I am heading to London tomorrow. I need to refuel at least once a year in London. It is where I cut my second teeth. Friends and artistic communities. Yes please. One of the most welcoming for many years when I lived in London was Xing the Line run by Jeff Hilson, and now also with Iris Colomb. They are celebrating their 25th anniversary.

When I was living in Utah and just starting out as a writer, there were a few literary journals I loved and looked up to deeply. They were the places where I discovered work that made me feel both challenged and encouraged, and they helped shape the writer I was becoming. Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to publish in some of those journals, including Tin House, Poetry, and Fence.

I have two new flash fictions in Cereal City Review. They take place in a small Catalan beach town during a mysterious power outage. Some think an invasion. Others a rare technical failure. No electricity or internet. No phone signals. No electronic payments. The stories are part of a novella in progress. You read them over here

In the 1980s we moved from Northern Ireland to Milton Keynes England. They had lots of roundabouts. Here is a new prose poem about the roundabouts. Just published in the new issue of Elsewhere Magazine.

A new microfiction, from my manuscript in progress, Seaside Saints, is now up at The Argyle Review. Seaside Saints might become a novella in microfiction about various characters in a small seaside town in Catalunya. There are twenty or so stories so far. This one is about an organ grinder whose golden retriever retrieves the main character, Mags, and all three of them take to the road. Freedom and travel. Leaving the man cave. You can read it over here

"The whole town smelled like chives and onion with a dash of mustard. Maciek sampled the popular dish. Chips, thin as a shoelace, mayo on the side. Clams in large pot with white wine brine. Strange, though, this hankering for deer musk." My microfiction, "Deer Musk," is now up at Literary Garage. It's kind of feral. You can read it over here

I have a new horror microfiction up at Hawkeye Magazine. It is partly inspired by a visit to the magical ancient house of Hugh Behm-Steinberg in Barcelona. Emperors and hermits. Wars and demons and spirits. You can read it over here

Happy to have a new microfiction at Dodo Eraser. It takes place in Trieste, Italy, where I lived many moons ago. Poverty and art and dog walking. The story is called "Higher Callings." You can read it here

Some nice news this morning. My micro fiction "Big Fish" has been nominated by Flash Frontier: An Adventure in Short Fiction from New Zealand for Best Small Fictions 2025. Thank you to Michelle Elvy (editor of Flash Frontier).

Happy to have a serial prose poem in the new issue of Diagram. Diagram has been around a good while. It was one of my earliest publications in the early part of this century. My earlier work is in issues 3.4 and 4.4. This new work is in issue 25.4. The serial prose poem is different than the work I've been publishing lately.

Thank you to Benjamin Niespodziany for including my book Dream Dust for his favorite reads of 2025. I have always loved Benjamin Niespodziany's end of year of list of books. I am honored to be included this year. Check out the roundup over here

". . . the playful, grotesque, microscopic gaze of the noisy unconscious in Marcus’ poems that makes maneuvers from foaming blond ales to “new lips for new lovers” and, as in the poem ‘Easter Rabbit’, people the poem as thoughts bubbling in someone’s mind. The poems, in giving us the impression that they are emergent and unfolding before us, show the moving face rather than the stillness of a pimple."

New Absurdities: Peas in G&Ts, Vomited Birds, Ghost Faces Three micro-stories blending rookie cops, dream shoes & hallway haunts.  You can read it HERE:

My new prose poem, "Fish," is now published at Instant Noodles Literary Magazine. It features mermaid mothers, gravy hounds, and the tiny, powerful tornadoes found in a fishbowl. Read the full piece:

The memory of the 90s Salt Lake City underground—the legendary nights at Bricks and The Sun—was violently punctuated by a freak tornado that slammed downtown as the millennium turned. This contrast between frenetic club life and chaotic natural force became the quiet, humid absurdity that inspired my microfiction, "Golden Trumpet." The underground closes, the storm passes, but the trumpet keeps sounding. You can read the full story now, alongside a brilliant flash by Karen Crawford, as this week's featured #Micromonday over at Fictive Dream. ENTER THE DREAM: 

🌾 New Horror Microfiction: “Potatoes of Promise” 🐖👹 I have a new horror micro story at the magazine CUL-DE-SAC OF BLOODFarmers and swines full of demons. Robot cows that don't moo. Whales in the wall of motel 6. And a man with deer antlers. My newest microfiction, “Potatoes of Promise,” is live now — a surreal piece of rural horror where the harvest isn’t what it seems. Thank you to the editors J †Johnson and Gina Myers. Read it here 👉

I’m thrilled to share that my surreal micro story “Big Fish” appears in the October 2025 issue of Flash Frontier — the Fish Issue.Read it here: Flash Frontier – October 2025 Issue “Big Fish” is a short, absurd story about what it means to live inside something vast — a creature, a system, a world — and to keep scrubbing ourselves clean, hoping to come out pure before we’re belched into nothingness.

A few weeks ago, I read some new microfiction for The Mercurius Show at the Lit Balm reading series. Lit Balm is an interactive livestream poetry reading series that features readings, panels, and open mics, often held biweekly. LIT BALM is brought to you by Marc Vincenz of MadHat and New American Writing (Magazine), Cassandra Atherton of Westerly Magazine, and Jeffrey Cyphers Wright of LIVE Mag!.

I’m delighted to share that my story “Burning Bush” has just been published in Issue Forty-Seven of the always-exciting magazine Bending Genres! I’m thrilled and honored to be in such terrific company — with new work by Kim Magowan, Francine Witte, Glen Pourciau, and many more bold, brilliant voices pushing the boundaries of form and feeling. A bit about the magazine: Bending Genres is a vibrant literary journal devoted to hybrid, experimental, and genre-defying writing.

Tomorrow we continue the Mercurius surreal absurd show at Backstory Books in Barcelona. Another round of readings. Another dream map improv. The dream map improv will involve the audience this time. Since there are only three readers (Marcus Silcock, Thomas Helm, Hugh Beim-Steinberg). "The program will feature short readings from poets in the anthology, followed by a collective, interactive activity: the Dream Map.

The Mercurius surreal absurd show was terrific at Dorothy Circus Gallery in London. A real feast of the imagination with an improv dream map. The space was also delicious with dream rugs. We read surreal absurd stories and poems by flashlight and improvised a performance on the dream map (soon to appear on Spotify with music and some remixing). You can buy the terrific Mercurius Surreal Absurd anthology over here. It's one of a kind!

I’m happy to share that two of my prose poems appear in the inaugural issue of Rawhead Literary Journal — alongside brilliant voices like Meg Pokrass, Brad Rose, Jeff Friedman, and many more fab writers.

The September 20, 2025 episode of Lit Balm: An Interactive Livestream Reading Series will be the MERCURIUS show, and feature Vik Shirley, Thomas Helm, Marcus Silcock, and Ben Niespodziany!

Mercurius anthology of surreal absurd is out in the world. A joy to co-edit this puppy. Terrific online launch. A reading marathon of 18 readers. Other launches coming soon in London at Dorothy Gallery and Edinburgh, Scotland and Barcelona, Spain.

🎉 Double Whammy: Two New Micro Fictions Just Dropped! I’m thrilled to share two fresh micro fictions out in the wild.

I’m excited to share that my new microfiction, The Judo King, is now live at Maudlin House.

We’re excited to share the release of the first anthology from Mercurius Magazine — a groundbreaking collection of contemporary surrealist and absurdist poetry. Edited by Marcus Silcock, Vik Shirley, Thoman Helm, and Benjamin Niespodziany, this volume brings together over 80 poets whose work challenges conventional form and embraces the strange, the uncanny, and the beautifully unclassifiable. Spanning 370 pages, the anthology offers a rare and expansive look at the evolving terrain of surreal-absurd poetics.

In Manchester, a few months ago, I picked up a box of Grzegorz Wróblewski's asemics. It is part of the delightful Zimzalla project run by Tom Jenks. You can buy your own box of mysteries over here: It is a nice compliment to his book of asemic art Shanty Town. You can see some examples over at Mercurius magazine.

by Marcus Silcock “They were the burning bush in the wilderness of starched fathers. The wolves howled outside. Mother leaned against the dresser to pop out another sister. What big eyes, said mothe...

“They were the burning bush in the wilderness of starched fathers. The wolves howled outside. Mother leaned against the dresser to pop out another sister. What big eyes, said mother.

Super happy to have a new one paragraph story in Unbroken. “Unbroken is a quarterly online journal that seeks to showcase prose poems and poetic prose, both from established and emerging voices. We desire to give the block, the paragraph, the unlineated prose, a new place to play.” My story (or maybe it’s a prose poem) is about a lucky elephant.

By Marcus Silcock — "The detective scans the tree. Jacaranda sticks to her sandals. Yes, you guessed it. It’s that time. The time of flowers. The fiesta of flowers."

"The detective scans the tree. Jacaranda sticks to her sandals. Yes, you guessed it. It’s that time. The time of flowers. The fiesta of flowers. Old timers are weaving them into great wreaths on the ground, outlined in chalk."

A fab week for publication of some of my new micro fiction. Broken Antler has just published my fairy tale/mythological story “For the Birds.” You can read the story, along with some other great stories, in the new issue of Broken Antler over here

A reading of my new surreal-absurd story called "Pickled Herring." Recently published in the magazine Blood+Honey. You can read the story over here: https://www.bloodhoneylit.com/fiction/pickled-herri...

A reading of my new surreal-absurd story called "Pickled Herring." Recently published in the magazine Blood+Honey. You can read the story over here:

"I do not like to expose my neck to the barber. My head is full of migratory birds, thinks Kato, walking the dust park remembering the lush fish. On the way to work, a plump man always stopped to ask for loose change. She refused until one day. That one day changed the rest of the days. He always found her.

by Marcus Silcock “I do not like to expose my neck to the barber. My head is full of migratory birds, thinks Kato, walking the dust park remembering the lush fish.”

A short prose poem from my new book Dream Dust (Broken Sleep Books). Available worldwide via Amazon or over here: https://www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page/marcus-silcock-dream-dust

YouTube video by Marcus Slease

Launch of my book Dream Dust (Broken Sleep 2025) as part of An afternoon of absurd surreal poetry at P3 Annihilation Eve. Manchester, England. 13 April 2025. Thanks…