Jon Padgett is a professional–though lapsed–ventriloquist who lives in New Orleans. He is the Editor-In-Chief of Grimscribe Press, which publishes Vastarien: A Literary Journal, a source of critical study and creative response to the work of Thomas Ligotti. Padgett’s first short story collection, The Secret of Ventriloquism, was named the Best Fiction Book of the Year by Rue Morgue Magazine.
Padgett’s voice has also become synonymous with the works of Thomas Ligotti. Padgett has lent his voice to numerous Thomas Ligotti works, including the recently released Penguin Random House audio version of Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe and various Cadabra Record releases, “The Bungalow House,” “The Red Tower,” “The Small People,” “Gas Station Carnivals,” “The Clown Puppet,” “Pictures of Apocalypse,” and “Mrs. Rinaldi’s Angel.” In addition to his work as a Ligotti narrator, Padgett has also narrated two Cadabra Records releases of his own work, “20 Simple Steps to Ventriloquism” and “Origami Dreams.” With his ability to channel Ligotti’s prose and poetry via the spoken word, Padgett is a singular figure in the world of weird storytelling.
Selected as the Best Fiction Book of the Year by Rue Morgue Magazine.
“Jon Padgett’s The Secret of Ventriloquism is a horror revelation. The interconnected short stories are ghastly, clever, dryly witty, but also genuinely and bone-rattlingly creepy and disturbing. Sure, going in, I was already afraid of ventriloquist dummies, but now I’m deathly afraid of Jon Padgett.” –Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and Disappearance at Devil’s Rock.
“The Secret of Ventriloquism is horror with a capital H. Some of Padgett’s lines raised the hair on my neck. The stories radiate darkness… In a year of exceptional weird fiction, this is a mattock-handle-wrapped-in-barbed-wire heavy hitter.” –Laird Barron, author of Swift to Chase
“Padgett proves with his stunning debut collection to be a worthy successor to Thomas Ligotti. There’s no gristle, no bone, no dilly-dallying here: only pure meat whose terrors seamlessly grow into the metaphysical. This volume is jam-packed with the stuff that nightmares are made of.” –Dejan Ognjanovic, Rue Morgue Magazine
“…Greater Ventriloquism is the fictional philosophy cutting through all of the stories in this collection, giving them a much appreciated spine of intent and eerie energy. When we understand that we are no better than dummies–when we see the strings that move us and hear the voice that animates us–we become the uncanny object, as opposed to the dummy. Our own embodiment thus becomes a vessel for great horrors.”
“The Secret of Ventriloquism is an organic mass, a living nervous system. It is also a being that finds its existence in a plane of nightmares and dreams… It is in a way ironic, but completely unexpected, that the author discovered a method to breathe life into pages the same way a ventriloquist breathes life into a doll. The systems within a body grants mobility, movement, sentience, speech, emotion, etc. The ventriloquist bestows all these gifts upon their dummy. Padgett breathes these vitalities into his collection. Padgett is not the heir to Ligotti’s legacy… He is the firstborn of his own weird dynasty.” —Charles P. Dunphey, Gehenna & Hinnom Books
“…for those who enjoy fiction of a weird nature with a capital ‘w’ The Secret of Ventriloquism should not be missed.” —Kev Harrison, This Is Horror
“There’s quite enough variety of tone, setting, and focus here to surprise and disconcert any reader, and leave preconceived expectations flopping and gasping in the cold black mud of Padgett’s imagination…Padgett is a chilling master in his own right.” —Paul StJohn Mackintosh, Associate Editor of Teleread
“Jon Padgett… satisfied ALL of my wants and needs as a reader of dark and weird fiction. These stories… are as utterly satisfying as short fiction can be.” —Charlene Cocrane, Horror After Dark
“This collection is the work of an extremely talented and intelligent writer… the constant change[s] in form give the impression that the book is evolving as you go along, especially [given] the ever-increasing number of references to previous stories… It’s like the creation of a hive-mind.” —Kayleigh Marie Edwards, Ginger Nuts of Horror
“Jon Padgett’s The Secret of Ventriloquism may very well be at the vanguard of a new movement in American Weird, where the lessons of Thomas Ligotti are recontextualized and used to birth something as frightening and bizarre as it is different.” —Simon Strantzas, author of Burnt Black Suns
“…let me guarantee you one thing about Jon Padgett’s writing: It will lead you outside your comfort zone like a creepy stranger leads you away from home. Padgett both knows how to tell a story and how to scare people and The Secret of Ventriloquism is an intoxicating display of these two skills.” —Benoit Lelievre, Dead End Follies
I’m incredibly excited to see this out in the world at last. I’ve spent the better part of thirty years reading Ligotti’s work out loud, and this is hands down the best voice work I’ve done. And listening to Ligotti is, to me, a whole different experience–one that you should experience even if you’ve read his work on the page many times (and even, I might add, if you never connected with his work before).
It’s a dream come true, and, I believe, an essential buy for any lover of horror and the weird. Please order it!
A little background on why this project is so important to me.
Way back in the Spring of 1991, I was browsing the horror stacks at a local BOOKS-A-MILLION in Hoover, Alabama when I came across the paperback version of Ligotti’s SONGS OF A DEAD DREAMER. I was immediately struck by the evocative, despairing title and the cover art. It also featured the following Washington Post blurb: “Put this on the bookshelf between Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft where it belongs.”
I was sold.
I remember reading “The Frolic,” Ligotti’s most conventional tale, and becoming mesmerized by Jonathan Doe’s cosmic, scummy, blissful visions. The tales in SoaDD were so filled, to one degree or another, with this kind of bleak, numinous ecstasy coupled with a rich, sardonic and self-effacing humor. It was like nothing else I had experienced as a reader. It was as if Ligotti shared all my most private fears and obsessions—even the ones of which I wasn’t consciously aware—and was able to artistically project them via precise yet elegant prose. In short, way back in ‘91, I felt like the stories in Songs had been extracted from my sleeping mind and set to paper—as if I were the protagonist of “The Bungalow House,” coming across the dream monologues for the first time.
To quote Ligotti’s “The Cocoons,” when I read Tom’s stories I felt (and feel) a “…great sense of escape from the poles of fear and madness …as if I could exist serenely outside the grotesque ultimatums of creation, an entranced spectator casting a clinical gaze at the chaotic tumult both around and within him.” I leave those tales feeling calm and aware and even ecstatic. Ligotti’s stories have been like Transcendental Meditation for my imagination.
Back in ’91, I couldn’t put the book down and somehow continued reading it even while driving from the bookstore parking lot to my dorm room at college. Had I died in a fatal accident, it would have certainly been ironic. After finishing Songs, I immediately began rereading it again (which at the time I had never done with any other book).
And now–after many years of reading Ligotti’s work silently and aloud, sometimes to a friend, sometimes for a Cadabra Records LP–I’ve been given the honor of helping to bring that first Ligotti book and the stellar GRIMSCRIBE to audiobook-life. I can’t wait till many of you get a chance to listen to it.
Friday, August 23rd at 10:30pm Author Reading with Matthew M. Bartlett – SECRET GATEWAYS Room Party Location TBA
Saturday, August 24th at 10:30am ENDARKENMENT: NIHILISM AS LIBERATION IN WEIRD FICTION – Washington-Newport Room, Omni 3rd Floor Thomas Ligotti once wrote that ” Consciousness has forced us into the paradoxical position of striving to be unself-conscious of what we are—hunks of spoiling flesh on disintegrating bones” and, in doing so, joined a host of writers and philosophers dabbling in what’s generally scoffed at as ‘nihilism.’ But what if that lack of meaning could lead, not to oppression, but to liberation? Come join our panel as they discuss ways in which literary and philosophical endarkenment can lead to new vistas of understanding and meaning in meaninglessness. Panelists: Nicole Cushing, Scott Dwyer, Daphne Gem, Bracken MacLeod (M), Jon Padgett
Saturday, August 24th at 1:30pm Author Reading – L’Apogee, Graduate 17th Floor Jon Padgett, Nicole Cushing, Scott Nicolay, and Teri Clarke (teri zin).
Saturday, August 24th at 3pm UNCANNY VALLEYS: SIMULACRA, PUPPETS, MANNEQUINS AND AUTOMATONS – Washington-Newport, Omni 3rd Floor Objects that resemble humans have been a source of fascination and revulsion for perhaps as as long as they have existed. What is the source of the sense of the uncanny that may accompany such encounters with the alien-yet-familiar humanoid device? How have authors and filmmakers harnessed this experience to disturb and frighten? Our panelists discuss the use and history of the “not quite” human humanoid and share their favorite examples. Panelists: Matthew Bartlett, Adam Bolivar, Jon Padgett (M), Molly Tanzer, teri zin
Sunday, August 25th, 11am – 12pm Book Signing – Dealer’s Room, Omni Hotel Stop by, say hello, buy a book or a journal, and/or bring something for me to sign!
12/18/17
I’m delighted that my article concerning Ligotti’s corporate horror masterpiece is out in the world now, with beautiful artwork by the great Jason Van Hollander.
The humor in ‘The Town Manager’ is of an absurd (or, rather, absurdist) flavor, from the useless trolley to the murder of the trolley operator by possibly supernatural means via the semi-literate town manager. In the pivotal book, ‘The Theatre of the Absurd,’ Martin Esslin quotes philosopher Apuleius, describing ancient mime plays in which ‘serious, even horrifying matters are miraculously mingled with the… humorous.’ This is of a kind used by Ligotti, humor that might be found in a Beckett or Ionesco play – a hilarity that reinforces and deepens rather than defuses the horror of existence.
11/29/17
Powerhouse-author and thinker, David Peak, interviewed me for FANZINE. This took months to complete, and I’m delighted with the results. Many thanks to David for his incredible questions and patience.
Jon Padgett’s debut collection, The Secret of Ventriloquism, was released by Dunhams Manor in late 2016, and enjoyed instant success among readers of the horrific and the weird. Padgett’s work is relentlessly creepy, exploring themes of altered realities, human simulacra, and occult conspiracy, among others. Perhaps most impressive, though, is Padgett’s ability to elevate these concerns above the usual fray of the genre, subsequently tapping into the utter strangeness of the things that lie in wait beneath the world. As the founder and longtime operator of Thomas Ligotti Online, perhaps the web’s most significant hub for the weird minded, the publication of TSoV was something of an event, selling out its initial run in hardcover, and finding additional and well-deserved success as a destined-to-be-classic audiobook.
Like Schulz’s Street of Crocodiles, Ligotti’s first collection, Songs of a Dread Dreamer, or Laird Barron’s recent Swift to Chase, the whole of Padgett’s book is greater than the sum of its parts. The stories often overlap or recall one another in unexpected ways. Reading a collection from cover to cover is perhaps the litmus test for whether or not it “works,” whether or not it coheres into something with vision and voice, and where so many other collections fail, Padgett’s succeeds. This success is even more impressive once you take into consideration how fully developed and unique each individual story is. Take “Organ Void,” for instance, which seamlessly blends a Ballardian fixation on concrete overpasses and urban sprawl with “junk-sick” body horror; or “Murmurs of a Voice Foreknown,” a coming-of-age story about cruelty and the bonds of brotherhood that settles on delicate and unnerving truths; or the collection’s centerpiece, “20 Simple Steps to Ventriloquism,” a sublime meditation on being with a capital “B” and the illusion of human agency.
Finally, it’s worth noting that this interview was conducted via email over the course of several months. Devising the questions and waiting for answers sometimes took weeks. I believe that this is indicative of the care and attention to detail that Jon puts into his work.
8/19/17
So I was honored to participate in the Thomas Ligotti panel at NecronomiCon Providence, 2017. I won’t say I wasn’t nervous.
Once I arrived at the 17th floor of the Biltmore, though, my fear disappeared. It was a huge kick sitting at the table with Michaels Cisco and Calia, Brother Matthew M. Bartlett, and Alex Houstoun before the panel, watching the ballroom fill up almost to capacity (the largest gathering I saw aside from the very last panel of the convention). It was impossible not to be moved. Thomas Ligotti, who twenty years ago and more before that moment I had despaired was not getting the attention he deserved, now has a dedicated following from a significant group of sensitive readers who love and feel connected to his work, often as intensely and intimately as I do. Here we all were in Providence, celebrating that work together. It was a magical hour and fifteen minutes. Eternal thanks to Scott Desmarais for filming it.
Ligotti himself responded to the video: “I have a pretty good computer sound system, so I didn’t miss much of what was said. I watched it nervously, because seeing people I know speak in public in almost as bad as doing it myself—or so I imagine since I’ve managed to avoid being in that situation all my life. You guys did an amazing job, and I’m humbly grateful. And while knowing you for as long as I have has been its own reward, Jonathan, your participation on that panel was a real bonus.”
That’s Tom: a quality human being.
6/13/17
Recently, I was interview by the This Is Horror podcast hosts, Michael David Wilson and Bob Pastorella. It was a highly enjoyable two hours or so of conversation.
5/01/17
Last night I appeared on Lovecraft eZine’s podcast. It also included writers/editors/publishers Mike Davis, Acep Hale, S.P. Miskowski, Joe Pulver, Derrick Hussey (who gave a major Hippocampus Press update), Philip Fracassi, Matthew Carpenter, and Peter Rawlik.
Reggie McRascal, my ventriloquist dummy, also made several appearances, and there was singing.
Otherwise, we talked for well over an hour about the genesis of my chief fears, my writing endeavors, Matt Cardin, Thomas Ligotti Online, and–of course–Tom and his work. I think it’s well worth your while.
Bram Stoker Award winning author, Paul Tremblay, had the following to say about my collection:
“Jon Padgett’s The Secret of Ventriloquism is a horror revelation. The interconnected short stories are ghastly, clever, dryly witty, but also genuinely and bone-rattlingly creepy and disturbing. Sure, going in, I was already afraid of ventriloquist dummies, but now I’m deathly afraid of Jon Padgett.”
“Jon Padgett… satisfied ALL of my wants and needs as a reader of dark and weird fiction. These stories… are as utterly satisfying as short fiction can be.”
3/2/17
My book, The Secret of Ventriloquism, is at the head of UNWINNABLE’S February reading list, next to The Secret History of Twin Peaks, by Mark Frost! Pretty humbling having my work recommended alongside the likes of him, Margaret Atwood, Gertrude Stein and Haruki Murakami. Thanks to Stu Horvath and the rest of the staff at UNWINNABLE!
2/24/17
Furnace, by Livia Llewellyn
It occurred to me this morning that I haven’t mentioned female horror writers enough this month. The following are some of the best contemporary horror authors I’ve been reading in recent years, full stop.
Livia Llewellyn. A master of voice and atmosphere. Always wonderfully, fearlessly personal. Her “Furnace” is a Ligottian masterpiece of slow, hallucinatory, maternal suffocation, and her recent collection with the same title is equally essential. I have no doubt that Llewellyn is one of the best authors in any genre out there.
Kristi DeMeester. I came in contact with DeMeester’s work in Nightscript, Volume 1. She leads off this stellar anthology with “Everything That’s Underneath,” an unforgettable and heartbreaking tale of quiet horror and inescapable dread. Everything DeMeester touches turns to gold.
Anya Martin. Another brilliant wordsmith with a distinctive voice. I was first taken with “A Girl and Her Dog,” in Xnoybis, issue 2, but her Dim Shores chapbook, Grass, blew me out of the water with its unclassifiable, speculative weirdness. The voice is distinctly Southern, and reminded me of a younger Joyce Carol Oates as well. I can’t wait to read more.
Dagny Paul. New on the scene, but a powerful voice in horror. Check out her “There Is No Road through the Woods.” I was put in mind of both Lovecraft’s “The Colour Out of Space” and Ligotti’s “The Shadow at the Bottom of the World,” not only because of the blighting environmental horror but because of Paul’s gorgeous, haunting imagery.
P. Miskowski. Her Dunhams Manor chapbook, Muscadines, is Flannery O’Connor and Neil Gaiman’s love child on quality grade acid. Experimental, accordion-like narratives within narratives. A masterful command of narrative voice holds it all together. I can’t wait to dig further into her work.
2/14/17
The audiobook version of The Secret of Ventriloquism is finally available (via Amazon, Audible, iTunes).
It was recorded/produced by me, with a creepy singing assist by author/Pseudopod Associate Editor, Dagny Paul. Even if you’ve read the book already, I believe that hearing the stories aloud lends a dimension to the collection that the text alone cannot offer.
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