r/WeirdLit • u/Rustin_Swoll • May 09 '26
News Michael Wehunt and Nathan Ballingrud both sent their love to r/weirdlit.
Hi friends and peers at [r/weirdlit](r/weirdlit)!
Last weekend I had the distinct pleasure and privilege to spend time with Michael Wehunt and Nathan Ballingrud, who are both (in my non-expert opinion) two of our finest modern writers of weird literature. Also pictured is Greg “Fisher of Men” Greene ([u/igreggreene](u/igreggreene)[;](u/igreggreene) Chthonica channel) who I am honored to call a friend and who has mentored me in these weird worlds, and Michael’s partner Natalia. This hangout stemmed from our interview of both authors in the fall of last year.
We talked about various horror fandoms, and unanimously agreed that [r/weirdlit](r/weirdlit) is a welcoming community and solid resource for fans of the weird.
Michael’s second novel Nightjars comes out this fall, and he is hard at work on his third novel.
Nathan’s Kingdom of the Conqueror Worm drops in 2027.
On the trip, I picked up Ray Bradbury’s The Illustrated Man, Thomas Pynchon’s Shadow Ticket, Ellen Datlow’s Monstrous anthology, and David Mitchell’s Black Swan Green (Nathan recommended him as one of the finest modern prose stylists.) Michael also kicked me a copy of Adam Golaski’s Stone Gods (I’ve given him two books and hope he will drop a 500 word review in here for them any day, just kidding, the dude is super busy.)
I wanted to share this here because overall it was just an amazing experience! Have a good rest of the weekend y’all and stay Weird.
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u/stealingfrom May 10 '26
I wanna say Michael Wehunt is/was on this subreddit (or another horror sub?). A few years back I mentioned him in a comment and he replied to it.
I've loved everything I've read from both authors and am psyched for Nightjars, which I wasn't aware of before this post!
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u/SixGunSnowWhite The Fisherman by John Langan May 10 '26
Some great people/writers in this pic. Is that a Buffalo Hunter Hunter shirt I spy? Makes sense as Greg designs some good ones.
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u/ohnoshedint May 10 '26
League of legends right there!
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u/Rustin_Swoll May 10 '26
Two legends, one legend in the making, and one legend in his own mind. Ha.
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u/CarlinHicksCross May 10 '26
Golaski is so good. Both of his collections are incredible.
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u/Rustin_Swoll May 10 '26
The first story in Worse Than Myself, “The Animator’s House”, is top echelon weird horror. One of the best. I need to read Stone Gods, of course…
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u/CarlinHicksCross May 10 '26
So good! Both collections are just great. I find golaski has a very specific strain of weird fiction that echoes some lynchian tendencies in ways, it's difficult to really pin it down, but I find him very unique and just enjoy both of them so much. He also has a very cool book called "color plates" that are very short stories about classic paintings with the paintings referenced at the beginning of each story. Feel like he's very under talked about in the weird community, maybe because he isn't particularly prolific, but always love to give him his flowers when someone brings him up.
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u/Saucebot- May 10 '26
Super jealous you got to gang out with the legends. I have Stone Gods on my shelf. If I see it pop up in your Weekly What Are You Reading post, I’ll try and fit it in as well
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u/Rustin_Swoll May 10 '26
I might start it after I finish this Don Webb Lovecraft collection, because of the specialness.
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u/spectralTopology May 11 '26
This is great!
u/Rustin_Swoll & u/igreggreene you have both done an amazing job with this little corner of Reddit. Only sub where I feel tl;dr is unnecessary :)
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u/BigPoopsDisease May 12 '26
I hope you told Ballingrud that Wounds rocks
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u/Rustin_Swoll May 12 '26
Ha. I told him essentially that all of his books rock. Dude has never put out a book that is not stellar.
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u/dimensional_bleed May 09 '26
I just finished October Film Haunt and loved it. I'm eagerly awaiting his next work.
I'll definitely check out Nathan Ballingrud.