Bizarro Fiction

What is Bizarro fiction? Well, there are two ways to explain it: the long way and the short way.

The Short Answer

You ever wake up from a dream that made perfect sense at the time; but now that you're awake, you're left thinking, "What! Was! That!?" Bizarro Fiction is like that.

The Long Answer

Bizarro Fiction is a contemporary literary genre known for high weirdness. As the print media equivalent of the cult film, bizarro fiction strives to be not only strange but also thought-provoking and fun to read. Despite reveling in its weird, often surreal, elements, bizarro fiction has more in common with speculative fiction (such as science fiction, fantasy, and horror) than the avant-garde literary movements (such as Dadaism or Surrealism) with which it is often associated. Most Bizarro fiction takes place in a dreamlike alternate reality where the unexpected, unpredictable, unfathomable, or plain horrifying is commonplace.

Although the genre-denying Bizarro authors are often underground outsiders in the literary world, they have gained respect in the publishing world, garnering praise from a number of major authors.

Traits of Bizarro Fiction:

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.

Compare Crack Fic.

Here's this article that lists five common components of the genre, and this interview on Rose O'keefe about what bizarro is and isn't, and now a Booked Podcast episode!

Tropes often found in Bizarro fiction

• Body Horror
• Gorn
• A Good Name for a Rock Band: Most All of the titles.
• It Got Worse
• It Makes Sense in Context: For certain values of "context", and even then, not always.
• Mind Screw
• Nausea Fuel
• Nightmare Fuel
• Refuge in Audacity
• Refuge in Vulgarity
• Rule 34
• Squick
• Surreal Horror
• True Art Is Incomprehensible
• Word Salad Title
• X Meets Y: Bizarro fiction has been described as variations on this:
  • Franz Kafka meets John Waters
  • Takashi Miike meets William S. Burroughs

Bizarro Publishers

• Afterbirth Books
• Burning Bulb Publishing
• Deadite Press
• Eraserhead Press
• Grindhouse Press
• Lazy Fascist Press
• Library of Bizarro Horror Press
• Raw Dog Screaming Press
• Swallowdown Press
• Legume Man Books

Books and Collections of Bizarro Fiction

• 10 A BOOT STOMPING 20 A HUMAN FACE 30 GOTO 10
• 13 Thorns
• Abortion Arcade
• Adolf In Wonderland
• All Encompassing Trip
• And Your Point Is?
• Angel Dust Apocalypse
• Antipaladin Blues
• Apeshit
• Armadillo Fists
• The Ass Goblins of Auschwitz
• The Baby Jesus Butt Plug
• The Ballad Of A Slow Poisoner
• Better Ways Of Being Dead
• The Bizarro Starter Kit (Blue)
• The Bizarro Starter Kit (Orange)
• The Bizarro Starter Kit (Purple)
• Black Hole Blues
• Boneyard Babies
• The Brothers Crunk
• The Cannibals Of Candyland
• Chemical Gardens
• Cocoon Of Terror
• CPR For Dummies
• Crab Town
• The Crud Masters
• Cybernetrix
• Dead Bitch Army
  • Necro Sex Machine
• Deity the Almighty's Adventures on Earth and Beyond
• Discouraging At Best
• Dr. Identity
• The Egg Man
• The Egg Said Nothing
• The Emerald Burrito Of Oz
• Extinction Journals
• The Faggiest Vampire
• Fantastic Orgy
• Fishy-Fleshed
• Fistful Of Feet
• The Flappy Parts
• Foop!
• Fugue XXIX
• Gigantic Death Worm
• Grape City
• The Greatest Fucking Moment in Sports
• The Haunted Vagina
• The Hearing Trumpet
• HELP! A Bear is Eating Me!
• House Of Houses
• It Came From Below the Belt
• Jack and Mr. Grin
• Jesus Freaks
• Jimmy Plush, Teddy Bear Detective
• The Kafka Effekt
• Kafka's Uncle and Other Strange Tales
• Karaoke Death Squad
• The Kissing Bug
• Laredo
• Last Burn In Hell
• Lemur
• Lepers And Mannequins
• Lick Your Neighbor
• MachoPoni
• Marabou Stork Nightmares
• Meat Puppet Cabaret
• The Menstruating Mall
• The Million-Year Centipede
• The Morbidly Obese Ninja
• Misadventures In A Thumbnail Universe
• Monster Cocks
• Mother Puncher
• Mr. Blankety Blank
• Muscle Memory
• My Landlady the Lebotomist
• Naked Lunch
• Not Quite One of the Boys
• The Obese
• Ocean Of Lard
• The Overwhelming Urge
• Party Wolves In My Skull
• iecemeal June
• Placenta Of Love
• Pocket Full Of Loose Razorblades
• Pseudo City
• Punk Land
• Rampaging Fuckers of Everything on the Crazy Shitting Planet of the Vomit Atmosphere
• Razor Wire Pubic Hair
• Rico Slade Will Fucking Kill You
• Santa Steps Up
  • Santa Claus Conquers The Homophobes
• Satan Burger
• Sausagey Santa
• Screams From A Dying World
• Sea Of The Patchwork Cats
• Sex and Death in Television Town
• Shall We Gather at the Garden?
• Shark Hunting In Paradise Garden
• Shatnerquake
• Sick: An Anthology of Illness
• Siren Promised
• Sky Tongues
• Slub Glub In The Weird World Of The Weeping Willows
• Some Things Are Better Left Unplugged
• Spider Pie
• Squid Pulp Blues
• Starfish Girl
  • Clockwork Girl
• The Steel Breakfast Era
• Stranger On The Loose
• The Subject Steve
• Suicide Girls In The Afterlife
• Super Cell Anemia
• Super Fetus
• Tales From The Vinegar Wasteland
• Tangerinephant
• Teeth And Tongue Landscape
• Tempting Disaster
• Text: Ur - the New Book of Masks
• Trashland A Go-Go
• The Troublesome Amputee
• The Tomato Soup Chronicles
• The Unauthorized Woman
• A Town Called Suckhole
• Ultra Fuckers
• Vacation
• Vulgarity for the Masses
• Wall Of Kiss
• War Slut
• Warrior Wolf Women of the Wasteland
  • Barbarian Beast Bitches Of The Badlands
  • Pippi Of The Apocalypse
• Washermouth
• Zerostrata