2026 Ditmar Award for Best Collected Work (nominee)
2025 Aurealis Award for Best Collection (nominee)
‘A f**king beauty of a book, every story brilliant.’ —Kaaron Warren, award-winning author of The Underhistory
The beach where his teenage sister disappeared /
Time and dream melt in the mouth of deep weird—
An open mic night bears witness to a fury /
A life-changing performance before a dread jury—
A truck stop photo by a touring punk bassist /
A chase across the country and her most personal places—
Seven friends mourn a beloved queer icon /
A final bequest unleashes the deepest dark of an eidolon…
Songs of shadow, words of woe!
A lonely film student attends a free indie screening /
Will this obscure flick bring the end he’s dreaming?
—Two wilful women climb a hill to watch a storm /
And learn their town’s history of racism and scorn—
Grotesque gangsters in a burlesque club dive /
Trouble erupts when a new player arrives—
Invited to experience true terror, not a relic /
A horror film fan runs through a theatre derelict…
Songs of shadow, words of woe!
Thirteen morbidly melodic deep cuts from Matthew R. Davis, including the Australasian
Shadows Award-winning ‘Steadfast Shadowsong’ and the Shirley Jackson Award-nominated
novelette ‘Heritage Hill.’
‘Elegant, frightening, and so delightfully strange, this isn’t just a collection—it’s a cabal.’ —Aaron Dries, author of Dirty Heads and A Place for Sinners
‘A powerhouse collection filled with rock and roll, the uncanny, the unsettling and the all-out terrifying. A few stories had me looking over my shoulder to see what was lurking in the dark corners of my room.’ —Jo Kaplan, Shirley Jackson Award-nominated author of When the Night Bells Ring
Genre: Horror
The beach where his teenage sister disappeared /
Time and dream melt in the mouth of deep weird—
An open mic night bears witness to a fury /
A life-changing performance before a dread jury—
A truck stop photo by a touring punk bassist /
A chase across the country and her most personal places—
Seven friends mourn a beloved queer icon /
A final bequest unleashes the deepest dark of an eidolon…
Songs of shadow, words of woe!
A lonely film student attends a free indie screening /
Will this obscure flick bring the end he’s dreaming?
—Two wilful women climb a hill to watch a storm /
And learn their town’s history of racism and scorn—
Grotesque gangsters in a burlesque club dive /
Trouble erupts when a new player arrives—
Invited to experience true terror, not a relic /
A horror film fan runs through a theatre derelict…
Songs of shadow, words of woe!
Thirteen morbidly melodic deep cuts from Matthew R. Davis, including the Australasian
Shadows Award-winning ‘Steadfast Shadowsong’ and the Shirley Jackson Award-nominated
novelette ‘Heritage Hill.’
‘Elegant, frightening, and so delightfully strange, this isn’t just a collection—it’s a cabal.’ —Aaron Dries, author of Dirty Heads and A Place for Sinners
‘A powerhouse collection filled with rock and roll, the uncanny, the unsettling and the all-out terrifying. A few stories had me looking over my shoulder to see what was lurking in the dark corners of my room.’ —Jo Kaplan, Shirley Jackson Award-nominated author of When the Night Bells Ring
Genre: Horror
Used availability for Matthew R Davis's Songs of Shadow, Words of Woe