Emily Morrison

Emily Morrison and Kate Cantrell

Abstract:
Despite its commercial popularity, weird fiction remains largely overlooked by genre
and literary scholars. To date, weird studies have primarily focussed on either defining
the genre and its tropes, or mapping the preoccupations of weird writers. Consequently,
weird scholarship has not yet explored how the weird both preserves and transforms
itself in an ever-evolving publishing landscape. One particularly understudied
phenomenon is the genre’s near-symbiotic relationship with the short story, even as the
longer form appears to offer greater space for the weird to flourish. Thus, the question
arises as to why the short-form weird persists, despite recent attempts to adapt the weird
to longer forms such as the novel and the film. Accordingly, this paper investigates
weird fiction’s relationship with the short story, and argues that the short story is
perhaps the most ‘natural’ form for the weird. The article spotlights some of the critical
gaps that exist in weird scholarship, while at the same time offering insight into why
weird short fiction remains popular with authors, even as the genre gravitates toward
longer forms.

Biographical note:
Emily Morrison is a writer, editor, and PhD candidate at the University of Southern
Queensland. Her research investigates weird fiction and its many adaptations, including
the resistance of weird fiction monsters to pop culture pacification. In 2023, Morrison
won the Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction Short Story for ‘Customer Service’,
a weird story about an automotive doll that is made to be the perfect woman but who is
always returned by her buyers. Morrison’s speculative short story anthology Mother’s
Milk was published in 2023 under the pseudonym Emily Wyeth.

Kate Cantrell is a Senior Lecturer in Writing, Editing, and Publishing at the University
of Southern Queensland. Her research explores contemporary representations of trauma
and illness in Australian literature and media. Her books include Screening the Gothic
in Australia and New Zealand (2022, Amsterdam University Press), True Stories?:
Crime Media, Horror, and Cultural Memory (forthcoming, Routledge), and
Remembering, Imagining, and Resolving True Crime: Local Stories, Global Scrutiny (forthcoming, Routledge). She is the Joint Editor of JASAL and the Associate Editor of
Queensland Review.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE

TEXT Vol 29 No 2 October 2025
Managing Editors: Julienne van Loon & Ross Watkins
Editors: Ross Watkins, Shady Cosgrove & Antonia Pont

Morrison, Emily, and Kate Cantrell. 2025. “Strange Associates: Weird Affect, Weird Fiction and the Weird Short Story.” TEXT 29 (2): 1–17. https://doi.org/10.52086/001c.146396.