New Ligotti Interview in Weird Tales Spring Issue
 

This blog post from "Weird Tales" magazine indicates they are publishing an "in-depth interview" with Thomas Ligotti in their next issue, the spring one:

Horrors, insanity, and whats emerged on the other side

Re: New Ligotti Interview in Weird Tales Spring Issue
 

They just sold one more copy. A new Ligotti interview is always something to look forward to. Thanks for posting the info.

Re: New Ligotti Interview in Weird Tales Spring Issue
 

I renew'd my subscription to WT last month. The magazine is superb, especially in its strong fiction department, with Ann VanderMeer selecting the finest fiction that WT has ever published. I was extremely depress'd to see H. P. LOVECRAFT'S MAGAZINE OF HORROR die, as its editor, Marvin Kaye, is one of my favourite genre editors. The publisher never seem'd to be solidly behind the magazine, as he is with WT. They are still rather weak in their reviews department, I think, but interviews are usually extremely well-done and in-depth, so this new interview with Tom should be quite a treat. I've not given up hope that, one day, we may even see a new wee tale from Tom is some future issue of WEIRD TALES. That wou'd be the BEST!

Re: New Ligotti Interview in Weird Tales Spring Issue
 

Wilum, I share your exact feelings about "H.P. Lovecraft's Magazine of Horror." They keep saying it might continue to exist in some online ghostly form, but we will see.

I dream of seeing another Ligotti story in "Weird Tales" or some other venue one day. That seems to be the million dollar question: whether or not Ligotti will write any more fiction in the future after he has completed his philosophy book.

Re: New Ligotti Interview in Weird Tales Spring Issue
 

Having read Tom's responses to both interviews, it is a rather "in-depth" interview, as was stated above, more so in my opinion than the Black Static interview which is good, for sure. I'm not taking anything away from that interview at all, and I recommend picking up the current issue, #10, with said interview in it as well as the Tennant piece on MWINYD, which is excellent. I hadn't seen a copy of the magazine before recently, but bought a subscription just because I wanted to have another source of print material that I could thumb through when I had the time. I used to get Grue, Weird Tales, and other magazines like Cemetary Dance years ago, which introduced me to many talented writers that would probably have remained under my radar had I not read those dark literary magazines back in the day, so Black Static seems like a good choice based on what I have seen thus far.

At any rate, the WT interview is excellent, and I would think that it will satisfy everyone's jones, if you will, for something from Tom. Having read every printed interview of Tom ever published, and having had the luxury and asking him any question I've ever wanted answered, I think the challenge for any interviewer at this stage of the game is to ask questions that haven't been asked before and that will provoke the types of well-articulated, extraordinarily thoughtful and infinitely compelling answers he's capable of providing. In other words, as great a writer and original a thinker as Tom is, he is an equally great interview subject, and the brilliance of his responses is only limited by the nature of the questions he is asked, but that's just my opinion. He's one of those people that is just that knowledgeable and interesting, so in many ways, the onus is on the individual(s) asking the questions, in my not so humble opinion.

I have said in the past that with all the effort Tom puts into formulating answers to interview questions, that reading them is nearly as compelling as reading his other written works because they are uniquely, well, Ligottian.

What more could one ask for?
Tim

Re: New Ligotti Interview in Weird Tales Spring Issue
 

Tim's comment reminded me of an old interview with Vladimir Nabokov, which is as fiendishly brilliant and funny as his novels. The interview was first published in Playboy magazine in 1964, and can be found here:
Here is a sample:

Have you ever been psychoanalyzed?

VN. Have I been what?

Subjected to psychoanalytical examination.

VN. Why, good God?

In order to see how it is done. Some critics have felt that your barbed comments about the fashionability of Freudianism, as practiced by American analysts, suggest a contempt based upon familiarity.

VN. Bookish familiarity only. The ordeal itself is much too silly and disgusting to be contemplated even as a joke. Freudism and all it has tainted with its grotesque implications
and methods appears to me to be one of the vilest deceits practiced by people on themselves and on others. I reject it utterly, along with a few other medieval items still adored by the ignorant, the conventional, or the very sick.

Or here is another gem, in which Nabokov mimics the various ways American readers mangle his surname:

VN. I find it very amusing when a friendly, polite person says to me--probably just in order to be friendly and polite-- "Mr. Naborkov," or "Mr. Nabahkov," or "Mr. Nabkov" or "Mr. Nabohkov," depending on his linguistic abilities, "I have a little daughter who is a regular Lolita."

Re: New Ligotti Interview in Weird Tales Spring Issue
 

As you probably know already, Nabokov's interviews and sundry other items are collected in the aptly-named Strong Opinions. I love this sort of thing. Larkin's acidic interviews are also priceless (see Required Writing and Further Requirements). For sheer unadulterated misanthropy and arrogance, nobody can beat Naipaul. Conversations with V. S. Naipaul is marvelous. Paul Theroux's Sir Vidia's Shadow was meant to show Naipaul in a bad light, but I can't be the only reader who found all that nastiness to be entertaining and even a little bit inspiring. Ambrose Bierce, Thomas Bernhard, Auberon Waugh, Oscar Wilde, Christopher Hitchens, Florence King. Who am I leaving out? Ligotti in his interviews often rises to the occasion in a similar fashion. No doubt this post reveals me to be poorly socialized and politically retrograde. In my own life, I seldom have the courage to let fly with the invective, but I sure do enjoy it vicariously.

Re: New Ligotti Interview in Weird Tales Spring Issue
 

Trivia: Nabokov and Larkin are the only writers to ever demand payment for appearing in the Paris Review interview series. One can imagine Nabokov doing it just to placate his ego or whatever, whereas Larkin made much of the fact that, since the interview would be conducted by mail, it would actually require real work for which he ought to receive compensation. I aspire to the title of World's Most Miserable Miser, but Larkin set the bar pretty high.

Re: New Ligotti Interview in Weird Tales Spring Issue
 

Excellent! I have a subscription! I am definitely looking forward to this one...

Re: New Ligotti Interview in Weird Tales Spring Issue
 

The new Ligotti interview was enough to get me to subscribe to Weird Tales, and as a bonus, they are (were?) giving away two free issues of the now-defunct H.P. Lovecraft's Magazine of Horror. I have received and read the last Winter issue of WT, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I am halfway through one of the HPLMH, and I'm finding it quite good as well.

So much to read, so little time. hopfrog's Sesqua Valley and Other Haunts is also in on my nightstand - good stuff, Wilum!

Re: New Ligotti Interview in Weird Tales Spring Issue
 

I am a subscriber to this wonderful publication just renewed my subscription but do not believe I will get this issue but the latest and I missed this one on news stands :( I'll have to track a copy down.

Re: New Ligotti Interview in Weird Tales Spring Issue
 

I don't think you have to worry – I subscribed a couple of months ago, and I haven't received this issue yet. And they started my subscription with the last issue that had come out, November/December 2008.

The WT website still has this issue listed "Coming in June" and the availability status is "Not for sale" even though we are a couple of weeks into July... Waiting anxiously!

Re: New Ligotti Interview in Weird Tales Spring Issue
 

I love WEIRD TALES but my experience as a subscriber has not been happy. I liked it better when the magazine had local distribution. Still, the magazine has so improved over the years that I shall continue to support it.

Re: New Ligotti Interview in Weird Tales Spring Issue
 

I had to let my subscription to Weird Tales lapse because of my lack of funds for fringe benefits. I'll have to lift a copy of the upcoming issue from the newsboy working out front of the Daily Planet Building the next time I'm in Metropolis.

Re: New Ligotti Interview in Weird Tales Spring Issue
 

Story goes that the issue will be appearing quite shortly. I only hope that I have been a faithful conduit for the wonders contained within.

Re: New Ligotti Interview in Weird Tales Spring Issue
 

yes the quality of the magazine is very good at this point I only wish that the distribution was better for instance they are no longer carried in my neck of the woods

Re: New Ligotti Interview in Weird Tales Spring Issue
 

One can only hope that this new issue comes out soon. I don't know if anyone still carries it in my tiny corner of the planet.

Re: New Ligotti Interview in Weird Tales Spring Issue
 

OK, gotta ask... Has anyone received the Spring issue of Weird Tales yet? It looks like it is available for purchase on the website, but my mailbox knows not its corrupting caress. Have I been forsaken, or am I just an impatient twit?

Re: New Ligotti Interview in Weird Tales Spring Issue
 

I haven't received it either. I subscribed back in June and they did send me the previous issue. Every day when I go downstairs to my mailbox, I think today's the day! but then it isn't. Since it's now available for purchase on the website, I'd guess that we subscribers should be receiving our copies shortly.

Re: New Ligotti Interview in Weird Tales Spring Issue
 

Yes, this is quite a delay, unfortunately. I have tried to get my hands on this issue from a local Barnes & Noble and a speculative fiction comic/book dealer near me, both of which normally carry the magazine. Neither have this issue yet. The book dealer told me he hasn't heard anything from them either regarding upcoming shipments.

Seems this will end up being a fall read for many of us, which isn't altogether a bad thing.

Re: New Ligotti Interview in Weird Tales Spring Issue
 

Copies are being reported as existing in the real world. I will document when my subscription copy arrives.

Re: New Ligotti Interview in Weird Tales Spring Issue
 

To-day's poft just deliver'd ye issue! It looks fantastic & ye contents is tantalizing. Contents:
FICTION:
"Weirott," Jeffrey Ford; "The Garbacologist," Jeff Johnson; "Headstone In My Pocket," Paul Tremblay; "Bruise For Bruise," Robert Davies; "Court Scranto," Caleb Wilson; "Selected Views of Mt. Fuji, with Dinosaurs," Hunter Eden.

Interviews: Thomas Ligotti, Richard Corden

DEPARTMENTS:
The Eyrie
Weirdism: "the death magic of J. G. Ballard"
The Library, reviews of Tanith Lee and Catherynne Valente books
The Bazaar: "a Miskatonic neo-Victorian artstravaganza"
Harvey Pelican & Co.
Lost in Lovecraft: "the Antarctic"
The Cryptic: "the ghostly wherefores of M. R. James"

Sara Salmi's cover, "Libra," is quite wonderful

Re: New Ligotti Interview in Weird Tales Spring Issue
 

Argh, nothing for me yet... I did receive my copy of Mr. Pulver Sr.'s "Blood Will Have Its Season" via Amazon though, so that was nice. Really looking forward to reading this!

Re: New Ligotti Interview in Weird Tales Spring Issue
 

OK, I finally got my copy, huzzah. I have already read a lot of it; the TL interview is on the short side - about 5 pages - but worthwhile. I get the feeling that it was conducted by email, as all of the questions are stand-alone, with no follow up to anything TL answers. Still, I knew it would be good when I read the first line of the interview proper:
Nice.

As expected, I like some of the stories in this issue more than others, although I have enjoyed everything on some level so far. "The Garbacologist" by Jeff Johnson is a stand-out, and makes me want to seek out more of his work.

(I also thought it was kinda funny to receive this Spring issue days after the Autumnal Equinox!)

Re: New Ligotti Interview in Weird Tales Spring Issue
 

I hope you enjoy BLOOD! And I hope you've gotten your copy of "WT"!

I can't get "WT" here, but I'm on my way to NYC today for my book release party, so I'll grab a copy in The City.

Happy reading!

All my bEastly best,

Joe

Re: New Ligotti Interview in Weird Tales Spring Issue
 

Tom does pretty much all his interviews in this format; an interviewer sends the questions via email and he responds. I know because I read them usually months before they are ever published and receive them as a word document attached to an email. (In fact, I just read one that will be published in the coming months that you'll find out about soon enough, and another outstanding interview with some pretty thought-provoking questions presented to him.) It's one of the reasons you'll see such incredibly well constructed answers. Not that he couldn't do them "in person" equally effectively, but you'll notice the amount of detail in his responses. The good news is he puts a ton of effort into answering the questions in a way that make them really something special and not just rote responses. To me, Tom's interviews never get old or boring, only because he has a universe of answers in his head.

Occasionally, if Tom knows the interviewer, it could happen by phone, and a few have, but this email format is how the vast majority of them are conducted.

Re: New Ligotti Interview in Weird Tales Spring Issue
 

I love when Tom discusses Lovecraft, either in interviews or essays. He has a way of shewing aspects of HPL's art that are so intelligent and so right. He is amazing. He's like Lovecraft to me in that everything he utters is intensely interesting -- fascinating, beguiling. And his fiction -- GAWD!! How I ache to read more of his poetry.

Re: New Ligotti Interview in Weird Tales Spring Issue
 

In truth, I would say that some were slight follow ups. It was certainly a process of trying to find the most fruitful ground.(By the way, my copy arrived today. I haven't re-read it yet, but the link to here and the picture of him make it wonderful too.)

Re: New Ligotti Interview in Weird Tales Spring Issue
 

I received my copy in the mail yesterday. I've an odd thing about magazines: I love to have them, but I tend just to skim a bit and place it on the pile with the others. Weird Tales, though definitely a quality publication, is usually treated in the same manner. Yesterday was different though and I ended up sitting down with the issue and actually giving it a proper go.

One of the first things that drew my eye in the issue was the interview, though for no specific reason. I had never heard of Ligotti before yesterday. That he discussed Poe, one of my favorite authors, was more than enough to pique my interest, but the excellent interview cemented the desire to read more from Ligotti, which I will be doing as soon as possible.

Actually, this issue really impressed me when it came to the non-fiction pieces (I haven't gotten around to the fiction). The tribute to Ballard and the article on M.R. James were both well done--and added to my purchasing list--as was the bit about Lovecraft and the Antarctic.

Having never read anything by Ligotti, it is slightly awkward posting here, but it was Weird Tales that led me here and this seems to be one of the few discussions about on the mag. So not too awkward.

Re: New Ligotti Interview in Weird Tales Spring Issue
 

I had read but one single collection and a few other tales by the time I joined TLO. I now have a nice wee library of Ligotti books, and my admiration for his astonishing talent continues to grow. He, like the best of authors, is one to whom you can return to again and again, finding new gems in stories that have been read over and over. His fiction, thus, is eternal, like the best of Poe and Lovecraft, &c &c.

Re: New Ligotti Interview in Weird Tales Spring Issue
 

My copy finally arrived, and yesterday I sat down to read the interview. Excellent, as always. Ligotti's answers are very detailed. He discusses Conspiracy at some length, along with Poe. Somehow, the interview felt a bit short, though it takes up five or six pages of the issue. I suppose you can never get enough of Ligotti.

Then, there's the photo! I had forgotten this interview contains one until I opened it. Though small, it's the clearest image I have ever seen of him--with maybe exception of the one on the back cover of Dagon (the Ligotti special). That one, though, is from quite awhile ago. This appears to be a recent picture. It's fascinating and a slightly jarring to see the man "unmasked." At least for me. Not that there's anything odd about his appearance (indeed, he looks like a writer), certainly, but I'm always a little jolted due to the sheer scarcity of Ligotti pictures.

Re: New Ligotti Interview in Weird Tales Spring Issue
 

He is rather mysterious, isn't he?

http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/object3/...59346_2210.jpg

I don't know why, but when I first read "The Shadow at the Bottom of the World" I thought he was an older college professor somewhere in the midwest. Ah, what a babe in the woods I was... The first time I saw a picture of him I did a double-take. Not at all what I expected!

Re: New Ligotti Interview in Weird Tales Spring Issue
 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts about Ligotti's image, Sam. I didn't have quite that reaction myself, but I was surprised at how he conformed to my opinion of what he must look like. Perhaps naively, I often conjure up pictures of what authors look like as I try to hear their voices in my head when I go over their words. I was pleasantly surprised by Ligotti's appearance.

He looks very much like an intellectual and writer--or at least how I expect one to look with the type of voice that comes through in his fiction. On the other hand, the image of Ligotti has bled into how I see some of his stories. When I read My Work Is Not Yet Done, I can't not see Frank Dominio as Ligotti like in appearance. I suppose it's much the same with Lovecraft's work, where I view many of his narrators as H.P. Lovecraft look-alikes.

Has anyone else had this experience after reading Ligotti and seeing pictures of him, and then going back to re-read certain tales?

Re: New Ligotti Interview in Weird Tales Spring Issue
 

When I first read Ligotti, I vaguely imagined him as being thin, pale, bespectacled, and with slightly shaggy hair that is neither long nor short -- in other words, looking kind of like R. Crumb (although I wasn't thinking specifically of R. Crumb at the time). So when I first saw a picture of him, I was both surprised and not surprised to see that he looks pretty much like I thought he should.

On the other hand, there are some authors who look nothing like I thought they would -- Hunter S. Thompson and Gene Wolfe come to mind.

Re: New Ligotti Interview in Weird Tales Spring Issue
 

It's interesting because all of the pictures (or should I say the few) floating around of Tom are pretty old. If you saw a recent picture of him you may not recognize him as the man in the previous images that you have seen, at least not immediately. He's changed considerably, as many of us do.

Re: New Ligotti Interview in Weird Tales Spring Issue
 

I finally got around to getting this mag and reading the interview. Ligotti is fascinating as always. I like it when he discusses Poe, Kafka, and Lovecraft.

My favorite line in the interview is when they asked him about The Conspiracy Against the Human Race and he said: "Conspiracy interweaves several thematic threads and ultimately resolves into a view of human existence as an ordeal resembling those depicted in tales of supernatural horror."

Does that book sound great or what? Keep them updates coming about the publication date.