If you’ve ever helped someone find their way through a maze,
If you’ve ever been out of place or time,
If you’ve ever lost someone and made unusual choices,
If you’ve ever desperately wanted to be haunted,
If you’ve ever felt trapped,
If you’ve ever worked the night shift for minimum wage,
If you’ve ever been stuck in a wall . . .
This one’s for you.
Autumn has always been our season, our world, our whole fuckin’ vibe. Fifteen years ago, in October of 2009, Eirik and Monica released the first issue of Jersey Devil Press to rampage its way through readers’ imaginations. Since then we have expanded to include poetry as well as speculative fiction, changed captains a few times, published work from hundreds of talented writers, and experienced a devastating loss that I discussed in the note for the previous issue and am still grappling with as I type this one. Still—more than ever, maybe—art matters, and we are tail-thumpingly glad to have a new batch of stories and poems to share in this anniversary issue.
Short form fans will dig Randy Brooks’ haiku and Sydney Wagner’s “Autopsy of a Relationship,” while Nikki Allen’s “Catch” and Simon MacCulloch’s “Death of Light” serve up some fresh rhymes. If you’re of a narrative disposition, slink through “Dillon’s Door” with Charlie Kieft and live the “Cheese Life” with Cass Noah. Admire the beauty and blood of the cover art by Bianca Blauth, “Hand Rose.”
Scrump it all on the website or pilfer the .pdf.
Carry on, fellow creatures. The moon hasn’t answered yet, but that won’t stop us from howling.
As the steel-wool clouds squeeze gallon after gallon of dishwater-warm water over everything, we are glad to be typing this from our nice dry cave with a mug of ginger beer, a bowl of soft pretzels, and some cheerful strings of fairy lights. With haiku from Randy Brooks and stories from Peter Hoppock, Robert Tyler, and Allen Seward, and amazing cover art from Gimal Udara, issue one hundred twenty-four is full of quiet wonders and the sorts of small surprises that jolt us fully awake for a moment, like literary espresso shots.