Dark Horses: The Magazine of Weird Fiction No. 8 | September 2022


Book Description

dark horse /ˈdärk ˈˌhôrs/ noun 1. a candidate or competitor about whom little is known but who unexpectedly wins or succeeds. "a dark-horse candidate" Join us for a monthly tour of writers who give as good as they get. From hard science-fiction to stark, melancholic apocalypses; from Lovecraftian horror to zombies and horror comedy; from whimsical interludes to tales of unlikely compassion--whatever it is, if it's weird, it's here. So grab a seat before the starting gun fires, pour yourself a glass of strange wine, and get ready for the running of the dark horses. In this issue: CLARITY Mark J. Schultis CONSUMED Ophelia Vang THE MIRROR Angelisa Fontaine-Wood ALUKA OF THE WITCH DOCTORS Wayne Kyle Spitzer MY FEELINGS ARE PLOTTING AGAINST ME Sabina Malik PUMP AND GO Caitlyn Pace SPLENDID ISOLATION Peter Emmett Naughton THE NIGHT WITCH Robert John Jenson UNINVITED GUESTS Adam Newnham VISITOR Jeremy Schnee




Dark Horses


Book Description

dark horse /ˈdärk ˈˌhôrs/ noun 1. a candidate or competitor about whom little is known but who unexpectedly wins or succeeds. "a dark-horse candidate" Join us for a monthly tour of writers who give as good as they get. From hard science-fiction to stark, melancholic apocalypses; from Lovecraftian horror to zombies and horror comedy; from whimsical interludes to tales of unlikely compassion--whatever it is, if it's weird, it's here. So grab a seat before the starting gun fires, pour yourself a glass of strange wine, and get ready for the running of the dark horses. In this issue: CLARITY Mark J. Schultis CONSUMED Ophelia Vang THE MIRROR Angelisa Fontaine-Wood ALUKA OF THE WITCH DOCTORS Wayne Kyle Spitzer MY FEELINGS ARE PLOTTING AGAINST ME Sabina Malik PUMP AND GO Caitlyn Pace SPLENDID ISOLATION Peter Emmett Naughton THE NIGHT WITCH Robert John Jenson UNINVITED GUESTS Adam Newnham VISITOR Jeremy Schnee




Prose


Book Description

Yves Bonnefoy (1923-2016), a major poet, was equally a seminal essayist and thinker. This second and final volume of the Yves Bonnefoy Reader, contains what he regarded as his foundational essays, as well as a generous selection of essays from all periods translated into English for the first time. Subjects include comparative French and English poetics, Shakespeare's theatre, the paintings of Piero della Francesca and Poussin, the sculpture of Bernini, Mozart's operas, a re-assessment of Rimbaud, the impact of photography on art, and much more. The range is broad, but the metaphysical challenge is the same: to affirm presence, and finitude, against all forms of life-sapping conceptual thought. Language may have become suspect, but these essays affirm the 'project of hope' that was Bonnefoy's from the outset. A range of translators contributes, from the editors whose work on Bonnefoy is celebrated and of long standing, to Iain Bamforth, Michael Bishop, Hilary Davies, Jennie Feldman, Emily Grosholz, Mark Hutchinson, Steven Jaron, Viviane Lowe, Hoyt Rogers, John Taylor and Ahren Warner.




A Night in the Lonesome October


Book Description

"In the murky London gloom, a knife-wielding gentleman prowls the midnight streets with his faithful watchdog Snuff - gathering together the grisly ingredients they will need for an upcoming ancient and unearthly rite. And all manner of players, both human and undead, are preparing to participate."--Publisher.




The Savage Kind


Book Description

Two lonely teenage girls in 1940s Washington, DC, discover they have a penchant for solving crimes—and an even greater desire to commit them—in the new mystery novel by Macavity Award-winning novelist John Copenhaver. Philippa Watson, a good-natured yet troubled seventeen-year-old, has just moved to Washington, DC. She’s lonely until she meets Judy Peabody, a brilliant and tempestuous classmate. The girls become unlikely friends and fashion themselves as intellectuals, drawing the notice of Christine Martins, their dazzling English teacher, who enthralls them with her passion for literature and her love of noirish detective fiction. When Philippa returns a novel Miss Martins has lent her, she interrupts a man grappling with her in the shadows. Frightened, Philippa flees, unsure who the man is or what she’s seen. Days later, her teacher returns to school altered: a dark shell of herself. On the heels of her teacher’s transformation, a classmate is found dead in the Anacostia River—murdered—the body stripped and defiled with a mysterious inscription. As the girls follow the clues and wrestle with newfound feelings toward each other, they suspect that the killer is closer to their circle than they imagined—and that the greatest threat they face may not be lurking in the halls at school, or in the city streets, but creeping out from a murderous impulse of their own.




Shakespeare and the French Poet


Book Description

A meditation on the major plays of Shakespeare and the thorny art of literary translation, Shakespeare and the French Poet contains twelve essays from France's most esteemed critic and preeminent living poet, Yves Bonnefoy. Offering observations on Shakespeare's response to the spiritual crisis of his era as well as compelling insights on the practical and theoretical challenges of verse in translation, Bonnefoy delivers thoughtful, evocative essays penned in his characteristically powerful prose. Translated specifically for an American readership, Shakespeare and the French Poet also features a new interview with Bonnefoy. For Shakespeare scholars, Bonnefoy enthusiasts, and students of literary translation, Shakespeare and the French Poet is a celebration of the global language of poetry and the art of "making someone else's voice live again in one's own."




From Gutenberg to Zuckerberg


Book Description

John Naughton is The Observer's "Networker" columnist, a prominent blogger, and vice president of Wolfson College, Cambridge. The Times has said of his writing, "[it] draws on more than two decades of study to explain how the internet works and the challenges and opportunities it will offer to future generations," and Cory Doctorow raved that "this is the kind of primer you want to slide under your boss's door." In From Gutenberg to Zuckerberg, Naughton explores the living history of one of the most radically transformational technologies of all time. From Gutenberg to Zuckerberg is a clear-eyed history of one of the most central features of modern life: the internet. Once a technological novelty and now the very plumbing of the Information Age, the internet is something we have learned to take largely for granted. So, how exactly has our society become so dependent upon a utility it barely understands? And what does it say about us that this is the case? While explaining in highly engaging language the way the internet works and how it got that way, technologist John Naughton has distilled the noisy chatter surrounding the technology's relentless evolution into nine essential areas of understanding. In doing so, he affords readers deeper insight into the information economy and supplies the requisite knowledge to make better use of the technologies and networks around us, highlighting some of their fascinating and far-reaching implications along the way.




Visitation Rights


Book Description

In this futuristic courtroom horror tale of Stem Cell research turned bad, paranormal visitations and a fierce custody battle, two parents must overcome many obstacles in order to regain guardianship of something they once loved and cherished most.




The Wanderer


Book Description

After obscure author of strange stories, Simon Peterkin, vanishes in bizarre circumstances, a typescript, of a text entitled, 'The Wanderer', is found in his flat. 'The Wanderer' is a weird document. On a dying Earth, in the far-flung future, a man, an immortal, types the tale of his aeon-long life as prey, as a hunted man; he tells of his quitting the Himalayas, his sanctuary for thousands of years, to return to his birthplace, London, to write the memoirs; and writes, also, of the night he learned he was cursed with life without cease, an evening in a pub in that city, early in the twenty-first century, a gathering to tell of eldritch experiences undergone. Is 'The Wanderer' a fiction, perhaps Peterkin's last novel, or something far stranger? Perhaps more 'account' than 'story'?




Something Wicked This Way Rides


Book Description

Double, double toil and trouble... Shakespeare began the tense apprehension with his melodic yet warning phrase. Ray Bradbury continued the dark and ominous foreboding that oozes between the words. Now, it has come to the North American Old West, a world with its severe terrain and hardened residents. The rules were harsher out here, the ethics and morals changed, the fight for life and liberty quite different than anything these pioneers, these outlaws, these six-shooters and rebel rousers, these unquestionably brave men and women had bargained for. For them, something wicked certainly rode. Like a hell-broth boil and bubble... In this anthology, we explore the Old West with a skewed view, showcasing the weird western genre through stories that explore the peculiar and the fantastic, the wicked that was and could have been. You'll experience spiritual nightmares, mythical monsters, cosmic outlaws, discerning gods, and science run amok. Even the North Pole Security division isn't immune to the supernatural strangeness that stalks the late 1800s. In the tradition of the pulp and western stories of a bygone era, these are thirty tales to intrigue, amaze, and perhaps down right spook you right out of your boots. So brew up some coffee, head out to the rocking chair on the porch, and tilt your hat to shade your eyes so you can read real close. Just be sure you keep one eye on the horizon and one hand near your holster. For... With dark intentions and creatures astride, Something wicked this way rides. Enjoy stories from these talented authors Gustavo Bondoni - Marilyn "Mattie" Brahen - Kenneth Bykerk - Dwain Campbell - Gregg Chamberlain - Vonnie Winslow Crist - Stuart Croskell - Lawrence Dagstine - J.B. Dane - Kevin M. Folliard - John A. Frochio - Steve Gladwin - L.L. Hill - Adrian Ludens - Stefan Markos - Jonathon Mast - Jason J. McCuiston - Gregory L. Norris - Q Parker - Peter Prellwitz - John B. Rosenman - Alistair Rey - Darrell Schweitzer - Bradley H. Sinor - Matias Travieso-Diaz - Charles Wilkinson - Martin Zeigler