Book by Book: ‘The Oresteia’

This week’s walk through the classics focuses on questions of the morality of war and the human capability for justice in Aeschylus’s timeless trilogy ‘The Oresteia.’

Book vs Film: Short Cuts

Pitting the written word against the moving image in a battle to determine the best fiction.

Review: ‘Zorrie’ by Laird Hunt

Zoë Wells Finishing Zorrie and finding out, through his acknowledgements section, that Laird Hunt kept a copy of Virginia Woolf’s The Waves on hand throughout the writing process is the least surprising part of a novel that, generally, does not try very hard to surprise you. Zorrie is a gentle book, or at least is trying to be. It follows […]

The Brothers Karamazov in Eight Memes

Michael BirdFeedback and Editorials Editor Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brother’s Karamazov is a cornerstone of classic literature centering on the emotional, philosophical turmoil and legal fallout of the murder and robbery of the Karamazov patriarch, Fyodor. This 700+ page saga focuses on themes of faith, morality, and freedom in small-town Russia. And we’ve cut this epitome of Russian literary excellence down […]

Volunteer Vacancies: Social Media Assistants

One of the biggest challenges facing publishers like us is the fight to get our name out there. After a ten minute browse on Twitter, you’ll find countless small publishers, independent presses, and online ventures focused on getting the work of newer writers out there. The problem is trying to stand out from the crowd. It’s because of this that […]

Book vs Film: French Exit

Pitting the written word against the moving image in a battle to determine the best fiction.

Is It Worth It? The Pros and Cons of Self-Publishing

Harry Wilding During my Creative Writing MA at the University of Nottingham this last year, advice and feedback from peers, tutors and established writers has, without a doubt, made me a better writer. However, the seminars led by literary agents and publishers (of all sizes) have paradoxically made me less confident I will ever get a novel traditionally published. Despite […]

Book by Book: ‘The Iliad’

A walk through your favourite classics, one book at a time. Michael A. Arnold Who enjoys playing war games? Me. Call of Duty, Battlefield, You do too (I assume) they are so much fun! But as we die and respawn over and over, because one mission is just too hard, it is worth thinking about what actual conflict is really […]

Book vs Film: Requiem for a Dream

Pitting the written word against the moving image in a battle to determine the best fiction.

What We’re Reading This Month: An Algerian COVID Premonition, a Woke-Busting Brat Packer, a One-Eyed High School Girl God, and the Greek Orthodox Diaspora

Compiled by Michael Bird What are you reading this month? Our team of international volunteers at Bandit Fiction share with us the highs and lows of the current book scene. Keep reading to learn what Bandit volunteers find engrossing or disappointing about their choice of novels, poetry and memoirs. 1. ‘White’ by Bret Easton Ellis It is difficult to tell whether […]

How The Bandit Submissions Process Works

How does a publisher decide which submissions are good and which aren’t? What makes something ‘publishable’? And, perhaps more importantly, what makes something ‘unpublishable’?

An Interview with Lynn Buckle Author of “What Willow Says”

Zoë Wells Lynn Buckle is the author of two novels, the latest of which, What Willow Says, was published by epoque press in May 2021. She lives on the Bog of Allen in Rathangen, Ireland, where she is a UNESCO Cities of Literature Writer in Residence. She is the founder of the Irish Writers’ Center’s Climate Writing Group and has […]

Review: “What Willow Says” by Lynn Buckle

How do you fill the gaps where no words exist? That’s the question at the heart of What Willow Says, a novel which follows the interactions of a deaf granddaughter and her grandmother as the two connect over their shared love of nature. What Willow Says is author Lynn Buckle’s second novel, both published with epoque press. It’s a short […]

An Interview with Christina Delia

Gab Harvey Christina Delia writes horror fiction, plays and poetry. She holds a BFA in Writing for Film and Television from The University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Christina is an affiliate member of the Horror Writers Association (HWA).  Her plays have been performed in The Theater Project’s Think Fast Festival and The Secret Theatre’s Act One One: Act Festival. Her […]

Anna Karenina in Eight Memes

Michael Bird Leo Tolstoy’s 1878 epic of adultery and bigotry ultra-condensed into a one-minute read. Fin. Which literary classics should we memeify next? Follow us on Twitter @BanditFiction and we’ll turn your favorite works of literature into expressions of our modern world. About the Contributor Michael Bird (he/him) is a Romania-based writer and journalist, with stories published by Bristol Short […]

An Interview with Mark Wilson, Author of “PowerPoint Eulogy”

Zoë Wells Mark Wilson is an author and visual artist based in Chicago. His first poetry pamphlet, PowerPoint Eulogy, was published by Fly on the Wall Press in 2021. It is a darkly comic collection of narrative poems that follow the life and death of the enigmatic Bill Motluck, and the PowerPoint presentation that eulogises him in a three-hour meeting […]

Review: “PowerPoint Eulogy” by Mark Wilson

Zoë Wells With offices opening up and the end of the Work-From-Home year in sight, there might never have been a more relevant book to read than PowerPoint Eulogy, one of Fly on the Wall Press’s latest publications in its “Shorts” series, and artist Mark Wilson’s first poetry pamphlet. Then again, there might never have been a worse time to […]

What We’re Reading This Month: Genre-busting Korean Prose, Reimagining Rumpelstiltskin, Italians in the Orkneys, a Welsh Classic, and Robot Saviours

Compiled by Michael Bird What are you reading this month? Our team of international volunteers at Bandit Fiction share with us the highs and lows of the current book scene. Keeping reading to learn what Bandit volunteers find engrossing or disappointing about their choice of novels, poetry and memoirs. Korean Poetry and Han Kang’s White Book I like to leaf through […]

AN INTERVIEW WITH… SCOTT COLBERT

Scott Colbert is the creator and cohost of The Imaginarium podcast, author of the acclaimed novella Barbed Wire Kisses, and was a popular contributor, cofounder and editor of the now defunct talkbacker.com and the supernaughts.com websites. He’s also published a collection of essays on the films of John Waters, Terry Gilliam, David Lynch and David Cronenberg. Scott resides in Phoenix, AZ and currently working on his next novel, A Pocketful of Broken Glass.

Review : ‘Elatsoe’ by Darcie Little Badger, Illustrations by Rovina Cai

Prachi Pati *CONTENT WARNING: DEATH, XENOPHOBIA, SOME TORTURE AND GORE, MURDER.* Isn’t it great when you discover a book that is under hyped or was never on your radar and you just happened to stumble upon it and it made you really happy? Which is one such book you stumbled upon recently and loved and would recommend to everyone? Elatsoe, […]

AN INTERVIEW WITH… GAVIN GARDINER

An upcoming horror author from Scotland, Gavin Gardiner believes there are no greater terrors than that which reside within our own minds. For this reason, he specialises in the psychological, and pushes the themes and subjects of his work into areas seldom explored in the genre.

His debut novel is now available. Experience the nightmare:
https://linktr.ee/GGardinerHorror

AN INTERVIEW WITH… LOUIS STEPHENSON

L. Stephenson graduated university with a degree in Film & TV Screenwriting. Despite this achievement turning out to be spectacularly useless, after 11 long years, and featuring in a handful of horror anthologies, L. Stephenson finally realises a childhood dream of becoming a published author with the release of his first book ‘The Goners’.

An Interview with Ryan Dennis, Author of ‘The Beasts They Turned Away’

Zoë Wells Ryan Dennis is a former Fulbright Scholar in Creative writing, and has taught at several universities. He recently completed a PhD at the National University of Ireland, Galway. His work has been published in a number of journals, including the Cimarron Review, The Threepenny Review, and Fusion. He is also a syndicated columnist in various agricultural journals around […]

Review: ‘The Beasts They Turned Away’ by Ryan Dennis

Zoe Wells The old man and the young boy, struggling to make their way through an unforgiving environment. It’s a story you’ve heard before, likely read and enjoyed before, but in Ryan Dennis’s debut, The Beasts They Turned Away, everything familiar is made eerily different. The novel follows Iosac Mulgannon, a farmer, who is taking care of an unnamed young […]

What We’re Reading This Month: Serial Killers in Nigeria, Modern Vietnam, Polish Travelogue, and Murder in Cornwall

Our team of international volunteers describe what they find engrossing, and disappointing about their choice of novels, poetry and memoirs.

Our Latest Volunteering Opportunities

We’re excited about what the year ahead of us has in store. There’s a lot of projects we’d love to dip our toe into. To do this properly, to do each project justice, we’re doing possibly our largest single volunteer recruitment drive since we first started. The Roles We’re Looking To Fill Project Lead – for annual prose and poetry […]

Review: The Octopus Man by Jasper Gibson

Chiara Pistillo *CONTENT WARNING: MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES, INCLUDING SUICIDE* Many of us will probably describe ourselves as progressive, modern, even woke, but we all have our taboos, and schizophrenia and mental health are most certainly some of them. If you have indeed at any point thought that mental health issues are not a serious matter or have turned your head […]

Review: The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells

Michael A. Arnold Most people have thought about the future – these days it makes sense to fear it. Other than nuclear weapons, the major threat to our continued survival is climate change. This is another, metaphorical, bomb that could explode and make our planet uninhabitable. The book The Uninhabitable Earth: A Story of the Future by David Wallace-Wells, published […]

AN INTERVIEW WITH… JAYSON ROBERT DUCHARME

Jayson Robert Ducharme is the author of over 40 short stories, 10 novellas and two novels. His work has appeared in the New Hampshire, Science Fiction and Horror editions of Z Publishing’s “America’s Emerging Writers” series. His novellas “Alessa’s Melody” and “Ceremony of Ashes” are available for sale on Amazon.

AN INTERVIEW WITH… JEFFREY THOMAS

Jeffrey Thomas is the author of such novels as The American (JournalStone), Deadstock (Solaris Books), and Blue War (Solaris Books), and short story collections such as Punktown (Prime Books), The Unnamed Country (Word Horde), and Haunted Worlds (Hippocampus Press). His stories have been reprinted in The Year’s Best Horror Stories XXII (editor, Karl Edward Wagner), The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror #14 (editors, Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling), and Year’s Best Weird Fiction #1 (editors, Laird Barron and […]