The right book can transport you to a strange version of a familiar place or put you inside the mind of an endlessly compelling character. Over the course of May and June, independent presses are set to release a wide range of stories of the speculative, fantastical, and outright weird. These include stories of everything from expatriates hunted by death to strange mysteries spanning centuries. Here’s a look at several independent press titles due out this and next month that have caught my eye.
File Under: Surreal Cities
In telling the story of a city devastated by a pandemic and the social movements dedicated to revitalizing it, adrienne maree brown has created a work of speculative fiction that resonates deeply with the present moment. That’s the Grievers trilogy, the third volume of which—titled Ancestors—is due out soon; its plot blends a story of urban transformation with a heady amount of (literal) magic. (AK Press; June 2025)
“The yearning for transcendence seemed to me the yearning for being told a story.” That’s writer Brendan C. Byrne discussing his evolution as a writer in a recent interview with Big Echo. His new collection Another World Isn’t Possible covers nearly twenty years’ worth of short fiction, reckoning with surreal experiences and deconstructions of the present age. (Wanton Sun; May 2025)
Mohamed Kheir drew upon the recent history of Cairo for his novel Sleep Phase, translated by Robin Moger. However, this is not a work of kitchen-sink realism; instead, it’s led Publishers Weekly to call it “Kafkaesque” and “eerie” in their review. If that’s piqued your interest, you can also read an excerpt from it at The Dial. (Two Lines Press; May 13, 2025)
2023 saw the publication of Madeleine Nakamura’s novel Cursebreakers, about a onetime academic looking to save his city from a magical curse. Nakamura has followed that up with a new novel continuing where that left off. Angel Eye follows the same protagonist as he reckons with a series of magical killings and his own mental health. (Red Hen Press/Canis Major; June 3, 2025)
File Under: Myths and Legends
Since the initial publication of his collection The Sons of Ishmael, George Berguño has attracted a small but dedicated circle of readers who have praised his work for its inventive invocation of fables and the weird. This new edition of his debut should help raise his profile and expand his singular take on the fantastical to more readers. (Snuggly Books; May 14, 2025)
There’s a long tradition of contemporary writers finding solace in the folktales of a bygone era. There’s also a long tradition of poets tapping into the world of the supernatural. Hence Grace Cavalieri and Geoffrey Himes’s Fables From Italy and Beyond, where two poets reimagine centuries-old work for modern readers. (Bordighera Press; May 13, 2025)
Damion Spencer’s novel The Devil’s Horsewhip comes complete with incredible cover art and praise from the great Irenosen Okojie. It tells the story of a Jamaican expatriate haunted by memories of an earlier encounter with the uncanny—something that might have devastating repercussions for him in the present. (Barbican Press; May 15, 2025)
File Under: Haunted Mysteries
In a 2022 article, Charlie Lee noted of writer Hermann Burger that “[a]n enduring fascination with death motivated his writing from the start.” In Diabelli, translated by Adrian Nathan West, Burger tells tales of four (literal and/or metaphorical) magicians reckoning with existential crises and epistemological dilemmas. (Wakefield Press; May 2025)
History takes a strange turn in this novel by Mireille Gagné. Horsefly, translated by Pablo Strauss, draws on history for a story of World War II experiments that spark bizarre happenings decades later. Did an attempt at biological warfare end up creating chaotic and mysterious events involving hungry insects and furious humans? Gagné’s book delves into that very subject. (Coach House Books; May 20, 2025)
Over the last 15 years, a number of works by the late Guyanese writer Edgar Mittelholzer have been reissued by Valancourt Books and Peepal Tree Press. Those books cover a lot of stylistic ground, but The Weather in Middenshot falls neatly into the realm of the uncanny, telling a story of deaths real and imagined, ominous secrets, and haunted lives. (Valancourt Books; May 13, 2025)
Consider the appeal of a mysterious castle, left to the elements years before and possessing a terrible secret. Within the pages of Charles Nodier’s The Four Talismans, translated by Brian Stableford, readers will find such an eerie sight—and experience the work of an author who influenced the likes of Victor Hugo. (Snuggly Books; June 3, 2025)
File Under: Things Get Visceral
While looking for more details on Valkyrie Loughcrewe’s novella Puppet’s Banquet—Loughcrewe’s second appearance in this column in the last year—I found one review in particular that stood out. That came from David M. Simon, who called this tale of body horror and layered realities “gory, disgusting, overflowing with shocking imagery that will fry your eyeballs, and absolutely essential reading.” That certainly got my attention. (Tenebrous Press; May 13, 2025)
There’s a great John Mulaney bit where he imagines a romantic comedy based around ocular transplants. (And Jerry Orbach.) That isn’t quite the premise behind T.J. Martinson’s Her New Eyes—but this novel does involve an eye transplant, in which the protagonist begins receiving strange visions of Marilyn Monroe’s life. Things get more bizarre from there. (CLASH Books; May 20, 2025)
Annie Neugebauer’s acclaimed writing—including fiction and poetry—has earned her multiple Bram Stoker Award nominations. The new collection You Have to Let Them Bleed brings together both sides of Neugebauer’s work. “I have a morbid fascination with the ways in which societies normalize horrific things,” she said in a 2021 interview—and this collection demonstrates how that translates into her work. (Black Hand Books; June 3, 2025)
File Under: Jobs From Hell (Sometimes Literally)
Josh Denslow is no stranger to tales of the uncanny; his recent novel Super Normal told the story of several siblings struggling with family drama and their own superpowers. Denslow’s new collection Magic Can’t Save Us juxtaposes familiar subjects—marital discord, conference call limbo—with fantastical beings like unicorns, harpies, and dragons. (University of New Orleans Press; May 2025)
I’m not immune to a good elevator pitch, and the publisher’s description of Cat Scully’s Below the Grand Hotel has an especially enticing one: “The Great Gatsby meets Hellraiser.” It’s the story of an ambitious young woman who runs afoul of demons and finds herself in a desperate attempt to win back her soul in a playground for the rich and powerful. (CLASH Books; May 6, 2025)
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction called Jacques Sternberg “[a] particularly idiosyncratic author with a keen sense of the absurd.” Matt Seidel’s translation of his 1958 novel The Employee is the first time this book has been available for Anglophone readers, who can experience its tale of bureaucratic stagnation and otherworldly travels for the first time. (Wakefield Press; June 2025)
File Under: Interstellar Space
The Earth’s rotation going somehow awry is a concept writes have gravitated to for ages, with almost limitless variations. The latest of those comes from Alex Foster, whose novel Circular Motion imagines a world where the planet’s rotations are growing faster by the day. What’s behind this change—and how might it affect everyday life? For the answers to those questions, you’ll have to look inside. (Grove Press; May 13, 2025)
Over the years, Matthew Kressel’s writing has earned him three Nebula Award nominations; he’s also a contributor to this very website. His new novel, Space Trucker Jess, tells a story of a young woman looking to rescue her con-artist father in a futuristic world of cargo hauling and otherworldly settings. (Fairwood Press; June 2025)
There’s a lot going on in Jessica Lévai’s The Glass Garden, from the complex relationship between two siblings to the academic tensions one experiences. Also, there’s an alien planet and a structure there that might be a living being, so—there’s plenty going on here, all of it thoroughly compelling. (Lanternfish Press; May 13, 2025)
File Under: Character Studies
Following its publication in the UK earlier this year, Fija Callaghan’s collection Frail Little Embers is set for a US release this June. Callaghan’s stories feature strange transformations and voyages into other worlds; a review at The Quill to Live called it “an inspiring and poignant reminder that there is light at the end of the tunnel.” (Neem Tree Press; June 17, 2025)
In a recent interview about his forthcoming collection, John Chrostek spoke of one of the stories within, “His Ghostly Portion in the World of Dark,” having been “flavored by my love for PKD, LeGuin, Vonnegut and also the Aeneid, where it gets its namesake from.” The collection containing that story is called Boxcutters, and it’s a fine introduction to Chrostek’s work. (Malarkey Books; May 20, 2025)
Apocalyptic prophecies and upended lives feature prominently in Demree McGhee’s collection Sympathy for Wild Girls, a book abounding with surreal dispatches from frustrated lives. Kirkus Reviews noted, “McGhee harnesses the magic of language and narrative and character into a new kind of vessel to hold what it feels like to be young and Black and queer.” (Feminist Press; May 6, 2025)
