Weird Wilderness: A Cryptid Bestiary

Preorder now for delivery on February 4, 2025!

A collection of twenty short stories featuring a variety of cryptids and each written with an epistolary element to help tell the story. 

You may not have ever seen them, but you know them: Bigfoot, Mothman, chupacabras, the Jersey Devil, and Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster. Cryptids exist everywhere around the world on land, in the air, and under the water. Some creatures are recent discoveries; others date back centuries. But where did they come from? What is their hidden history? 

Collected in this anthology are twenty short stories featuring a wide variety of cryptids as well as the cryptozoologists who discover them, hunt them, study them, or shelter them. Alongside the classic creatures of legend and lore are pixies, aliens, lizard-men, and dopplegängers—plus a few original and newly discovered cryptids that will capture your curiosity. With genres ranging from fantasy and science fiction to historical fiction and romance, there is something for everyone to enjoy. As an added twist, each story utilizes at least one form of epistolary writing to help tell the story, including text messages, podcast interviews, newspaper articles, and journal entries. 

So tune in to Bigfoot’s podcast, write a love letter to Nessie, and then pick up a pair of tickets to the grand opening of the Cryptid Zoo. The world around us is full of the weird and the wonderful, and the creatures that were once long hidden are ready to come out of the woods. 

Weird Wilderness: A Cryptid Bestiary is the tenth anthology edited by Lisa Mangum and Jessica Guernsey and published by WordFire Press. Profits support the various endowment and scholarship funds for Superstars Writing Seminars. 

With stories by CL Fors, Azure Arther, Kate Dane, Julia Vee, Rebecca J. Carlson, Jason Kristopher, Jamie Sonderman, Bonnie Elizabeth, Mark Leslie, Sara Itka, Sam Knight, Aaron Fors, Janessa Keeling, Angelique Fawns, Jeff Thompson, Annmarie SanSevero, John K. Patterson, John M. Campbell, Darren Lipman, and Tanya Hales.

eBook ISBN: 978-1-68057-746-4 

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-68057-747-1 

Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-68057-748-8 

Library of Congress Control Number: 2024945252 

282 pages

February 4, 2025