Author Archives: dancoxon

The Shadow Booth: Vol. 4 open for pre-orders!

Posted
Filed under Lit mag

We’re thrilled to announce that The Shadow Booth: Vol. 4 will be published on 24 October 2019! There’s a suitably folk-horror vibe to this one, with new stories by Lucie McKnight Hardy (author of Water Shall Refuse Them), Charles Wilkinson, Jane Roberts, Gary Budden, Ashley Stokes and many more (full lineup below). Once again, we’ll be publishing as an ebook and a mass-market paperback, which should match your copies of Vols. 1, 2 & 3 perfectly on the shelf.

Pre-orders are open now through our online store. If you’ve enjoyed Vols. 1-3 (or are just a fan of strange, uncanny short stories), please take a moment to pre-order your copy.

We’ve also dropped the price of Vols. 1 & 2 through until October, so if you’ve fallen behind now is the perfect time to catch up! Vols. 1 & 2 are only £6.99 in paperback until 24 October, and all three volumes to date are only £2.99 as ebooks. It’s the perfect time to catch up on all those stories you missed, from the likes of Alison Moore, Kirsty Logan, Mark Morris, Aliya Whiteley, Robert Shearman, Chikodili Emelumadu, Richard V. Hirst and many, many others.

But we haven’t told you the most exciting part! The Table of Contents reads as follows:

  • The Devil of Timanfaya by Lucie McKnight Hardy
  • The Tribute by James Machin 
  • The Larpins by Charles Wilkinson 
  • Drowning by Giselle Leeb 
  • You Are Not in Kettering Now by Andrew McDonnell 
  • Hardrada by Ashley Stokes 
  • Defensive Wounds by James Everington 
  • The Verandah by Jay Caselberg 
  • The Salt Marsh Lambs by Jane Roberts
  • The Box of Knowledge by Tim Cooke 
  • His Hand by Polis Loizou 
  • Terminal Teatime by Anna Vaught
  • Collector of Games by Gary Budden 
  • One Two Three by Marian Womack

Hopefully you’re just as excited as we are. We think this might be the best volume yet. Don’t miss out.

 Please show your support by pre-ordering your copy of The Shadow Booth: Vol. 4 here. 

(Ebook pre-order here.)

The Shadow Booth: Vol. 3 out now – FREE launch event on 11 April!

Posted
Filed under Lit mag

Jared can feel the tower blocks looming overhead, three concrete sentinels watching as he runs.  He knows he has less than a minute before his pursuers are on him, but as he rounds the corner into the alley he stops, dead. There’s a strange canvas structure propped against the wall, a hand-made sign scrawled on a scrap of cardboard. Enter the Shadow Booth, it says, and you will never be the same again.

The Shadow Booth is back for its third volume, available now from our online store. An international journal of weird and uncanny fiction, The Shadow Booth is dedicated to publishing emerging and established writers of the strange, exploring that dark, murky hinterland between mainstream horror and literary fiction. Stories from Vols. 1 & 2 have been selected for The Best Horror of the Year (ed. Ellen Datlow), The Year’s Best Weird Fiction (eds. Michael Kelly & Robert Shearman) and Best British Horror (ed. Johnny Mains).

Volume 3 includes new weird and uncanny fiction by:

  • Nick Adams
  • Judy Birkbeck
  • Raquel Castro
  • Armel Dagorn
  • Jill Hand
  • Richard V. Hirst
  • Verity Holloway
  • Tim Major
  • Annie Neugebauer
  • Robert Shearman
  • Gregory J. Wolos

Paperbacks and ebooks are available here.

We’re also holding a FREE launch event in London on Thursday 11 April, with readings from Robert Shearman, Judy Birkbeck and Tim Major. The event starts at 7pm at The North by Northwest, a Hitchcock-themed pub in Islington. You can find full details and RSVP here.

Enter the Shadow Booth and you will never be the same again…

The Shadow Booth open to submissions from women writers only in January

Posted
Filed under Lit mag

We’re pleased to announce that The Shadow Booth is open to fiction submissions from women writers only from 1–15 January 2019. This includes any transgender writers who identify as women, but we’d be grateful if male writers would refrain from submitting during this period. There will be another open submission period in the spring, which we will be announcing shortly.

Some basic guidelines:

  • We are a bi-annual journal of weird and eerie fiction. Do not send us your Western romance (in space). Do not send us your drug addiction memoir. Do not send us your shopping list (unless you’re buying some really weird things). Weird. Eerie. Fiction. Please.
  • If you want an idea of what we mean by weird and eerie, then read The Shadow Booth: Vol. 1 or Vol. 2 (or, preferably, both). This is the best way to find out what we like! The ebooks are currently only £2.99 via the Shadow Booth online store to encourage this, and like all independent publications, we need your support to keep going. Paperbacks and subscriptions are also available. If you want further pointers, why not read editor Dan Coxon’s article on the Ginger Nuts of Horror website: Face the Strange.
  • Submissions should be 1,000 – 8,000 words long. We won’t quibble over a word or two, but otherwise those limits are fixed. At present we’re particularly interested in shorter stories, between 1,000 – 3,500 words, but we will consider everything.
  • We are not considering reprints, but simultaneous submissions are fine as long as you inform us as soon as your story is accepted elsewhere.
  • Please only submit one story during the submissions period. Any further submissions during this period will be rejected. (We would say ‘send us your best’, but you know that already…)
  • Email your submission to submissions@theshadowbooth.com, with the word SUBMISSION as the first word of the Subject line. It’s also helpful if you include the story title.
  • Manuscripts should be submitted as a Word file attached to the email wherever possible. We’ll do our best to read .rtf files and PDFs, but we make no promises. DO NOT paste your story into the body of the email.
  • This submissions period is for Vol. 3 and Vol. 4, to be published in March and October 2019.
  • The important part: The Shadow Booth is a paying market, paying 1.5p per word. That works out as £15 per 1,000 words, if it’s simpler. While payments can be made to overseas writers (and we actively encourage writers from overseas to submit), payment is simplified if you have a Paypal account.

Submissions will close at midnight on 15 January 2019.

The Shadow Booth: Vol. 2 – Crowdfunding Now!

Posted
Filed under Lit mag

There are going to be two more volumes to this series and if they deliver on the same level as volume one then this is going to be one fantastic collection for any fan of horror, weird, or short fiction… – STORGY review of The Shadow Booth: Vol. 1

The Shadow Booth is currently crowdfunding its second volume via Indiegogo. Publishing as a mass market paperback (with just a hint of the old Pan Books of Horror) and as an ebook, Vol. 2 includes brand new stories by:

  • Mark Morris
  • Kirsty Logan
  • Aliya Whiteley
  • Gareth E. Rees
  • Chikodili Emelumadu
  • Johnny Mains
  • Giovanna Repetto
  • Ralph Robert Moore
  • George Sandison
  • Dan Grace
  • Anna Vaught

The Shadow Booth is a journal of weird and eerie fiction, edited by Dan Coxon and published as a 200-page mass market paperback. Drawing its inspiration from the likes of Thomas Ligotti and Robert Aickman, as well as H. P. Lovecraft and Arthur Machen, The Shadow Booth explores that dark, murky territory between mainstream horror and literary fiction. From folk horror to alien gods, the journal aims to give voice to the strange and the unsettling in all its forms.

Support the release of The Shadow Booth: Vol. 2 and order a copy here: The Shadow Booth on Indiegogo

The Shadow Booth – Open for Submissions Until 31 March

Posted
Filed under Lit mag

The Shadow Booth is open for FICTION SUBMISSIONS for the entirety of March 2018. Note: we are open all the time for non-fiction for the website, but the fiction submissions period will open on 1st March and end at midnight on 31st March 2018.

The Shadow Booth is a new journal of weird and eerie fiction, launched in December 2017. Volume 1 included stories by Alison Moore, Paul Tremblay, Gary Budden, Malcolm Devlin and many more. It is currently still available as a mass market paperback (or ebook) via the Shadow Book store.

Here are some basic guidelines:

  • We are a bi-annual journal of weird and eerie fiction. Do not send us your Western romance (in space). Do not send us your drug addiction memoir. Do not send us your shopping list (unless you’re buying some really weird things). Weird. Eerie. Fiction. Please.
  • If you want an idea of what we mean by weird and eerie, then read The Shadow Booth: Vol. 1. This is the best way to find out what we like! The ebook is only £5, and like all independent publications, we need your support to keep going. (Paperbacks, ebooks and subscriptions are available here. Okay, rant over…) If you want further pointers, why not read editor Dan Coxon’s article on the Ginger Nuts of Horror website: Face the Strange.
  • Submissions should be 2,000 – 8,000 words long. We won’t quibble over a word or two, but otherwise those limits are fixed.
  • We would particularly like to read stories by BAME writers, and by women writing within the weird/eerie horror scene. In our experience, these tend to be underrepresented within the genre. Having said that, if you fall into neither of these groups, we want to read your work too – all stories will be considered on an equal basis once they have been submitted.
  • Please only submit one story during the submissions period. Any further submissions during this period will be rejected. (We would say ‘send us your best’, but you know that already…)
  • The only exception to this is flash fiction: if you want to submit 2-3 pieces of flash fiction up to 500 words each, please do. These will count as one submission, as long as they are submitted together in a single email.
  • Email your submission to submissions@theshadowbooth.com, with the word SUBMISSION as the first word of the Subject line. It’s also helpful if you include the story title.
  • Manuscripts should be submitted as a Word file attached to the email wherever possible. We’ll do our best to read .rtf files and PDFs, but we make no promises. DO NOT paste your story into the body of the email.
  • This submissions period is for Vol. 2, to be published this summer. However, if we fill Vol. 2 and we love your story, we reserve the right to accept pieces for Vol. 3 (due end of the year) as well.
  • The important part: The Shadow Booth is a paying market, paying 1.5p per word. That works out as £15 per 1,000 words, if it’s simpler. While payments can be made to overseas writers (and we actively encourage writers from overseas to submit), payment is simplified if you have a Paypal account.

Submissions will close at midnight on 31st March 2018. You can find out more on the Shadow Booth website.

The Shadow Booth: Vol. 1 – Free Launch Event in London with Unsung Live

Posted
Filed under Lit mag

This coming Tuesday, 16th January 2018, we’re holding the London launch event for The Shadow Booth: Vol. 1, in partnership with Unsung Live! The event is FREE, but please RSVP using the link at the bottom of this post if you’d like to come along.

The evening will feature readings by RICHARD V. HIRST and GARY BUDDEN, both featured in Volume 1. There will also be readings by Unsung guests JAMES MILLER and STEPHEN ORAM – so prepare yourself for an evening of speculative readings, heated discussion, and the weird and wonderful. The event starts at 7pm on Tuesday 16th, and runs until about 9.30pm. It takes place at The Star of Kings, 126 York Way, London (near King’s Cross).

Reading this evening, we have:

JAMES MILLER: James Miller is the author of the novels LOST BOYS (Little, Brown 2008) SUNSHINE STATE (Little, Brown 2010) and most recently UNAMERICAN ACTIVITIES (Dodo Ink 2017) as well as numerous short stories and articles. He is senior lecturer in Creative Writing at Kingston University where he runs the MA in creative writing.

GARY BUDDEN: Gary Budden writes fiction and creative non-fiction about the intersections of British sub-culture, landscape, psychogeography, hidden history, nature, horror, weird fiction and more. A lot of it falls under the banner ‘landscape punk’. His work has appeared in The Shadow Booth: Vol. 1, Black Static, Unthology, Year’s Best Weird Fiction, The Lonely Crowd, Litro, Structo, The Quietus and many more. He was shortlisted for the 2015 London Short Story Award, and his story ‘Greenteeth’ was nominated for a 2017 British Fantasy Award and adapted into a short film by the filmmaker Adam Scovell. He also co-runs the indie publisher Influx Press. His debut fiction collection, HOLLOW SHORES, was published by Dead Ink Books in October 2017. He might also be part of the Eden Book Society.

RICHARD V. HIRST: Richard V. Hirst is from Manchester. His writing has appeared in The Shadow Booth: Vol. 1, The Guardian, The Big Issue and Time Out. His latest book is THE NIGHT VISITORS, an award-winning ghost story co-written with Jenn Ashworth and told entirely via emails.

STEPHEN ORAM: Stephen Oram writes science fiction and is lead curator for near-future fiction at Virtual Futures. Currently, he’s the cultural partner in a collaborative project with scientists at King’s College, London – they do the science he does the fiction. He’s been a hippie-punk, religious-squatter and an anarchist-bureaucrat; he thrives on contradictions. He is published in several anthologies, has two published novels, QUANTUM CONFESSIONS and FLUENCE. His recent collection of sci-fi shorts, EATING ROBOTS and Other Stories, was described by the Morning Star as one of the top radical works of fiction in 2017.

All are welcome, so please come along for an evening of free speculative fiction and good company!

If you’re interested in coming, please RSVP via the Meetup link here. See you at the Star!

(Note: If you can’t make it along, but would like to read The Shadow Booth, we now have paperbacks and ebooks available via our online store. Volume 1 includes stories by Alison Moore, Paul Tremblay, Gary Budden, Malcolm Devlin, Annie Neugebauer, Richard V. Hirst and many more.)

The Shadow Booth: Vol. 1 – Out Now!

Posted
Filed under Lit mag


When Eliot first spies the booth at the end of the pier, he wonders what it is. The canvas is faded, the striped pattern barely visible beneath years of dirt. The wooden boards are stained and bare. It’s the crude, handwritten sign that draws him closer, makes him reach out to pull the curtain aside. Enter the Shadow Booth, it says, and you will never be the same again.

The Shadow Booth, a new journal of weird and eerie fiction edited by Dan Coxon, is available now! Drawing its inspiration from the likes of Thomas Ligotti and Robert Aickman, The Shadow Booth explores that dark, murky hinterland between mainstream horror and literary fiction. Publishing as an ebook and a 208-page mass market paperback, it aims to publish familiar names alongside newcomers to the field, and to include everything from eerie literary ghost stories to finely crafted tales of Lovecraftian horror.

Volume 1 features stories by:

Alison Moore
Paul Tremblay
Gary Budden
Malcolm Devlin
Richard V. Hirst
Annie Neugebauer
Richard Thomas
Sarah Read
Dan Carpenter
Stephen Hargadon
David Hartley
Timothy J. Jarvis
Joseph Sale

Copies are available now from the Shadow Booth online store, or the Kindle ebook can be purchased from Amazon.co.uk. There are also subscription offers on the website. Enter the Shadow Booth, and you will never be the same again…

The Shadow Booth – A new journal of weird & eerie fiction

Posted
Filed under Lit mag

The Shadow Booth is a new journal of weird and eerie fiction, edited by Dan Coxon (Winner: Best Anthology – Saboteur Awards 2016) and published as a 200-page mass market paperback. Drawing its inspiration from the likes of Thomas Ligotti and Robert Aickman, as well as H. P. Lovecraft and Arthur Machen, The Shadow Booth explores that dark, murky territory between mainstream horror and literary fiction. From folk horror to alien gods, the journal aims to give voice to the strange and the unsettling in all its forms.

The Shadow Booth is currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter, with Volume 1 to be published later this year. Please show your support by ordering a copy! Other rewards include T-shirts, signed books, and critiques of your short stories – there’s even a professional copy-edit of a novel manuscript up for grabs.

Featuring stories by:

  • Paul Tremblay
  • Malcolm Devlin
  • Richard Thomas
  • Stephen Hargadon
  • Annie Neugebauer
  • Richard V. Hirst
  • Sarah Read
  • Timothy J. Jarvis
  • Gary Budden
  • David Hartley
  • Dan Carpenter
  • Joseph Sale

To find out more, read editor Dan Coxon’s essay on the weird in fiction: ‘Face the Strange: A Case for the Weird and the Eerie‘.

Being Dad – Short Story Anthology

Posted
Filed under Anthology

BeingDadBanner

What is Being Dad?

Being Dad is an anthology of brand new fiction about fatherhood, featuring stories by: Toby Litt, Nikesh Shukla, Dan Rhodes, Courttia Newland, Nicholas Royle, Dan Powell, Rodge Glass, R.J. Price, Tim Sykes, Lander Hawes, Andrew McDonnell, Iain Robinson, Richard W. Strachan, Richard V. Hirst and Samuel Wright.

The stories themselves deal with fatherhood from many different angles. We didn’t want to set any specific limitations, so each writer was free to explore the theme in any way they saw fit. We have tender stories about a father’s love and compassion, darker stories exploring feelings of protectiveness and sleep deprivation, and stories that look at the bond from the child’s perspective. What brings them all together is the urge to question what it means to be a dad.

“Editor Dan Coxon has put together a mixture of the best short story writers in the UK and rising stars of the genre, all under the theme of fatherhood. I for one will be picking up a copy of Being Dad especially to be the first to read new work from the excellent Toby Litt, Nick Royle and Nikesh Shukla.”

Paul McVeigh, author of The Good Son and co-founder of the London Short Story Festival

What Do We Need?

We’re currently crowdfunding for the book – which means that we need people to pre-order copies. Short story anthologies aren’t seen as a great prospect by publishers at the moment, and we need to show them that people are interested and want this book.

Obviously the book appeals to fans of the short story, but we believe it also has a wider appeal. That’s why we’re looking to launch it in March 2016, advance of Father’s Day. If you want to show your dad – or your husband – that you appreciate him, and all the effort he’s put into being a dad, then this is a great way to do it. That’s why we’re giving away two copies of the book with the higher reward levels – one for you to read, and one for you to give to your dad.

I can honestly say that I don’t know of another book like Being Dad. Whether you’re thrilled by the chance to read new stories by the likes of Toby Litt, Dan Rhodes, Nikesh Shukla and Nicholas Royle, or you just want to give your father (or husband) something special for Father’s Day, this anthology is uniquely special. Please show us your love.

“I was thrilled with the quality of the stories… If this is a mere sample of the standard then I look forward to seeing the finished product.”

Stuart Buck, reviewing Being Dad for Under The Fable

How Can I Get My Hands On A Copy?

We’d really, really love it if you’d consider pre-ordering a copy. Not only will you get a copy as soon as it comes out, but depending on how much you pledge you can get your hands on all kinds of extras too. Crowdfunding is happening until October 12th, so don’t delay too long. You can find full details here:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dan-coxon/being-dad-short-stories-about-fatherhood/

Also, be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook for regular updates.

 

– Dan Coxon, Anthology Editor

Litro Live! at Stoke Newington Literary Festival

Posted
Filed under Competitions, literary magazine

To mark the start of our festival season, Litro Live! will be heading to the Stoke Newington Literary Festival this June with a special event: the launch of Litro Represents, our new bespoke literary agency. We’re offering you the chance to join us and meet our writers, talk to our editors, and enjoy one of the UK’s newest literary festivals. Highlights of this year’s Stoke Newington Literary Festival include Ray Davies, Jonathan Meades, AL Kennedy, Mark Kermode, Seamus Milne, Tanya Byron, Claudia Roden, Lynn Barber, Ben Watt and Joanne Harris, as well as our own Litro Live! event on Sunday 8 June

For the last ten years Litro has been publishing stories by the most exciting new writers, alongside work by established authors. This one-of-a-kind Litro Live! event brings together three of the most promising young writers from the pages of the magazine, as well as the first authors to be signed up to Litro’s new bespoke literary agency, Litro Represents. Reading from their works-in-progress will be: Maia Jenkins (winner of the GQ/Norman Mailer Prize), Rebecca Swirsky (shortlisted for the Bridport Prize) and Reece Choules (finalist for the Aesthetica Short Fiction Award). The event will be hosted by Litro editor Dan Coxon.

Maia Jenkins: Maia Jenkins grew up in Singapore and France but moved back to the UK in 2009. In October 2013 she won the GQ Norman Mailer Student Writing Prize for her essay ‘To the Weakness of Others’, which will be published in the July 2014 issue of GQ. Her short memoir piece, ‘Lessons’, appeared in Litro #132; her reviews of the stage production of American Psycho and Galveston, by True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto, have appeared in Litro online. She is currently working on her first novel, All a Darkness. Follow Maia on Twitter: @jenksym

Reece Choules: Reece Choules regularly contributes to The Culture Trip with articles on film, literature and music. His short stories have appeared in The Southbank Review, Inkapature, The Dying Goose and Cigale, and his story ‘Staircase‘ appeared in Litro #130. He was Long Listed for the 2013 Fish Publishing Short Story Competition and was a finalist in the Aesthetica Short Story competition. He is currently working on his first novel, The Drift. Follow Reece on Twitter: @ReeceChoules

Rebecca Swirsky: Rebecca Swirsky is currently being mentored by Stella Duffy after winning the Word Factory Apprenticeship. Her fiction is featured in Matter, Ambit, The View From Here, Ink Sweat & Tears, The Pygmy Giant, Stories for Homes anthology for Shelter, Cease, Cows and a number of British anthologies, including the Bridport anthology. Her story ‘Hotline to Almighty‘ appeared in Litro #131. She is currently shaping her debut novel-of-stories, A History of Symmetry.

You can buy tickets to Litro Live! at the Stoke Newington Literary Festival here.

COMPETITION

We have two weekend tickets to the Stoke Newington Literary Festival to give away (courtesy of those fine folks in Stokey), to the best piece of flash fiction set in or around Stoke Newington. That’s right: we want you to turn the spotlight on Stokey. Why not imagine Edgar Allen Poe’s time at Manor School, or Daniel Defoe’s childhood on Church Street – or even tackle the area’s history of political radicalism?

Entries can be any genre, any theme, as long as they’re set in you-know-where. Maximum word limit is 800 words, and the winner will be published on the Litro website on Friday 6 June. Further details are available on the Litro website.

You should submit your entry via our Submittable page here.

The closing date for entries is Monday 2 June, 2014, and the winning entry will be chosen by the Litro editors. The winner will receive two weekend tickets to the Stoke Newington Literary Festival 2014, as well as publication on Litro.co.uk.

Weekend tickets allow entry to over 50 events in this year’s festival programme.

For more details of our Litro Live! event at the Stoke Newington Literary Festival, check the Litro blog.

Litro Live! A World Book Night Celebration on 23 April: Words, Music and Friends

Posted
Filed under literary magazine

LitroLive2
Litro Live! Wednesday, April 23rd at Dartmouth House, Mayfair London

Litro will be hosting the first of its Litro Live! Events for 2014 with The English-Speaking Union at Dartmouth House, Mayfair.

The evening will be a jammed-packed serving of words, music and conversation, taking place on Wednesday 23 April as part of World Book Night Celebrations at Dartmouth House.

As well as giving you an opportunity to meet with like-minded individuals, you can connect with some of London’s hottest emerging literary talent and enjoy some great music.

We’ll be welcoming on the night Glen Duncan, Emma Jane Unsworth, Charlie Hill and Maia Jenkins, with guest musical performances from Lucinda Belle, and Benin City. The night will also welcome Naomi Foyle, who will be hosting her book club read: Astra.

Litro Live! will be welcoming back music from avant-garde harpist and Rockabilly Gypsy Jazz pioneer Lucinda Belle ahead of her latest album release.

We also welcome Benin City (Q Magazine call the band “A sultry piece of afro dub blues”). Named after a Nigerian capital, Benin City is a fused genre band fronted by Joshua Idehen (vocals) – previously collaborated with Hyperdub’s LV – Theo Buckingham (drums) and Tom Leaper (tenor saxophone/synths/samples).

In keeping with the spirit of World Book Night, there will also be plenty of book giveaways on offer – so bring yourself and a bag or two!

Tickets are available now
General Admission £10
ESU and Litro Members £7
Students £6

For further information email:info@litro.co.uk or phone 0203 371 9971.