Holly Walrath's Blog, page 7
January 10, 2023
Write with What You Have
Emily Dickinson’s Envelope Poems, The Power of the Fragment, and a Writing Prompt for the New Year
December 12, 2022
Forthcoming in April 2023: Numinous Stones
From Elgin Award winning author Holly Lyn Walrath, a haunting collection of poetry about grief and the sacred that digs deep beyond a fairytale world into the grave. Told in the circular pantoum form, Numinous Stones is a poetic graveyard littered with horror — from sentient scarecrows to silent skeletons to scorched sacred spaces. As each line repeats, new meaning gleams like bones unearthed in a shattered realm of monsters, dark forests, and dusty ghosts.
I am delighted to announce that my chapbook of horror pantoums NUMINOUS STONES will be published by Aqueduct Press in 2023.
This book has been a long time coming. I wrote this book after my father passed away from Parkinson’s disease. As I say in my author’s note, “the book, which was initially written in response to death, held a clinging veil of darkness on its metaphorical skin. Death follows this book, informs it, and delivers it into the world.” Of course, it’s queer and feminist too.
This little book was first published in Italian by Kipple Officina Libraria and Alex Tonelli. It was selected as a semi-finalist for the 2021 Tomaž Šalamun Prize. I dedicate this book to my father and the late Marco Raimondo, the original translator of the Italian poems. This will be its first publication in English, with ten new poems!
Stay tuned for pre-order information! Please enjoy this excerpt from the book:
Parkinson’s is a Kind of Armageddonby Holly Lyn Walrath
I dreamed of my father last night
He was thin and frail in bed
As he was in the moments before death
And he was crying out
He was thin and frail in bed
In the dream world he could speak
And he was crying out
We were in so much pain
In the dream world he could speak
His body was thin and mottled and naked
We were so much pain
I could do nothing but hold his hand again
His body was thin and mottled and naked
As he was in the moments before death
I could do nothing but hold his hand again
I dreamt of my father last night
Parkinson’s is a kind of Armageddon
It riddles the brain with silence
Nothing can enter or leave unaided
And the father I knew is not there
It riddles the brain with silence
Words are painful
And the father I knew is not there
So I don’t know what to say
Words are painful
They form into stones in his mouth
So I don’t know what to say
How do you say I’m sorry to a ghost
They form into stones in his mouth
I could do nothing but hold his hand again
How do you say I’m sorry to a ghost
Parkinson’s is a kind of Armageddon
“Walrath poetically constructs tombstones (what is poetry if not construction?) imbued with a sacred, powerful, and majestic presence that both attracts and terrifies. They are sacred tombstones that serve the poet, and we will see this in the reading of her texts to celebrate, mourn, cry out, and, finally, accept her father’s death…. The collected poems constitute a journey, a slow path that we could also define as a slow coming to consciousness. A becoming aware of a pain to be understood and experienced to be, finally, accepted.”[image error]
— From the original Introduction by Alex Tonelli in Numinose Lapidi
November 28, 2022
New Workshop Alert + A Free Prompt
New Workshop Alert!!I have a new self-paced workshop up at The Poetry Barn. This class came out of NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month), which happens every year in April. Similarly, the goal of this self-paced class is to write 30 poems in 30 days. However, you might write one poem a day, or several poems in a day, and then give yourself a break. It’s totally up to you!
Whether you’re writing to a specific theme, assembling a group of poems for a chapbook, or you want to try writing a longer poetic sequence, this workshop is meant to support you with generative prompts and experiences to get you creating plenty of new work.
And because I love you, here is an excerpt from the class!
Echo/RepetitionPoems that include echoes are those that utilize repetition. A line “echoes back” to an earlier line or to the title in the poem. Like the echo in a canyon, the poem speaks to itself. The poet may repeat a sound, syllable, word, phrase, line, stanza, or rhythm.
On the subject, Edward Hirsch says in his book A Poet’s Glossary:
“It is one of the most marked features of all poetry, oral and written, one of the primary ways we distinguish poetry itself. Repetition, as in rhyme, is a strong mnemonic device. Oral poets especially use it for remembering structures. The incantatory magic of poetry — think of spells and chants, of children’s rhymes and lullabies — has something to do with recurrence, with things coming back to us in time, sometimes in the same way, sometimes differently. Repetition is the primary way of creating a pattern through rhythm. Meaning accrues through repetition. One of the deep fundamentals of poetry is the recurrence of sounds, syllables, words, phrases, lines, and stanzas. Repetition can be one of the most intoxicating features of poetry. It creates expectations, which can be fulfilled or frustrated. It can create a sense of boredom and complacency, but it can also incite enchantment and inspire bliss.”
An example of repetition on the book level is the book inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Bells”. Using the poem’s rhythm, Daniel Hoffman’s book Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe (1972), uses repetition to enforce the influence.
As an example, try to spot the repetition in the poem “Some Feel Rain” by Joanna Klink over at the Poetry Foundation.
Writing PromptWrite a poem in which there is an echo/repetition. You can repeat any part of the poem that inspires you. I suggest starting with an interesting phrase, although you can also repeat the structure of the poem itself in some way.
Think of how your repetition might be lyrical or musical. An example is the blues rhythm:
“Oh, I asked her for water, oh, she brought me gasoline
Oh, I asked her for water, oh, she brought me gasoline
That’s the troublingest woman
That I ever seen” — Howlin’ Wolf
Or, your repetition could be as simple as one powerful word used in a powerful place.
About the InstructorHolly Lyn Walrath is a freelance editor based out of Houston, Texas. She holds a B.A. in English from The University of Texas and a Master’s in Creative Writing from the University of Denver. Her poetry and prose have appeared in Analog, Strange Horizons, Fireside Fiction, and in the Other Terrors anthology from the Horror Writer’s Association, among many more publications. Holly is the author of the collection The Smallest of Bones, published by Clash Books in 2021 and Glimmerglass Girl, winner of the SFPA Elgin Award. She is the managing editor of Interstellar Flight Press, an indie press for underrepresented voices and genres. Visit Holly’s website at www.hlwalrath.com.
[image error]November 21, 2022
Awards Eligibility Post — Holly Lyn Walrath
The gash of your mouth opens
wide around the cold
porcelain of the condemned —
the lonely, the wasteful, the lavish
like a kitten dead in the road
all things are wanting to you
Wow, I really can’t believe this year is almost over. This year, I am very glad to have published in some outstanding anthologies and pro markets. I want to thank all the editors and publishers who continue to support my writing — I would not be here without you! And thank you to all the readers, writers, and friends who have read my writing. Particular thanks to Alex Tonelli of Kipple Press for translating my book The Smallest of Bones (first published by Clash Books) into Italian!
My short stories “Twelve Babies” and “The Asylum” are eligible for the HWA Bram Stoker Award. My poems are eligible for the SFPA Rhysling Award. If you would like a PDF of any of these works, please email me: hlwalrath (at) gmail (dot) com.
List of Works Published by Holly Lyn Walrath in 2022:Fiction (Short Stories)“Twelve Babies” —Flash Fiction, A Woman Unbecoming Anthology, Crone Girls Press (October 2022)
“Trinity’s Dragon” — The Sunday Morning Transport (October 16, 2022)
“The Asylum” — Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology (July 2022)
Poetry“Water Drawn from a Stone” — Not One of Us, Issue #71, July 2022
“Literature for Ukraine” published in Houston Arts Journal
March 10, 2022
“You Crave Poison” — HWA Poetry Showcase V. IX, October 2022
BooksIl più piccolo tra le ossa — The Smallest of Bones, translated into Italian by Kipple Press, February 2022
Books EditedThe Gravity of Existence by Christina Sng (Poetry, Interstellar Flight Press, December 5, 2022)
The Future Second by Second by Meridel Newton (Fiction Novella, Interstellar Flight Press, May 2, 2022)
Escaping the Body by Chloe N. Clark (Poetry, Interstellar Flight Press, March 7, 2022)
Interstellar Flight Magazine (A Project of Interstellar Flight Press, First started in 2019, Publishing Nonfiction — probably eligible for Fanzine or related project?)
About the AuthorHolly Lyn Walrath is a writer, editor, and publisher. Her poetry and short fiction has appeared in Strange Horizons, Fireside Fiction, Analog, and Flash Fiction Online. She is the author of several books of poetry including Glimmerglass Girl (2018), Numinose Lapidi (2020), and The Smallest of Bones (2021). She holds a B.A. in English from The University of Texas and a Master’s in Creative Writing from the University of Denver.
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November 19, 2022
New Workshop Alert: 30 Stories in 30 Days
Celebrate National Flash Fiction Month in July!July is the unofficial flash fiction writing month. It also happens to be the month when the Bath Flash Fiction conference occurs. This year, I’m planning a super-special workshop meant to give you 30 story starts.
Class Starts Saturday, July 1st, 2023Led by Holly Lyn Walrath, whose speculative work has appeared in Analog, Strange Horizons, and in the Other Terrors anthology from the Horror Writer’s Association, among many more publications. Holly is the author of the collection The Smallest of Bones, published by Clash Books.
This generative workshop is chock full of 30 writing prompts for short story writers.
Whether you write micro fiction, flash fiction, or short stories, these 30 prompts are meant to inspire and support you in this unique writing challenge. You’ve heard of NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month), where poets write 30 poems in 30 days, and you’ve probably heard of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), where writers try to write a novel in a month.
Now you can do the same with short stories. Whether you’re writing to a specific theme, assembling stories for a collection, or want to try writing a series of connected stories, this workshop will explore new contemporary structures like The Tryptich or The Wikipedia Entry.
Open to writers of all genres — from realism to memoir to speculative fiction.
Note: For this class, you will not be required to submit peer critiques, since the goal is just to generate new work. However, the instructor will give feedback to each student, and there will be an opportunity to upload your stories for accountability.
COURSE OUTLINE:
Week 1: Finding Your Voice
Week 2: Writing Memorable Stories
Week 3: You Are Your Audience
Week 4: Write What You Love, Love What You Write
COURSE TAKEAWAYS:
Dive into seven writing prompts each weekExplore elements of short fictionLearn about hooks, twists, and turnsWrite 30 short stories in 30 days!ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE:
This class is entirely asynchronous which means you complete the weekly assignments on your own schedule. There are no set meeting times in order to allow for greater participation; your cohort will consist of writers from across different time zones, which allows for a wonderful diversity of voices.
Along with your weekly deadlines there is plenty of interaction with Holly and your peers within Wet Ink, our dedicated online classroom. Craft materials, lectures, reading assignments, and writing prompts are all available through the online classroom. Students also post work and provide and receive feedback within the online classroom environment.
You can get the work done as you see fit week-to-week, so it is perfect for any schedule. There are discussion questions each week inspired by the assigned readings and topics in the lecture notes. Students are encouraged to take these wherever is most compelling and/or useful for them. Holly engages with these discussions throughout the week and you will receive feedback from all assigned writing activities.
HOW DOES WET INK WORK?
Wet Ink was built and designed specifically for online writing classes. Wet Ink is private, easy to use, and very interactive. You can learn more about the Wet Ink platform by Watching a Class Demo.
PAYMENT OPTIONS:
You can pay for the course in full or use Shop Pay or Affirm to pay over time with equal Monthly Payments. Both options are available at checkout.
ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE:
Instructor: Holly Lyn WalrathStarts July 1st, 2023Course is fully ONLINE; students can work according to their own schedule within weekly deadlines. Once you have enrolled the instructor will send you a link to our online classroom, provided via Wet Ink.Instructor Holly Lyn Walrath is a freelance editor based out of Houston, Texas. She holds a B.A. in English from The University of Texas and a Master’s in Creative Writing from the University of Denver. Her poetry and prose have appeared in Analog, Strange Horizons, Fireside Fiction, and in the Other Terrors anthology from the Horror Writer’s Association, among many more publications. Holly is the author of the collection The Smallest of Bones, published by Clash Books in 2021 and Glimmerglass Girl, winner of the SFPA Elgin Award. She is the managing editor of Interstellar Flight Press, an indie press for underrepresented voices and genres. Visit Holly’s website here.
[image error]November 15, 2022
The Gravity of Existence by Christina Sng ONLINE BOOK LAUNCH!
Howdy Space Partners!
This is just a note to let you know we’ll be hosting a virtual book launch for Christina Sng’s new book of poems, THE GRAVITY OF EXISTENCE.
Here are the details. Sign up via Eventbrite to join us!
Date: Monday, December 5th at 12pm NOON EST / 11am CST
Online via Zoom/Eventbrite
You will receive info from Eventbrite on how to access the event after you register. This event is free to attend. We will also be streaming the event on Facebook, and you can watch the recording on our YouTube channel after!
THE GRAVITY OF EXISTENCEby Christina Sng
A collection of tiny terrors from Bram Stoker Award ® winner Christina Sng. The Gravity of Existence is a weight lifted, a monster freed, a princess with sneakers, a spell for a better world. From one of the leading voices in dark verse, this collection delights in the misunderstood, putting a new spin on werewolves, basilisks, sirens, ghosts, aliens, pandemics, fairy tales and myths. Sng gives new voice to classic heroines and the result is terrifying, magical, and fantastic.
About the Author
Christina Sng is an award-winning poet, writer, essayist, and artist. Her work has appeared in numerous print and online venues worldwide and is translated into six languages. She is the author of A Constellation of Songs (Origami Poems Project), Catku (Allegra Press), 2017 Elgin Award nominee An Assortment of Sky Things (Allegra Press), 2018 Elgin Award runner-up Astropoetry (Alban Lake Publishing), 2017 Bram Stoker Award® winner A Collection of Nightmares (Raw Dog Screaming Press), 2020 Bram Stoker Award® winner and 2021 Elgin Award runner-up A Collection of Dreamscapes (Raw Dog Screaming Press), and the collaborative poetry collection Tortured Willows with Lee Murray, Gene Flynn, and Angela Yuriko Smith.
Since 2001, her science fiction, horror, and fantasy poetry and fiction have been published across North America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Singapore. These include Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, Aoife’s Kiss, Apex Magazine, Astronomers Without Borders, Bare Bone, Beyond Centauri, Black Petals, Blood Rose, Bloodbond, ChiZine, Daily Science Fiction, Dark Animus, Disturbed Digest, Dreams and Nightmares, Electric Velocipede, Eye to the Telescope, Fantastic Stories of the Imagination, Flesh & Blood, Grievous Angel, Hadrosaur Tales, Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, Illumen, The Journal, Jupiter Magazine, LONTAR, Lunatic Chameleon, The Martian Wave, Mythic Delirium, NewMyths.com, Night to Dawn, Outposts of Beyond, The Pedestal Magazine, Penny Dreadful, Penumbric, Poe Little Thing, Polu Texni, Scifaikuest, Space & Time, Spaceports & Spidersilk, Spectral Realms, Star*Line, Story House, Tales of the Talisman, Trunk Stories, The Washington Post, Wicked Hollow, and Yellow Bat Review.
From late 2015, Christina began to study haiku, finding it immensely beautiful and therapeutic. She writes short form poems to document her thoughts and days. Her haiku, senryu, haiga, and tanka have since received numerous honours and accolades, including winning the 2018 Jane Reichhold International Prize and the Third Annual Jane Reichhold Memorial Haiga Competition. Her work has appeared all around the world in journals such as A Hundred Gourds, Akisame, Akitsu Quarterly, Asahi Haikuist, bear creek haiku, cattails, Cricket, Failed Haiku, Frameless Sky, Frogpond, Haikuniverse, Haiku Masters, hedgerow, Mayfly, otata, Prune Juice, Ribbons, Shamrock, The Bamboo Hut, The Cicada’s Cry, and Wild Plum, among others.
[image error]The Gravity of Existence by Christina Sng ONLINE BOOK LAUNCH! was originally published in Interstellar Flight Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
October 10, 2022
October 5, 2022
NaNoWriMo: The Ultimate Preptober Checklist
Everything You Need for a Perfect November to Smash Your Word Count Goals
October 3, 2022
HAUNT and the Halloween Haunted House
When I was a kid growing up in the 90s, I was obsessed with Halloween. I trick-or-treated right up until age 14, which I remember vividly as my last Halloween — I finally realized I was too old for the practice.
I grew up in a small town in Texas. Halloween was a big deal in our town, mostly because, as a conservative religious community, Halloween was the one chance kids got to explore otherwise taboo subjects — horror movies, sexy dress-up, and the supernatural (including the forbidden topic of witchcraft.)
In our neighborhood, an older couple put up a backyard haunted house every year. I remember walking through their back gate, and they would have a short, gruesome show every fifteen minutes or so. The wife would pretend to rip out her husband’s guts, or a spooky witch would brew body parts over a smoke-machine-fueled cauldron. Other neighbors set up haunted houses in their houses, complete with snacks, drinks, and games. On other Halloweens, there would be a haunted “maze” set up in the park across the street from my house. It was in line for this haunted maze that I met some of my best friends.
One year, my friends and I went out to a haunted trail in the woods. It was a full production. I’ve always been fascinated with how the haunted-house-as-show works. Inherently, it’s about suspending your disbelief for long enough to get a good thrill. The fun is in knowing that while you may experience fear for a short time, in the end, you will get out safe.
https://medium.com/media/a5f96934f2777ffa7aa6ea55a558f722/hrefWhich is part of why I loved the movie Haunt (2019) so much. Streaming now on Shudder, Haunt follows a group of college students as they enter, and try to escape from, a haunted house on Halloween. This isn’t your standard neighborhood haunted house, but more of a torture chamber. It shadows the recent phenomenon of “extreme” haunted attractions.
One such real-life haunt is McKamey Manor in Summertown, TN. It claims to be so extreme that no one has ever finished the experience, despite promises of a $20,000 prize. In order to enter, participants must sign a 40-page waiver, pass a drug test, have a completed sports physical and doctor’s letter, present proof of medical insurance, pass a background test, and be screened via social media. Not to mention that to enter, you have to watch a two-hour film featuring people who went into the house telling everyone how much they regret the experience.
The haunted house is so controversial that a petition to close it on Change.org gathered hundreds of thousands of signatures. Petitioners argue that the haunted house is merely a torture chamber, and other rumors state even worse claims of the show-runners hiring felons or sexually assaulting guests.
https://medium.com/media/3a3b77fd24cbf0285a0bd69fafa56a67/hrefHaunt takes this context and combines it with the horror tropes of Halloween to devastating effect.
The movie opens with Harper (Katie Stevens) and her roommate Bailey (Lauryn McClain) at home. Someone smashes a pumpkin on their doorstep, and Bailey immediately knows that it is Harper’s boyfriend, who is abusive. We learn that Harper, who will be our final girl, is not only dating an abusive boyfriend but that her father was also abusive to her mother. This ultimately becomes the emotional thrust of the film that drives Harper to survive.
The friends gather after a night of partying to find a “haunt” (the filmmakers tried hard to slide the name of the movie in, but it was a bit heavy-handed). They stumble upon a haunt in the middle of nowhere after Harper is convinced they are being followed. After signing a waiver and handing over their cell phones, the group of friends follows a creepy clown-masked man into a labyrinthian haunted house in an abandoned warehouse.
The film slots characters into standard horror movie roles. Harper is the “different” final girl who is dating an abuser but finds herself falling for the jock, Nathan (Will Brittain). Andrew Caldwell does a fantastic job as comic relief in the character of Evan. The two other girls include Lauryn McClain as Bailey, who could be said to fall into a somewhat stereotypical “brown girl best friend” role but truly steals the final scenes of the film, and Schuyler Helford as Mallory.
Each character is given a plausible backstory for them to work through as they encounter more and more terrifying aspects of the haunt. None of the friends abandon each other, and all are depicted as fairly decent human beings, which is refreshing for a genre that usually devolves into characters leaving each other high and dry (or hung somewhere by their flesh).
The movie is very self-aware and meta, but this works given the premise and never feels overdone. Old Halloween chestnuts like the “stick your hand in a hole and guess the object” game and the “roomful of creepy mannequins” are expected but subverted.
As the friends navigate the haunted house, the delight in watching the film is the creativity put into the set design. Similar to most extreme haunted houses, each room is themed and has a different horrifying methodology. Reminiscent of other gorefest films like Saw (2004) and Hellhouse LLC(2015), the characters must solve an escape-room mystery to get out of each haunted house area.
What I enjoyed about the film is how it slowly unravels, letting us see behind the scenes as the characters break into the fourth wall of the haunted house, where the demented showrunners are pulling the puppet strings. Not only is the house not what it seems, but the masked “workers” of this hell house are also a surprise.
In my opinion, the villains here are the best kind because their motives are unclear and never explained in the film. The most terrifying of monsters is that which we don’t understand. And so, I was pleased that the writers chose not to explain why the baddies do what they do here. Like other horror classics such as Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), we don’t need a nuanced backstory of the villains to be scared as viewers. Leaving it unexplained adds tension to the film that is rarely explored in horror these days.
Haunt has some truly creepy and horrific moments. I went into watching it expecting a half-hearted Halloween flick and was surprised at how many twists and turns the film gives viewers. The setup does a fantastic job of laying out the story and then subverting viewers’ expectations. There’s gore here, but it’s not unwatchable. (I only had to hide my eyes in a few scenes!)
Ultimately, the film also does a fantastic job of exploring the final girl trope. Harper is not just a good girl trying to survive — she is strong, capable, and enjoyable to watch figure out the mysteries of the haunt. The past abuse narrative and abuse-cycle tropes work well here to give Harper a deeper past and a satisfying ending. I enjoyed how the film depicted Harper as being able to survive because of her past history as a survivor, a connection most horror filmmakers don’t put together.
In the end, Harper flips the script and makes the villains of the film go through what she went through. As one commenter said on a video for the real-life haunt McKamey manor, “I’d love to see him go through his own game.” Part of the satisfaction of this is seeing the bad guy feel the same fear in retribution.
Haunt takes the haunted house and explores all the psychological trauma necessary to put yourself in danger and then find a way out of that danger. In the end, that’s why we’re so interested in haunted houses as humans. We all have some shadowy past that we need to escape from.
Interstellar Flight Magazine publishes essays on what’s new in the world of speculative genres. In the words of Ursula K. Le Guin, we need “writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine real grounds for hope.” Visit our Patreon to join our fan community on Discord. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
[image error]HAUNT and the Halloween Haunted House was originally published in Interstellar Flight Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
September 28, 2022
Seductive Romantic Thriller DECISION TO LEAVE Steals Hearts
One of my favorite tropes in the mystery genre is when the detective ends up falling for his suspect, and in particular, a female suspect. There’s something entrancing about women killers in film — if only because they are so rare.
Decision to Leave (Moho Film, 2022) is the story of detective Hae-joon (Park Hae-il), who is investigating the death of a climber. When he interviews the dead man’s wife, Seo-rae (Tang Wei), he immediately suspects her for her calmness. Hae-joon begins to fall in love with Seo-rae as he stakes her out, watching and recording her every detail in what will become a sordid affair that tiptoes the lines of propriety — not because Hae-joon is married, but because Seo-rae may be a killer.
https://medium.com/media/bfb61380326bda1fc635f8d20cb82165/hrefThe film is softer than fans of Park Chan-wook may be used to, but it’s infused with elegance and a sardonic, tongue-in-cheek humor that is a delight to watch. The film is also beautifully shot and has a wonderful soundtrack. In short, it is a lovely film to watch and enjoy.
In the screening I saw, the director encouraged the audience to laugh, saying that sometimes audiences aren’t sure if they should laugh given the serious nature of the film. What seems like a basic detective mystery on the surface unfurls into an evocative and charming love story.
The romance is one step forward, two steps back. First, we’re convinced Seo-rae is innocent, then we’re not sure, then we realize she must be guiltless, and so on.
Park Hae-il is convincingly earnest and captivating as a romantic male lead. The slow-burn affair captures why murders are so captivating to audiences. Love is just one step away from obsession. Tang Wei is arrestingly beautiful and carries most of the humor with sharp attention to timing.
All of this adds up to one of the most self-aware thrillers I’ve seen.
While there is much to enjoy here, ultimately, the ending fell flat for me. It was actually quite haunting and depressing. I won’t give it away (you must see this film!), but lets’ just say in a movie that seems to be about a woman finding agency after abuse, it’s truly tragic that the filmmakers went the direction they did for the ending. I wanted something more for Tang Wei’s character.
Decision to Leave is poetic and poignant but holds a disturbing conclusion.
Park Chan-wook, Image Courtesy Fantastic Fest
*This article is part of our coverage of the 2022 Alamo Drafthouse Fantastic Fest film festival. We thank the Drafthouse for providing us with press access to the festival.
Interstellar Flight Magazine publishes essays on what’s new in the world of speculative genres. In the words of Ursula K. Le Guin, we need “writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine real grounds for hope.” Visit our Patreon to join our fan community on Discord. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
[image error]Seductive Romantic Thriller DECISION TO LEAVE Steals Hearts was originally published in Interstellar Flight Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
