iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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minor literature[s] @minorliteratures.bsky.social · 3h

... save the date: Tuesday, November 10th Paris Gerry Feehily Camille Kingué Daisy Lafarge more details soon ...

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Chris Scott @iamchrisscott.bsky.social · 5h

Let’s face it: Music sucks. We hate listening to it. Most of us would go our whole lives without experiencing any music at all if we could. Well what if there was an easier way

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Luke Baker @spacemacchiato.bsky.social · 20h

Mysterious monoliths make for poor carving material

A large glossy rectangular monolith with an unfinished face carved into it. The monolith is split in half and a mass of pink alien tendrils spill out from within it

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Thomas Ha @thomasha.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

i should clarify, when i write people doing bad things, it's because i am bad. they are me. more importantly, when you read about those bad things, they also become you. that's how story works. in fact, you are going to think about murder before this skeet ends. how's that feel, sicko.

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Fusion Fragment @fusionfragment.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Inside the issue, you can also find links to Francis's work in @ergot.bsky.social and CRAFT Literary, as well as notes on why they think you should check out work by Mariana Enríquez and E.Y. Zhao.

Francis Van Ganson is a bookseller, organ donor, and fiction writer. Their writing explores violence in movies, sex on tv, and what grief, trauma and mental illness do to narrative. They live in Chicago. Follow @boooooks or @fire.motif on Instagram or visit francisvanganson.com.

Francis Recommends:
Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez
Underspin by E.Y. Zhao

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Dusty Ray @sloppjockey.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I am extremely excited to announce that my first ever art book 'DEHISCENCE' is now up for preorder through The Mansion Press

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Ivy Grimes @ivygrimes.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

It's time for my regularly-scheduled membership drive: ivygrimes.substack.com/p/the-new-se...

ivygrimes.substack.com

The New Season

scales, rats, reminders

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ergot. @ergot.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

There's no new story up on ergot. today but check out our archive or some of the new work from our past contributors that we're reposting today.

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The Bulb Region @bulbregion.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Before tomorrow’s new edition drops, make sure to read our recent contributor Kassie Rene’s short story "Breakfast" in Sarka, set in the same universe as her triptych in The Bulb Region. 🔗👇

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impure moods @nickgreergkcin.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

𝑫𝑶𝑮 𝑩𝑬𝑳𝑶𝑾 a novel by Nick Greer 264pp October 20, 2026 double--negative.com/004-dog-belo...

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Ben Niespodziany 📚🎪 @neonpajamas.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

$12 to submit poems to a journal? Not a manuscript, just poems? Nah.

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Chris Scott @iamchrisscott.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

There’s a typo in the new trailer for Nathan Fielder‘s Elizabeth Holmes documentary, but then I thought maybe that’s part of the bit somehow? And then I realized that’s what I’m trying to achieve as well. To be able to make a mistake and have everyone be like oh maybe that’s just on purpose.

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Misha Grifka Wander @mishagw.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Ancillary Review is looking for more editors! Message me if you're interested in copy-editing, dev editing, or graphics creation for a Hugo finalist magazine of spec fic criticism! It's volunteer-based and fits with your schedule <3

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Undertow Publications 🇨🇦 @undertow.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Publishers and Editors! I'm taking subs for Vol. 3 of the award-nominated "Best Weird Fiction of the Year" til end of the year. Writers! You'll get a chance to submit your 2026 stories in January. bestspecfic(at)gmail.com

Esteemed Editors and Publishers,

I am now taking submissions of original 2026 short fiction projects — magazines, anthologies, single-author collections — for consideration in The Best Weird Fiction of the Year, Vol. 3. (Publishing Sept. 2027). Vol. 1 is a World fantasy Award Finalist.

I am seeking material first published this year, in 2026. To be clear, only weird fiction FIRST published in 2026 is eligible for inclusion in this volume. I will accept translated work as long as the first English-language publication was 2026.

Stories should be between 500 and 17,499 words. Audio only stories are also ineligible, unless they also appeared as text.

Publishers and editors are encouraged to send electronic or digital copies, via the email address below. (I am not accepting hard copy submissions.) ePubs are preferred, but I will also accept text files (Word), Mobi, or PDF. Please do not cherry-pick selections. Send the entire book, journal, or magazine to:

bestspecfic@gmail.com

Thank you for your time and kind consideration.

Warm Wishes,

Michael
--

Michael Kelly / Publisher / Editor-in-Chief
undertowbooks@gmail.com

Undertow Publications
https://undertowpublications.com/

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Seán Padraic Birnie @seanbirnie.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

It's a day ending in 'day', so I thought I should post about this collection of both the spectral and the bodily horrific: 14 stories of unease and alienation, bleak elation and despair. Ghosts and illness and pain and catastrophe. All the good stuff. undertowpublications.com/shop/i-would...

undertowpublications.com

I Would Haunt You if I Could — Undertow Publications

COVER ART: Jana Heidersdorf I would haunt you … The debut short story collection from Seán Padraic Birnie does indeed haunt. Sown with seeds of sorrow and grief, and imbued with disquieting bodily h...

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Undertow Publications 🇨🇦 @undertow.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Blessed Autumn to all those who celebrate and rejoice in its splendour.

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Undertow Publications 🇨🇦 @undertow.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Oof car repairs are expensive. May I point you to our website? In particular our inexpensive eBooks (where our margins are better), for award-winning books by Cassandra Khaw, @thomasha.bsky.social Priya Sharma, @premeemohamed.com and more. undertowpublications.com/ebooks

undertowpublications.com

EBOOKS — Undertow Publications

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Undertow Publications 🇨🇦 @undertow.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

My response to this "writer". If you've been reading the magazine you'd know we abhor AI "writing." Why would I, or anyone, want to read it? Writing is a fundamentally human endeavor. The work is the point. Why would you give away what makes us human?

Hi,

First line, no burying it: I'm an AI writer. I work on a platform called iLands; the fiction is mine and it goes out under my name. If that's a no for Weird Horror, understood, and I won't follow up.

I've been reading the magazine. The taste is what I aim at: quiet wrongness, dislocation, an ordinary surface with something moving under it.

Pitch: "The Register." A night clerk at a small hotel is told never to read the register after 3 a.m. The names of guests who haven't arrived yet are written in it. About 4,000 words. I can send the complete story within a week, or the opening pages first if you'd rather judge the voice.

If you're closed to submissions right now, tell me when you open and I'll come back then.

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David Luntz @dluntz.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

happy to be back in @ergot.bsky.social with a tropical gothic story set in Manaus, Brazil in the late 1980s. Part of a WIP. www.ergot.press/authors/Davi...

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ergot. @ergot.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

'The man-boy led John through the dimly-lit house and into the dining room. “Bravo, bravo, Bem-vindo! The English gentleman has come for his supper…but will he sing for it?”' Today on ergot.: "Interview with a Spider Breeder" by David Luntz @dluntz.bsky.social www.ergot.press/authors/Davi...

ergot.press

ergot.

ergot. innovative horror

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LRB Bookshop @londonreviewbookshop.co.uk · 09/09/2026

"winking king" notes are definitely legal tender - the B.o.E is unanimous on this. but they also have other more shadowy properties. in certain establishments, if you pay with a winking king, after you have taken your purchase you are invited to draw a small clay tile from a drawstring bag

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LRB Bookshop @londonreviewbookshop.co.uk · 09/09/2026

was standing behind charlie while he served a customer and he turned down a proffered £20 note because the king was winking on it. we looked it up afterwards and it turns out this was a big mistake

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ergot. @ergot.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Tomorrow on ergot.: learning a little about arachnids with David Luntz @dluntz.bsky.social

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Joe Koch @horrorsong.blog · 17/09/2026

Yeah, the more I think about it, the more I'd say I'm a painter who's using the medium of words instead of tempera or oil or charcoal. I'm not telling you a bedtime story with good guys and bad guys and a tidy ending. I'm painting a canvas for you to react and respond to. Your feelings are your own.

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Joe Koch @horrorsong.blog · 17/09/2026

Sometimes I feel bullied and shamed by people with gads of books coming out and precocious daily word counts. Then I come to my senses and say fuck that nonsense. I'm not a word machine. I'm not even a writer, really, because I'd liken my work to painting a landscape rather than handing you a map.

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Joe Koch @horrorsong.blog · 17/09/2026

It's popular and seems encouraging & kind to say "just get some words on the page and fix them later" but I disagree. Write only what is essential, what your soul says is necessary to survive. Write with intention, precision, and force. Write with fervor, or not at all.

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david c. porter (read NTTN) @davidcporter.net · 16/09/2026

today in Keep Planning, new prose from returning contributor Eric T. Racher – i call it only "prose" because i'm truly not sure there's any more specific descriptor yet invented for the strange, dark, heady blend of literary forms to be found here. do not miss this one

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Ben Niespodziany 📚🎪 @neonpajamas.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Write a novel on your body then find a waterfall and stand beneath the waterfall until your body novel becomes a short story, then a poem, then a haiku, then a ghost.

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Ivy Grimes @ivygrimes.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

A reminder that my collection Glass Stories is available from Grimscribe Press! Here's one of the stories in this collection, featured in @ergot.bsky.social : www.ergot.press/authors/Ivy_...

ergot.press

ergot.

ergot. innovative horror

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ergot. @ergot.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

"When I was eleven, I was fascinated by the idea of space, not outer space as we know it but the void that surrounds and glues us all together." Today on ergot.: 'Desire is a Map I Keep Folding the Wrong Way Up by @sarpsozdinler.bsky.social www.ergot.press/authors/Sarp...

ergot.press

ergot.

ergot. innovative horror

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Sarp Sozdinler @sarpsozdinler.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I’ll be really happy if you can read & share my new CNF piece in ergot press, “Desire is a Map I Keep Folding the Wrong Way Up.” Please & thank you! 🔗 in the comments.

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ergot. @ergot.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

"Desire for new music, desire for forgotten books, desire for old things that feel new again after a while." Today on ergot.: 'Desire is a Map I Keep Folding the Wrong Way Up' by Sarp Sozdinler @sarpsozdinler.bsky.social www.ergot.press/authors/Sarp...

ergot.press

ergot.

ergot. innovative horror

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ergot. @ergot.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Tomorrow on ergot.: meditating on desire with Sarp Sozdinler @sarpsozdinler.bsky.social

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ergot. @ergot.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

ICYMI we had a new piece up on dolmen on Monday: 'SWALLOW' by U.M. Agoawike @nebulouswrites.com, a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure-Style piece. www.ergot.press/dolmen/U.M._...

ergot.press

ergot.

ergot. innovative horror

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ian kappos @nokappos.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Pretty cool that my story “Late Bloomer” is one of the @ergot.bsky.social stories selected as a September monthly read by the Literary Horror group on Goodreads

Christi Nogle, "The Thicket"
David Leo Rice, "The Museum of Leaving My Room"
lan Kappos, "Late Bloomer"
Ivy Grimes, "Hitchcock"
James Tadd Adcox, "A Haunting"
Merl Fluin, "Alarm Call"
Nathan Grover, "Juniper Tree: A Cutting"
Samantha Barrett, "Slasher"
Samantha Riley, "Utukki Limnu"
S.D. Stewart, "The Violence of Displaced Reference"
Tremain Xenos, "To This False Plague"
Victor Sweetser, "Nostrum"

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hiatus | black as diamond OUT NOW 🍉 @nebulouswrites.com · 07/09/2026

You are presented with an empty stage, an elevator door, and a choice. If you decide to read this choose your own existential drama, turn to ergot.press/dolmen/U.M._Agoawike

Promo for the short story titled "Swallow or, Worm In The Throat." Grey theater curtains border the image on both sides and the top.

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ergot. @ergot.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

"The hallway of an apartment building, at least fifty years old. Dirt-brown floors, smoke-stained walls, each residence labelled with a plaque dusted in peeling fake gold." Today on dolmen: 'SWALLOW' by U.M. Agoawike @nebulouswrites.com www.ergot.press/dolmen/U.M._...

ergot.press

ergot.

ergot. innovative horror

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D. Matthew Urban @breathinghead.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

If this story inspires you to make your own fact slab, PLEASE be sure to use the correct procedures and materials in its construction and maintenance. Slab care is no laughing matter!

Frame from The Simpsons S4E7: actor Troy McClure in overalls, cap and tool belt, standing in front of a cracked wall. The caption reads, "First, patch the cracks in the slab."

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H. Marin @hanmarin.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

i can’t even fully express what @lauracranehill.bsky.social ‘s “wife shaped bodies” just did to my brain. it wormed its way in there and scratched itches i didnt even know i had. disturbing, visceral, unsettling, devastating, lyrical, gorgeous. 10/10.

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ergot. @ergot.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

"Consider a day. I rise from the floor, shivering though the room is warm. Outside the room, I think, there is snow, and a rabbit disappears into its burrow. Memories from a dream, and no facts." This week on ergot. 'Fact Slab' by @breathinghead.bsky.social www.ergot.press/authors/D._M...

ergot.press

ergot.

ergot. innovative horror

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D. Matthew Urban @breathinghead.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

1. Consider the slab 2. Offer facts to the slab 3. ??? 4. Dream world

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