Nightmare Magazine, Issue 164 (May 2026)

We’re offering up original short fiction from Sarah Grey (“Hollow Cast”), plus an unusual treat—a creative nonfiction piece that reads like a short story: “Art the Clown attends the Jane Hirschfield poetry reading at the Anchorage Museum” by Audrey Coble. Our Horror Lab originals include a flash story (“A Magic Kingdom”) by Bruce McAllister and poem (“Consumed”) from Ash Vale. Eugen Bacon joins us at the H Word to discuss headless horror, and anthropology writer Lizzie Wade brings us a Plumbing the Depths deep dive into apocalyptic fiction. We also have author spotlights with our authors.

Cover art by Gareth / Adobe Stock

Nightmare Magazine, Issue 164 (May 2026)

Editorial

Editorial: May 2026

by Wendy N. Wagner

During my tenure as a Portland metro-area resident, I’ve had memberships at my neighborhood video stores, including Hollywood Video (RIP), Blockbuster Video (RIP), Clinton Street Video (RIP), and most recently, Great American Video & Espresso.

Publishes Online on 5/6

Fiction

Hollow Cast

by Sarah Grey

In Sunnyhaven, we were all equally unique—and we’d been that way for years, the morning the New Girl arrived. Now, any of us would’ve admitted it: Sunnyhaven wasn’t perfect. There were no public parks or pools, no families walking their dogs down ash-lined greenbelts.

Publishes Online on 5/6

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Sarah Grey

by Carrie Finch

Community is important—essential, even—but community is built on patience, tolerance, adaptability, generosity, understanding. Conformity shatters too easily. Don’t build community on conformity.

Publishes Online on 5/6

Fiction

A Magic Kingdom

by Bruce McAllister

When I worked at Disneyland in the summer of ’65, it was strange enough even without what I found in the dumpster. This was the sixties, and the Magic Kingdom, no matter how many long-haired hippies it denied admission to, couldn’t escape the decade.

Publishes Online on 5/13

Nonfiction

The H Word: An Intimate Gaze at Headless Horror

by Eugen Bacon

We hear of people dying in the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention, reaching a twenty-year high in 2025 alone, and this is unsettling. But what particularly chills me to the bone is the February 2026 report on the decapitation of four Haitian women deported from Puerto Rico.

Publishes Online on 5/13

Nonfiction

Art the Clown attends the Jane Hirschfield poetry reading at the Anchorage Museum

by Audrey Coble

On September 28th, 2023, Art the Clown from the Terrifier movies accompanies me to poet Jane Hirschfield’s reading at the Anchorage Museum. Sitting next to me in a blue, padded fold-down theater seat, he wears his usual outfit.

Publishes Online on 5/20

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Audrey Coble

by Kevin Figueroa Quiñones

I read and watch a lot of horror. I’m really interested in the genre and how it provides a vehicle for grappling with experiences that can be difficult to name and contend with otherwise, including experiences of physical porousness, boundarylessness, and vulnerability.

Publishes Online on 5/20

Poetry

consumed

by Ash Vale

my lover has peculiar tastes;
her cravings are unnatural.
she apologises for her appetite

Publishes Online on 5/27

Nonfiction

Plumbing the Depths: The Origins and Omissions of Apocalyptic Horror

by Lizzie Wade

Four thousand two hundred years ago, an ancient Egyptian scribe named Ipuwer lived through the end of the world. Old Kingdom Egypt, one of the world’s first states and a paragon of balance and order, was collapsing into chaos and violence.

Publishes Online on 5/27