The Wilder Things magazine put on a ghoulish Halloween party with pumpkin painting, conversation, and candy — all beneath classic Halloween music — on Thursday.
Wilder Things brands itself as a speculative literature magazine. Speculative fiction is an umbrella term used to describe any literary work beyond the limits of human ability.
“All of our submissions usually have some elements of mythical or magical realism, the weird stuff, paranormal,” Wilder Things editor-in-chief Lauren Kern said.
Essentially, speculative fiction consists of broad science fiction concepts like aliens, vampires, dragons, and giant planet-eating monsters. Any version of written storytelling is accepted at Wilder Things, as long as it relates to the aforementioned topics.
“We take a lot of unique pieces that don’t necessarily have a home in other magazines,” Kern said as she handed out excess pumpkins after the party. “We take poetry, screenwriting, prose. Anything up to three pages on poetry, anything up to 10 pages on written works.”
The party, open to all members and non-members, had guests decorating pumpkins with paint, stickers, and glitter. Some chose to reanimate their pumpkins as ghoulish ghosts or spooky skeletons in keeping with the season, while others kept it light with flowers or happy characters.
RELATED: Fred Armisen performed his ‘Comedy for Musicians’ at The Englert
Wilder Things will host a variety of other events over the year as well.
“We’re doing a Valentine’s Day [party], which will be super exciting. I think the title we’re going for right now is My Gothic Valentine, but this was our really big one,” Iliana Banu, the assistant editor-in-chief, said.
The magazine that will be published in January has yet to go through a long screening and trimming process before it becomes the final finished piece. Of the 92 submissions this year, only around 20 works will make it into the magazine.
“Twenty is pretty consistent. The biggest [magazine] we did was like 34, so it’s a pretty average-sized one. Every year, I’ve been worried we’d only cut down to 10, but we always manage,”Ava Steiner, the publication’s marketing director, said.
Once the chosen articles are settled upon and the process is wrapped up, the magazine will host a celebratory party.
“[We’ll host] two launch parties, one in the fall, one in the spring. Thursday, Jan. 29, is going to be our fall issue, and that’s in person at Prairie Lights,” Kern said.
With the paint on their pumpkins dried, Wilder Things turns its focus to finalizing the magazine’s upcoming issue and giving readers and writers an avenue into the speculative and strange.