Farrago’s Wainscot was an ezine of the “literary weird” in fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and experimental wordforms. Four volumes (“exhibitions”) appeared between 2007-2015—the first three from 2007-2009 and a fourth revival year in 2015. Each exhibition included four issues, published quarterly. An irregular, companion zine, Behind the Wainscot, featuring shorter experimental forms, ran from 2007-2008. Farrago’s FMI was a counter-culture blog that ran briefly during that same period.

Farrago’s Wainscot primarily featured work that defied genre conventions and required formal accommodations, like custom computer code, image-based storytelling, and interactive narrative. The Potemkin Mosaic, originally titled The Oneiromantic Mosaic of Harry Potemkin, appeared serially throughout the 2007 exhibition. It was a novel-length hypertext experiment featuring psychonauts and oneiromancy. A modified version would later appear in print from 51325 Books. The 2015 Wainscot exhibition ran several issues, and the content later appeared in a print anthology from Underland Press.

The name “Farrago’s Wainscot” is intentional nonsense. Farrago (a mixture or a medley) was characterized in social media promotion as an eccentric old man who collected bizarre things and behaved erratically. His wainscot was one of his collectibles—the term comes from John Clute’s Encyclopedia of Fantasy, where “wainscot fiction” defines small societies that exist out of the mainstream.

Farrago’s Wainscot appeared during a period in speculative fiction publishing when weird, New Weird, slipstream, and other experimental sub-genres were particularly popular. It would go on to define founder Darin Bradley’s doctoral dissertation: The Little Weird: Self and Consciousness in Small-Press Speculative Fiction.

What happened to Farrago’s Wainscot?

The editors suspended publication in 2009 following the third exhibition. Farrago’s Wainscot was a free publication, but its operating costs had become a financial strain. The first three years depended on local music and arts festivals in Denton, TX to raise operating capital, but the audience for the festivals and the audience for the publication were disparate; there was a disconnect in taking funding from one to operate the other. The idea was that the editors would find a different way to source operating capital. It returned briefly in 2015, sponsored by Underland Press, but sales of the print anthology were sluggish, so the zine lapsed again.

The site was maintained through late 2020, when it was discovered that server updates at the site’s web host had deleted the content of its archives and databases. Having been originally designed using tables and then later css, the whole of the zine constituted thousands of small images, files, and other bits of data, all of which would be impossible to restore from incomplete offline backups that were, in some cases, almost fourteen years old. The site was transferred to a different host and a temporary message alerted viewers to what had occurred.

However, rather than let the zine disappear, it was decided that this url would become a monument to the zine’s operating years. A number of today’s popular speculative fiction authors published material in their early years with Farrago’s Wainscot, and some alumni of the zine are no longer with us. It became important to at least preserve a record of what had appeared in the zine. A few exemplar images appear here to approximate the type of “weird” experience viewers would have when reading the zine, and a complete list of contributors and their publications appears below. The hope is to make as many of these as possible readable again; however, the remaining editorial staff have long since learned not to try to make plans for Farrago’s Wainscot. It clearly resists them . . .

FULL CONTENTS

VOLUME I

Part I: "Winter"

Fiction

• “The Yellow Baron” —Forrest Aguirre
• “Building a Taller Chair” —Leah Bobet
• “Bird of Leaves” —Jay Lake
• “The Snooted One: The Historicity of Origin” —Nisi Shawl

Poetry

• “Dream Vision from the Book of Dogs” —Bruce Bond
• “The Drowning” —Bruce Bond
• “Insufficient Data” —David Lunde
• “The Light of Nerves” —David Lunde
• “The Explanation” —David Lunde
• “Malgré la Nuit Seule et le Jour en Feu”; —David Lunde

Nonfiction

• Interview: Jeffrey Barnes —Michael Constantine McConnell
• Wordforms
  “Half-Alphabet Nursery Rhymes” —A. Ross Eckler
  “Charades” —Jeffrey Barnes

Other

• The Oneiromantic Mosaic of Harry Potemkin —Mark Teppo
• “The Ballad of Matelotage and Mutiny” —Hal Duncan
• “Do-It-Yourself Book Reviews” —Rose Fox

Part 2: “Spring”

Fiction

• “The Midnight Train, She’ll Take You There” — Hannah Wolf Bowen
• “Extreme” —Samantha Henderson
• “Apple Magick” —Paul Jessup
• “One Less” —Jason Erik Lundberg

Poetry

• “Sand” —Ryan Cornelius
• “Drawn Inward” —Ryan Cornelius
• “Syntagonism” —Ryan Cornelius
• “Chrysalis” —Ryan Cornelius
• "Five Million Years to Earth” —Bryan D. Dietrich
• "When Worlds Collide” —Bryan D. Dietrich

Nonfiction

• “Interview: Al Brilliant” —Darin C. Bradley
• “Linguistic Humor: A Bibliography” —Don L.F. Nilsen
• Experimental Wordforms
  “Letter-Perfect Verse” —Richard Lederer
  “The Magic Square Palindrome” —Michael Constantine McConnell
  “Shifty,” a puzzle —Will Shortz

Other

• The Oneiromantic Mosaic of Harry Potemkin —Mark Teppo

Part 3: “Summer”

Fiction

• “Of Moon Dust and Starlight” —Beth Bernobich
• “The Life and Times of Penguin” —Eugie Foster
• “God Bless” —Nancy Jane Moore
• “Oma Dortchen and the Pillar of Story” —David J. Schwartz
• Excerpt: Source of Gravity —E. Sedia

Poetry

• “Building a Skyline” —Philip Sueper
• “Thrown Stones” —Philip Sueper
• “Forensics” —Philip Sueper
• “The Return of Lazarus” —Philip Sueper
• “The Seven Devils of Central California” —Catherynne M. Valente
• “Rampion” —Catherynne M. Valente
• “The Immigrant” —Catherynne M. Valente

Nonfiction

• “Psychological Ghosts and Doppelgängers to 1945: A Bibliography” —Aaron Leis

Other

• The Oneiromantic Mosaic of Harry Potemkin —Mark Teppo
• “Animals” —Richard Lederer
• “Anna S. Oppenhagen-Petrescu” —anonymous
• “16 Pensamentos Para Pregar na Porta da Geladeira” —Haj Ross

(Cover art by Melanie Little Gomez)

Part 4: “Fall”

Fiction

• “Clover” —Forrest Aguirre
• “Gunning for the Buddha” —Michael Jasper
• “Notes on the Necromantic Symphony” —Yoon Ha Lee
• “The Miraculous Nature of Everything” —Timothy S. Miller
• “Memree” —Jenn Reese

Poetry

• “Portrait of High Window with CEO and Booze” —Mark Cox
• “Blood Atonement” —Lise Goett
• “Swimming With Eels” —Lise Goett
• “Thanatos” —Lise Goett
• “Space Age” —Lise Goett

Other

• The Oneiromantic Mosaic of Harry Potemkin —Mark Teppo
• Experimental Wordforms
  “Verbs (Enron) to Letter Order (Abstemious)” —Richard Ledere

VOLUME 2

Issue 5, “Dietrologia”

Fiction

• “Identified: Musings (Attributed to Mardun, T.)” —Toiya Kristen Finley
• “Mr. Waterbones and His Wife” —Paul Jessup
• “The Writing’s on the Wall” —Matthew Kressel
• “A Self Help Guide for the Last Few Zero Years” —Douglas Lain
• “Praise and Criticism for M. Rekling’s The Bottle” —Alex Dally MacFarlane
• From The Oneiromantic Mosaic of Harry Potemkin —Mark Teppo
• “Between the Lines” —Jonathan Wood

Poetry

• “Narrowing Silhouettes” —Nanette Rayman Rivera
• “The Birth of Bluebeard” —JoSelle Vanderhooft
• “Bluebeard Searches for a Bride” —JoSelle Vanderhooft
• “Bluebeard’s Honeymoon” —JoSelle Vanderhooft

Nonfiction

• Interview: Duncan McLean —Krystal Hart

Issue 6, “Obscura”

Fiction

• “Shadows in My Mind” —S.C. Bryce
• “All Roads Are One” —Deena Fisher
• “Three Views of the Maiden in Peril” —Catherine Lundoff
• “Running the Road” —Nancy Jane Moore
• “She Has a Nice Personality” —E.C. Myers
• “Flowertongue” —Jessica Reisman

Poetry

• “Cold Covers” —Adrienne J. Odasso
• “Four Last Things” —Adrienne J. Odasso
• “Bog” —Kristine Ong Muslim
• “Stealing Bodies” —Kristine Ong Muslim

Nonfiction

• “Archetypal Metafiction” —Toiya Kristen Finley

Issue 7, “Echoes”

Fiction

• “An Apotheosis” — Forrest Aguirre
• “Annabel on the Eighteenth Floor” —C.L. Brussel
• “Stuck” —Jason Erik Lundberg
• “Rhapsody in Transverse Vibration” —Marc Schuster
• “The Red Door” —Erik Secker
• “Nadya” —Zdravka Evtimova

Poetry

• “W.W.F.” —Bryan D. Dietrich
• “W.W.J.D.” —Bryan D. Dietrich
• “Several Stories, Single Bound” —Bryan D. Dietrich
• “Peniel” —Michael Neal Morris

Issue 8, “Animalia”

Fiction

• “Pigment” —Paul Abbamondi
• “Mystic Tryst” — Daniel Braum
• “Fly” —Becca De La Rosa
• “Chimaera Constant” —Rob Hunter
• “The Baby Is Safe” —Marc Lowe
• “The Fisherman’s Child” —Cat Rambo

Novella

• “Faith, Hidden in the Hands of the Blind” —Mark Teppo

Poetry

• “My Suicide” —Matt Mullins
• “A Comic History of Bullets” —John Poch
• “To Recover from Lightning, Etc.” —John Poch

Experimental Wordforms

• “Geographical Curiosities” —A. Ross Eckler

VOLUME 3

Issue 9

Fiction

• “Skipping Stones” —Neil Ayres & E. Sedia
• “Death’s Little Sister” —Mariev Finnegan
• “Dirt Roads and Ka” —Berrien C. Henderson
• “Lady Glory and the Knave of Spades” —Nicole Kornher-Stace
• “Hard Little Shadows in the Early Morning Spotlight” —James Owens
• “Keep Calm and Carillon” —Genevieve Valentine
• “Problems of the Solid State” —Alvaro Zinos-Amaro

Poetry

• “Off the Map” —Ann Walters
• “Homage to AI” —F. J. Bergmann
• “Performance” —F. J. Bergmann
• “How to Not Be Here When The Universe Dies” —Marion Boyer

Issue 10

Fiction

• “Wasp Light” —Bruce Boston & Lee Ballentine
• “Four Last Things: A Disruption of Boschtown” —Toiya Kristen Finley
• “The Imogen Effect” —Jason Fischer
• “Seven Men (In Various State of Fabrication” —Jason Heller
• “A Nameless Deed” —S. J. Hirons
• “All the Worlds” —Matthew Kressel

Poetry

• “No Signal” —Erin Hoffman
• “Bag Man” —Erin Hoffman
• “Maria Antonia Von Hapsburg Recalls the Day She Lost Her Name” —Miranda Gaw
• “Marie Antoinette Performs la Toilette du Matin” —Miranda Gaw
• “The Affair of the Necklace” —Miranda Gaw

Experimental Wordforms

• “Argument with a Mirror” —Jeffrey Barnes

Issue 11

Fiction

• “In a Windless Calm” —Paul Abbamondi
• “The Non-Epistemological Universe of Emmaeus Holt” —Forrest Aguirre
• “Lia’s Paperhouse” —Autumn Canter
• “Lotophagi” —Edward Morris
• “Wooden Apologies” —Mari Ness
• “Hollow Woman” —Angie Smibert

Poetry

• “The Lemmings” —Lee Stern
• “Mimes at Dinner” —Amy Riddle
• “My Mannequin” —William Doreski
• “Convention” —Mark DeCarteret

Experimental Wordforms

• “Nine Views of Mount Fuji” —Mike Keith

Issue 12

Fiction

• “Sublimity in Turquoise Blue” —Rae Bryant
• “A Backwards Look” —Becca De La Rosa
• “The House at the End of the World” —Paul Jessup
• “The Committee” —Eden Robins
• “Shantih, Shantih, Shantih” —S. Boyd Taylor
• “Ephemera” —Jonathan Wood

Poetry

• “In the Event John Ashbery Walks into this All-You-Can-Eat-Buffet” —Jared Walls
• “Search for Bride Suspended” —Elizabeth Kerlikowske
• “in the monastery of electromagnetic love” —Lynn Pattison
• “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Vulture” —Bruce Boston

Experimental Wordforms

“Telling Stories in the Wake of Postmodernism” —Jonathan Wood

Volume 4

Issue 13

Fiction

• “Everybody Has a Twin Except for Me”—Toiya Kristen Finley
• “Sinfonia 22”—Forrest Aguirre
• “Of Homes Gone”—Jason Heller
• “Time is a Twisting Snake”—Richard Bowes

Poetry

• “Worlds in Collision”—Bryan D. Dietrich
• “Perennial Movement”—Glenn Shaheen
• “Whispering Into The Ear Of The Statue Of Your Choice What You Really Think About Things Is Almost Like Talking To Someone” —John Gallaher
• “Orbital”—A.J. Odasso

Issue 14

Fiction

• “All Her Buzzing Eyes”—Willow Fagan
• “Dance Our Shoes to Pieces”—Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam
• “Every Hand a Winner”—Romie Stott
• “The Days of Talking Mountains”—Paul Jessup

Poetry

• “Cremona”—Bruce Bond
• “Leaving the Garden”—Joelle Jameson
• “Brilliant Cannibal”—Robert Lunday
• “Earthly Paradise”—Brian Glaser

Issue 15

Fiction

• “Three Small Slices of Pumpkin Pie”—Wendy N. Wagner
• “All My Pretty Chickens”—Josh Rountree
• “And a Pinch of Salt”—Hal Duncan
• “Wunderkammern Castle”—Krista Hoeppner Leahy

Poetry

• “Eating Persimmons”—Michael Kellichner
• “Pantoum with Reverb”—Jen Schalliol
• “Imperative”—F.J. Bergmann
• “All the Saints are Looking Through Your Trash”—Teresa Milbrodt

Issue 16

Fiction

• “Rudolph the Red Nosed Squirrel or Miracle on 82nd Street: Fiction/Quotation/Exposition”—Marleen S. Barr
• “Winter into Summer”—Philip Schweitzer
• “The Thirteen Tuesdays of Saint Anthony”—Julie C. Day
• “The Warehouse of Dead Daughters”—Nick Mamatas

Poetry

• “Flying Saucer, This Exit”—Matthew Gavin Frank
• “Milk and Roses”—Abigail Welhouse