Black Static

Black Static #57 was uploaded to the printers about five minutes ago and will be mailing out to subscribers in just over a week's time, all being well. Andy will be along shortly to reveal the full contents, but in the meantime I'm here to reveal what books get reviewed in the Case Notes section of the magazine.

Here's what we've got for you:-

OUR GANG

Reviews of four books by Black Static's three regular columnists - the short story collections You'll Know When You Get There by Lynda E. Rucker, Out Stack and Other Places by Gary Couzens, and You Can Never Spit It All Out by Ralph Robert Moore, plus Moore's novel Father Figure.

WHO I AM AND WHAT I'M DOING HERE: ANDREW HOOK

I review a bit of everything from Andrew Hook, one of the magazine's most regular contributors - the novel Church of Wire, novella The Greens, short story collection Human Maps, and non-fiction Buñuel's The Exterminating Angel: A Personal Analysis - and then conduct an interview with him.

FELLOW TRAVELLERS

Reviews of books by four other writers who have appeared in the pages of Black Static (this issue it's all about us) - the novels Skein Island by Aliya Whiteley and Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough, the short story collection A Twist in the Eye by Charles Wilkinson, and novella The Rage of Cthulhu by Gary Fry.

That's twelve titles reviewed this issue, three of them written by women, which takes our tally for the year so far to twenty eight titles reviewed and seven of them either written or edited by women (25%).

Looking further ahead, I don't have an interviewee picked out for #58, though that could change. The plan is to do an "in translation" special, reviewing books from the non-English speaking parts of the world (apparently there are some).

I first had this idea a few years back, but at the time had nothing suitable other than books by Koji Suzuki and John Ajvide Lindqvist. At last however, the stars are right. Having sat on the plan for several years I've managed to stockpile over twenty titles that fit the bill, though in some cases the definition of Horror may need to be wider than usual, even by our eclectic standards.

The feature is still heavily weighted towards Europe though. I have only books from Japan representing Asia, just the one book for the whole of South America, and nothing at all from Africa.

So if you have anything that might be suitable for our "in translation" feature and would help cast its net that little bit further afield, please get in touch via whitenoise@ttapress.com