Nightmare Magazine, Issue 162 (March 2026)

We have original short fiction from Gordon B. White (“Will the Last One to Leave Please Turn Out the Lights?”) and Adam-Troy Castro (“Her Dark Places”). Our Horror Lab originals include a flash (“The Doll Problem”) from Angela Liu and a poem (“Zooming Past Shotgun Houses”) from Eva Roslin. We running our quarterly media review, and we’ll have the latest installment of our column on horror, “The H Word.” As ever, you’ll get to enjoy author spotlight interviews with our authors.

Cover art by warmtail / Adobe Stock

Nightmare Magazine, Issue 162 (March 2026)

Editorial

Editorial: March 2026

by Wendy N. Wagner

As violence, corporate greed, and international tension rise, we are all asking: What’s really going on beneath the surface of our society? Are we really as safe as we have been led to believe? And holy crap, how f*cked up is everything, really?

Publishes Online on 3/4

Fiction

Will the Last One to Leave Please Turn Out the Lights?

by Gordon B. White

The Idiot looms like a tumorous moon in the morning sky as Morris County Animal Control Officer Bailey Butler passes Stantonsville’s last operating gas station and turns off onto Franklin Road. For a merciful half-mile, a run of white ash and pignut hickory screens the Idiot from her sight until the canopy recedes, but then there it is again. Its enormous shadow haunts the feet of the western hills.

Publishes Online on 3/4

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Gordon B. White

by Clay Vermulm

I’ve always been interested in the idea of the absurd and doomed endeavor. A useless task undertaken on faith, perhaps, or even just lack of imagination or options is fascinating to me. These are also dramatically interesting situations to put people in and see how they react. Here, as I wrote Bailey and found a counterpoint in Heck, the kind of energy it would take for her specifically to persevere began to emerge.

Publishes Online on 3/4

Fiction

The Doll Problem

by Angela Liu

No one knows where the doll came from. With its blue glass eyes and ribboned hair, it looks like the ones you see at department stores and wonder who the hell buys them. “It’s gonna kill us in our sleep,” Kathy says, slapping Yuki’s hand away when he tries to play with the doll’s horsetail hair.

Publishes Online on 3/11

Nonfiction

The H Word: Laughing to Swallow My Screams

by Ryan Habermeyer

I can pinpoint one of my earliest moments of existential unease. I was nine years old and, defying my religiously conservative parents, snuck into the local movie theater to watch Who Framed Roger Rabbit. I didn’t understand the social politics of the movie at the time, and while faintly aroused by Jessica Rabbit I remained thoroughly confused by the idea of bestial human/toon marriage.

Publishes Online on 3/11

Fiction

Her Dark Places

by Adam-Troy Castro

My wife sometimes asked what had gone wrong with us. She had always been our bank of compassion, the caretaker of our marriage, the one who diagnosed what was needed to keep us on track, and made sure that it was provided. I evaded the question. How could I tell her that somehow, along the way, she had transformed from the most beautiful person I had ever known to a grotesquerie, something it hurt me to even look at?

Publishes Online on 3/18

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Adam-Troy Castro

by Alex Puncekar

The writing of the story is an exercise in scaring myself.

Publishes Online on 3/18

Poetry

Zooming Past Shotgun Houses

by Eva Roslin

I captured the sorrow you sent me
like a star
it burned my palm
when it promised to nourish

Publishes Online on 3/25

Nonfiction

Media Reviews: March 2026

by Adam-Troy Castro

No, Adam-Troy Castro doesn’t recommend Primate. But he loved one particular performance in the film that he thinks you ought to check out. He also talks about some recent reads—so check out his book discussion, too.

Publishes Online on 3/25