Spring hath sproingeth

cover of Jersey Devil Press issue 132, a moody art of a person with their hair spreading above them like black mold

Our latest issue is here, and I’m in kind of a weird place as I write this. Thanks to wild spring temperature swings and an antique residence that struggles to adjust itself to them, I am wedged on a child-sized purple sofa in the upstairs playroom beside a resentful cat, who admittedly was here first, because it’s the only comfortable spot in the house at the moment. It’s a narrow room with an angled ceiling and a floor that tilts enough to send any spherical object on a swift and tumultuous journey to the eastern baseboard. This combination of unexpected proportions and angles infuses the space with a slight uncanniness, a sense of being someplace that is an imperfect imitation of reality.

It’s not a bad a vibe for collecting my thoughts on issue 132, which brings together some of our favorite things: folklore, trinket nostalgia, invertebrates, poop, flea markets, and inexplicably tiny things. The beautiful and unsettling cover art will pull you in for a closer look. So settle into some peculiar corner of your own world and give it a read.

In the Garden of Readin’

cover of issue 131 with a gas mask in a flowering shrub

Patience is a character trait I admire tremendously in others but have yet to cultivate in myself. I get antsy waiting at red lights and emit an unbroken hiss of curses as the line of my candy thermometer completes its interminable to crawl to “hard crack.” So when I’m hip-deep in the slush pile and something not only captures my full attention from the first line but sustains it in a way that makes me slow down because I want to linger, that delights me with unexpected imagery or carries me effortlessly along with a distinctive
voice
—that’s a fast and sure acceptance. Most issues have one or two pieces like that. This one has six, plus gorgeously unsettling cover art.

Issue 131 is a thing of weird beauty.

Fallin’ in a Winter Wonderland

arm-textured face with eyeball in its mouth

Hey, there. After some unavoidable delays, we’re back! This issue is full of bodies. Human bodies, animal bodies, scary bodies, dead bodies, vanishing bodies, body parts. Slip between the tent flaps and behold these dazzling wonders—you will find some body to love. Or several, in the case of our cover art, which is a good reminder that, as we once read on a bumper sticker, “it’s always spooky season if you’re weird.”

Rustle it online or grub the .pdf.