The city.
Noisy, crowded, and ever in motion, the city can be more than a setting--it can be a character, as nuanced and as fickle as a human being, with as many traits and quirks as the best mapped-out characters. The city can be the ever-present and constant companion (or foe) to the protagonist and antagonist alike.
Winter in the City: A Collection of Dark Speculative Fiction is an anthology of dark speculative fiction tales set in 18 cities around the world during the bleak--sometimes harsh--season of winter.
- In Paris, a vagrant artist confronts a terrible truth while traveling across a frozen Seine and the well-walked paths of l'empire de la Mort...
- Children depart on a mystical quest to find their parents among the icy tombs of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem...
- In the snow-begotten slums of Manila, a young fighter must disobey her family and society to finally find freedom...
- The white-out conditions in Brooklyn are not nearly as dangerous as deals made in blood and bone...
Featuring new stories by Anjum Noor Choudhury, Sarah Read, Lily Childs, Brian Evenson, Tim Lees, Jonathan Papernick, Nick Mamatas, Katherine Traylor, Richard Kadrey, Rich Larson, Christian Fiachra Stevens, Mike Allen, Xan van Rooyen, Sam Rebelein, Gwendolyn Kiste, Mars Abian, Matt Hollingsworth, and Bracken MacLeod with a foreword by Bram Stoker Award-winning author Mercedes M. Yardley.
About the Author :
Mike Allen wears many creative hats, at least one of them tailor-made by his wife and partner-in-crime Anita.
An author, editor, and publisher of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, Mike has written, edited, or co-edited thirty-nine books, among them his forthcoming dark fantasy novel Trail of Shadows; his sidearms, sorcery, and zombies sequence The Black Fire Concerto and The Ghoulmaker's Aria; and his newest horror collection, Slow Burn.
Unseaming and Aftermath of an Industrial Accident, his first two volumes of horror tales, were both finalists for the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Story Collection, and his dark fable "The Button Bin" was a nominee for the Nebula Award for Best Short Story. Another collection, The Spider Tapestries, contains experiments in weird science fiction and fantasy.
As an editor and publisher, Mike has been nominated twice for the World Fantasy Award: first, for his anthology Clockwork Phoenix 5, the culmination of the Clockwork Phoenix series showcasing tales of beauty and strangeness that defy genre classification; and then, for Mythic Delirium, the magazine of poetry and fiction he edited for twenty years.
He's a three-time winner of the Rhysling Award for poetry. His six poetry collections include Strange Wisdoms of the Dead, a Philadelphia Inquirer Editor's Choice selection, and Hungry Constellations, a Suzette Haden Elgin Award nominee.
With Anita, he runs Mythic Delirium Books, based in Roanoke, Virginia. Their cat Pandora assists.
Xan van Rooyen is an award-winning autistic and nonbinary storyteller from South Africa, currently living in Finland. Xan has a Master's degree in music, and--when not teaching--enjoys conjuring strange worlds and creating quirky characters. You can find Xan's stories in the likes of Three-Lobed Burning Eye, Daily Science Fiction, and Galaxy's Edge, among others. They have also written several books, including Waypoint Seven (Mirari Press), My Name is Magic (Tiny Ghost Press), and the forthcoming Dorian Gray retelling, Exquisite Decay (Tiny Ghost Press). Xan is also part of the Sauútiverse, an African writer's collective, with stories in the multi award-nominated anthology Mothersound, as well as the Sauúti Terrors anthology (Flame Tree Press). Xan has also had a number of non-fiction articles published, which you can find in the Locus Award-winning Afro-Centered Futurisms in Our Speculative Fiction (Bloomsbury, Australia), among others. You can find Xan online here: https: //linktr.ee/xanvanrooyen.
Review :
"I loved the premise and the stories are rich, stark and sinister, much like the season they depict. From stranded gods seeking a way home in Anjum Noor Choudhury's 'Dhaka' and cursed artworks à la Dorian Grey in Sarah Read's 'Paris' to stories etched in bone in Richard Kadrey's 'Brooklyn' and a losing battle against ravenous ghosts in Xan van Rooyen's 'Helsinki, ' winter in these tales is often bleak, yet somehow beautiful. Characters keep awful secrets and make treacherous journeys, seek truth--or hide from it--and break their own hearts as well as the reader's. I enjoyed getting a glimpse into the souls of these cities. The fact that each story is named after the city it's set in means the cities take on identities of their own and become characters in their own right."
--Cheryl S. Ntumy, author of They Made Us Blood and Fury
"What a delightful take on the season. This very atmospheric title brought the best of so many authors to the forefront. My reading list just doubled. It was poignant and spooky and the perfect curl-up-and-read title."
--Holly Gillum, Librarian
