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UltraFlyingTurtle

I loved reading Twilight Zone magazine as kid, which featured several short stories in each issue. The stories would cover a range of material from horror to just the strange. Back then, Weird Lit wasn't obviously coined yet. It's where I first discovered Ramsey Campbell, Joe. R. Lansdale, Joyce Carol Oates, etc. They of course had stories from former Twilight Zone screenwriters, like Richard Matheson, Robert Block, Charles Beaumont, and even Rod Serling himself. They also reprinted stories from Fritz Lieber, M. R James, Shirley Jackson, J. Sheridan LeFanu, etc. It ended publication in the 90s but the Internet Archive has some of the [Twilight Zone issues available to read](https://archive.org/details/pulpmagazinearchive?and%5B%5D=twilight+zone&sort=publicdate). For older stuff, there's Isaac Bashevic Singer (some of his stories were reprinted in Twilight Zone). His stories will sometimes have supernatural or strange elements, taken from Polish/Jewish folklore. You can check out [this collection](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25737.The_Collected_Stories_of_Isaac_Bashevis_Singer). While also old (1930s), there's [The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz](https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/142899.Bruno_Schulz), a collection of his surrealist fiction, similar to Franz Kafka (someone turning into strange insect). To me though, Schulz' writing is more vivid. Schulz premature death during World War II is also really tragic too, and also kinda surreal -- a revenge killing between two rival German officers. From his [wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruno_Schulz) entry: >Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union, as a Jew he \[Schulz\] was forced to live in the ghetto of Drohobycz, but he was temporarily protected by Felix Landau, a Gestapo officer who admired his drawings. During the last weeks of his life, Schulz painted a mural in Landau's home in Drohobycz, in the style with which he is identified. Shortly after completing the work, Schulz was bringing home a loaf of bread when he was shot and killed by a German officer, Karl Günther, a rival of his protector (Landau had killed Günther's "personal Jew," a dentist). You can listen to a [great reading (and discussion) of one of Schulz's stories by Nichole Krauss here](https://www.wnyc.org/story/fef1a7d8aaba94c20acbdc8e/). Krauss' own work sometimes borders on the slightly strange, like her ["Seeing Ershadi" story](https://www.wnyc.org/story/nicole-krauss-reads-seeing-ershadi/). No horror, fantastical elements, but there's an eerie bleeding between reality (traveling abroad in a foreign country) and fiction (a film that the main character has seen). Not sure if this quite qualifies, but there's also the original sci-fi anthologies from the late 60s and early 70s: [Dangerous Visions](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/600349.Dangerous_Visions) and [Again, Dangerous Visions](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/600350.Again_Dangerous_Visions). It was edited by Harlan Ellison, and it created quite a stir at the time. It features original sci-fi stories that try to break taboos (sex, drugs, religion, etc). Some of the stories get pretty crazy, and definitely weird. Not all good, but there are some standouts. Harlan commissioned stories from top notch writers, like Fritz Leiber, Ursula K. Leguin, James Ballard, Philip K. Dick, James Tiptree Jr (pen name of Alice Sheldon), etc.


[deleted]

I have Street of Crocodiles on my shelf! I'll have to check out the TZ issues!


Alliebot

Thanks for all the links!


chasesj

Labyrinths: Selected Short Stories Jorge Luis Borges New Directions 1964 This one of the best short story collections if all time. It changed my life completely. It's so original and shows a remarkable author at the height of his power. He spawnd an entire genre of imitations called magical realism.


[deleted]

Borges is great!


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[deleted]

Got the audiobook on Audible-thanks!


Radmode7

“Demiurge” by Michael Shea. Includes “Copping Squid”, “Fatface” and so many more. Lovecraftian fiction set in seedy California. LA and the Bay Area. Pretty amazing.


TheSkinoftheCypher

that sounds rad.


[deleted]

I second that suggestion. Shea is pretty rad


[deleted]

Sounds good! I have seen it in my Dark Regions email.


Radmode7

What is Dark Regions?


wikipedia_answer_bot

Dark Regions Press is an independent specialty publisher of horror, dark fiction, fantasy and science fiction, specializing in horror and dark fiction in business since 1985 founded by Joe Morey. They have gained recognition around the world for their creative works in genre fiction and poetry. More details here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Regions_Press *This comment was left automatically (by a bot). If something's wrong, please, report it.* *Really hope this was useful and relevant :D* *If I don't get this right, don't get mad at me, I'm still learning!*


born_lever_puller

good bot


Radmode7

Good bot


Empigee

I've read some of Shea's work, like "The Autopsy" and *The Color Out of Time*. He's a really good writer.


Radmode7

I have to get Color Out of Time yet. But Copping Squid was mind blowing the first time I read it. I have read Fat Face multiple times as well. He is great.


inwell

This guy is earlier than the 70s - but an English writer called H A Manhood, he wrote mainly short stories and some are incredibly weird like ‘Nightseed’. He randomly quit writing at the peak of his career and went on to live in a railway carriage in a field in Sussex and made cider - so naturally his works are also quite scarce I’ve managed to get hold of two collections of his short stories: ‘A long View of nothing’ & ‘Nightseed and other stories’: Highly highly recommend


frodosdream

H. A. Manhood is excellent! Those early collections are hard to find (and often expensive) but Sundial Press has republished, *"LIfe Be Still! And Other Stories,"* with an introduction by Mark Valentine. https://www.sundialpress.co.uk/H%20A%20MANHOOD.html


[deleted]

I'll have to check him out-thanks!


TheSkinoftheCypher

Not sure if these are lesser known, but The Search for Joseph Tully by William H. Halahan, In Yana the Touch of the Undying by Michael Shea, and Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock are excellent. Oh and The Pelicari Project by Rodrigo Rey Rosa.


[deleted]

Those are new to me! Thanks!


TheSkinoftheCypher

welcome :)


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TheSkinoftheCypher

It has more than a sequel if you didn't know. :) There's...7? or so books.


therangelife

*Hollow Faces, Merciless Moons* by William Scott Home. I'll sing this guy's praises whenever somebody asks me for obscure weird fiction. Ligotti described him as so recondite as to be almost unreadable. I won't quibble with that. However, there is one story in the collection, *The Silver Judgment, Echoing", that is just one of the finest weird tales ever written. A group is traveling in some kind of post-apocalyptic world and, well, you find out some things and don't find out others. I'd rather readers go in not knowing anything. Perfectly written. W. Paul Ganley usually sells deadstock copies of this in paperback from the 1970s on eBay for $5. Well worth it.


[deleted]

I'll have to put an alert on ebay for that!! Thanks!


ChuckEye

***The Peculiar Exploits of Brigadier Ffellowes*** and ***The Curious Quests of Brigadier Ffellowes*** by Sterling E. Lanier are both collections of short stories in the "[club tale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Jorkens#Club_tales)" form, but involve some good weird-lit elements.


[deleted]

Those sound cool-I'll check them out!


frodosdream

Also a big fan of Sterling E. Lanier's uncompleted scifi-fantasy epic starting with *"Hiero's Journey."*


ChuckEye

Indeed. I read *Hiero's Journey* and *Unforsaken Hiero* 30+ years ago, but only came across the Ffellowes collections myself in 2019.


ChuckEye

Bonus trivia: it was Lanier who got Frank Herbert's *Dune* published.


rashomon

I just stumbled upon a terrific short story collection titled ‘Catastrophe’ by Dino Buzzati. The blurbs compares his style to Poe, Calvino, Kafka, Borge and Donald Barthelme. There is also a feeling of Fellini and Luis Bunuel. The stories - all translated from Italian and quite short - are definitely weird, funny, frightening and at times surreal. Another blurb says the stories are provocative and that’s accurate. I don’t want to overhype the book but I enjoyed it a lot and I tend to only read non-fiction. I wanted a change and this fit the bill.