LIVIA LLEWELLYN is a writer of dark fantasy, horror, and erotica, whosefiction has appeared in over 80 anthologies and magazines, includingThe Best Horror of the Year,Year's Best Weird Fiction, andThe Mammoth Book of Best NewErotica.Her short fiction collectionsEngines of Desire: Tales ofLove & Other Horrors(Lethe Press) andFurnace(Word Horde Press) were both nominated for the Shirley Jackson Award, and her short story "One of These Nights" won the 2020 Edgar Award for Best Short Story. You can find her online at liviallewellyn.com and on Twitter and Instagram.

Furnace by Livia Llewellyn

Horror fiction has long celebrated and explored the twin engines driving human existence. Call them what you like: Sex and Death, Love and Destruction, Temptation and Terror. While many may strive to reach the extremes, few authors manage to find the beauty that rests in the liminal space between these polar forces, the shuddering ecstasy encased within the shock. And then there's Livia Llewellyn, an author praised for her dark, stirring, evocative prose and disturbing, personal narratives.

Lush, layered, multifaceted, and elegant, the thirteen tales comprising Furnace showcase why Livia Llewellyn has been lauded by scholars and fans of weird fiction alike, and why she has been nominated multiple times for the Shirley Jackson Award and included in year's best anthologies. These are exquisite stories, of beauty and cruelty, of pleasure and pain, of hunger, and of sharp teeth sinking into tender flesh.

CURATOR'S NOTE

Back in 2012 I asked Livia to blurb my first collection because that's how much I admired her work. Furnace is another masterwork! Ross says: "Livia's mastery of the craft of weird fiction is as enviable as it is impressive, and her talent for creating lush, engaging stories with a strong sense of place and shuddering verisimilitude is second to none."

 

REVIEWS

  • "Llewellyn's mastery of psychosexual horror puts her in the conversation with Ballard and Tiptree, Jr. when it comes to fearless, ferocious, and important literature."

    – Laird Barron, author of The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All
  • "In Engines of Desire, Livia Llewellyn's debut collection of short stories from 2011, reality was just another raw material to be stretched and reworked. Llewellyn's follow-up collection, Furnace, is a slightly slimmer volume, but it doesn't skimp when it comes to her distorted vision. Beautiful and hideous in the same breath, its 13 tales of erotic, surreal, existential horror pack a logic-shattering punch."

    – Jason Heller for NPR.org
  • Nominated for the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Collection, 2016

  • Winner of the This Is Horror Short Story Collection of the Year, 2016

 

BOOK PREVIEW