In case you missed any of the amazing fiction, essays, or interviews we published last month, here is a list of all the goods. Enjoy!

Fiction

“What Happened to Eloise” by MANUEL GONZALES “At first we assumed she was the only one, the young woman with a thick smear of blood on her lips.”

“Other Dangers” by BEN HOFFMAN “The Japanese people were dust now and soon we would be dust too, if we did not line up promptly, if the Soviets had their way, if our cursive wavered, if we did not keep our voices down.”

“The Punk’s Bride” by KATE BERNHEIMER “So she went and they listened to records. They got really drunk on tequila, the kind that comes in a glass skull. The next day she made him breakfast. Then lunch. Then supper. After a few years like this he said they should get married.”

Contest Winner: “In Ribbons” by PAUL MCQUADE “He has asked grandma how Miss Pak came to be blind, but each time, grandma shook her head and said, ‘There are some things little boys shouldn’t know.’ ”

Essays

“Vocabulary of Fear” by LINCOLN MICHEL “On the surface, horror and terror seem like synonyms, but Radcliffe argues that “Terror and horror are so far opposite…” Do you know the difference between horror and terror?

“Familiar Terrors: What Scares us About The Domestic Surreal” by SADYE TEISER “These stories call into question what it is we know about the very basis of our lives. They change the constant; they make the familiar grotesque. The scariest tales tell us that nothing can be known for sure. What is more frightening than that?”

“Fear Works — Scary Stories in Children’s Literature” by KIM WINTERNHEIMER “Suddenly, the thrill of a scary story becomes more than a fun way to spend a dark evening — it becomes key to development.”

Interviews

Lemony Snicket – AN UNFORTUNATE INTERVIEW: “Because it’s so absurd that it’s happening to children that the line between it being terrifying and funny is more easily straddled.”

Ellen Datlow – AWARD WINNING HORROR AND SCIENCE FICTION EDITOR: “One thing I’ve learned is that the borders are fluid. Many of the most interesting stories combine science fiction and horror, or drift uneasily between dark fantasy and horror. There is science fiction that feels like fantasy and fantasy that feels like science fiction.”

Julia Elliott – AUTHOR OF THE WILDS: To me, every text—whether religious, artistic, or scientific—is a reinvention of reality.

We’re dedicating thirty-one days to our favorite sort of writing: the creepy, the disturbing, the scary, and the frightening.

Contest:
Lucky (or unlucky) $13 earns writers a chance at a $500 prize and publication on The Masters Review. Send us your best disturbing, hair-raising, and creepy literary fiction. 

Fiction:
With original fiction from Manuel Gonzales of The Miniature Wife and Other Stories and Nelson Algren Award, Zoetrope, and Origami Zoo Press contest winner Ben Hoffman, there will be plenty of bone-chilling moments. We conclude the month by publishing our Scary Story Contest winner on Halloween Day. (Deadline October 15, 2014)

Essays:
Electric Literature and Gigantic Magazine editor Lincoln Michel is contributing an essay on the distinctions between horror and terror, and Masters Review Founding Editor Kim Winternheimer examines fear in the field of children’s literature. Editorial Director Sadye Teiser shows us how people use the surreal to tell scary stories, and we’ve also asked 13 editors in the field to name their favorite scary story.

Interview:
Storied anthology editor and horror-expert Ellen Datlow talks about her preferences in the horror genre and writer Julia Elliott, author of The Wilds (Tin House, Oct.) talks with editors about her use of gothic and gruesome textures in her writing. We are also interviewing Lemony Snicket! Novelist and children’s writer Daniel Handler (AKA Lemony Snicket) has agreed to chat about his experience writing dark themes in a genre for children as well as his experience writing fiction for adults.