Nightmare Magazine

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Aug. 2025 (Issue 155)

We have original short fiction from Champ Wongsatayanont (“Autogas Ferryman”) and Ash Huang (“Safe Face”). Our Horror Lab originals include a flash (“Finishing Touches”) from Adam-Troy Castro and a poem (“Blood-Orange”) from L.M. Harris. We’ll be serving up the latest installment of our column on horror, “The H Word,” plus author spotlights with our authors. Also, Adam-Troy Castro has penned another fun media review..

Aug. 2025 (Issue 155)

Editorial

Editorial: August 2025

Many of us are feeling anxious about what’s going to happen to each other and our beautiful planet. I sometimes lose heart, myself! But if there’s one thing I’ve learned from working with so many amazing horror writers over the years, it’s that when things get dark, humans have the capacity to come together and shine.

Fiction

Bunny Ears

Hannah’s first impression of Colden Hills Music Camp is that, for a place with “hills” and “music” right in the name, it’s too flat and way, way too quiet, and the one thing she initially thinks must be a weird rustic flute propped up against the side of the welcome cabin turns out to be just an extra-straight stick.

Author Spotlight

Fiction

Swallow Test

Most of us speak and eat/swallow without thinking about how complicated these processes actually are, how a single malfunction in the system can completely alter how we live or interact with others. A few years back, I accompanied an elderly family member to their first swallow test.

Nonfiction

The H Word: The Waking Nightmares of Philip K. Dick

Philip K. Dick is not a household name but much of his science fiction is: Hollywood adaptations of his work include Blade Runner, Minority Report, and A Scanner Darkly. He never wrote a vampire or werewolf story, and he almost never played with the common tropes of the horror genre.

Fiction

Eight Ball

There’s an eye in the back of my husband’s head. It opens only after he’s fallen asleep, lid splitting silent as a dream in the night. My husband’s eyes are amber, no brighter than a penny in the sun. The eye on the back of his head is different. It looks out at me through his dark hair, pupil white and glowing.

Author Spotlight

Poetry

Turnip Heads

I wrote this poem as a critique of certain political parties that espouse pro-life policies for “life” in the womb but won’t lift a finger to enact laws to help children once they’re actually born (anti-gun legislation, free healthcare and school lunches, etc.). They regard children as disposable fodder.

Nonfiction

Plumbing the Depths: Archaeology in Horror Fiction

Archaeology is a method and practice which resurfaces the past. It can help us reconstruct the history and culture of ancient (or not so ancient) people, and give us insight into what it means to be human. Archaeology produces more than museum displays, and it can be used to manipulate and disempower.

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