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Category: Marcus Silcock Surreal-Absurd
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In the 1980s we moved from Northern Ireland to Milton Keynes England. They had lots of roundabouts. Here is a new prose poem about the roundabouts. Just published in the new issue of Elsewhere Magazine. https://elsewheremag.org/issue-28/
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A new microfiction, from my manuscript in progress, Seaside Saints, is now up at The Argyle Review. Seaside Saints might become a novella in microfiction about various characters in a small seaside town in Catalunya. There are twenty or so stories so far. This one is about an organ grinder whose golden retriever retrieves the…
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“The whole town smelled like chives and onion with a dash of mustard. Maciek sampled the popular dish. Chips, thin as a shoelace, mayo on the side. Clams in large pot with white wine brine. Strange, though, this hankering for deer musk.” My microfiction, “Deer Musk,” is now up at Literary Garage. It’s kind of…
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I have a new horror microfiction up at Hawkeye Magazine. It is partly inspired by a visit to the magical ancient house of Hugh Behm-Steinberg in Barcelona. Emperors and hermits. Wars and demons and spirits. You can read it over here
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Happy to have a new microfiction at Dodo Eraser. It takes place in Trieste, Italy, where I lived many moons ago. Poverty and art and dog walking. The story is called “Higher Callings.” You can read it here
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Some nice news this morning. My micro fiction “Big Fish” has been nominated by Flash Frontier: An Adventure in Short Fiction from New Zealand for Best Small Fictions 2025. Thank you to Michelle Elvy (editor of Flash Frontier).
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I am happy to have a serial prose poem in the new issue of Diagram. Diagram has been around a good while. It was one of my earliest publications in the early part of this century. My earlier work is in issues 3.4 and 4.4. This new work is in issue 25.4. The serial prose…
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Thank you to Benjamin Niespodziany for including my book Dream Dust for his favorite reads of 2025. I have always loved Benjamin Niespodziany’s end of year of list of books. I am honored to be included this year. Check out the roundup over here
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“. . . the playful, grotesque, microscopic gaze of the noisy unconscious in Marcus’ poems that makes maneuvers from foaming blond ales to “new lips for new lovers” and, as in the poem ‘Easter Rabbit’, people the poem as thoughts bubbling in someone’s mind. The poems, in giving us the impression that they are emergent…
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New Absurdities: Peas in G&Ts, Vomited Birds, Ghost Faces Three micro-stories blending rookie cops, dream shoes & hallway haunts. You can read it HERE: https://thegorkogazette.com/2025/12/04/3-by-marcus-silcock/
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My new prose poem, “Fish,” is now published at Instant Noodles Literary Magazine. It features mermaid mothers, gravy hounds, and the tiny, powerful tornadoes found in a fishbowl. Read the full piece: https://instantnoodleslitmag.com/fish-marcus-silcock/
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The memory of the 90s Salt Lake City underground—the legendary nights at Bricks and The Sun—was violently punctuated by a freak tornado that slammed downtown as the millennium turned. You can read the full story now, alongside a brilliant flash by Karen Crawford, as this week’s featured MicroMonday over at Fictive Dream: https://fictivedream.com/2025/11/24/micromonday-33/
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I’m thrilled to share that my surreal micro story “Big Fish” appears in the October 2025 issue of Flash Frontier — the Fish Issue.Read it here: Flash Frontier – October 2025 Issue “Big Fish” is a short, absurd story about what it means to live inside something vast — a creature, a system, a world — and to keep scrubbing ourselves…
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A few weeks ago, I read some new microfiction for The Mercurius Show at the Lit Balm reading series. Lit Balm is an interactive livestream poetry reading series that features readings, panels, and open mics, often held biweekly. LIT BALM is brought to you by Marc Vincenz of MadHat and New American Writing (Magazine), Cassandra…
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I’m delighted to share that my story “Burning Bush” has just been published in Issue Forty-Seven of the always-exciting magazine Bending Genres! I’m thrilled and honored to be in such terrific company — with new work by Kim Magowan, Francine Witte, Glen Pourciau, and many more bold, brilliant voices pushing the boundaries of form and…
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The September 20, 2025 episode of Lit Balm: An Interactive Livestream Reading Series will be the MERCURIUS show, and feature Vik Shirley, Thomas Helm, Marcus Silcock, and Ben Niespodziany! As always, we’ll begin with poems from our hosts and end with an open mic. It’s gonna be a doozy! I am going to read a…
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Mercurius anthology of surreal absurd is out in the world. A joy to co-edit this puppy. Terrific online launch. A reading marathon of 18 readers. Other launches coming soon in London at Dorothy Gallery and Edinburgh, Scotland and Barcelona, Spain.
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🎉 Double Whammy: Two New Micro Fictions Just Dropped! I’m thrilled to share two fresh micro fictions out in the wild. 🥋👑 The Judo King Set in Northern Ireland, this piece dives into the immigrant experience through the lens of a judo master with a secret.Published by Maudlin House. 👉 Read The Judo King 🌀 Wiggle A love…
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I’m excited to share that my new microfiction, The Judo King, is now live at Maudlin House. Maudlin House is a small press that celebrates experimental and boundary-pushing literature, blending mainstream pop culture with avant-garde storytelling. Their mission—to challenge readers’ perspectives and explore the human condition through weird, unconventional writing. Yes please! Read the Story📖 Click here to…
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🔥 New Microfiction Published: Bunker at Blood+Honey “They were the burning bush in the wilderness of starched fathers. The wolves howled outside. Mother leaned against the dresser to pop out another sister. What big eyes, said mother.” My latest microfiction, “Bunker,” is now live at Blood+Honey — a surreal, absurdist glimpse into a family’s strange rituals at the edge…
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“The detective scans the tree. Jacaranda sticks to her sandals. Yes, you guessed it. It’s that time. The time of flowers. The fiesta of flowers. Old timers are weaving them into great wreaths on the ground, outlined in chalk.”
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A reading of my new surreal-absurd story called “Pickled Herring.” Recently published in the magazine Blood+Honey. You can read the story over here: https://www.bloodhoneylit.com/fiction/pickled-herring
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“I do not like to expose my neck to the barber. My head is full of migratory birds, thinks Kato, walking the dust park remembering the lush fish. On the way to work, a plump man always stopped to ask for loose change. She refused until one day. That one day changed the rest of…
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I have a new prose poem in the latest issue (number 159) of Right Hand Pointing. Right Hand Pointing is fab minimalist magazine. I have loved the magazine over the years. I am super happy to my new work in there. It is a childhood story. A bit of magic beneath the trees. Check out…
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Video of my reading for the launch of my new book, Dream Dust (Broken Sleep 2025), in Manchester. It was a terrific afternoon of surreal-absurd poetry at an incredible community art space: P3 Annihilation Eve – AD England. A heartfelt thank you to the dream team of fellow poets and friends who also read that…
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Dream trees, wolf eyes, hot pockets, and wing chairs. A string of new prose poems published over at Talking about Strawberries All the Time. Talking about Strawberries All the Time is an online literary journal based out of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. They publish new issues of the magazine every October and April I am happy…
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“Manchester’s live literature scene has been awash with amazing visiting poets this spring and for this free afternoon of absurd surreal poetry, we are agog to see Vik Shirley, Stephen Emmerson and Marcus Silcock corralled by Tom Jenks and reading in a place packed with brilliant books.” Read the rest of the announcement over here:…
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It seems like so many people love the beach. Millions of humans frolicking on the beach. I am not a cocktail sippin roll in the sand kinda fella. But a beach with howling winds and nobody else around. The only thing packed is the sand. That’s a nice beach. But I moved to a beach…
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Happy Monday! January is not an easy month. Post-Christmas. Winter for many. February even more so. My head is spinning. Some lack of sleep. Too many thoughts of what’s next. Finding some kind of purpose. Trying not to read too much news. It is so easy to get lost in the head. It is good…
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Hurrah!! I have a new book coming in March 2025 from Broken Sleep Books in the U.K. Broken Sleep makes very fine books. Super happy and grateful. It is called Dream Dust. microfiction/prose poems from Berlin, Barcelona, London, Poland, Prague, Utah and more. I have been working on some of these prose poems since 2018.…
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A new prose poem from my ongoing manuscript. This one is called “Dear Working Man with Tarred Leggings.” Winter poem. A little morning broth to heat the bones. Beauty does not only exist for the leisure class.
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Working on a new manuscript. Letters to objects. Some of it memoir. Some of it stories. Maybe prose poetry. Some with pathos (but hopefully not bathos). Tis the season for the invasion of memories. Here is one about growing up in Oakwood Place in Portadown, N. Ireland. My Granda. Roses. It can never do it…
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I’ve been reactivating my German from high school and college. Dreaming of Berlin. But also other things in the air. Like the prose poems of Max Jacob. Max Jacob (1876-1944) was a French poet, painter, and writer who played a significant role in the early 20th-century literary scene. He was a close friend of Pablo…
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I am super chuffed to have a new prose poem in issue 2 of Strings literary magazine. Written during the summer of 2024. I found inspiration in reading various translations of Rilke. I also acquired a new technique of writing in pencil. Rilke brought to mind my days in Trieste as a dog walker. I…
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It’s been an epic journey from Barcelona through France and Germany to the mountains of Poland. Currently in the oldest spa town in Poland called Cieplice. It’s been around since 1281. Lushing out in the green, I wrote a prose poem on the fly. It’s called The Green Ticket. It is part of my new…
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Here is a Swan Song for the old life. It was written a few years ago right before Christmas and travel to Poland. After emergency surgery and feeling alive. It is also about middle age. Shame. Suffering. There is a little chisel in there as well. It’s a reference to C.S. Lewis and his answer…
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“Do you want to show your baby face to the world or wrap yourself in hair blankets? I think you look better wrapped in hair blankets, says Eimear.”
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Here are a few new surreal-absurd prose poems. Written in summer 2023 while visiting Berlin and Wroclaw. Just published at talking about strawberries all the time.
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From immigration to Las Vegas from Northern Ireland (and a new Starsky and Hutch car) to anarchist squat flags and Turkish meze in Berlin. The poems hopscotch between our two-fold consciousness. Outside/inside. Inside/outside. They are “reality in a nutshell and fear in a handful of dust.” They are “all dusty dream glitter.”
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Cabbage has been with me a long time. It is comfort. Whether German or Polish or Irish. There are lots of cabbages. Also green. My favourite Garcia Lorca poems are green. Here is a poem about cabbage. And the colour green. Recently published in Laurel Review. Stay green!
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First time I have something published on Christmas Day. 3 surreal-absurd prose poems over at Hobart today. Thank you Jessica Almereyda for selecting and editing. A rarity to have an editor who pays such close attention to the work. Here is one of them. Nostalgia/not nostalgia. It will be the title of my new book…
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I have 3 new prose poems in Bruiser. Sheep shearing in Warrington. The Fall Guy with Hamburger Helper and Lee Majors in a trailer park in Vallejo. Goshiwon with tiny television spitting out gameshows in Seoul. Plato’s cave in Utah. Enjoy the journeys. Check out the surreal-absurd prose poems over here
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I have been finding new ways forward with various kinds of prose poetry. My new manuscript in progress, Dream Dust, is a mix of fables, serial poetry, microfictions, flash non-fiction. Maybe I’ll throw in a few flash plays. Here is a fable/prose poem. It is about Granny Winegums. American flop houses, bog butter on wheat…
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The unicorn is magic. I dreamed of unicorns in Istanbul. It is very ancient. The personal fork was invented by the Byzantines. Then our teeth changed. We developed the overbite. We bite off more than we can chew. This is a prose poem about the golden horn of Turkey. Also Byzantines. But really unicorns. Here…
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A surreal-absurd prose poem from my manuscript Dream Dust. Written while visiting southern Utah. This is called “The Narrows.”
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Great night at The Betsey Trotwood in London for Mercurius Magazine’s Surreal-Absurd feature. Our first live event with readings by Vik Shirley, Marcus Silcock, Jane Yeh, and Mark Waldron. Here is a phone recording of my reading with poems from my books The Green Monk & Rides & Tangling llamas on the Tresses of the…
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My first public reading since 2017. Live at The Betsey Trotwood in London on 15th July. Happy as Larry to read with some stellar poets (Vik Shirley, Jane Yeh, Mark Waldron). Tickets are limited. Available over here at Eventbrite for the price of a fancy muffin (maybe): Ahead of the reading, here is a preview…
Never Mind the Beasts 