This Is Horror

TOD 122 Usman T. Malik: Horror with a Sense of Wonder

The Outer Dark presents “Usman T. Malik: Horror with a Sense of Wonder,” a conversation with the author about his World Fantasy Award-winning debut collection, Midnight Doorways: Fables from Pakistan (KITAB Ltd, 2021) and more. This podcast’s content was recorded on March 20, 2023.

Show Notes

The Outer Dark presents ‘Usman T. Malik: Horror with a Sense of Wonder,’ a conversation with the author about his World Fantasy Award-winning debut collection, Midnight Doorways: Fables from Pakistan (KITAB Ltd, 2021) and more.  Malik begins by sharing his own road to horror and spec-lit via folk and fairy tales, as well as the layers of story within story in his work, his embrace of horror, Weird, and uncanny fiction, and the role of the Covid pandemic in making Midnight Doorways happen. Discussion then dives  into the stories behind his stories from an alley too narrow for death to cosmic horror set in a contemporary time of terrorism but rooted in ancient Indus Valley mythology. He reads (0:42:37) from his rom-com creature feature ‘#Spring Love #Pichal Pairi’ (Tor.com, 2021), talks about cofounding the Salam Award for Imaginative Fiction, and offers his reading recommendations including  Urdu authors Naiyer Masuda and Khalida Hussain (Asghar), as well as groundbreaking American Noir pioneer Dorothy B. Hughes. This podcast’s content was recorded on March 20, 2023.

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Additional Links

LISTEN: TOD 113 State of The Weird Roundtable 2022

Aamer Hussein (LitHub)

LISTEN: TOD 101 Body Shocks: Extreme Tales of Body Horror Featuring Ellen Datlow, Cody Goodfellow, Cassandra Khaw, Brian Evenson, Gemma Files

Karen Joy Fowler

‘The Patli Gali, Narrowest Street in Lahore’ (Locally Lahore)

Watch: ‘A Visit To Old & Famous Narrow Street Of | Lahore | Punjab | Pakistan’ (Jalandhari Guides, youtube)

Clive Barker on his The Books of Blood

Poppy Z Brite

The Butler (2013, directed by Lee Daniels, trailer)

Joe Hill

Clarion West

‘Writers on Writing: Creating Short Fiction by Damon Knight’ by Lee Mandelo (Tor.com, 2011)

Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff

Marvel Studios’ Miss Marvel (series, Disney Plus, 2022, trailer)

Partition: ‘Why was India split into two countries?’ – Haimanti Roy (Ted-Ed, YouTube)

Black Feathers: Dark Avian Tales, edited by Ellen Datlow (Pegasus Books, 2017)

Anna Tambour

Elizabeth Hand

John Clute

The Mammoth Book of Cthulhu, edited by Paula Guran (Running Press/Hachette, 2016) 

READ: ‘City of Red Midnight: A Hikayat’ by Usman T. Malik (tor.com, 2020)

READ: The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptis Jinn’ by Usman T. Malik (Tor.com, 2016)

The Book of Witches, edited by Jonathan Strahan (Harper Collins, August 2023)

Usman T. Malik (@usmantm) on Twitter

Nathan Ballingrud

READ: ‘The Wagon’ by Khalida Asghar (Weird Fiction Review)

In Memoriam: Mysterious and Mystical Khalida Husain (dawn.com)

In a Lonely Place (1950, trailer)

The Gimlet Eye of Dorothy B. Hughes: Megan Abbott on Dorothy B. Hughes’s In a Lonely Place (Women Crime Writers of the 1940s and 1950s, Library of America)

‘The Origins of American Noir’ by Megan Abbot (The Paris Review, 2017)

Show Credits

Hosts/Producers: Scott Nicolay and Anya Martin

Co-Host, News from The Weird: Justin Steele

Co-Host, Reviews from The Weird: Gordon B. White

Symposium Assistant Director: Melanie Crew

Symposium Programming Coordinator: Jess Lewis

Symposium Logistics: Melissa Eisner

Logo Design: Nick “The Hat” Gucker

Music: Michael Griffin