in, but this collection really surpassed my excitement. Infinity Mathing at the Shore & Other Disruptions is such a carefully constructed mosaic of stories where unique, seemingly individual pieces come together in this emotional amalgam of growth, transformation, and longing, in their loveliest and most terrible definitions. "Grotesque and splendid", the quotes say, and that is precisely what the collection delivers. Satisfying, thrilling, and a read you won't regret.” - Alex Woodroe, author of Whisperwood and EiC of Tenebrous Press
Feral Architecture - edited by Sam Richard
Feral Architecture edited by Sam Richard is up for pre-order here.
In the tradition of Weirdpunk mini-anthologies like Cinema Viscera and Beautiful/Grotesque comes Feral Architecture: Ballardian Horrors. JG Ballard is one of our favorite writers, and in a lot of ways this book is something the press has been building towards for a many years.
Joining editor Sam Richard with new horror fiction are Weirdpunk friends and alum Joe Koch, Donyae Coles, Sara Century, and Brendan Vidito. The results of this project are strange, unsettling, surprising, and unshockingly unique.
This is a really special one for us. Hope you’ll come along for the ride, even if you’re not familiar with the works of JG Ballard.
Elogona - Samantha Kolesnik
Elogona by Samantha Kolesnik is up for pre-order here.
Samantha Kolesnik’s return from her retirement from writing is here! And it’s quite different from her other books but incredible in its own way. Plus holy shit look at the cover art from Evangeline Gallagher!
An evocative tale of sapphic love in a post-apocalyptic world dominated by religious zealots and supernatural monsters.
Kolesnik’s Elogona transports readers to a time after the world’s end, when a long-dormant sea creature has awoken to stake its claim against one of the last human settlements.
Verna must battle both man and monster to protect her family and her newfound love for Audrey, a refugee from the mainland.
Meanwhile, the Elogona calls…
Elogona is a coming-of-age post-apocalyptic folk-horror tale of love, rebellion, and revenge. We’re so fucking excited for everyone to read this!
"A sapphic coming-of-age wonder that's dangerous on all sides but heartfelt to the core. Further evidence that everything Samantha Kolesnik touches turns to gold."- Hailey Piper, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Queen of Teeth
Chaindevils - Matthew Mitchell
Chaindevils by Matthew Mitchell is up for pre-order here.
The official release date is 11/15 and we’re hoping to have our copies a little earlier than that so we can get them to everyone a bit early.
Take heed, and smoke what you got…
In the far-distant post-apocalypse of rural America, an embattled company of chainsaw-wielding hillbillies are set forth by Her Majesty of the Ozarks on a quest for precious methamphetamine.
Beset by religious zealots, militarized sex workers, and their own addictions, the CHAINDEVILS slash their way across the drug-addled border between Missouri and Arkansas.
Embrace the chaos with Matthew Mitchell's debut novella, which tears off pieces of horror, grimdark fantasy, dying earth fiction, and drug literature, and smashes them together in hazy, mud-coated ways unlike anything you've ever seen.
"Mitchell pens a wild extrapolation of a post-apocalyptic North American Landscape by way of The Road, Warhammer 40k, and pulp westerns. Chaindevils is hard, grisly fare." - Laird Barron, author of The Wind Began to Howl
Mutant Circuit - Mark Jaskowski
Mutant Circuit by Mark Jaskowski is up for pre-order here.
The official release date is August 31st, but we wanted to throw this up now. This book is fucking amazing and you’re not gonna want to miss it!
What is happening to Katherine?
Someone put something into her at the plasma center and took it back out again. By the time her friends catch up to her, she’s not exactly the person they remember. She has begun to change into something new, and if they’re going to help her escape the people who did this to her, they may need to transform, too.
Squarely in both the crime and body horror traditions, Mutant Circuit reads like Elmore Leonard and David Cronenberg meeting at 3 AM in a run-down strip mall parking lot, and Mark Jaskowski is the conspirator who brought them there.
"Jaskowski wields words like weapons, his prose quick and sharp as a butterfly knife. The result: a truly original work in the corpus of body horror." – Brendan Vidito (Pornography for the End of the World, Nightmares in Ecstasy)
Weirdpunk 2023 Sub Club open now!
For our 3rd year in a row, we are once again doing the Weirdpunk Sub Club. Sign up here.
For those unfamiliar, the Weirdpunk Sub Club is essentially a subscription service for a year’s slate of books. For 2023, we will be releasing 5. When each book comes out, it will be sent to you without you having to do any additional work. You also get the bonus of knowing you helped us fund an entire year of releases.
On top of all that, you also get an exclusive shirt, postcard prints with each release, ltd stickers with each book, and this year we are doing something else new. In prior years there was another item. A Weirdpunk can koozie and then the following year a Weirdpunk logo patch. But stuff is just more stuff, right? What are you actually here for? Words. Stories. Fiction. Horror fiction. Weird Horror fiction. So fuck it, we’re gonna do a ltd zine with the Sub Club this year. And if it goes over well, we’ll be doing a ltd zine with every year of the Sub Club until I get sick of it. You can expect it to look fucking rad and also have fiction from Weirdpunk authors and/or friends of the press. Honestly, I’m not sure yet, I’m still getting it all mapped out. But I’m thinking it’s gonna be fucking rad.
If any of this sounds good to you, sign up here!
2021 we had 35 slots. 2022 was 50. This year I’m not sure. I’m probably gonna let this go until it hits a comfortable zone and then cut it, so get in now while you still can!
A Small Light & Other Stories - Sara Century
A Small Light & Other Stories, the debut release from Sara Century is out now. Order it here.
A mysterious woman stalks a seaside town. An isolated couple inhabit a house full of tropical birds. A rowboat floats down a river toward a witch's cave. Death wanders an unnamed city during the plague. Sara Century's debut short story collection carries with it surreal visions inspired by pulp paperbacks, art house films, comic books of all flavors, and classic queer villains. A Small Light & Other Stories gathers tales that hinge on troubled characters with nothing left to lose encountering existential horrors, where everyday problems escalate into insurmountable monsters, and we find ourselves unable to escape dreams long since transformed into nightmares.
"Century's fiction packs the potency of a nightmare that haunts the mind long after one has woken. She weaves dark poetry out of her character's relationships and crafts imagery designed to unsettle and inspire awe in equal measure. These stories whisper in your ear in the dark of night, and you will find yourself welcoming their insidious omens with outstretched arms." - Brendan Vidito (Pornography for the End of the World)
"Sara Century writes with subtle intensity and care. In a genre often extreme, alien, and operatic, her horror stories drop us into the small center of our familiar, vulnerable human core and send ripples spreading outward, enlarging gradually to create a total emotional effect. A Small Light is a book full of dark awakenings." - Joe Koch (The Wingspan of Severed Hands, Convulsive)
Grief Rituals - Sam Richard
Grief Rituals is out now. Order it here.
From Wonderland Award-Winner Sam Richard comes 12 more uncomfortable tales of loss, ruination, and transformation.
A young widow joins a spousal loss institute with bizarre methods of healing, an aging punk is stalked by something ancient and familiar in the labyrinthian halls of an art complex, and a couple renting out a small movie theater are interrupted by a corrosive force of nature. Through these tales of weird horror and visceral sorrow, Richard introduces us to the ways grief can be transcendent—but only if we know which rituals to practice.
Stories of the Eye - edited by Sam Richard & Joe Koch
Our latest anthology is up for preorder now, with a release date of 10/25. Order it here.
Beauty is a knife.
Between the desire to create and the thing created, the model is a key, a stepping stone, a participant othered through the process of creation. These thirteen visions of modern horror dissect the relationship between artist and model, exposing the spaces the eye is tricked into missing where we witness the beautiful and monstrous intricacies of making and being made.
Featuring stories by Andrew Wilmot, M. Lopes da Silva, Gwendolyn Kiste, Hailey Piper, Roland Blackburn, Ira Rat, Donyae Coles, Matt Neil Hill, Brendan Vidito, LC von Hessen, Gary J. Shipley, and editors Joe Koch and Sam Richard.
Pornography for the End of the World - Brendan Vidito
Wonderland Award-winning and three-time Splatterpunk Award-nominee, Brendan Vidito has been a close friend and collaborator (as co-editor of The New Flesh, and his fiction has appeared in Cinema Viscera, Zombie Punks Fuck Off, and the forthcoming Stories of the Eye) for many years. We are beyond excited to be publishing his follow-up to the cult hit Nightmares in Ecstasy.
Pornography for the End of the World comes out July 31st, but you can pre-order it here.
The end of the world demands a new form of pornography…
From Brendan Vidito, the Wonderland-Award-winning author of Nightmares in Ecstasy, comes nine tales of apocalyptic body horror. A young man is initiated into a cult that worships sickness and disease.
Survivors of a nuclear holocaust make a pilgrimage to the last movie theater in existence.
Premonitions of disaster haunt a loving couple doomed to watch each other die.
Each story pulsates with Vidito's characteristic dark humor, atmospheric tension, and visceral prose. This is pornography for the devotee of horror, the morbidly curious—pornography for the end of the world.
“With apocalyptic urgency, Vidito strip-mines our psychosexual fears and frailties as humans to elicit an ecstatic response. I couldn't stop reading. As a grand manipulator, he molds speculative horror and body horror into one dark hybrid, a sleek and cum-soaked vessel of transcendence.” - Joe Koch, The Wingspan of Severed Hands, Convulsive
“Audacious and devastatingly unique, Pornography for the End of the World is the literary equivalent of a Molotov cocktail with author Brendan Vidito’s fiery and explosive writing that feels utterly dangerous to read. I’m still recovering from the brutality of some of these tales.” - Eric LaRocca, Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke
To Wallow in Ash & Other Sorrows - Sam Richard
The Repress of Sam Richard’s 2019 Wonderland Award-winning collection, To Wallow in Ash & Other Sorrows is finally here. Our final release of 2021 and a book that went promptly out of print following its Wonderland win, To Wallow in Ash & Other Sorrows is an urgent animal cry from the depths of grief and loss. With most of the stories written in the weeks and months following the sudden death of his wife, Sam Richard strips bare the uncomfortable truths of despair and longing for someone ripped from this world far too soon. In the spirit of Kathe Koja, JG Ballard, and Georges Bataille, these stories are painfully personal and deeply unsettling, but also all to familiar for those who’ve experienced intimate loss.
This new edition is revised and remastered and includes a brand new, never before seen novelette, There is Power in the Blood.
"With To Wallow in Ash & Other Sorrows, Sam Richard has crafted a book of stories that will rip your heart right out of your chest... and it's absolutely worth every moment. At turns brutally raw, incredibly beautiful, and always unexpected, this is an unforgettable ode to a love lost far too soon, and a collection that is absolutely worth seeking out." - Gwendolyn Kiste, author of The Rust Maidens and The Invention of Ghosts
Cinema Viscera: An Anthology of Movie Theater Horror - edited by Sam Richard
Honestly, it has been a bumpy road with this book. Initially, it was intended to be our August release, but given some life stuff from a handful of the contributors (very much myself included), it got delayed until October. The 31st, so be precise.
Much like Beautiful/Grotesque, this one started because I wanted to continue the tradition of Jo Quenell, Katy Michelle Quinn, and myself inviting a couple other friends along on an adventure of ‘let’s write some weird shit…’ And much like Beautiful/Grotesque (and LAZERMALL before it), this experiment ended with something I’m so proud of. Cinema Viscera is about horror stories that take place in movie theaters. That’s it. A simple premise, but oh god did these maniacs deliver. Along with Katy, Jo, and I, we asked our good friends Charles Austin Muir and Brendan Vidito to join us. The results were so much darker, complex, uncomfortable, and strange than I initially anticipated. And now you can pre-order it.
We’ve got an amazing cover by Don Noble, too, so check that shit out.
Here’s the back cover copy:
In five unique and bizarre tales Katy Michelle Quinn (Girl in the Walls), Charles Austin Muir (Slippery When Metastasized), Jo Quenell (The Mud Ballad), Brendan Vidito (Nightmares in Ecstasy), and Sam Richard (Sabbath of the Fox-Devils) each bring you their own disturbing vision of what lurks in the darkness of your local movie theater.
Not gonna lie, this shit is a lot darker than we thought it would be.
Make sure to grab some popcorn…
Stories of the Eye Anthology Submission Call
Check the Submissions page for more information, but the long-short of it is that Sam Richard (Sabbath of the Fox-Devils) and Joanna Koch (The Wingspan of Severed Hands) are teaming up to edit an anthology of horror stories about the relationships between artist and subject. We will be open to subs for the month of November, so you’ve got some time to craft your tales. Please please please check the submission guidelines for all pertinent information.
Preorder is live on our next release
Our next release, Ali Seay’s To Offer Her Pleasure is now up for preorder in the Weirdpunk Store. Grab it here. We have both a regular version and an Ltd. signed version. We only have a few signed copies left, so get it while you still can if you want it!
The official release day is August 31st, but if all goes according to plan, we may be able to get the preorders out prior to the release day.
Nightworms was gracious enough to host a cover reveal for us, which you can check out here.
This is a strange, dark book that manages to both be gruesome and fun in equal measure, while also carrying an undercurrent of sadness to it. Basically, it’s a perfect fit here at Weirdpunk.
Synopsis:
After the death of his father and his mother taking off, it becomes clear to Ben that the only thing he can count on, is no one to count on.
Until he finds the book. One that calls forth a shadowy horned figure. She comes with unexpected gifts and the comfort of a dependable presence. And she asks for very little in return, really. The more Ben offers her, the easier it gets.
Sometimes, family requires more than a little sacrifice…
“A gruesome take on the coming of age story, TO OFFER HER PLEASURE gives us well-drawn and empathetic characters and a compelling evil. Tightly written and fast-paced, Seay wastes no time in snaring her readers with sacrifice and dark promises, kept in the bloodiest way.” - Laurel Hightower (Crossroads, Whispers in the Dark)
Eric LaRocca’s Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke cover-reveal and pre-order
Our next release is Eric LaRocca’s Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke, a deeply disturbing, epistolary novella about a twisted relationship that grows between two women. To our eyes, it reads like Dennis Cooper and David Cronenberg meeting in a seedy chatroom in the early 2000s. And we love it.
Josh-fucking-Malerman had this to say about it:
“A startling affair...I’ll be cleaning up particles of darkness in my office for weeks.” - Josh Malerman (Bird Box, Inspection)
So you know it has to be good.
Our friends over and Night Worms have graciously agreed to do a cover reveal, so check that out here!
The cover art was done by the incredible Swedish artist Kim Jakobsson with the text design handled by the one and only Ira Rat (of Filthy Loot).
The book is also now available for Pre-Order here, so snag a copy early and we’ll try our best to get it to you prior to the June 1st release day!!
We’re also down to 5 subscription slots for the 2021 Weirdpunk Sub Club. Signing up for that gives you each of our releases as they come out, plus you save on shipping, and you get extra goodies with each book! Sign up today and we’ll send out Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke, Maria Abram’s She Who Rules the Dead, and the Beautiful/Grotesque anthology edited by Sam Richard, all in one go!
Maria Abrams’ She Who Rules the Dead cover reveal and preorder
Our next release is Maria Abrams’ amazing She Who Rules the Dead! Coming April 15th, we just opened the book to preorders in our store.
Henry has received a message: he needs to sacrifice five people to the demon that’s been talking to him in his nightmares. He already has four, and number five, Claire, is currently bound in the back of his van. Too bad Claire isn’t exactly human.
She Who Rules the Dead reads like a Tales From the Crypt collaboration between Kathe Koja and Joe R. Lansdale but retains Abrams' powerful and unique voice. Don't miss it!
“I fucking loved this book! Just when I thought I knew where it was headed--I was wrong. And I love to be wrong. A thrilling ride. I want more!” - Ali Seay (Go Down Hard)
Maria even did the cover art herself and holy hell is this thing a beauty. Don’t sleep on this book!!
Weirdpunk 2021 Subscription Club
You can now subscribe to the Weirdpunk 2021 Sub Club!
Check it for more info and to subscribe!
Limited to 30 members, this entitles you to each Weirdpunk release from 2021 as they come out. You’ll also get some exclusive merch like a Weirdpunk can koozie and a ltd sticker, along with a postcard cover print of each book, a Weirdpunk logo pin and sticker, and a Weirdpunk bookmark.
If you already bought Beautiful/Grotesque and you want to subscribe, hit us up and we’ll get you hooked up at a lower price, minus that book.
All Sorts of News!
Starting March 3rd through the 7th, we’ll be participating in the SMOLFair. Swing by and check out all the other presses and whatnot. There will be readings, book giveaways, and our friend the legendary Kathe Koja will be the keynote guest! We’ll be running a special discount in the Weirdpunk Store for the duration of the event. Use promo code SMOLFAIR at checkout for 20% off your entire order!
Shirt pre-orders are up! I’ve been dragging my feet on this, but we’ve got shirts with the classic Weirdpunk logo on them in the works! Snag a pre-order so I’m not guessing what sizes and whatnot to order.
We’ll have cover reveals for Eric LaRocca’s disturbing Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and Maria Abrams’ haunting She Who Rules the Dead over the next couple of weeks, too!
And if you haven’t, pick up a copy of our latest anthology, Beautiful/Grotesque! Stories by Weirdpunk alumni/friends Joanna Koch, Katy Michelle Quinn, Jo Quenell, Roland Blackburn, and Sam Richard (me). We’re thinking of it as a weird horror mixtape and it even has the fucking cover art to match. Snag a copy from the store or wherever you pick up your weird books.
Upcoming Releases!
Our next release, the mini-anthology Beautiful/Grotesque is slated to be out Feb 15th! Stories of the beautiful and grotesque colliding written by Weirdpunk alumni, Jo Quenell, Katy Michelle Quinn, Joanna Koch, Roland Blackburn, and Sam Richard.
Eric LaRocca’s Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke is currently in edits and we’re planning on a summer release. This book is unsettling, upsetting, and fucking perfect. Like Dennis Cooper and David Cronenberg meeting in a seedy chatroom.
We have one more upcoming release on the books so far for 2021. It will be officially announced soon. We’re planning on 3 more releases this year, though that could change depending on several factors.