A Thousand Hundred Years (Electric Literature's Recommended Reading Book 239)

4/5 ( ratings)

“I first came across Michael Wehunt’s work a little less than two years ago, when we both appeared in Aickman’s Heirs, an anthology that paid tribute to the work of the British writer of “strange stories,” Robert Aickman. Wehunt’s contribution was an excellent one, about a man who, losing his wife late in life, begins to reconsider his sexuality, thinking of an earlier moment when things were poised to go differently. It seems more of a belated coming out story than a horror story from that description, but let me also mention that the character is gradually transforming, and that the story is driven by gorgeous moodiness and beautifully rendered sentences in which our sense of what’s happening is always partly dislocated by the style — the kind of sentences that you feel like you’re breathing rather than the sort from which you surgically extract meaning. Recognizing this, you begin to understand Wehunt’s particular and peculiar charm.” - Brian Evenson

About the Author: Michael Wehunt grew up in North Georgia, close enough to the Appalachians to feel them but not quite easily see them. There were woods, and woodsmoke, and warmth. He did not make it far when he left, falling sixty miles south to the lost city of Atlanta, where he lives today, with fewer woods but still many trees. He writes. He reads. Robert Aickman fidgets next to Flannery O’Connor on his favorite bookshelf.
His short fiction has appeared in various places, and his debut collection, Greener Pastures, is available from Shock Totem Publications.

About the Guest Editor: Praised by Peter Straub for going “furthest out on the sheerest, least sheltered narrative precipice,” Brian Evenson is the recipient of three O. Henry Prizes and has been a finalist for the Edgar Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, and the World Fantasy Award. He is also the winner of the International Horror Guild Award and the American Library Association’s award for Best Horror Novel, and his work has been named in Time Out New York’s top books.

About the Publisher: Recommended Reading is the weekly fiction magazine of Electric Literature, publishing here every Wednesday morning. In addition to featuring our own recommendations of original, previously unpublished fiction, we invite established authors, indie presses, and literary magazines to recommend great work from their pages, past and present. Follow Recommended Reading on Medium and never miss the latest issue, or become a member for full access to the archives. For other links from Electric Literature, follow us, or sign up for our eNewsletter.