Subscribe to The Deadlands | View All Issues
I’ve never seen ghosts interact with each other, but they might. They don’t generally pay attention to the living either,
wrapped up in their loneliness or grief or whatever it is that drags them down.
Marilyn Monroe said, “In life, we weep at the thought of death. In death,
perhaps we weep at the thought of life.” But I’m sure they see us and hear us.
It’s just that almost all of us don’t know they’re there, so they tune us out,
or they’re so wrapped up in being dead that we don’t matter.
“On the Existence of Ghosts, As If,”
, James Van Pelt
Have you seen them, the ghosts who litter the corners like fallen leaves? Have you seen them, the husks of what once was? The price of becoming a ghost is losing the feast, is taking one last beautiful leap, is shattering your soul. The price of becoming is a liturgy for one, catalogued by no one, a gravedigger never on hiatus. When the dead come, look upon them and say hello.
The Deadlands is a magazine that publishes short stories, poems, and essays about the other realms, of the ends we face here, and the beginnings we find elsewhere.
Here’s what you can look forward to in the Autumn 2024 issue (#36) of The Deadlands:
- When the Dead Come In Pieces Will You Remain Unstained, Shana Ross
- The Empty Ones, Vivian Shaw
- The Price of Becoming A Villain Is To Quell One’s Kin In A Charade Of Pact With The Gods, Nwuguru Chidiebere Sullivan
- On the Existence of Ghosts, As If, James Van Pelt
- Liturgy of the Hours, Soni Brown
- Catalogue of the Exofaithful Practices on Exoplanet SSR24-∞, Marisca Pichette
- Ask a Necromancer: Oops, Amanda Downum
- The Feast Night of Vengeful Ghosts, Lavie Tidhar
- Shattered Souls at Heaven’s Gate, Ayòdéjì Israel
- The Last Great Beautiful Leap, Haden Cross
- Hiatus, River
- Gravediggers, Nat Nguyen