Located in a salon-style viewing room in the Seattle neighborhood of Madrona, Koplin del Rio gallery is debuting its brand new space with the work of Laurie Hogin, the artist behind the cover of our Summer 2025 Issue. 

Know that if you write vampires, you will have to work really hard to move beyond the shortcomings and the shorthand of so many other writers’ vampire interpretations. 

Nonsense lit is the only genre that captures that specific flavor of modern absurdity without trying to sand it down into a plot. When Alice meets a caterpillar who demands she recite poetry while high on mushrooms, it's not fantasy, it's Tuesday. Barthelme’s several stories composed entirely of fragmented conversations? That's not experimental fiction. That's my group chat.

My advice is this: you have to show your writing to people. 

The writing is concise, the mood is spooky, and I felt a genuine connection to the characters, both human and feline.

I don’t think I’ve learned anything. 

With enviable finesse, Chronister spins her tale with prose that feels both natural and highly crafted at once.

None of this matters. Really, it is not that big of a deal.

A weird life to me means experimenting and being authentic, regardless of expectations.

... not everyone will “get” your work, especially if you’re creating from the margins. 

I think most writers can benefit from writing less.

Strangeness and playfulness are important and serious too!

There ought to be more work like this, stories that shower the reader with a raw presentation of stuff, and an even more raw perspective on how that stuff makes us feel.

I can’t stand a likeable lead character.

I crave getting utterly immersed, lost even, in a jungle of a book like this, one where these digressions fill whole chapters and add nothing to the plot but everything to the tone and themes.

A pig might eat a man. 

You should exercise that creative muscle a little bit every day regardless of if you feel inspired or not.

Matthew F. Amati describes his style as "German expressionism filtered through a mouthful of saltines."

We want work that’s controversial, different, iconoclastic, radical, uncanny, strange.

We are pumped to meet and chat with everyone who stops by table #927 at AWP LA!

At the risk of sounding pretentious, I can’t not write. It’s simply not an option. 

Photo by Dan Parlante Weird Lit Mag’s  mission goes beyond showcasing weird fiction. We also aim to build community. This is not a new...

When it’s hard, I try not to press too much, try to shut off my self-censor, and just keep trying to get words down. 

Personally, I don’t want to give up on the cosmic tortoise, and I trust that once you read that section, you won’t either.