Nature Triumphs: A Charity Anthology of Dark Speculative Fiction
Released September 3, 2024
A dark speculative fiction anthology of ecological delights and nightmares. In each piece, Nature prevails, it triumphs, one way or another, with teeth, claws, vines, tentacles, or more over human exploitation. Prose and poetry are equals here, giving you decadent, violent, and elegant delights. Dark humor and dark tales for dreams of a better tomorrow. All speculative subgenres are included, from literary horror, extreme horror, psychological horror to dark science fiction and new weird. Beloved authors of horror, science fiction and new voices all raised in a cautionary chorus for ecological awareness. Life must always find a way.
All proceeds go to The Nature Conservancy.
Contributors:
Angela Acosta, M.G. Allen, Alison Armstrong, Lilse Asalt,Andrew Bell, Katie Brunecz, Pixie Bruner, Ramsey Campbell, J. Rocky Colavito, Rebecca Cuthbert, Julie Dron, Stephanie Ellis, Timons Esaias, JG Faherty, Thomas Folske, Brian U. Garrison, Elana Gomel, Alejandro Gonzales, Norbert Góra, Mawr Gorshin, Sebastian Gray, Megan Guilliams, Linda Kay Hardie, Kyle Heger, Kristi Hendricks, Kasey Hill, Larry Hodges, Akua Lezli Hope, Sandra Lindow, Gordon Linzner, J.C. Maçek III, Victor Malone, John C. Mannone, David C. Kopaska-Merkel, Makena Metz, Edward Morris, Irena Barbara Nagler, Kris Nelson, Kevin Sandefur, Em Starr, Michael Errol Swaim, Rob Tannahill, Lamont A. Turner, and Mary A. Turzillo
Amazon Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DDDQ48LT
Wide Links: https://books2read.com/u/bz2Z5E
Get it on Godless!: https://godless.com/products/nature-triumphs-a-charity-anthology-of-dark-speculative-literature
Acosta, Angela
Angela Acosta (she/her) is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Hispanic Studies at Davidson College in North Carolina. Starting in August 2024, she will be teaching at the University of South Carolina as an Assistant Professor of Spanish. She is a Rhysling finalist whose poems have appeared in Shoreline of Infinity, Apparition Lit, Radon Journal, and Space & Time. She is author of the Elgin nominated collections Summoning Space Travelers (Hiraeth Publishing, 2022) and A Belief in Cosmic Dailiness: Poems of a Fabled Universe (Red Ogre Review, 2023).
Allen, M. G.
M.G. Allen is the author of Things, Death with an Order of Fries, and, in 2024, Frozen Fear. His short fiction has appeared in various places, online and in print. He lives in Atlanta with his doppelganger and three strange cats. His sense of humor is as dry as the desert sands.
Armstrong, Alison
Alison Armstrong is the author of three literary horror novels (Revenance, Toxicosis, and Dark Visitations), a novella (Vigil and Other Writings), in addition to a collection of writings addressing women and horror archetypes (Consorting with the Shadow: Phantasms and the Dark Side of Female Consciousness). Her work focuses on inner terror, stealthily lurking, solipsistic dread and nightmare flash epiphanies. Having obtained a Master of Arts in English, she has taught composition and literature at Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor, MI and Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn. In addition to her novels and novella (available on Amazon and other online retailers), she has had writings published in The Sirens Call as well as two horror anthologies (Book of Bones and From the Cradle to the Grave). Further information is on her Website: https://horrorvacui.us/
Asalt, Lilse
Lilse Asalt is a fantasy and romance author. Her work includes Dead End Florals and CEO of My Heart. She is a member of Codex, Indian Writers Association and the Horror Writers Association. She is currently working on her debut Amazon series.
Bell, Andrew
Born in '74, Andrew writes in Billingham, a small industrial town in England, United Kingdom. The Author of three horror novels and a collection of short stories is looking forward to his future with Dark Moon Rising Publications.
Brunecz, Katie
Katie Brunecz is a science teacher by day and a writer of horror and speculative fiction by night. Although currently residing in Atlanta with her cat Pixy, she was born and raised in western Pennsylvania and travels the world as frequently as possible. Her short stories can be found in anthologies such as the 100 Word Horror series and Summer Bludgeon, as well as in the online journals Witch House Magazine and Cosmic Daffodil. You can find her on Instagram @katiebrunecz or Twitter @KatieLBrunecz8.
Bruner, Pixie
Pixie Bruner is a writer, editor, and cancer survivor. She lives in Atlanta, GA, with her doppelgänger and alien cats. Her collection The Body As Haunted was published 2024 on Authortunities Press. Her poetry has been published or forthcoming in Space & Time Magazine, Whispers from Beyond (Crystal Lake Publishing), miniMAG, Star*Line, Punk Noir, and more. She wrote for White Wolf Gaming Studio. Mea culpa! SFPA and HWA Member.
Campbell, Ramsey
The Oxford Companion to English Literature describes Ramsey Campbell as “Britain’s most respected living horror writer”, and the Washington Post sums up his work as “one of the monumental accomplishments of modern popular fiction”. In 2015 he was made an Honorary Fellow of Liverpool John Moores University for outstanding services to literature. His latest novels are Fellstones, The Lonely Lands and The Incubations. His Brichester Mythos trilogy consists of The Searching Dead, Born to the Dark and The Way of the Worm. His most recent collections are Fearful Implications, a two-volume retrospective roundup (Phantasmagorical Stories) and The Village Killings and Other Novellas. His non-fiction is collected as Ramsey Campbell, Probably and Ramsey Campbell, Certainly, while Ramsey’s Rambles collects his video reviews, and Six Stooges and Counting is an appreciation of the Three Stooges. Limericks of the Alarming and Phantasmal is a history of horror fiction in fifty limericks.
Colavito, J. Rocky
J. Rocky Colavito, aka Dr. Damned/The Plague Prof, is temporarily based in the Midwest, but will soon be relocating to the Southwest. An academic by training, he is now a nearly full-time horror writer when he isn't teaching classes on professional wrestling, popular culture, and, yes, horror writing. His work appears in many places: Carnage House, Werewolf Magazine Reborn, The Siren's Call, The Horror Zine, Schlock!, and Caveman Magazine. Other appearances include anthologies curated by Wicked Shadow Press, Madame Gray's Poe-pourri of Horror, Winding Paths, Gasps, Shocking Sojourns, and The Horror Collection: Science Fiction edition. He is the Creator of Buck Neighkyd, porn star turned occult detective, whose serial adventures appear in Caveman Magazine, and in the novel Creative Control. His range extends into Neo-Giallo, (currently at six books), Stoned Cryptids, Splatter Dinosaur Porn, professional wrestling adjacent horror, and quieter pieces (the recent They Will Bring You Shiny Things). He lives by the credo, "Someone's gotta do it; might as well be me,” and is quite comfortable being the one you were warned about.
Cuthbert, Rebecca
Rebecca Cuthbert writes dark fiction and poetry. Her books include In Memory of Exoskeletons (poetry, Alien Buddha Press); Creep This Way: How to Become a Horror Writer with 24 Tips to Get You Ghouling (nonfiction, Seamus & Nunzio Productions); and Self-Made Monsters (fiction and poetry, forthcoming, Alien Buddha Press).
For publications, awards, reviews, and more, visit rebeccacuthbert.com.
Dron, Julie
Julie currently lives in Taiwan and started writing in her sixties. She has since been published in a variety of online journals and print anthologies, including Syncopation Literary Journal, Wordrunner eChapbooks, Synkroniciti, The Wild Word, Amaranth, Scottish Arts Trust, Blink Ink and Flash Fiction Magazine. She was twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize 2024.
Ellis, Stephanie
Stephanie Ellis writes dark, speculative prose and poetry. Her novels include The Five Turns of the Wheel, Reborn, and The Woodcutter, and the novellas, Bottled and Paused. A new novel, The Barricade, is due out in 2024. Her short stories appear in the collections The Reckoning and Devil Kin. She is a Rhysling and Elgin Award nominated poet and has written the collection Foundlings (with Cindy O’Quinn), Lilith Rising (with Shane Douglas Keene) and Metallurgy, as well as appearing in the HWA Poetry Showcase. She can be found supporting indie authors at HorrorTree.com via the weekly Indie Bookshelf Releases.
Website: https://stephanieellis.org
Esaias, Timons
Timons Esaias's works have been published in twenty-two languages. His story "Norbert and the System" has appeared in a textbook and in college curricula. Winner of the Winter Anthology Contest and the Louis Award, he was also shortlisted for the 2019 Gregory O'Donoghue International Poetry Prize. His full-length poetry collection is Why Elephants No Longer Communicate in Greek.
Faherty, JG
I am a Thriller Award and multiple Bram Stoker Award finalist and an Active Member of the HWA, SFWA, MWA, RWA, and ITW. My credits include 20 books, 4 collections, and more than 85 short stories in professional markets.
Folske, Tom
Tom Folske lives in Minnesota with his wife, four kids, and three black cats. He has had over 20 short stories published or in the process of being published, with new stories to be featured in upcoming anthologies by Jersey Pines Ink, Theaker Quarterly Fiction, Hiraeth Publishing and House of Loki Press. See more at
https://tfolske1987.wixsite.com/mysite
Garrison, Brian U.
Brian U. Garrison studied computer science and A.I. until neuroscience and human intelligence sounded much more interesting. His chapbook Micropoetry for Microplanets (Space Cowboy Books) celebrates the smallish to medium rocks that circle our sun. His poems have appeared in Fantasy & Science Fiction, Asimov's, Radon Journal, Haikuniverse, and elsewhere. He serves as Managing Editor for Eye to the Telescope. He lives under a tall, leafy tree in Portland, Oregon and online at www.bugtehwriter.com.
Gomel, Elana
Born in Ukraine and currently residing in California, Elana Gomel is an academic, an award-winning writer, and a professional nomad. She is well-known in the academy for her work on speculative fiction and narrative theory. Her nonfiction books include Beyond the Golden Rule, Bloodscripts, and The Palgrave Handbook of Global Fantasy. Twelve years ago, she published her first fantasy novel and has never looked back. She is the author of more than a hundred short stories, two collections, several novellas, and seven novels. She writes dark fantasy, dark SF, fairy tales, and hard-to-classify dreamlike stories, some of them connected to her roots in the former USSR. Her latest fiction publications are the dark fairy tale Nightwood (Silver Award in the Bookfest 2023 competition) and Girl of Light, an alternative history of the USSR with monsters. Her novel Nine Levels is coming out soon.
Gonzales, Alejandro
Alejandro Gonzales has stories in Brilliant Flash Fiction, Trembling With Fear, Bag Of Bones Press, Carnage House, and elsewhere. His short story Eternal Spring was nominated for the Pelekinesis Best Microfiction 2023 anthology. He enjoys the avant garde and juvenile alike in every artistic medium.
Góra, Norbert
Norbert Góra is a 34-year-old poet and writer from Poland. He is the author of more than 130 poems published in many poetry anthologies and magazines around the world. He also wrote four dark poetry books in English - "A globe bathed in horror," "Darkness in the end," "Deadlines," "There must be something between dark and light,"(a collection of haikus) - and one short story collection of horror "Brutality". Both the light and the murkiness inspire him. He is still looking for publishing opportunities in new languages.
Gorshin, Mawr
I was born in Timmins, Ontario, Canada in 1969. I moved to Taiwan in the summer of 1996, where I've lived ever since, teaching English as a second language. When I'm not teaching, I write prose, poetry, and analyses of literature, film, and music on my blog, 'Infinite Ocean' https://mawrgorshin.com/. My writing is usually from a Marxist or psychoanalytic perspective.
Gray, Sebastian
Sebastian Gray’s dark fantasy and horror fiction has been featured in Subterrain, Planet Scumm, and on the NoSleep Podcast. She lives in Vancouver, where she spends her time making art with her friends, and trying to be a basically decent person. Look for her upcoming novella Teeth! from Hidden Hand Press.
Guilliams, Megan
Megan Guilliams is an Independent Fiction author who specializes in Urban Fantasy and Horror. She is a Franklin County native who lives in Virginia with her husband and two children. When she’s not writing Young Adult and New Adult Fiction, she enjoys painting. Filling the walls of her home with colorful lowbrow art and Pop art, Megan enjoys bringing her book’s characters to life. As a young child, Megan dabbled in short stories, often entertaining her peers. While she doesn’t hold any specialized degrees that led her to her writing passion, she currently has over twenty novels published on Amazon and Kindle.
Hardie, Linda Kay
Linda Kay Hardie writes horror, crime, and SF/fantasy stories, as well as poetry, essays (often about cats but sometimes about baseball), and fiction for children. She also writes recipes and won a trophy in 2002 for best rib rub in the amateur division of the Best in the West Rib Cook-off in Sparks, Nevada. Linda’s writing has won awards dating back to a fifth-grade essay on fire safety and her post-apocalyptic short story “Grenade Blows Up” in 2024. In 2022, she was honored with the Sierra Arts Foundation’s Literary Arts Award for fiction. Linda makes a living as a freelance writer and as staff working for Abyssinian cats. See more at
https://www.amazon.com/author/lindakayhardie
Heger, Kyle
Kyle Heger, former managing editor of “Communication World” magazine, lives in Albany, CA with his wife and son. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism from San Fransisco State University. His writing (which includes poetry, short stories, essays and articles) has won awards and been accepted by 76 publications, including “London Journal of Fiction,” Typehouse Literary Magazine” and “MasticadoresCanada.”
Hendricks, Kristi
Kristi Hendricks holds a Master's Degree in Library and Information Science with a focus on archives. Originally from Oklahoma, Kristi has a passion for preserving history and making information accessible to all. An avid birder and travel enthusiast, Kristi finds joy in exploring new cultures and natural landscapes, especially through visits to national parks. Some of her favorite cities to explore are New Orleans and Minneapolis. When not traveling or birdwatching, Kristi can often be found visiting museums, exploring libraries, or capturing the beauty of the world through photography. Her professional expertise and personal interests intersect in a unique blend that fuels her dedication to the archival profession and her love for discovering and preserving stories.
Hill, Kasey
Kasey Hill has lived in Franklin County, VA, for most of her life. Spending two years in journalism in high school, and a few articles published in the Franklin News Post, she built much of her young adult life around reading and writing. She has several horror novels published as well as a Christian Fantasy series, and many more stories circulating for anthologies as she pushes her passions forth into the writing community. As a nonfiction author, she is both a poet and the historical archivist for Trinitarian Wicca with an upcoming historical account of the shift from polytheism to monotheism in Abrahamic religion.
Hodges, Larry
Larry Hodges, of Germantown, MD, has over 200 short story sales and four SF novels. He's a graduate of the Odyssey and Taos Toolbox Writers Workshops, a member of Codexwriters, and a ping-pong aficionado. As a professional writer, he has 21 books and over 2200 published articles in 190+ different publications. He's also a member of the USA Table Tennis Hall of Fame, and claims to be the best table tennis player in Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association, and the best science fiction writer in USA Table Tennis!!! Visit him at
Hope, Akua Lezli
Akua Lezli Hope, a Grand Master of Fantastic Poetry (SFPA), is a paraplegic creator & wisdom seeker who uses sound, words, fiber, glass, metal, & wire to create poems, patterns, stories, music, sculpture, adornments & peace. She’s been in print since 1974 with over 500 poems published. Her collections include Embouchure: Poems on Jazz and Other Musics (Writer’s Digest book award), Them Gone, & Otherwheres: Speculative Poetry (Elgin Award). A Cave Canem fellow, her honors include the NEA, NYFA fellowships, SFPA award, Rhysling awards, & multiple Best of the Net, Rhysling, Dwarf Star, & Pushcart Prize nominations. She won a 2022 NYSCA grant to create Afrofuturist, speculative, pastoral poetry and a 2024 NYSCA grant to explore disability poetics. She created the Speculative Sundays Poetry Reading series. She edited the history-making, first, NOMBONO: An Anthology of Speculative Poetry by BIPOC creators. Her speculative fiction is included in the ground-breaking anthology Dark Matter, and in the celebrated Africa Risen anthology, among others. She exhibits her artwork, practices her soprano saxophone, sings, and dreams of access.
Kopaska-Merkel, David C.
David C. Kopaska-Merkel, a semi-retired geologist living in southern Louisiana, won the 2006 Rhysling award for best long poem (for a collaboration with Kendall Evans), and edits Dreams & Nightmares magazine (since 1986). He has edited Star*line, an issue of Eye To The Telescope, and several Rhysling anthologies, co-edited the 2023 Dwarf Stars anthology, has served as SFPA president, and is an SFPA Grandmaster. His poems and stories have been published in Asimov’s, Analog, Strange Horizons, and more than 200 other venues. His latest speculative poetry collection, Unwelcome Guests, was published by Weird House Press in 2024, link below.
Blog: https://shorturl.at/TjiIK
Lindow, Sandra
Since 1989, Sandra J. Lindow has published nine books of poetry. The most recent is Chasing Wild Grief, 2021. Since 1987, she has served as West Central Vice President of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets. She continues to do freelance writing and editing and presently coedits the SFPA SpecPo Review Blog. She lives on a hilltop in Menomonie, Wisconsin.
Linzner, Gordon
Gordon Linzner is founder and former editor of Space and Time Magazine and author of five published novels and dozens of short stories in F&SF, Twilight Zone, Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, and numerous other magazines and anthologies, including Baker Street Irregulars II, Release the Virgins!, Footprints in the Stars, The Mountains of Madness Revealed, Across the Universe, Strange Lands, The Vampire Connoisseur, Strange Aeon 2020, Horrors for the Throne, Shadows Out of Time, Humans Are the Problem, New Sherlock Holmes Stories Part XXIX: More Christmas Adventures (1889-1896), Flash in a Flash, Spawn of War and Deathiness, Etherea Magazine, The Horror Zine's Book of Werewolf Stories, Even in the Grave, Shotgun Honey, Tempered Tales: Medusa, Alternative Holidays, Sherlock Holmes: Adventures in the Realm of H.P. Lovecraft, Black Cat Mystery Magazine, Of Gods and Globes III, Grimm Machinations, Cold War Cthulhu, Occult Detective Magazine, and many more. He is a full member of the Horror Writers Association and a lifetime member of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association.
Maçek III, J.C.
J.C. Maçek III is the author of the hit true crime novel The Black Dahlia (2024) and the producer of the 2018 film [CARGO], starring Ron Thompson of American Pop fame, as well as the author of the film’s tie-in novel. His other novels include The Antagonist and Seven Days to Die. More recently, the author has found success in shorter stories and novellas, though novels are still his primary focus. An experienced and prolific entertainment journalist and celebrity interviewer, he has written thousands of articles, reviews and interviews. His current project is Symptom of the Universe: A Horror Tribute to Black Sabbath, an anthology of short stories and novellas inspired by the music and lyrics of every era of Black Sabbath and covering each album from the band. In addition to curating and editing the forty entries in this compilation, he is also writing or co-writing seven of the stories. The complete collection will be released on September 18, 2024, from Dark Moon Rising Publications. He resides in Southern California with his wife and family.
Malone, Victor
Victor Malone is a writer of poetry and prose. He is the author of 8 books, including "Pornodrone" & "The Dark Empurpled Sky." He can be contacted via his agent at:
electrum-representation@outlook.com
Mannone, John C.
John C. Mannone has poems in Windhover, North Dakota Quarterly, Poetry South, Baltimore Review, and others. He won a Dwarf Stars Award (2020); was awarded an HWA Scholarship (2017) and a Jean Ritchie Fellowship (2017) in Appalachian literature; and served as the celebrity judge for the National Federation of State Poetry Societies (2018). He has five full-length collections, the latest is novella-length horror, Dark Wind, Dark Water, forthcoming from Mind’s Eye Publishing. He edits poetry for Abyss & Apex and Silver Blade. He’s a professor of physics now teaching mathematics and creative writing in a Knoxville, Tennessee magnet high school.
http://jcmannone.wordpress.com
https://www.facebook.com/jcmannone
Metz, Makena
Makena Metz writes sci-fi, fantasy, and magical realism for the page, screen, and stage. She is from Los Angeles and has an MFA in Creative Writing and MA in English from Chapman University. Makena’s work has been published with Broken Antler Magazine, the Literary Hatchet, The Fantastic Other, The Bitchin’ Kitsch, Strange Horizons, Arkana, and many others. Follow her @ makenametz on social media or find her work at makenametz.com
Morris, Edward
I am a queer, disabled bouncer with a writing problem, living and working in Portland, Oregon. I was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in Literature, the Rhysling and the BSFA. My short stories have been published over 150 times and in six languages worldwide. My short story, "The Last Beat of My Heart," recently appeared on Margaret Killjoy's Cool Zone Media Book Club podcast. Other shorts have recently appeared in both Interzone and IZ Digital, and Brian Sammons' TALES FROM ARKHAM SANITARIUM, as well as both volumes of PS Publishing's THE STARRY WISDOM LIBRARY. My breakout novel ALPHABET OF LIGHTNING is available here:
https://www.brokeneyebooks.com/news/alphabet-of-lightning-by-edward-morris#/
Nagler, Irena Barbara
Irena Barbara Nagler writes and illustrates fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. She lives in Michigan, works in libraries, and coordinates a tribe of dancers who embody a weaving of poetry, myth, and the living system of Nature. Irena believes that nature will heal itself by whatever means necessary and that humans are among its myriad expressions.
Nelson, Kris
Kris Nelson is a musician and writer with experience in theatre and film. He is cofounder of experimental band Cavebat, and has co-produced and is featured on six charity albums in an ongoing series called Proverbial 11. He is largely the product of his own deranged imagination. A collection of molecules claiming to be him can be found on the planet Earth in the Atlanta region.
Sandefur, Kevin
Kevin Sandefur is the Capital Projects Accountant for the Champaign Unit 4 School District and is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Applied Studies in Creative Writing at the University of Iowa. His fiction has appeared in The Saturday Evening Post, Pulp Literature, MetaStellar, and PodCastle. He lives with his wife and two cats in Champaign County, Illinois, which is a magical place where miracles happen almost every day, and hardly anyone seems to find that remarkable.
Starr, Em
Em Starr (she/her) is an Australian horror writer whose work has appeared, or is forthcoming, in numerous publications, including Fear of Clowns: A Horror Anthology, and Spawn 2: More Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and Babies. She lives in Melbourne, on Boon Wurrung land, with one husband and two naughty dogs. Get to know Em at www.emstarr.com.au
Swaim, Michael
Tannahill, Rob
Rob Tannahill is a writer, musician, and recovering addict living in Northern Nevada. His stories have been published in Down in the Dirt, Short-Story.Me, and other places. His poetry has been published in The Perch #7 (Substance). He is also a proud grower of various plants.
Turner, Lamont
I am a New Orleans area writer whose work has appeared in hundreds of anthologies, magazines and podcasts. My three volumes of short stories, "Souls In A Blender," "Bleeding Out In The Rain," and "Under A Starless Sky," were published by St. Rooster Books and are available on Amazon.
Turzillo, Mary
Mary A. Turzillo has won two Elgin awards (Sweet Poison, with Marge Simon, 2014, and Lovers & Killers, 2012, solo) and a Nebula award ("Mars Is to Place for Children" 1999). Mary has been a British SF Association, Pushcart, Stoker, Dwarf Stars, and Rhysling finalist. Her novel Mars Girls (Apex) features two young Martian women rescuing themselves from Face-on-Mars crazies. Victims, again with Marge Simon, was a Stoker finalist. Her purrfectly delicious story and poem collection Cosmic Cats & Fantastic Furballs appeared March 2022 from WordFire. It contains her Nebula-nominated story "Pride." As a rated fencer in the US in her age class, she lives with scientist-author-fencer Geoffrey Landi.