Richard Gavin's Blog

I was recently honoured by Prof. Alexander Dickow's presentation "Interstitial Aesthetics: Richard Gavin's 'Neithernor'", which can now be viewed via YouTube. It was an absolute pleasure discussing my story with Alex and his esteemed colleagues at Virginia Tech. 

 

Autumnal tidings!
Nightmare Abbey 9 is now available. This issue features an absolutely fabulous array of authors. It also includes a new story by me, "Gabriel's Horn." 
The magazine can be ordered here. 

 I am very pleased to report that "Gabriel's Horn," my latest short story, will soon be appearing in the creepy, cobwebbed pages of the excellent Nightmare Abbey magazine. A link to purchase will be added once the specific issue is announced. 

There will be more publication news to share in the coming months. Thank you for reading!

 

 

Far be it from me to question any writer’s motivations,but few notions are as alien to me as “posterity.” I have never resonated with aspirationsof “leaving a legacy,” or “being read and remembered.” For me writing is anactive engagement with the depths, the latent, the hidden. My work is bestrealized when I effectively disappear and just allow the images to flow. Whilewriting, I am in an imaginal dialogue, and I publish work in the hope that itwill spark that same sense of the numinous in readers, allowing them to engagewith the perennial Mystery of being, here and now, in their own way. Writingand reading are living, dynamic processes to me. They are not static sanctuariesbecause death is not our enemy.

In the black vastness of eternity, no one and nothing willbe remembered. Not you, not me, not our books. We are here in a particularconfiguration for but a moment, and then we are dissembled into something else.I write to embrace this process, not to evade it. I am not striving to beOzymandias. I write in favour of those shadows that eclipse our mirages ofpermanence...

Michael Kelly of the preeminent Undertow Publications has announced a new annual anthology, The Best Weird Fiction of the Year. The debut volume will appear this autumn and I am delighted to announce that my story "Banquets of Embertide," which was originally published in Northern Nights, has been chosen by Michael for this year's anthology. 
The full Table of Contents can be seen above. Pre-order information will be posted here in due course. Congratulations to all the other authors!
 

 

Last year, Akhlys afforded me the distinct honour of writing lyrics for one of the tracks on their magnificent album House of the Black Geminus (available here). My contribution was the song "Through the Abyssal Door." The official video has now been released and may be viewed above.  

Through the Abyssal Door

The seismic storm rages
The chasm is sheer
This descent reveals

The abyssal door is a mirror

A shriek of swinging hinges
The groan of an opening door
Beckons me to the unsettled fringes
Of the dream with dread at its core

Stairs, like a ladder of blades
Lead me to the labyrinth below
Where a massing of shades
Reaps what the sleeper shall sow

I dream of a burning cord
That binds my heart to this maze
Of discard & pain & discord
Let me feel the Astеrion’s gaze

Aberrant whispers, tеrrors untold
I bow to the ever abhorred
Whose form darkens the threshold
Of the abyssal door

The seismic churn of a portal
Yawning deep in the Earth
Eternity chanced by a mortal
This night of daemonic rebirth

Reveal
Conceal
Reveal

Reveal
Conceal
Reveal

I reach with a vein of fire
& sear the heart of my kin
I seed the unseen with crooked desire
I pass through the abyssal door
I pass through the abyssal door

Lyrics by Richard Gavin 

(copyright 2024) 

 

The excellent folks at Wandler Verlag, my German-language publisher, have just released the second edition of my collection URALTES HOLZ UND ANDERE GESCHICHTEN (PRIMEVAL WOOD & OTHER STORIES). This new edition includes an exclusive interview with me.
It's always an honour having my work translated into other languages. Copies may be ordered here.

 

"Let us in a cunning wise,Yon dull Christian priests surpriseWith the devil of their talk
We'll those very priests confound.Come with prong, and come with fork.
Raise a wild and rattling soundThrough the livelong night, and prowl"- "The First Walpurgis-Night" by Goethe
{Image: "The Witches' Sabbath" by Cornelis Saftleven, circa 1650}

Hello! I'm hoping that you are all faring well in the tumult that is today's world.

I realize that this site has been relatively quiet in recent months. The reason for this is that I do not wish to contribute to the internet's signal-to-noise ratio with frivolous posts. I only update here when there are new publications available. 

So while publishing news has been sparse, I do have a number of projects in various stages of production. These include several new works of fiction, new editions of some out-of-print collections, non-English language translations, esoteric essays, and more.

I am a firm believer that all books are collaborations, not just between author and reader, or author and publisher, but between author and the spirits or genii that inspired the work. The process of creating a book is a long and mysterious one. But there is no other endeavour I would rather devote my life to. 

All of this to say that in due course, new works will be unveiled. I am deeply appreciative of your continued interest and support, and am grateful for your patience.

Thank you kindly for reading. Be well.  

 

Weird House Press have launched a new imprint: Weird House Classics, which focuses on resurrecting past masterpieces of strange and macabre literature. Their inaugural publication is a stunning new edition of The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers. 

This hugely influential 1895 collection of Decadent stories has long been a favourite of mine, so you can imagine how honoured I was when Weird House asked me to pen the Foreword to this sumptuous new edition. 

The King in Yellow is available in several versions, each featuring eleven stunning illustrations by K.L. Tuner (see above image), my Foreword, and more. 

Further details, including ordering information, can be found here.