Read an Excerpt From Nicholas Belardes&#8217;s <i>The Deading</i>

Nicholas Belardes’s fiction combines elements of literary fantastic, fantasy, eco-horror, and science fiction. His obsession with nature, history, and the world’s ongoing climate disasters, blended with a daily birdwatching habit, fills his prose with not just warblers and flycatchers but also other obscurities from the natural world. He earned his MFA at University of California Riverside’s Palm Desert Low Residency where he received the Founder’s Award. The Deading is his debut horror novel. He lives on the Central California coast.