Latest News:

The Whistling Shade 2025 issue is now available, and a $1 PDF download or $4 issue can be purchased below.

We also have a new book out by Whistling Shade Press - Hypnotic Control by John-Ivan Palmer, a career stage hypnotist. Part history, part personal memoir, part social commentary, Hypnotic Control is a fascinating dive into the art and science of stage hypnotism, as well as hypnotic influences at work in society at large. Look for book release details soon!

Submissions are now closed for Whistling Shade's 2026 issue, which should be available early next year. The theme for the issue will be "The Road" and feature stories, poetry and memoirs involving rovers, vagrants, fugitives, and travelers of every stripe.

Purchase a PDF replica of the print issue for $1.
After paying at Paypal, select "Return to Merchant" to access the PDF download.

New books from Whistling Shade!

Hypnotic Control - John-Ivan Palmer

Career stage hypnotist John-Ivan Palmer takes us on this strange, behind-the-curtains look at hypnotism - how it works on the stage and also how hypnotic forces shape society at large. Topics include: mesmeric performance, cults, terrorism, school shootings, TV, the internet, Trumpism, and other true cases of bizarre influence.

The Sound of Light - Greg Watson

From a record store to a marathon to a newborn intensive care unit, Greg Watson's poems catalogue the intimate moments that fall just below the surface of a busy, modern world. By turns tender and elegiac, his sparse lines are filled with a quiet reverie that attempts to describe "the sound of light itself / asking to be recorded, / and no one around to do so / but me, a novice playing / the only way I know" ("And Learn to Sing Along").

The Neighborhood Division - Jeff Vande Zande

Jeff Vande Zande's latest story collection travels down the shady lanes of the American neighborhood. From kids egging windows to lost joggers and insomniacs to basement prisoners and Orwellian gated communities, these stories grow ever more surreal, holding a darkened mirror up to that which we are - and may become.

Castle Bash - Julian Bernick

A narrative poem in the Romantic tradition, Castle Bash is Byronic in character, Gothic in atmosphere, Romantic in outlook and Lovecraftian in scope. When a bastard poet is given safe haven and patronage at the tenebrous Castle Bash, mystery, passion, and the forces of hell converge upon its benighted inhabitants. This is the second title in Whistling Shade's Geste Series.