Exotic Gothic is an anthology series of short fiction and novel excerpts in the gothic, horror and fantasy genres, edited by Danel Olson, a professor of English at Lone Star College in Texas. Olson writes on Gothic novels and Horror film (The Exorcist, The Devil's Backbone, Pan's Labyrinth, The Shining), and edited the reference guide 21st Century Gothic: Great Gothic Novels Since 2000. By design, the stories take place outside the traditional gothic setting of the United Kingdom.
Contents
The series
Exotic Gothic: Forbidden Tales from Our Gothic World (published Oct. 2007 by Ash-Tree Press, hardcover and trade ppk., cover photography from Anne Brigman-courtesy Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 306pp.)(2007), "showcases twenty-three stories (eight original to the anthology) that take place around the world." The second volume (Exotic Gothic 2: New Tales of Taboo) was a finalist for the 2008 Shirley Jackson Award, and the third (Exotic Gothic 3: Strange Visitations) was a finalist for the 2009 Shirley Jackson Award and 2010 World Fantasy Award, and both had stories reprinted in the following year's round of "Best Of" collections.
According to the Houston Chronicle newspaper, "The collection includes contemporary ghost, werewolf, vampire, and beastly creature stories; weird and paranormal tales; and neo-Gothic romances....[prompted from] a sabbatical last fall [2006], after his own Gothic research led him to a walking tour of Transylvania and facing a gypsy woman's curse..." One strangeness of the book remarked on was how likable some of its villains were, prompting this question to Australian contributor Terry Dowling whose new fiction is in each of the Exotic Gothic tables of contents below: What of the "partially admirable people we meet [here] ... who also happen to be poisoners, amateur lobotomists, or necrophiliacs?" What of "character[s] with an ocean of darkness within who [are] functional, even polite ... elegant monsters?" Dowling's response was that "goodness and evil, ugliness and beauty not only sit side by side but overlap." The 2003 Bram Stoker Award-finalist webzine Horror World concludes that Exotic Gothic "raises the question as to 'How does the contemporary global Gothic enlarge, transcend, scramble, subvert, or mock the genre?' To this end, Olson has subdivided the Anthology into Sections for Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America, and North America. Each Section then has various stories that are set within or relate to the particular geographic area.... The book does exactly what it sets out to do, and provides a wealth of contemporary stories from around the world, either straightforwardly in the Gothic milieu, or which utilize such as a point of origin.... An excellent, informative overview of the genre, both in terms of where it has been, and where it is now going." Inside the first volume, the editor "celebrates the loosening of geographic bonds, an emancipation of the genre."
Dustjacket Summary: "In the old gothic, nothing scared so much as a touch of the cold and the foreign in the midst of the familiar, for it begged the question, ‘What has become of the world we knew?’ The twenty-three stories in Exotic Gothic ask this question differently: ‘What has become of the world we know?’ These stories are concerned with the here and now, and demonstrate how today’s international Gothicists are reimagining the traditional setting, mood, and characters of their British, German and French predecessors. You will not be safe here as you roam the world and travel from Tanzania to Zanzibar, Mali, Sumatra, Japan, Iraq, Russia, Australia, England, Scotland, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, America, and Canada."
Africa
Oceania
Asia
Australia
Europe
Latin America
North America
Exotic Gothic 2: New Tales of Taboo (published Sept. 2008 by Ash-Tree Press, hardcover and trade ppk., original cover photography by Nicholas Royle, 318pp.) Six of its original stories were written by women (or 25%), eighteen by men, and the contributors were natives or residents of twelve nations (Australia, Canada, England, Fiji, Italy, Japan, The Philippines, Serbia, Spain, USA, Wales, and Zimbabwe). None of the stories had been previously published.
From World Fantasy Award-winner Ellen Datlow, in her The Best Horror of the Year: Volume 1 (Night Shade Press, 2009), came this appraisal, "Exotic Gothic 2 edited by Danel Olson (Ash-Tree Press) is a worthy follow-up to the editor's first, mixed reprint and original anthology. EG2 has all new stories taking place all over the world. The most notable were those by George Makana Clark, Barbara Roden, Nicholas Royle, Nancy A. Collins, Edward P. Crandall, Christopher Fowler, Reggie Oliver, Tia V. Travis, and Rob Hood. The Royle is reprinted herein." In the World Fantasy Award-winning print magazine Cemetery Dance, Ellen Datlow continued, "some superb ones from 2008.... EXOTIC GOTHIC 2 has all new stories taking place all over the world... the very best are 'Endless Night,' by Barbara Roden, set in the frozen [South], which she has used to great effect in several of her stories. And Nicholas Royle's 'Very Low-flying Aircraft' is the kind of story that, although you might guess the ending as you're reading the first page, this knowledge does nothing but enhance the creepy crawlies as you continue." Triple Stoker Award-winning Writer Thomas Ligotti observed that in "this sequel anthology, which is even more focused on unfamiliar territory, ... each of its locales is well explored for the peculiar horrors they hold. What HP Lovecraft did for New England, Exotic Gothic 2 does on a global scale." New York Times bestselling author "of horror, adventure, medical thrillers, science fiction, and virtually everything in between," F. Paul Wilson went further to conclude, "With its stellar line-up of international talent, Exotic Gothic 2 is the must-read anthology of the year."
Dustjacket Summary: "Be drawn into Gothic enigmas from seven continents, and struggle to find your own explanation for the inexplicable in these twenty-four original stories. Identify with bewildered, ghost-ridden characters facing (or becoming) monstrosity. Let the darkness — from a dress dummy to a rogue nuclear state — creep closer to your living experience . . . and discern the Gothic secret: the revelation of the monster’s purpose. Almost viral in its adaptability, the nouveau Gothique transforms itself in these pages, feeding off broader cultural anxieties. Skilfully violating conventions of horror and suspense — and opening the door to other genres including fantasy, historical account, and travel narrative — the freshness of its stories infects us with something unknown. Our old expectations offer no antibodies to this latest mutation."
Asia
Africa
Europe
North America
South America
Australia
Antarctica
Exotic Gothic 3: Strange Visitations (published Dec. 2009 by Ash-Tree Press, hardcover, original art by Jason Zerillo, 277pp.) Seven of its original stories were written by women (or 30.4%), sixteen by men, and the contributors were natives or residents of eleven nations (Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, England, Fiji, Malaysia, The Philippines, Russia, Serbia, USA, and Wales). None of the stories had been previously published.
In each successive volume of the Exotic Gothic series so far, women have assumed more presence on the table of contents, but it is a presence still shy of what one sampling of contemporary American-edited horror anthologies found: Black Static staff reviewer Peter Tennant discusses the disparity of women in US and British horror anthologies (not mentioning Exotic Gothic 3, but writing within ten months of Exotic Gothic 3's release), pointing out that women make up around 32% of the contributors for American-edited horror anthologies he examined, and merely 21% of the contributors for contemporary UK-edited horror anthologies he examined. Staff Reviewer Rich Horton in the March 2010 issue of the genre industry's monthly trade journal, Locus (magazine), praised Exotic Gothic 3 for its "evocations of ghost traditions unfamiliar to most Westerners ... [while] a couple of the stories could even be called SF, including one of my favorites, a sadly timely section of an excerpt from what may have been the late Serbian writer Milorad Pavic's last novel, PAPER THEATER. (The first appearance in English of any part of that work.).... But after all the exoticism of the book I found my favorite story to be the most traditional, Barbara Roden's "The Haunted House of Etobicoke," and it is so beautifully executed that we are moved again." Peter Tennant, staff reviewer for the British print magazine Black Static, noted that "Of the other overlapping anthologies, Exotic Gothic 3 scored with both [anthologists] Jones and Datlow" in 2010. World Fantasy Award-winning editor Stephen Jones (author) found "The third volume in the series edited and introduced by Danel Olson, Exotic Gothic 3, was one of the more satisfying anthologies of the year.... This latest volume from Ash-Tree Press was certainly exotic." Humanities Librarian at the University of Connecticut and editor of Supernatural Fiction Writers: Contemporary Fantasy and Horror (Scribner, 2000; 2 vols.) Richard Bleiler describes it as a "...strong and often satisfying collection of stories ... [often] told through the perceptions of an outsider in the cultures that are being depicted" and Olson a "professional, amiable, and imaginative" editor, though Bleiler also raises the "fraught with danger . . . question of whether the contributors are appropriating the voices of another culture and the indigenous peoples." Bleiler argues that some of the books best tales come out of Africa and Europe: Zimbabwe born contributor "George Makana Clarke's tale is gripping and nightmarish and carries an internal conviction," while "disastrous relationships ... figure prominently in the European section, and the horrors of the Third Reich and the Balkan Wars echo ... particularly [in] Peter Bell's 'The Barony at Rodal,' Christopher Fowler's 'Arkangel,' and David Wellington (author)'s 'Grvnice'." In a summary of international horror fiction from 2009, anthologist Ellen Datlow argues that Exotic Gothic 3 "is an all original collection ... with terrific ones from Simon Clark, Terry Dowling, Simon Kurt Unsworth, and Kaaron Warren, and good ones from the other contributors. The Warren is reprinted herein."
Dustjacket Summary: "Every Gothic story changes a no into a yes. . . . Spirit yourself into the deserted mansions of these twenty-three original tales of sinister beauty; then commune with the spirits lying just beneath the surface. Here Gothic dreams of desire and agony come true."
Oceania and Australasia
Asia
Africa
Europe
North America
Exotic Gothic 4: A Postscripts Anthology (released as hardcover July 2012 and paperback January 2014 by PS Publishing, original cover photography by Apolinar L. Chuca, 301pp.). Eight of its original stories were written by women (or 32%) and seventeen by men. The contributors were natives or residents of nine countries (Australia, Canada, England, Fiji, Italy, Malaysia, Russia, USA, and Wales) and members of three indigenous nations, tribes or peoples (Abenaki, Métis, and Ojibway). None of the stories had been previously published, and the book won the 2012 Shirley Jackson Award for best anthology.[1]
The transition in publisher of Exotic Gothic was noted by reviewer David Cowen in fall/winter 2011 in the print journal Cineaction: "Olson is editor of Ash-Tree's and now PS Publishing's acclaimed Exotic Gothic series." Writing for LOCUS magazine the month the anthology appeared, Lois Tilton appraised its fourth incarnation as “Neo-Gothic stories, which the editor aptly characterizes as ‘that genre of things wrongly hungered for and things wrongly alive.’ The emphasis rests on the wrongness – this collection emphatically rejects the romanticizing, the domestication of the traditional tropes, which of course makes me regard it favorably. Overall, what we have here is very dark stuff, although the range of settings and styles is very wide… But that isn’t really a problem, because there’s some good dark fantasy here, whatever the label. The stories are divided not thematically but geographically, … [and] there is a definite theme linking many of them: colonialism and the resistance of indigenous peoples.” Mario Guslandi, writing for Thirteen O’Clock, echoes Tilton’s fondness for the book's non-Western settings: “[The] stories by a distinguished group of genre experts, set in different locations, addressing a diversity of themes [still share] the character of modern gothic fiction.... Fans of the new gothic who have enjoyed the first three volumes won’t be disappointed with this fourth installment, which confirms once again that horrific and weird atmospheres are not confined within the walls of Scottish castles or haunted Victorian houses but can be found anywhere in the world.” Reviewer Drake Morgan argues that the stories' perspectives "represent the Gothic tradition as it was meant to be, but updated and fresh for modern readers ... set in places of the world we either least associate with 'gothic' or fail to even consider in the genre." Making a case that the anthology represents social criticism, Morgan interprets Margo Lanagan's lead-story in the collection, "Blooding the Bride", as "a strong feminist subtext on the nature of the marriage rite as an oppressive trap for women, even in our modern, post-feminist movement time." What dominates the original tales, according to Morgan, are "themes of cultural oppression, the evil claws of colonialism still deeply embedded in the back of certain nations, feminine sacrifice to ancient traditions with hidden shackles, ... elavat[ing] them beyond mere horror stories." Its authors go "out of genre and into literature in order to create a more compelling story, ... deftly weaving the haunting siren songs of Gothic (pain, madness, illusions, fear) within a modern framework." In a three-page review, the print journal Dead Reckonings observes “Danel Olson provides an enthusiastic philosophical preface … notably introduced with the remark: ‘What it means to get a something you don’t know how to use, and didn’t ask for, and which may put your body and soul in peril.'" The book is “a sumptuous package,” with stories “sensuous,” “skewed and grotesque,” “passionate,” and “ambiguously ghostly.” Subjects include an “enormously powerful occult force,” a “redemptive mythic fantasy, though a very dark one,” and a “poetic dark fable.” The reviewer concludes that it is “a fine, richly varied anthology of macabre delights. I highly recommend it.”
A week after Exotic Gothic 4 won the World Fantasy Award for Best Edited Anthology on 3 November 2013, Olson was interviewed by The Gothic Imagination about why he picked the stories he did for the collection. Olson noted that “My hope is to choose stories that, like dreams, resurface long after our first experience with them, and often an indication of that power manifests in the images, rhythms, struggles, and secret identifications within [their] opening paragraph.” The interview then presented the first five lines of each of the twenty-five stories that had something that editor “could not forget. Say it was mystery, masking, mystification, or loneliness. Call it apprehension, nightmare, scandal, madness. Or maybe it was exhilaration or discovery. Possibly, the openings made some memories quicken for me upon the sound of the words alone."
Asia
Australasia
Latin America & Caribbean
Europe
Africa
North America
Exotic Gothic 5 (released 2013 by PS Publishing, hardcover, Vol. I original front and back cover photography by Marcela Bolívar, design by Michael Smith, 244 pages; Vol. II original front cover photography by Apolinar Chuca, back cover photography by Marcela Bolívar, design by Michael Smith, 259 pp.) Together the volumes feature twenty-six original works, thirteen of the new tales are written by women and thirteen by men. Besides being presented in two volumes, another distinction from previous books in the series is its inclusion of a story in comics format, "El Nahual." The contributors were natives or residents of eleven countries (Australia, Bangladesh, England, France, Hungary, India, Mexico, South Africa, Sudan, USA, and Wales). None of the stories were previously published in English. However, "The Open Mirror" from Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud first appeared in its original French in the Catholic daily, La Croix in 2008. "A Game of Draughts" from Joyce Carol Oates was published in similar form in her 2013 novel, The Accursed. Exploring varieties of ghostliness in the tales "All the Lost Ones," "L'Amour est Mort," "The Open Mirror," "Elena's Egg," "Burial Grounds," "Moonrise on Hermit Beach," and "The Girl Next Door," Italian reviewer Mario Guslandi asseses the volume as "dark stories of modern gothic from every corner of the world ... apt to elicit pleasurable shivers without resorting to gore and violence." Horror Novel Reviews agreed with Guslandi regarding the volumes' disinclination towards blood and grue: “Olson has once again produced a master collection in the fifth release in the Exotic Gothic series. Like the prior anthologies, he focuses on the Gothic literary tradition of suspense, fear, and atmosphere rather than gore and violence, ... [and its] exploration of the sexually provocative facets of Gothic horror are amazing." Comparing the two volumes, Horror Novel Reviews concludes that though it “reaches into the colonial fear of native sexuality, ... Volume 2 [set in Asia, Africa, Australia, and Latin America] is less overtly erotic than Volume 1 [with settings of North America and Europe], but both collections are stunning … and the horror is truly frightening. These are tales not to sicken, but to terrify the soul. They are stories about us. About our neighbors. About the darkest shadows deep inside. This is a series that devours you.” A consensus by Locus editors and reviewers placed Exotic Gothic 5 on the 2013 Locus Recommended Reading List along with one dozen other original anthologies. Ellen Datlow in The Year's Best Horror, Vol. Six noted a change in format, observing that the Series "edited by Danel Olson (PS Publishing), has doubled its size to twenty-six stories, split between two volumes. There are notable stories by Nick Antosca, Kola Boof, Terry Dowling, Lucy Taylor, Reggie Oliver, Sheri Holman, Deborah Noyes, John Llewellyn Probert, and Anna Taborska.
A page long review in the print quarterly Gothic Beauty by senior fiction reviewer Gail Brasie determined that "... the series desires to remove the idea that Gothic literature exists solely in haunted mansions and dusty ruins over in the UK. What Olson also does with the series is to stop the assumption that the only people reading neo-Gothic stories are white kids.... The storytelling is brilliant and as varied as the settings. These anthologies challenge the way we conceptualize the Gothic." Brasie also notes a political dimension to the stories echoed by others: "There is a thread of the lasting damage done by colonialism running through [the work]." Similarly, in interview, returning Exotic Gothic contributor Joyce Carol Oates concurs that her included story "A Game of Draughts" (a version of a vignette from her novel The Accursed) has political interests and criticisms not always possessed by earlier American gothicists. Oates reflects that "my intention is usually ... to write about American culture--politics, religion, race relations, morals--in a way that is psychologically and historically 'real.' I don't think that Lovecraft had any more interest in American history than Poe did... HIs 'America' was totally interior ... my 'America' is an actual place."