About bizarro


"The Bizarro literary movement is the ultimate in outsider lit."

– 3AM Magazine

"[Bizarro is] universally intriguing, thoughtful, intelligent and, most importantly, a hell of a lot of fun."

– The Pedestal Magazine

 


WHAT IS BIZARRO?

1. Bizarro, simply put, is the genre of the weird.


2. Bizarro is literature's equivalent to the cult section at the video store.


3. Like cult movies, Bizarro is sometimes surreal, sometimes avant-garde, sometimes goofy, sometimes bloody, sometimes borderline pornographic, and almost always completely out there.


4. Bizarro strives not only to be strange, but fascinating, thought-provoking, and, above all, fun to read.

5. Bizarro often contains a certain cartoon logic that, when applied to the real world, creates an unstable universe where the bizarre becomes the norm and absurdities are made flesh.


6. Bizarro was created by a group of small press publishers in response to the increasing demand for (good) weird fiction and the increasing number of authors who specialize in it.


7. Bizarro is like:

Franz Kafka meets John Waters

Dr. Suess of the post-apocalypse

Takashi Miike meets William S. Burroughs

Alice in Wonderland for adults

Japanese animation directed by David Lynch



Even though the Bizarros are underground cult outsiders, they still have gained an incredible amount of respect in the publishing industry. Having been praised by the likes of Chuck Palahniuk, Christopher Moore, William Gibson, Piers Anthony, Michael Moorcock, and Charles de Lint, to name a few, as well as the publications Asimov's Science-fiction, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science-fiction, Cemetery Dance, Publishers Weekly, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and The Face, among many others. They have also been finalists for the Philip K Dick Award, the Bram Stoker Award, the Rhysling Award, and the Pushcart Prize.

Bizarro isn't just weird fiction, it is DAMN GOOD weird fiction. And it grows exponentially every single day, so, love it or hate it, you'll be seeing a lot more of it in the years to come.

 

For more information visit Bizarro Central:

  

 

 

For a perfect sampling of bizarro for only $5, check out The Bizarro Starter Kit:

 

 

One Response to “About bizarro”

  1. Daniel Stafford Says:
    October 13, 2009 at 10:19 am

    Since discovering the films El Topo and The Holy Mountain, I have been wanting to find fiction that is just as visual, visceral, and absurd.

    I am happy to have stumbled across the Bizarro genre via Librarything.com when it recommended both Starter Kit books to me.

    Fantastic stuff! Thank you.