The Slave State looked like an alien nation. It stretched in waves of sedimentary, like the twisted coastlines of Taiwan. Malkmus sat on the intricate honeycombs of the cape, half-content, then remembered that life wasn’t worth living in this place…
Kelso is a British Fantasy Award-nominated genre writer, illustrator, editor, screenwriter, and journalist. His work has been translated into French, Spanish and Swedish. He is the 2 times winner of the Ginger Nuts of Horror Novel of the Year ( in 2016 for Unger House Radicals’ and 2017 for ‘Shrapnel Apartments). Kelso has also been nominated for a Brave New Weird Award for his story, ‘Jenny Longlegs’, written with Brian Evenson. His essay ‘Transmigrational Defences’ was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
‘The Black Dog Eats the City’ made Weird Fiction Reviews Best of 2014 list. His work has also been nominated for a Rondo Hatton Award and longlisted for the Bram Stoker Awards.
‘A fine young Writer’ – Dennis Cooper
‘An original, wry and dystopic fantasy voice‘ – Frankie Boyle
‘I Dream of Mirrors is a very well-written novel’ – Samuel Delany
‘It’s not pretty, but damn is it powerful’ – 3:AM magazine
‘Chris writes with great sensitivity about a film of immense intensity that many of us saw far too young thinking it was a video nasty not realising it was something far more disturbing – this film has deserved a book of its own for a long time and Chris has delivered something powerful and fascinating …. I love it’ – Robin Ince
‘Lyrical, intelligent and deeply astute[…]pitch-black poetry’ – Black Static
‘Good horror makes one uncomfortable, and this one certainly does just that’ – Locus (on In the Gallery of Silent Screams)
‘Chris Kelso is a dark philosopher who has envisaged humanity where culture itself is nothing but a halt, a break, a respite, in the pursuit of barbarity.’– Priya Sharma
‘Across genre and form his work is full of generosity but also wisdom too. Read him and weep.’ – Dr Rodge Glass‘What a privilege to have the evolution of a brilliant writer laid out right there in front of you’ – Chris McQueer‘Insightful and vulnerable at the same time.’ – Eric LaRocca‘As powerfully self-flaying as it is intellectually rigorous, Chris Kelso’s book on this extraordinary film/trauma is like reading Edgar Allan Poe dissecting Dostoevsky, taking a scalpel not only to the text but his own soul‘ – Stephen Volk, on Possession: Dreams of Suffering and Sanity
‘Strange Bird‘, a short existential-horror film based on a screenplay co-written with Laura Lee Bahr, will hit the festival circuit in 2020.He has also been printed frequently in literary and university publications across the UK, US, Australia, and Canada. Chris has served as a voluntary copy editor for Dog Horn, Jupiter Magazine, Chomu Press, Eraserhead press (and cult horror imprint Deadite). Along with Victoria Hooper, he helps wade through slush piles for the Sceptre award-winning Sci-Fi magazine, Polluto. Full list of publications HERE
‘Someday soon people are going to list him as one of their own influences.’– Interzone
‘Add Kelso to a very short list of newer authors to place on the ‘must-read-list” – Cemetery Dance
‘The Dregs Trilogy is the real deal’ – Ramsey Campbell
‘Kelso writes in a style of broken glass and razor blades’ – John Langan
‘Highly Recommended’ – Cultured Vultures
‘Kelso’s voice is unique, there is a combination of darkness and weirdness wrapped in classic science fiction that brings to mind Burroughs’ work.‘ – Gabino Iglesias
‘A propulsive lucid nightmare, at times reminiscent of Philip K. Dick at his least hinged. Kelso balances pulp momentum and pure hallucination, pushing forward a strain of speculative fiction that may truly capture imaginations once again.’ – B.R. Yeager on Voidheads
‘Kelso’s work is rife with effortless brutality. V0idheads makes bare the percussive scream of teenage potential crushed beneath the vertiginous sludge of contemporary life.’ – Elle Nash
He and Garrett Cook are the co-creators of ‘The Imperial Youth Review‘. He is the acquisitions editor and co-creator of film studies imprint RoosterVision with Nicholas Day
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Art by Shane Swank (above).
Show me your shelves – Bizarro Central
Interview with Margrét Helgadóttir
Zero Squared podcast – HERE
Get Lit with Leza – HERE
This is Horror podcast – HERE