Since 2009, HILOBROW has published and serialized scores of stories and novels, plus poetry, comics, a song cycle, and an opera — both original and rediscovered. Here’s a complete guide.
ORIGINAL FICTION: NOVELS, NOVELLAS, and OPERAS | STORIES, POEMS, and STORY-POEMS | MATTHEW BATTLES’ SCIENCE FICTION | JAMES PARKER’S “KALEVALA” BASTARDIZATION | CONTEST-WINNING STORIES | “EPIC WINS” STORIES | “TEN DAYS” STORIES | FICTION BY ARTISTS-IN-RESIDENCE.
COMICS
REDISCOVERED FICTION: PROTO-SF NOVELS and PLAYS | PROTO-SF EXCERPTS & TRANSLATIONS | PROTO-SF STORIES | PROTO-SF POETRY.
MORE FICTION: ADVENTURE NOVELS | ADVENTURE STORIES | SIGNIFICANT OBJECTS STORIES.
2010–11: James Parker’s Cocky the Fox. Illustrated by Kristin Parker. PS: Also see three additional pieces, pub. 2011, collectively titled “Cockarillion”
2011: Karinne Keithley Syers’ Linda, Linda, Linda (a novella and song cycle). Illustrated by Rascal Jace Smith.
2013: Robert Waldron’s The School on the Fens
2016: John Holbo’s On Beyond Zarathustra (excerpt). Illustrated by John Holbo. | Stephanie Burt’s KEEPERS: 10 poems about everyday objects and pop-cultural phenomena.
2019: Bradley Peterson’s Henry Hudson and the Nethermen (excerpt). Illustrated by Bradley Peterson.
2023: Charlie Mitchell’s HAIKAI series. Haikai are informal, spontaneous collections of linked haiku-like poems.
2025–2026: James Parker’s Cocky: The Opera. Illustrated by Kristin Parker.
2009: Josh Glenn’s “Zarathustra vs. Swamp Thing” (2009) | John Holbo’s “Sugarplum Squeampunk” (2009, illustrated by John Holbo)
PS: From 2009–2014, Josh Glenn published an annual “Rondel for HiLo Heroes.”
2010: Josh Glenn’s “The Lawless One” (2010) | Josh Glenn’s “City on a Spill” (2010) | Peggy Nelson’s “Mood Indigo” (2010) | Peggy Nelson’s “Mercerism” | Peggy Nelson’s “Top Kill Fail” (2010) | Annalee Newitz’s “The Great Oxygen Race” (2010)
2012: Greg Rowland’s My First Critical Theory ABC (2012). Illustrated by Joe Alterio.
2013: Charlie Mitchell’s “A Fantasy Land” (2013, illustrated by Joe Alterio) | Matthew Sharpe’s “The Banker and the Poet” (2013)
2014: Douglas Wolk’s LIMERICKANIA series | Rob Walker’s “One Year of Descriptive Phrases from New York Times Obituary Headlines: 2013”
2016: James Parker’s THE BOURNE VARIATIONS. A cycle of poems inspired by scenes from the Jason Bourne movie franchise.
2017: Flourish Klink’s “Conference Comms” (2017) | Josh Glenn and Benjamen Walker’s “The Twentieth Day of January” (2017) | Franklin Bruno’s ADEQUATED: 27 nine-line poems.
2019: Charlie Mitchell’s “Sentinels” (2019, illustrated by Mister Reusch)
2020: Josh Glenn’s VIRUS VIGILANTES series.
2022: Josh Glenn’s POPSTAR SAMISZDAT series | Stephanie Burt’s poetry collection We Are Mermaids (excerpt)
Most of these stories would be published in Matthew Battles’ 2012 collection The Sovereignties of Invention (Red Lemonade).
2009: “I After the Cloudy Doubly Beautifully” (2009; the first piece of original fiction published at HILOBROW) | “The Manuscript of Belz” (2009) | “Survivor: The Island of Dr. Moreau” (2009) | “The Sovereignties of Invention” (2009) | “The Dogs in the Trees” (2009)
2010: “For Provisional Description of Superficial Features” (2010) | “Billable Memories” (2010) | “The Gnomon” (2010) | “Children of the Volcano” (2010) | “A Simple Message” (2010) | “Time Capsules” (2010) | “Camera Lucida” (2010) | “Imago” (2010)
2011: “Gita Nova” (2011)
This series ran from 2016–2019.
INTRODUCTION: Laughter in the Womb of Time, or Why I Love the Kalevala | RUNE 1: “The Birth of Vainamoinen” | RUNE 2 (departure): “Vainamoinen in November” | RUNE 3 (1–278): “Wizard Battle” | RUNE 4 (1–56): “A Failed Seduction” | RUNE 4 (300–416): “Aino Ends It All” | RUNE 5 (45–139): “An Afternoon Upon the Water” | RUNE 5 (150–241): “The Blue Elk” | RUNE 5 (departure): “Smüt the Dog Praises His Seal Queen” | RUNE 6 (1–114): “Therapy Session” | RUNE 6 (115–130): “Joukahainen’s Mother Counsels Him Against Shooting the Wizard Vainamoinen” | RUNE 11 (1–138): “Introducing Kyllikki” | RUNE 17 (1–98): “The Dreaming Giant” | RUNE 23 (485–580): “The Bride’s Lament” | RUNE 30 (1–276): “Icebound” | RUNE 30 (120–188): “The Voyage of the Sea-Hare” (Part One) | RUNE 30 (185–188): “Losing It” | RUNE 30 (departure): “Across the Ice” | RUNE 30 (departure): “Song of the Guilty Viking” | RUNE 30 (departure): “The Witch’s Dance” | RUNE 31 (215–225): “The Babysitter” | RUNE 31 (223–300): “The Screaming Axe” | RUNE 33 (1–136): “The Cowherd” | RUNE 33 (73): “Song of the Blade: Kullervo” | RUNE 33 (reworked): “The Breaking of the Blade” | RUNE 33 (118–284): “The Cows Come Home” | RUNE 34 (1–82): “The Pipes of Kullervo” | RUNE 45 (259–312, departure): “The Wizard’s Secret”.
Contests organized by Josh Glenn and Matthew Battles, in collaboration with Patrick Cates
TROUBLED SUPERHUMAN: Charles Pappas’ “The Law” (2010, illustrated by Rick Pinchera) | CATASTROPHE: Timothy Raymond’s “Hem and the Flood” (2010) | TELEPATHY: Rachel Ellis Adams’ “Fatima, Can You Hear Me?” (2010) | OIL SPILL: A.E. Smith’s “Sound Thinking” (2010) | SPOOKY-KOOKY: Tucker Cummings’ “Well Marbled” (2011) | PULP HERO: TG Gibbon’s “The Firefly” (2012, illustrated by Rick Pinchera) | FANFICTION: Lyette Mercier’s “Sex and the Single Superhero” (2013, illustrated by Rick Pinchera)
Series edited by Matthew Battles.
Matthew Battles’ GRANDCHILD LIGHT (2011) | Stephanie Burt’s GENO (2011) | Josh Glenn’s THE ARGONAUTICA (2.815-834) (2011) | Flourish Klink’s THE ILIAD (1.408-415) (2011) | James Parker’s THE KALEVALA (3.1-278) (2011) | Chad Parmenter’s GOTHAMIAD (2011)
This series ran in early 2020 — during the COVID lockdown. Series edited by Peggy Nelson.
Vince Keenan’s YOU DO HAVE TO GO HOME, AND YOU CAN’T STAY HERE | Scotto Moore’s TEETH | Puzzlepurse: DAY THREE | Vijay Balakrishnan’s ESTHETIQUE DU BANAL | Jimmy Kipple Sound: DAY FIVE | Bennetts and Raff: THIS YOU? | Josh Glenn’s VALIDATION SESSION | Andrew Sempere’s D2020 | Tom Nealon’s DAY NINE | Marc Weidenbaum’s ZEFFIRELLI WAND SHOP | Peggy Nelson: DAY ELEVEN
Peggy Nelson oversaw HILOBROW’s Artist in Residence program.
CHRIS ROSSI: “Air” (2012) | “Low-Priority Hero” (2012) | “Verge” (2012)
VIJAY BALAKRISHNAN: “Josh” (2012) | “Manoj” (2012)
ALIX LAMBERT: “Light Hitting Emulsion” (2012) | “Found Poetry” (2012)
MIKE FLEISCH: “Another Corporate Death” (2012) | “Postcard Reclaimed” (2012)
2011: Adam McGovern’s Idoru Jones comic “the–urban_legend_of_idoru_jones” (drawn by Paolo Leandri) | Adam McGovern’s “Face Reality” (drawn by Frank Reynoso) | Joe Alterio’s CABLEGATE COMIX
2012: Adam McGovern’s Idoru Jones comic “boulevard–of–broken–code” (drawn by Paolo Leandri, serialized 2012) | Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer’s “The Song of Otto” (2012)
Proto-sf from the genre’s emergent Radium Age (c. 1900–1935).
During 2012–2013, the following novels were serialized at HILOBROW and reissued in paperback form by HiLoBooks.
Jack London’s The Scarlet Plague (serialized 2012) | Rudyard Kipling’s With the Night Mail (and “As Easy as A.B.C.”) (serialized 2012) | Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Poison Belt (serialized 2012) | H. Rider Haggard’s When the World Shook (serialized 2012) | Edward Shanks’ The People of the Ruins (serialized 2012) | William Hope Hodgson’s The Night Land (serialized 2012) | J.D. Beresford’s Goslings (serialized 2012–2013) | E.V. Odle’s The Clockwork Man (serialized 2013) | Cicely Hamilton’s Theodore Savage (serialized 2013) | Muriel Jaeger’s The Man With Six Senses (serialized 2013; no longer available via HILOBROW)
Several of the novels listed above would be reissued by the MIT Press’ RADIUM AGE series, edited by Josh Glenn.
Other proto-sf novels and plays we’ve serialized include…
2013: Philip Francis Nowlan’s Armageddon 2419 A.D. | Homer Eon Flint’s The Devolutionist| Edgar Rice Burroughs’ The Moon Men | Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland
2014: Eimar O’Duffy’s King Goshawk and the Birds
2015: Arthur Conan Doyle’s novella When the World Screamed
2018: Jack London’s The Iron Heel
2021: A. Merritt’s The Moon Pool
2022: J.D. Beresford’s The Hampdenshire Wonder
2023: Perley Poore Sheehan and Robt. H. Davis’ “Blood and Iron”
2024: Irene Clyde’s Beatrice the Sixteenth | Van Tassel Sutphen’s The Doomsman | Charlotte Haldane’s Man’s World | Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Ford’s The Inheritors
2025: Marita Bonner’s The Purple Flower
A few of the novels listed above have been (or will be) reissued by the MIT Press’ RADIUM AGE series, edited by Josh Glenn.
Proto-sf from the genre’s emergent Radium Age (c. 1900–1935).
2024: Raymond Roussel’s “The Demoiselle” (excerpted from Locus Solus, trans. Josh Glenn)
2025: Noëlle Roger’s The New Adam (excerpt, trans. Josh Glenn) | George S. Schuyler’s Black No More (excerpt) | Lillian B. Jones’ Five Generations Hence (excerpt) | Robert Gilbert Wells’ Anthropology Applied to the American White Man and Negro (excerpt) | Alfred Jarry’s The Supermale (excerpt, trans. Josh Glenn) | Fernande Blaze de Bury’s The Storm of London (excerpt)
A few of the stories listed above would appear in Before Superman: Superhumans of the Radium Age, edited and introduced by Josh Glenn (MIT Press, 2025). Some will also appear in the forthcoming Mothership Rising: Afrofuturism from the Radium Age, introduced by Nisi Shawl, edited and afterword by Lisa Yaszek (MIT Press, forthcoming).
Proto-sf from the genre’s emergent Radium Age (c. 1900–1935).
2012: Jack London’s “The Red One”
2013: W.E.B. Du Bois’ “The Comet” | Sax Rohmer’s “The Zayat Kiss”
2015: John Buchan’s “No Man’s Land” | E.M. Forster’s “The Machine Stops”
Some of the stories listed above would appear in Voices from the Radium Age, edited and introduced by Josh Glenn (MIT Press, 2022).
2020: John W. Campbell’s “The Last Evolution”
2021: Francis Stevens’ “Friend Island” | George C. Wallis’ “The Last Days of Earth” | Frank L. Pollock’s “Finis” | E. Nesbit’s “The Third Drug” | George Allan England’s “The Thing from — ‘Outside'” | Booth Tarkington’s “The Veiled Feminists of Atlantis”
2022: H.G. Wells’ “The Land Ironclads” | Valery Bryusov’s “The Republic of the Southern Cross” | Algernon Blackwood’s “A Victim of Higher Space” | A. Merritt’s “The People of the Pit” | Julian Huxley’s “The Tissue-Culture King” | Clare Winger Harris’ “A Runaway World”
Several of the stories listed above would appear in More Voices from the Radium Age, edited and introduced by Josh Glenn (MIT Press, 2023).
2023: Francis Stevens’ “Thomas Dunbar” | George Gurdjieff’s “Beelzebub’s Tales” | Robert W. Chambers’ “The Harbor-Master” | Mary E. Wilkins Freeman’s “The Hall Bedroom” | Clare Winger Harris’ “The Fifth Dimension” | Leslie Stone’s “When the Sun Went Out” | Lilith Lorraine’s “The Brain of the Planet” | J. Schlossel’s “Invaders from Outside” | John Buchan’s “Space” | J.D. Beresford’s “A Negligible Experiment”
2024: May Sinclair’s “Where Their Fire is Not Quenched” | Harriet Prescott Spofford’s “The Ray of Displacement” | Rudyard Kipling’s “Unprofessional” | E. and H. Heron’s “The Story of the Grey House”
2025: Naomi Mitchison’s “The Goat: Cardiff, A.D. 1935” | Frank L. Pollock’s “The Skyscraper in B Flat” | Christopher Blayre’s “Aalila” | Algernon Blackwood’s “Playing Catch” | W.E.B. Du Bois’ “Princess Steel” (excerpt) | Leslie F. Stone’s “The Fall of Mercury” | Leopoldo Lugones’ “Yzur” | more to come
Proto-sf-adjacent poetry published during the genre’s emergent Radium Age (c. 1900–1935). Research and selection (2022–ongoing), plus eccentric/evolving categorization effort (2025–ongoing), by HILOBROW’s Josh Glenn. A new installment in this series will appear every five days through — based on our ongoing discoveries, at this point — 2028.
Far too many to list here. Check out this thematic index.
2014: Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Lost Prince | John Buchan’s Huntingtower | Morley Roberts’ The Fugitives | Helen MacInnes’ The Unconquerable | William Haggard’s The High Wire
2015: Hammond Innes’ Air Bridge | James Branch Cabell’s Jurgen
2016: Victor Bridges’ A Rogue By Compulsion
2018: H. De Vere Stacpoole’s The Man Who Lost Himself
2019: P.G. Wodehouse’s Leave It to Psmith
2022: Max Brand’s The Untamed
2015: John Russell’s “The Fourth Man”
2020: Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game” | Houdini and Lovecraft’s “Imprisoned with the Pharaohs” | Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Sussex Vampire”
2023: Francis Stevens’ “Behind the Curtain” | Francis Stevens’ “Unseen–Unfeared”
The following short works of fiction were among those commissioned for Josh Glenn and Rob Walker’s 2009–2010 anthropological-literary experiment SIGNIFICANT OBJECTS. They were cross-posted to HILOBROW between 2012 and 2025.
Matthew Battles on CANDYLAND | Patrick Cates on MEAT TENDERIZER | Matthew De Abaitua on PIGGY BANK | Mark Frauenfelder on JUG | Jason Grote on DOME DOLL | Mimi Lipson on HALSTON MUG | Annie Nocenti on JFK BUST | Gary Panter on DIVE MASK | James Parker on KITTY SAUCER | Greg Rowland on MUSHROOM SHAKER | Luc Sante on FLANNEL BALL | Douglas Wolk on PORTABLE HAIR DRYER | Annalee Newitz on COCONUT CUP | Cintra Wilson on TROPHY | Jen Collins on UNCOLA GLASS | Joanne McNeil on GRAIN THING | Jonathan Lethem on MISSOURI SHOTGLASS | Sarah Weinman on UNICORN FIGURINE | Shelley Jackson on CRUMB SWEEPER | Barbara Bogaev on JUST MARRIED CUP | Dan Reines on FRIDAY MUG | Jenny Offill on MINIATURE TURKEY DINNER | Katie Hennessey on WOODEN FIGURINE | James Hannaham on NAPKIN RING | Bruce Sterling on METAL BOOT | Colson Whitehead on WOODEN MALLET | Jenny Davidson on TOY HOT DOG | Kate Bernheimer on PINK HORSE | Lydia Millet on CHILI CAT | Matthew Sharpe on MULE FIGURINE | Meg Cabot on WOODEN ANIMAL | Sara Ryan on POPSICLE STICK CONSTRUCTION | Ed Park on COW VASE | Jessica Helfand on ELVIS CHOCOLATE TIN | Sheila Heti on CAPE COD SHOE | William Gibson on “HAWK” ASHTRAY | Ben Greenman on SMILING MUG | Dean Haspiel on KENTUCKY DISH | Doug Dorst on RUSSIAN FIGURE | Kurt Andersen on SANTA NUTCRACKER | Matt Brown on CRUMPTER | Chris Adrian on KANGAMOUSE | Nicholson Baker on MEAT THERMOMETER| Rachel Axler on FORTUNE TELLING DEVICE | Sean Howe on PABST BOTTLE OPENER | Susannah Breslin on NECKING TEAM BUTTON | Tim Carvell on ROUND BOX | Susanna Daniel on SHARK AND SEAL PENS | Curtis Sittenfeld on SPOTTED DOGS FIGURINE | Matthew Klam on DUCK VASE | Merrill Markoe on FLIP-FLOP FRAME | Blake Butler on UTAH SNOW GLOBE | Neil LaBute on RABBIT CANDLE | Rob Agredo on LIGHTER SHAPED LIKE SMALL POOL BALL | Rosecrans Baldwin on PRAYING HANDS | Rob Baedeker on FOPPISH FIGURINE | Scarlett Thomas on BIRTHDAY CANDLES | Wayne Koestenbaum on DUCK NUTCRACKER | Jeff Turrentine on “WOMEN & INFANTS” GLASS | Joe Lyons on LETTERS AND NUMBERS PLATE | Adam Davies on TROLL NUTCRACKER | Myla Goldberg on HAND-HELD BUBBLE BLOWER | Dan Chaon on COOKING FORK | Jenny Hayes on DOLPHIN BOX | Kevin Brockmeier on ROPE/WOOD MONKEY | Miranda Mellis on BRASS APPLE | Todd Pruzan on GOLF BALL BANK | Toni Schlesinger on 4-TILE | Stacey Levine on BAR MITZVAH BOOKENDS | Margot Livesey on CIGARETTE CASE | Joe Wenderoth on BALANCING BIRD THING | Charles Baxter on CERAMIC SHELL | Thomas Bartlett on DEVICE | Claire Zulkey on FLINTSTONE PEZ | Betsey Swardlick on DILBERT | Sung J. Woo on BIRD FIGURINE | Tom McNeely on CAT MUG | J. Robert Lennon on CHOIRBOY FIGURINE | Matthew J. Wells on BBQ SAUCE JAR | Maud Newton on CRACKER BARREL ORNAMENT | Stewart O’Nan on DUCK TRAY | Meghan O’Rourke on FELT MOUSE | Lauren Mechling on BLUE VASE | Mark Sarvas on AMACO YOYO | Andrew Ervin on IDOL | Rachel Berger on #1 MOM HOOKS | Nomi Kane on ALIEN TOY | Nick Asbury on CLOWN | Lucinda Rosenfeld on CREAMER COW | Ben Katchor on MAINE STATUTES DISH | Mark Doty on FISH SPOONS | Sarah Rainone on IRELAND COW PLATE | Stephen Elliott on HAWAIIAN UTENSILS | Ben Ehrenreich on JAR OF MARBLES | Glen David Gold on KNEELING MAN FIGURINE | Lizzie Skurnick on PEN STAND | R.K. Scher on INDIAN MAIDEN | Christopher Sorrentino on MR. PICKWICK COAT HOOK | David Shields’ MILITARY FIGURE | Josh Kramer’s FAKE BANANA | Laura Lippman’s MOTEL ROOM KEY | Jim Hanas’ WIRE BASKET | Stephanie Reents’ OCEAN SCENE GLOBE | Tom Vanderbilt on MARINES LOGO MUG | Adam Harrison Levy on STAR OF DAVID PLATE | Aimee Bender on SEAHORSE LIGHTER | Bruce Holland Rogers on UMBRELLA TRINKET | Bruno Maddox on THAI HOOKS | Jonathan Goldstein on TOY TOASTER | Katharine Weber on SMALL STAPLER | Kathryn Borel Jr. on SWISS MEDAL | Michael Atkinson on SEA CAPTAIN PIPE REST | Naomi Novik on WINDSURFING TROPHY/STATUE | Nathaniel Rich on RHINO FIGURINE | Rebecca Wolff on TIN ARK | Sari Wilson on PENGUIN CREAMER | Sloane Crosley on RAINBOW SAND ANIMAL | Teddy Blanks on PORCELAIN SCOOTER | Terese Svoboda on HEART-SHAPED CANDLE | Todd Levin on ZIGGY HEART.