J. Ashley-Smith

A bit fat super-plump puffy white fungus

Dainty little feathery fungus, peeking out among grass stems.

A village of dainty, feather-tipped fungi peeking out of the grass. Also some browning eucalyptus leaves.

Super freaky yellow blob fungus – looks a bit like a half-charred golden marshmallow, only monstrous.

Fungal content

J. Ashley-Smith, smiling, holding a turtle.

Turtle making its way towards the water of Dickson wetlands.

So, I rescued a turtle this evening. How’s your day going?

Ben O’Mara, Kaaron Warren, J. Ashley-Smith, Jenny Sawer and Aaron Dries in conversation at Gang Gang cafe

Kaaron Warren reading

J. Ashley-Smith reading

Ben O’Mara reading

Great night at Lost Souls’ The Horror of Care with readings by @kaaronwarren.bsky.social @spooktapes.bsky.social Ben O’Mara @aarondries.bsky.social MC @fionnmacpherson.bsky.social & music by Jenny Sawer at Gang Gang cafe! Incredible stories & a privilege to listen to Ben’s nonfiction piece 🖤

Poster for upcoming event: The Horror of Care. Text reads: "Readings and music with Aaron Dries, Ben O'Mara, Kaaron Warren, Joseph Ashley-Smith, and Jenny Sawer. 6.30pm, 18 Feb 2026, at Gang Gang Cafe

Canberra PPL... your friendly reminder that @kaaronwarren.bsky.social, @aarondries.bsky.social and I, will be reading at Gang Gang cafe this coming Wednesday, alongside a whole bunch of talented Canberra folks. Get in on the action!

Oh yeah – I straight up fkn LOVED this book! Get on it if you dig good things.

🏆🎃THE ATTIC TRAGEDY by J. Ashley-Smith: Forget jump scares. This Shirley Jackson Award-Winning novella is pure, slow-burning gothic dread. The perfect atmospheric read for a dark Halloween night.

https://smpl.is/adxux

#Horror #GothicHorror #Ghosts @J. Ashley-Smith

J. Ashley-Smith holds up a copy of Kathe Koja's new novel Dark Matter.

Privileged AF to get my grubby mitts on an ARC of this near-future fever dream. Avail yourselves of a copy - and a pair of knee-high railroad spike boots - the split second it drops!

@kkoja.bsky.social @meerkatpress.bsky.social

meerkatpress.com/books/dark-m...

J. Ashley-Smith > The Beautiful Thing You Once Were > Bourbon Penn Perhaps I should have been surprised when the magpie first spoke. Strange as it may seem, I had become quite used to the mimicries of those curious backyard birds, with their pristine black-and-white ...

Fantastic thread, thank you! 🙏🏻 I loved “The Beautiful Thing You One Were” by @spooktapes.bsky.social in Bourbon Penn. I also have a FUBF “Bird’s Eye View of the Old City” (magpies again) upcoming in Drabblecast in a few months 🖤

www.bourbonpenn.com/issue/33/the...

Scene from Twin Peaks - The Return. An enormous black kettle spewing steam, and the numbers 4, 8, 5, 5 and 1.

This David Lynch episode of Sesame Street is the worst.

A five thousand year old megalith poses beside author J. Ashley-Smith (who is almost as old).

Separated at birth?

Mentorship Program 2025 AHWA MENTORSHIP PROGRAM IS OPEN TO APPLICATIONS The AHWA Mentorship Program is open to applications for 2025. Applications will close at midnight on Thursday, July 17th. Offers will be sent to…

Spooky writer friends, if you have a project @australasianhorror.bsky.social mentorship program applications are open until the 17th! 👻

australasianhorror.com/mentorship-p...

I had a fantastic experience being mentored by @spooktapes.bsky.social in 2022 and blogged about it if you want more info:

Meant every one of them.

Undertow’s Best Weird Fiction of the Year is the gold standard anthology for strange stories - I’m so glad it’s back after what seemed a lifetime. Delighted and honoured The Beautiful Thing You Once Were made it into the list of notable stories, alongside some of my favourite authors of the genre.

A chapter, for sure. I stop noticing it after a para or two.

Mary Gaitskill quote: "I would sometimes get five rejection letters in my mailbox at once. The main thing editors would write was that the characters were too hapless, and it was all too depressing."

Life goals

Weird fiction people? Legends! 🖤

Thinking also about the writing advice I got from my amazing AHWA mentor @spooktapes.bsky.social back in 2022 to imagine your ideal reader (singular) when revising, and the effect you want the story to have on them, which I still find really helpful today

Ha ha, yup. Still writing for Cody. ❤️ (Thanks, Celia!)

Huge congrats!

It was pretty close for me. (Didn't recognise that I would always put Libs bottom on principle, but otherwise all good.)

It's now made of carcinogenic sugar alternatives, sawdust and my childhood tears.

2024 Aurealis Awards Shortlist Announcement Now in its 30th year, the 2024 Aurealis Awards, Australia’s premier speculative fiction award, attracted more than 830 entries across 15 categories, including 34 nominations in the tri-annual…

Check out the shortlist here: aurealisawards.org/2025/04/15/2...

And the story @bourbonpenn.bsky.social : www.bourbonpenn.com/issue/33/the...

3/3

It's the 30-year anniversary of the Awards, too, so doubly special to get a nod.

Congrats to all on the shortlist, especially the many good friends and colleagues! (I'll spare you all another round of multi-tagging – know that I love you all and think you're ace.) 2/3

Street mural of a magpie speaking with an old lady with green skin who may or may not be a witch (she has a pointy nose)

Delighted to learn my tragic, magic realist magpie love story – The Beautiful Thing You Once Were – has been shortlisted for an Aurealis Award. Some stories you just love irrationally, and this one broke my heart over and over as I wrote it... 1/3

Ping: @bourbonpenn.bsky.social

They’re fucking awful. What were we like as kids that that shit tasted like fucking ambrosia?

Editor: Love the book, Leo. It’s another masterpiece. But do you really need the 2nd epilogue?

Tolstoy: Stet. How else will my readers understand my book’s themes without an essay to explain them?

Editor: Ok. Let’s say we keep the 2nd epilogue… does it really need all 5 chapters?

Tolstoy: Stet.

So glad it arrived safe and sound!

#womeninhorrormonth CALVARIA FELL by @CatSparx & @KaaronWarren blurred so many genre lines. And horror was one of them. Salute to these two talented authors!

https://smpl.is/8sbjz

#CatSparks #KaaronWarren #CliFi #WeirdFiction #DarkFantasy #Horror @Kaaron Warren @Cat Sparks

I can almost taste it.

Woman in black with silver hair, laughing her head off while holding a book and two small paper prints and a sticker and wooden bookmark

SKIN is a very intense book about love, art, pain and letting it all go, and if @lostmirror.bsky.social didn't make me laugh so hard this would have been a very serious portrait 💀 And @meerkatpress.bsky.social has the presales now plus incredible swag #queerhorror #industrial #art

My stuff from last year in case you're voting for awards and need a reminder of stuff!