Archive | Lowkey Hellish

Torturer

Lowkey Hellish is V13 Press's weekly literary newsletter. This week I'm doing something completely different. For the first time, I'm sharing something that hasn't been already published to V13.net. Instead, I'm sharing my work in progress, my upcoming book, Torturer. Erin reminded me that Dickens used to serialize fiction, and Chris encouraged me to embrace it wholeheartedly. And so here we are, the first part of what is going to be the series of Torturer.

Lance Marwood

May 4, 2026

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2 min read

Rosie

Lowkey Hellish is V13 Press's weekly literary newsletter. This week I'm sharing a bit of flash fiction from another one of our writers, Michael Wilson. And I've also got the latest episode of my podcast MAKE // BREAK to share with you, this one with Mark Winters, a Texan aerospace engineer turned singer-songwriter.

Lance Marwood

Apr 27, 2026

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3 min read

The Sculptor (feat. Trivium)

Lowkey Hellish is V13 Press's weekly newsletter at the intersection of culture, literature, and meaning making. The last few weeks have been genuinely hellish on my end — thank you for your patience. This week's lead story is a horror short where a serial killer called The Sculptor turns song lyrics into death puzzles, and forces a metal frontman to solve them before someone he loves dies.

Lance Marwood

Apr 6, 2026

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6 min read

Polite Conversation

Lowkey Hellish is V13 Press’s weekly newsletter at the intersection of culture, literature, and meaning making. This week’s Lowkey Hellish features a short story I wrote years ago, and was the thing I wrote to bring myself out of the terror of moving across countries.

Lance Marwood

Mar 23, 2026

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8 min read

Haunted Smoke

Lowkey Hellish is V13 Press’s weekly newsletter at the intersection of culture, literature, and meaning making. This week’s Lowkey Hellish features a short story .

Lance Marwood

Mar 16, 2026

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7 min read

The Threshold Doctrine

Lowkey Hellish is V13 Press’s weekly newsletter at the intersection of culture, literature, and meaning making. This week’s Lowkey Hellish is all about vampires, Terms of Service, and the ancient conviction that the most dangerous things in the world can't get in without your permission.

Lance Marwood

Mar 9, 2026

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7 min read

Just Stick The Landing

Lowkey Hellish is V13 Press’s weekly newsletter at the intersection of culture, literature, and meaning making. This week’s Lowkey Hellish lead story is a little different: instead of me taking the first swing, I’m opening the edition by spotlighting someone else’s work. Going forward, you’ll see more guest voices featured here: more outside minds, more distinct textures, more room for stories and essays that hit the Lowkey Hellish nerve from angles I can’t (and shouldn’t) try to replicate.

Lance Marwood

Mar 2, 2026

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8 min read

Can't Scream In Fear

Lowkey Hellish is V13 Press’s weekly newsletter at the intersection of culture, literature, and meaning making. This week's lead story follows the body's oldest betrayal: why your voice disappears at the exact moment you need it most, and what that silence has been trying to tell you.

Lance Marwood

Feb 23, 2026

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8 min read

The Face in the Void

Lowkey Hellish is V13 Press’s weekly newsletter at the intersection of culture, literature, and meaning making. This week’s lead story follows the brain’s oldest paranoia glitch: why we keep seeing faces in the dark, and why it still scares us.

Lance Marwood

Feb 17, 2026

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7 min read

Following the Wrong Footprints

This week: a monster every culture seems to recognize. Backward feet. Wrong tracks. The kind of warning you notice too late. Today’s feature is Following the Wrong Footprints: When Every Culture Dreams the Same Monster, and what it reveals about the oldest fear: realizing you’ve been reading reality wrong.

Lance Marwood

Feb 9, 2026

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7 min read

...this is Lowkey Hellish

Welcome to the first edition of Lowkey Hellish, brought to you by V13 Press, and written by me, Lance Marwood. I've been quietly writing in the margins while exploring the darkest parts of our world's underbelly for years. And now, along with the undeniable talent of our hive of writers, this newsletter features literature, reflections on culture, and the crosscurrents of myth and modern life.

Lance Marwood