Short stories by Nathan Ballingrud
I was born in Massachusetts in 1970, but spent most of my life in the South. I studied literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and at the University of New Orleans. Among other things, I’ve been a cook on oil rigs and barges, a waiter, and a bartender in New Orleans. My most recent book is called Wounds: Six Stories from the Border of Hell, from Saga Press. My first book is North American Lake Monsters, from Small Beer Press. I’ve won two Shirley Jackson Awards, and have shortlisted for the World Fantasy, British Fantasy, and Bram Stoker Awards. My novella “The Visible Filth” was made into a movie called Wounds, from Annapurna Pictures. It’s written and directed by Babak Anvari and stars Armie Hammer, Zazie Beetz, and Dakota Johnson. It’s due later in 2019. I live in Asheville, NC.
Listing 6 stories.
A filmmaker and his companion interview an old movie star, only to be caught in the middle of a conspiracy theory about her most famous scene.
Every year, in a small town overlooking the Chesapeake Bay, fourteen children are invited to the Skullpocket Fair, a carnival run by ghouls. But only the strongest will survive and be indoctrinated into the ghouls’ theocratic cult.
A former book thief works with an organized crime group to steal back an Atlas which has the ability to correspond with Hell.
Aboard a pirate ship headed towards hell for an unholy feast, an occultist must navigate a crew of satanists and cannibals if he wants to achieve his ulterior motives of marrying the daughter of an unholy, cannibalistic priest.
A man does not help his wife when she attempts suicide for the third time in a year. Although she seems to miraculously survive the event, her husband soon realizes that something in her is not the same.
Watching his friends die in a mysterious attack, a man makes a decision that may haunt him forever.