Montreal-based writer Cassandra Khaw combines lyricism and brevity in short works of horror and dark fantasy
When Khaw is at their best, their writing has teeth – blackened, razor sharp, and ready to rend flesh.
31 Days of Stories 2022, Day 1: “The Dead Are More Visible” by Steven Heighton
One of the author’s best, this story interrogates the notion of societal visibility through the prism of a middle-aged-woman working as a labourer flooding ice rinks in the middle of the night.
31 Days of Stories 2022: Introduction
If the novel is a regal lion king, the short story is a cackling hyena.
Stalking the self: “Consequences” by Willa Cather
Cather’s use of a close third-person narration lends her story an uncanny element of unease and creepiness.
The most wild, homely narrative: “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe
Poe’s 1843 tale is not only one of the greatest horror stories ever written; it is also a pristine example of internal integrity in the short form.
31 Days of Stories 2021, Day 28: “The Secret Sharer” by Joseph Conrad
Conrad’s story is at once a version of a doppelgänger story and an examination of repressed psychology and moral ambiguity.
Psychology of the uncanny: “The Scar” by Ramsey Campbell
This story of a man and his malevolent doppelgänger recalls Poe and includes a critique of apparent social respectability.
The mystery behind the death of Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe died on October 7, 1849 under conspicuously mysterious circumstances. A Buzzfeed mini-documentary speculates on what might have happened to him.