Asian Fantasy & Science Fiction
It's my pleasure to introduce a new poet to our INSTINCTS series, Sultana Raza. She has graciously shared a series of three interlinked poems, in both English and the original French! What a treat! The second and third poems will be published next Monday and Thursday. Please enjoy! INTER-DIMENSIONAL CLASSIFIED AD Lines found scribbled in... Continue Reading →
Shawn M. Klimek is another master drabbler that I'm excited to finally feature in one of our anthologies. Please enjoy this Persian myth inspired drabble! Manticore Hide Shawn M. Klimek To win the king’s reward for a manticore’s hide, warriors Enshang and Zaveh hunted the man-eater for three days, but without success. As they were... Continue Reading →
Today's Author Spotlight is presented (and translated) by guest editor, Toshiya Kamei! It is my great pleasure to introduce you to Fusako Ohki, an up-and-coming Japanese writer of fantasy and horror. She has three drabbles (originally titled, respectively, “Kappa,” “Nekomata,” and “Shuten-dōji”) in the forthcoming Mythical Creatures of Asia anthology. Poised to make a literary... Continue Reading →
Curious about Japanese horror? Me too! Insignia Stories' resident translator and drabble contributor, Toshiya Kamei, was kind enough to write the following overview of the horror genre in Japan, and to introduce the work of one of his clients, Umiyuri Katsuyama. Umiyuri Katsuyama, Queen of Tenohira Kaidan By Toshiya Kamei The Japanese word kaidan 怪談... Continue Reading →
Kindle Countdown Deal for 'Insignia: Best Asian Speculative Fiction 2020' If you didn't read last year's Best Asian Speculative Fiction 2020 anthology, now's your chance to grab a copy from Amazon.com! The sale will start at 12AM PST time at just 99c, then rise back to the full price of $2.99 by midnight, so get... Continue Reading →
Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and summer/winter break. I went up in the mountains, to Takayama in Gifu. One of my favorite places in Japan! It has a lovely historical town, plus nice onsen (hot springs) and snowy mountain peaks. And the food is amazing. I highly recommend a... Continue Reading →
This week's poetry piece is a speculative haiku by regular contributor, John H. Dromey. This year, John has work featured in Horror Matsuri 2020, Castles & Kimono, and both drabble anthologies. He also has 3 drabbles accepted for our open call, Mythical Creatures of Asia! Check out John's Insignia Author Page for more links to... Continue Reading →
HORROR MATSURI #9 / INSTINCTS (POETRY) #14 It's Week 5 of Horror Matsuri, and sadly today is the last poem, but it's a good one! This is John H. Dromey's second poem for the month. The first, 'Spooky Yuki-onna' can be read here. A Yōkai's Haiku Halloween Abroad John H. Dromey Just one day... Continue Reading →
HORROR MATSURI #5 / INSTINCTS (POETRY) #12 Welcome to Week 3 at Horror Matsuri! Only 2 posts this week, but we have a lot of content coming from Oct 23rd to 31st. Today's poem introduces a new Insignia Stories contributor, Maggie D. Brace. Maggie tells me that this poem was inspired by an article from... Continue Reading →
I hope you're all enjoying Horror Matsuri so far! Today we have a horror story by Malaysian writer, Deborah Wong. Deborah was featured in our Author Spotlight earlier this week, and is a contributor in the Southeast Asian Fantasy Drabbles anthology (links follow the story). HOUSE #197, ARGYLL ROAD by Deborah Wong Beware of the... Continue Reading →
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