Mar. 2025 (Issue 150)

We have original short fiction from Lincoln Michel (“The Tugwort”) and Ana Hurtado (“Pezcara”). Our Horror Lab originals include a poem (“Touch This Cancer, It Probably Won’t Bite”) from Josh Pearce and flash fiction (“sharp house”) from Samir Sirk Morató. We also have the latest installment of our column on horror, “The H Word,” plus author spotlights with our authors, and a film review by J.B. Kish.

Cover art by Warm Tail / Shutterstock

Mar. 2025 (Issue 150)

Editorial

Editorial: March 2025

by Wendy N. Wagner

David Lynch did not come up with the line “The owls are not what they seem.” It was co-creator Mark Frost who wrote the teleplay for that episode of Twin Peaks. But seemings and doublings are a primary occupation of Lynch’s work. That’s why when I sat down to write about this month’s issue, I immediately thought of him—and the owls. These stories and this poem are also not what they seem.

Fiction

The Tugwort

by Lincoln Michel

Author spotlight

They went to the island not to save the marriage—for the marriage hadn’t yet occurred—but to save the possibility of the marriage. It’d been a rough year, Carla knew. The details were banal. Stress at work and stress at home. The economy collapsing. The political system collapsing. The planet burning. Despite all this, when her fiancé, Anton, proposed a vacation, she balked.

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Lincoln Michel

by Kevin Figueroa Quiñones

I didn’t want it to feel fixed to a specific culture or fable, but rather to have the general atmosphere and logic of a myth. The inspiration was more in the “vibe,” so to speak, and archetypal elements like a connection between cats and the supernatural. The creature’s name and gist of the story came to me in a dream. And I connected it, in my own mind, to a few other weird fiction stories I’ve written about invented entities.

Fiction

sharp house

by Samir Sirk Morató

Little is more crushing than the idea that no matter what you do, you are only capable of destruction, and everyone knows it. I wanted to weave that fear into this story, and to push tenderness and violence up against each other. How can we understand one without understanding the other?

Nonfiction

The H Word: I Don’t Relate to You

by Zoe Kerr

In late 2023, I noticed a new subgenre on the horizon, emerging from the intersection of celebrity culture and horror. I call it “Stage Fright”—save the groans, it’s a working title. With the release of Trap, Smile 2, and MaXXXine, this new wave reflects a zeitgeist increasingly disillusioned with the glittering facades of billionaires and icons, and eagerly tuning in when these stars find themselves ensnared in tragic circumstances.

Fiction

Pezcara

by Ana Hurtado

Author spotlight

It hides from me deep below. Amidst bubbles and foam, a skull of gills and scales and spine stashes away under waves of blue. Do we share the same creases beneath our eyes, the ones that feel like gashes in the mornings? Is salt buried above its cheeks? When it swims and breathes does it choke like me, now? Like me, before? And when it cries and screams does the ocean swallow it all up, too?

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Ana Hurtado

by Alex Puncekar

This is an Ecuadorian tradition, to burn a poppet doll on New Year’s Eve and leave the bad year behind as you jump across the burning effigy. We burn a body that represents el año viejo—the old year—so we can leave behind all that negative energy and welcome a new year full of hope and possibilities. I wanted to examine this celebration by emphasizing its violence and the borrowing of faces to do so.

Poetry

Touch This Cancer, It Probably Won’t Bite

by Josh Pearce

This piece comes from a childhood of taking piano lessons. I switched to other instruments after high school, but I still remember how to read sheet music.

Nonfiction

Media Review: MadS

by J.B. Kish

Guest reviewer J.B. Kish shines a spotlight on a French horror film you might have missed: MadS. Find out why it’s a must-see on for both film nerds and horror fans!