Spoken word recordings of short, weird fiction.
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Jenni Fagan - When Words Change the Molecular Composition of Water
Jenni Fagan - When Words Change the Molecular Composition of Water by Pietersender
10 Aug 2020
Nina Shepardson - And Elm Do Hate
Nina Shepardson - And Elm Do Hate by Pietersender
2 Aug 2020
Emma Kathryn - Moving
Emma Kathryn - Moving by Pietersender
25 Jul 2020
Ambrose Bierce - A Vine on a House
Ambrose Bierce - A Vine on a House by Pietersender
12 Jul 2020
Buried by the Dead - Jen McGregor
A bit of a different reading this week with a blend of gothic horror and dark humour. What I love about this story is the way it gets the feel of the remote countryside in Western Scotland, the persistent and petrichorean sensation of not-quite-rain on dense vegetation. The character's voice is also wonderfully rendered; she's self-absorbed but also very self-aware, conscious of the absurdity of her position. A wonderful story to read.
Buried by the Dead was read from Haunted Voices, which can be bought directly from the publisher here - https://www.hauntpublishing.com/books/haunted-voices
5 Jul 2020
Daniel Pietersen - Balehouse, A Fragment
Daniel Pietersen - Balehouse, A Fragment by Pietersender
28 Jun 2020
Mikhail Bulgakov - The Red Crown
Mikhail Bulgakov - The Red Crown by Pietersender
21 Jun 2020
Vincent O'Sullivan - When I Was Dead
Vincent O'Sullivan - When I Was Dead by Pietersender
7 Jun 2020
Michael Cisco - The Watchful Eyes of Cops
The Watchful Eyes of Cops is another very short piece, more a work of flash rather than short fiction. Like a number of Weirdwards readings, I was flicking through books to try and find something suitable when the pages of Hexus almost fell open at this very apposite story of police state surveillance and brutality. It's tempting to call this speculative fiction because of its presentation but, of course, it's neither speculative nor fiction.
More info here - https://pietersender.wordpress.com/2020/06/08/weirdwards-the-watchful-eyes-of-cops-michael-cisco/
31 May 2020
Kirsty Logan - We Can Make Something Grow Between The Mushrooms And The Snow
I love the way the three different voices work in this piece, each concerned with their own goals. Even though there’s no actual dialogue there’s still a conversation happening, even if it feels like neither is really listening to the others. As interesting as this is narratively, it makes it really fun to read aloud.
More info here - https://pietersender.wordpress.com/2020/06/06/weirdwards-we-can-make-something-grow-between-the-mushrooms-and-the-snow-kirsty-logan/
24 May 2020
Kristi DeMeester - Like Feather, Like Bone
I first read this story in the first volume of Year's Best Weird Fiction from Undertow Publications. It's one of those pieces that is almost non-existant, barely three pages long, yet which glows with poetic imagery. The delicate bones and feathers that the story's built from contrast sharply with the dense, sharp-edged sense of grief at its heart.
More info here - https://pietersender.wordpress.com/2020/05/29/readings-like-feather-like-bone-kristi-demeester/
17 May 2020
Francis Stevens - Unseen Unfeared
In this short story, Stevens introduces us to her narrator Blaisdale who, after dining with a detective friend, encounters the strange Dr Frederick Holt. Holt, as part of his researches into colour microphotography, has unveiled a previously unseen world of “centipedish things, with yard-long bodies, detestable, furry spiders that lurked in shadows, and sausage-shaped translucent horrors”. In fact, at face value, the plot reads very similar to Lovecraft’s From Beyond. Indeed, it’s not a huge assumption to believe that Stevens was inspired by Lovecraft’s tale when she wrote hers.
Yet, like many assumptions, it’s completely incorrect.
More info here - https://pietersender.wordpress.com/2020/05/19/readings-unseen-unfeared-francis-stevens/
9 May 2020
Camilla Grudova - Rhinoceros
I first came across Camilla Grudova's work at the Edinburgh Book Festival, when I attended a joint reading between her and Helen McClory (whose A Voice Spoke To Me At Night I have also read for this series). I was instantly captivated by her claustrophobically intimate tales of a vague Mitteleuropa that seemed to summon up both Kafka and Beckett, by way of Orwell's steamed-cabbage tenements, with a very unique voice.
More info here - https://pietersender.wordpress.com/2020/05/10/readings-rhinoceros-camilla-grudova/
More info - https://pietersender.wordpress.com/2020/05/10/readings-rhinoceros-camilla-grudova/
The Doll's Alphabet is available her - https://fitzcarraldoeditions.com/books/the-dolls-alphabet
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