Thomas Wiloch (February 3, 1953 – September 4, 2008) was an American author, editor, poet, and illustrator.

Profile

Born in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. Wiloch was the principal instigator and editor of ''Grimoire'', a journal of surrealistic art and literature published from 1982-1985 that featured some of the earliest published work by the notable American horror writer

Thomas Ligotti Thomas Ligotti (born July 9, 1953) is an American horror writer. His writings are rooted in several literary genres – most prominently weird fiction – and have been described by critics as works of ''philosophical'' horror, often formed into ...

. After working on the editorial staff of Gale, a reference book publisher, for some 26 years, Wiloch became a freelance writer and editor in 2004. Much of Wiloch's recent published writing is

prose poetry Prose poetry is poetry written in prose form instead of verse form, while preserving poetic qualities such as heightened imagery, parataxis, and emotional effects. Characteristics Prose poetry is written as prose, without the line breaks associ ...

, and has appeared in collections from various

small press A small press is a publisher with annual sales below a certain level or below a certain number of titles published. The terms "indie publisher" and "independent press" and others are sometimes used interchangeably. Independent press is general ...

publishers includin
Snake Press
an

From 1988 to 1993, Wiloch authored the column "Codes and Chaos" for the arts magazine ''PhotoStatic,'' an arts magazine. He was an associate editor of ''Sidereality'' magazine, 2004-05. Wiloch has illustrated books by authors such as

Bruce Boston Bruce Boston (born 1943) is an American speculative fiction writer and poet. Early years Bruce Boston was born in Chicago and grew up in Southern California.Diane SeversonInterview with Bruce Boston''Amazing Stories'' March 15, 2013 (accessed Se ...

, Robert Frazier,

Andrew Joron Andrew Joron (born March 6, 1955) is an American writer of Experimental literature, experimental poetry, speculative fiction, and lyrical and critical essays. He began by writing science fiction poetry. Joron's later poetry, combining scientific a ...

, and

Jessica Amanda Salmonson Jessica Amanda Salmonson (born January 6, 1950John Clute and John Grant,Salmonson, Jessica Amanda, in ''The Encyclopedia of Fantasy'', pp. 832–833, Orbit, London / St Martin’s Press, New York (1997).) is an American author and editor of fant ...

, as well as his work.

Praise

Wiloch was described by Greg Body in ''Asylum'' as "one of a handful of contemporary American masters of the prose miniature". Writing in the ''Gore Letter,'' Michael Arnzen stated that "Wiloch has been quietly working away in relative obscurity in his own 'niche' for two decades, developing a one-of-a-kind approach to a form he almost entirely owns. Wiloch writes surrealist short-short pieces, often no longer than a page, that are as philosophical as they are whimsical, as clever as they are poetic, and as disturbing as they are intelligent." According to Bruce Boston, writing in ''Illumen'' magazine, Wiloch is "arguably the leading writer of prose poems in the genre field for the last two decades." English writer and artist A.C. Evans wrote in ''Stride'' magazine that Wiloch portrays "fragmentary confrontation with alien Otherness described in a symbolic vocabulary of closed rooms, casual catastrophe, uncanny Fortean phenomena, rituals of cruelty, and fleeting visions of transmundane worlds."

Bibliography

Prose poem collections

* ''Paper Mask'' (1988) * ''The Mannikin Cypher'' (1989) * ''Tales of Lord Shantih'' (1989) * ''Mr. Templeton's Toyshop'' (1995) * ''Stigmata Junction'' (2005) * ''Screaming in Code'' (2006)

Collections of cut-up haiku

* ''Night Rain'' (1991) * ''Decoded Factories of the Heart'' (1991) * ''Narcotic Signature'' (1992) * ''Lyrical Brandy'' (1993) * ''Neon Trance'' (1997)

Nonfiction

* ''Directory of Michigan Literary Publishers'' (1982) * ''Everything You Need to Know about Protecting Yourself and Others Against Abduction'' (1998) * ''Crime: A Serious American Problem'' (2004) * ''National Security'' (2005) * ''Prisons and Jails: A Deterrent to Crime?'' (2005)

Illustrations for works by others

* ''Sensuous Debris'' –

* ''The Eleventh Jaguarundi'' –

* ''Invisible Machines'' –

and Robert Frazier,

Poetry Collaborations

* ''The Newcomer'' – co-authored with t. Winter-Damon (''Xanadu 2,''

Tor Books Tor Books is the primary imprint of Tor Publishing Group (previously Tom Doherty Associates), a publishing company based in New York City. It primarily publishes science fiction and fantasy titles, and is the largest publisher of Chinese scien ...

, 1994)

External links

Codes & Chaos
Wiloch's official web site

(Archive of PhotoStatic magazine)
MicroHorror.com
(Two works of

flash fiction Flash fiction is a fictional work of extreme brevity that still offers character and plot development. Identified varieties, many of them defined by word count, include the six-word story; the 280-character story (also known as " twitterature"); ...

.)
Thomas Ligotti Online
Tribute to Wiloch and his writings. Retrieved on 008-7-9 {{DEFAULTSORT:Wiloch, Thomas 1953 births Writers from Detroit 2008 deaths American male poets English-language haiku poets 20th-century American male writers