Who Reads Lit Mags? We Do! Spotlight on Nightmare; Weird Horror; The Dark Magazine; Nocturne; & Short Story, Long

"We share the essays, poems, and stories we’ve been reading in lit mags."

Welcome to our weekly column offering perspectives on lit mag publishing, with contributions from readers, writers and editors around the world.

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Happy October! This post is part of a monthly series where we share the essays, poems, and stories we’ve been reading in lit mags. I’ve been curating a list of all the recommendations from the comments, which you can find right here. I’ll update this Bibliocommons list on an ongoing basis with all of the works suggested from this month, so we can be sure to keep track of what we’ve been reading and recommending.

This month, I’m focusing on horror and spooky lit. Out of all the things that remind me that it’s fast approaching Halloween, it’s the dry sound of crunching leaves that gets me the most. I’m not one of those people who dreads the end of summer. Actually, I love summer—I live in Portland, Oregon, and soaking up that warm summer sun while taking long walks with my family is one of my favorite pastimes. But while the sun is still hanging on for now, I can feel the shift coming. And when it does, I’ll be ready to cozy up and dive into something that will freak me out.

Talking about scary stories is tricky—it’s like trying to explain why a joke is funny, and sometimes, it’s not that the story is terrifying while you’re reading it. Instead, the unsettling images creep in afterward, lingering in your mind when you least expect them. That’s what happened to me when I read the story “Break the Skin if You Have To” by Emma Osborne, Cadwell Turnbull, and Jess Essey, published in Nightmare’s December 2022 issue.

I found this story after reading Cadwell Turnbull’s story in Jordon Peele’s anthology Out There Screaming. The December 2022 issue of Nightmare’s cover was this image of hands grabbing, and it stuck with me as I made my way through the story.

I’m not going to spoil anything, but the story’s main character talks a lot about cleaning her house. That doesn’t sound scary, right? But I, too, am always telling myself what I need to clean. As the days get colder, my motivation to tackle the to-do list fades, and I start opting for the comfort of blankets instead. Yet, the mental list of cleaning “shoulds” only gets louder. And whenever I would remind myself of all the things I need to clean, my brain would latch onto this story, and the unsettling images that followed. So, if you’re into stories that leave you with that creeping feeling long after you’ve finished, this one is worth checking out.

Speaking of Jordan Peele, there’s this scene in the movie Us with rabbits. It’s in the underground facility, the Tethered’s World, in a long, sterile windowless hallway with a bunch of rabbits roaming free. Before this movie, I’d never considered rabbits to be frightening, but the image of them as detached, indifferent, and eerily unsettling has stayed with me ever since. When I came across another piece in Nightmare’s July 2022 issue, this one nonfiction, I was reminded of how truly unsettling rabbits can be. This piece is called “Bunnies,” and is written by Dante Luiz, who you can tell is also an artist because of the way the story unfolds vividly like a painting. In this story, a seemingly innocent childhood memory of visiting a friend’s house to see her “bunny farm” provides the reader with a haunting experience.

Another magazine that publishes primarily horror is Nocturne Magazine. On Chill Subs, Nocturne describes itself as “that creepy neighbor you’re curious about,” which I think perfectly captures what this lit mag publishes. I really enjoy the interface of this journal, which is online for easy access, and each issue is an actual book that you can download onto your e-reader. A poem that I found especially unsettling is “Facsimile” by Marisca Pichette from Nocturne Magazine’s Issue 3. It’s a poem that begs to be read out loud, preferably in a darkened room lit only by candles, and is about something being created and then is left their own devices, without interference or guidance. It’s a different type of spooky, which lies in existential dread and fears of abandonment.

As a parent of a young child, I usually avoid stories about bad things happening to kids. But then I stumbled upon a story called “The Abandoned” by Jack Klausner in The Dark Magazine, and I was hooked by the end of the first paragraph. The story starts with a child finding a seemingly ordinary box, and there was something about that setup I found so intriguing. It’s such a simple premise, but as the spooky elements started accumulating, I was completely drawn in and I had to read it all the way through.

Another one that stuck with me comes from Weird Horror, in their most recent fall 2024 issue. The story is called “It Knows What’s Under Your Skin” by Jason Fernandes, and even that title just gives me the heebie-jeebies because what is “It”? The story is written in the second person, the “you” form. That can feel forced in horror sometimes, but this story was so skillfully written. The way it draws you in, as if you are the main character, is both unsettling and impressive. And the ending leaves you waiting for a fright that’s certain to come but only in your imagination, which, in some ways, is the scariest part.

The last spooky story I’ll mention is “The Listing” by Jac Jemc. I discovered this story on a Substack lit mag,

Short Story, Long

. This lit mag was created by Aaron Burch, masterful author as well as the Founding Editor of Hobart.

Short Story, Long

publishes longer stories, between 2k-8K words, which I very much appreciate. I wasn’t looking for a scary story when I started reading Jemc’s “The Listing.” It didn’t even seem particularly terrifying at first—it’s about a real estate agent trying to sell a haunted house. But the writing was so well done that it became genuinely chilling. There’s a scene involving a pool and a dress that has never left me. It’s not about jump scares or gore. It’s the kind of horror that sticks with you, lingering in the back of your mind when you least expect it.

So, those are my picks. I’d love to hear what scary reads from lit mags you have unearthed.

Like last time, please note that, while I look forward to reading our Lit Mag Brags each month and seeing what and where everyone has been published, I’d like this to be a resource for what we’re reading, not what we’ve written.

Feel free to also include any and all works you’ve read lately that is any genre, and I’ll add them to the list. I can’t wait to see what everyone suggests.

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