Chiral Mad 5

by Michael Bailey (Editor), Seth Brown (Illustrator), Paul Michael Anderson

Bram Stoker Award-winning editor Michael Bailey brings you the fifth and final installment of the Chiral Mad series, featuring a diverse writers from around the world. Includes fiction and poetry by the likes of Stephen King, Josh Malerman, Zoje Stage, Tlotlo Tsamaase, Victor LaValle. Linda D. Addison, Sheree Renée Thomas, and the late Jack Ketchum (writing with Lucky McKee). With illustrations throughout by artist Seth Brown, enjoy a chiral dance of speculative, horror, and dark science fiction one last time.

Genres: Horror, Anthologies

424 pages, Hardcover

Published September 27, 2022

About the author

Michael Bailey is a recipient and ten-time nominee of the Bram Stoker Award, a five-time Shirley Jackson Award nominee, and a three-time recipient of the Benjamin Franklin Award, along with several independent publishing accolades. He has written, edited, and published many books of various genres. His latest is Righting Writing, a nonfiction narrative used as curriculum for aspiring writers, and Silent Nightmares: Haunting Stories to Be Told on the Longest Night of the Year, an anthology co-edited with Chuck Palahniuk to be published by Simon & Schuster in fall of 2026. He is also the screenwriter for Madness and Writers, a creative documentary series about writers, and a producer for numerous film projects. Find him online at nettirw.com, or on social media @nettirw. He is represented by Lane Heymont of the Tobias Literary Agency.

Reviews

[Bronwyn Kotze]

One of the best anthologies I have read in years

[W N Shane Cooke]

Best one so far!

Plenty of gripping stories in here. I skipped most of the poetry. Much more chiral and less insanity. I think it was number 2 that was difficult to get though because the stories were essentially reports of people suffering mental illness. This volume 5 goes back to the mind, rather than mental illness, as a place of chaos. Recommended. 4 stars because there were two many poems!

[Konn Lavery]

I read a new short story collection edited by Michael Bailey titled Chiral Mad 5, the fifth in the series. It features many authors and poets.
My favourites were A Plague of Loving Grace by Cody Goodfellow, and We are Vignettes by Tlotlo Tsamaase. Both played with unique narrations, character types, and points of view which kept the stories unpredictable.

[Teresa]

Some of the stories were okay--others were just too far-fetched for my liking. It is hard work, I am sure, to put all of these stories together into one book, and I applaud Michael Bailey on his work. Just not my cup of tea.

[Mommacat]

A mixed bag here of poetry and short stories ranging from terrific t0 inexplicable. Everybody you'd ever want to read and some new authors to seek out.