In Oliver Smith’s stories you'll find a mermaid smoking French cigarettes in the bath and demanding a holiday, pickled brains plotting in the pantry while Father tangos the night away under the eye of the most honest spy in all Argentina. There’s Talos and Medea, Witches’ skulls, Caliban, Gawain, evil scientists, Anglo-Saxon poetry, and Frankenstein’s Niece. In the story ‘The Sulphur Remedy’ there’s a giant flea sat where the flatmate used to be and, let’s face it, he’s an improvement. In ‘Basilisk Soup’ a green man has lost his head and isn't going to take it lying down. There are surprise visits from dead girlfriends and Christmas with the nicest cannibal in town. There’s Saxon magic colliding catastrophically with Rock and Roll at sea, and in the pleasant valley Yellow Dust is covering the landscape and transforming everything it touches.
‘Basilisk Soup & Other Fantasies’ collects together stories and poems that have previously appeared in S T Joshi’s Spectral Realms journal, the Horrorzine, anthologies by Ex Occidente Press, Inkermen Press, Dark Hall Press, and History and Mystery LLC. It also includes four previously unpublished tales and ten new poems.
Oliver Smith’s writing has been described as “literary splatter-horror, and wild-conceited ironic fantasy to die for.” (D F Lewis), “richly textured and shaded through a dark and subtle palette”, “hauntingly poetic”, “beautifully written with a superb poetic turn of phrase” (Amazon reviews).
His influences include Alasdair Gray, Aldous Huxley, Angela Carter, August Strindberg, Borges, Bruno Schulz , Clark Ashton Smith, David Madsen, Dostoyevsky, Edgar Allan Poe, George Orwell, Gustav Meyrink, H P Lovecraft, Henrik Ibsen, Herbert Rosendorfer, Italo Calvino, Michael Moorcock, J G Ballard, Kafka, Kingsley Amis, Samuel Beckett, and Lucius Apuleius.
His short stories and poems have been included in the following books:
ANTHOLOGY- LAND'S END Inkermen Press (2008) ISBN-10: 0955625939
'Magdalene'
'Magdalene Regained'
ANTHOLOGY- COLD TURKEY Inkermen Press (2009) ISBN-10: 0955625955
'A Present for Jack Price'
'Basilisk Soup'
ANTHOLOGY- This Hermetic Legislature: A Homage to Bruno Schulz edited by D.P. Watt and D.T. Ghetu (Bucharest: Ex Occidente Press, 2012).
'With Shadow All The Marble Steps'
ANTHOLOGY- 'Transactions of the Flesh: A Homage to Joris-Karl Huysmans
Edited by D.P. Watt & Peter Holman. (Ex Occidente Press/Zagava Press, 2013)
'The Sulphur Remedy'
ANTHOLOGY -'Dark Hall Press Cosmic Horror Anthology' Edited by William Renahan ISBN-10 0615968406 (Dark Hall Press, 2014)
'The Yellow Dust'
ANTHOLOGY - 'Dark Hall Press Techno-Horror Anthology' Edited by William Renahan (Dark Hall Press - 2014)
'The Arkenholz Sonata'
ANTHOLOGY - 'History and Horror, Oh My' Edited by Sarah E. Glenn ( Mystery and Horror, LLC - 2014)
'St Ayers Gospel'
ANTHOLOGY - 'Compass' , University of Gloucestershire, (Horseplay Press -2015)
'The Souls of Men Who Went Beyond'
JOURNAL - Spectral Realms - issue 1 Edited by S T Joshi (Hippocampus Press- July 2014)
'Museum Piece'(poem)
JOURNAL - Spectral Realms - issue 2 Edited by S T Joshi (Hippocampus Press- January 2015)
'Swampsong'(poem)
JOURNAL - Spectral Realms - issue 3 Edited by S T Joshi (Hippocampus Press- Summer 2015)
'Gorgoneion '(poem)
JOURNAL - Spectral Realms - issue 4 Edited by S T Joshi (Hippocampus Press- February 2016)
'Deeper Flowers Thrive'(poem)
'The Returned'(poem)
JOURNAL - Spectral Realms - issue 5 Edited by S T Joshi (Hippocampus Press- July 2016)
‘Cast Away’(poem)
‘Whisper’ (poem)
E-ZINE/MAGAZINE - The Horror zine - Fall 2015 Edited by Jeani Rector
'After His Wrath' (poem)
'Broken Angel' (poem)
'Caliban Post Prosperum' (poem)
ANTHOLOGY – In A Cat’s Eye – edited by Kelly A. Harmon & Vonnie Winslow Crist (Pole to Pole Publishing – October 2016)
‘Grimmun’
JOURNAL - Spectral Realms - issue 6 Edited by S T Joshi (Hippocampus Press- February 2017)
‘Yaga’(poem)
‘Downstream’(poem)
ANTHOLOGY – Supernatural Horror Anthology Edited by Roger Luckhurst (Flame Tree Publishing 2017)
‘John Johnson’
JOURNAL – Illumen issue 26 – edited by Tyree Campbell (Alban Lake January 2017)
‘Serpentine’(poem)
ANTHOLOGY - Fossil Lake IV: Sharkasaurus! – edited by Christine Morgan (Sabledrake Publishing 2017)
‘Waters that Sparkled so Green’ (poem)
ANTHOLOGY - All is Full of Hell : A Panegyric for William Blake – edited by D.T. Ghetu & Damien Murphy, illustrated by Denis Forkas Kostromitin (Mount Abraxas/Ex Occidente 2017)
‘Burnt the Fire of Thine Eyes’
ANTHOLOGY – White Noise and Ouija Boards edited by Kate Garrett & Caroline Hardaker (Three Drops Press 2017)
‘Pale Molly Waiting’
COLLECTION – Stars Beneath the Ships (Ex Occidente Press 2017) limited to 101 copies hardback illustrated by Rotten Phantom.
‘Deeper Flowers Thrive’(Poem)
‘Crocodiles in the Sugar’
‘The Voice of Your Redeemer- The Songful Morning Near’
‘Blood, Dark Rainbow Bliss’
‘Magdalene’
‘A Garland of Rue’
ANTHOLOGY – Shadows – University of Gloucestershire (Horseplay Press 2017)
‘Tiger. Tiger’
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