Now Available: The Mouth is a Coven
The Mouth is a Coven, my new vampire novel, is now available through Manta Press.
Have you ever seen a ghost? In Starling City, there are spirits on every street corner. Everyone in town seems to have at least one ghastly tale to tell.
So, it’s no wonder that a place like this breeds people like Blue and Julie, who summon demons just for fun and are obsessed with a local legend of a vampire named Matter. They hang out in dark clubs on a desolate downtown street and hope, desperately, that Matter will one day find them.
Because if they could become vampires, all of their problems will disappear. Just like the movies, they’ll never get old, and they will never die. They won’t have to worry about working or making rent, because the mundane world will no longer apply to them.
One night, their wish comes true: It turns out Matter is real. Except Blue and Julie soon learn that being a vampire isn’t exactly like you see in the movies. Abandoned, they are left on their own to figure out how to live as the undead – not to mention what to do with all those dead bodies piling up.
Available in paperback and e-book.
Journalism and Non-Fiction
Published in late 2009, Treat Me Like Dirt was the first book of its kind to give an in-depth account of the Toronto punk scene in the late 1970s.
Working on this book was one of the best and worst experiences of my life, simultaneously.
Poetry
Published in 2011, Amphetamine Heart was my poetry debut. It’s for readers who crave urban decay with a hint of witchcraft.
“The poems are personal/social commentaries, incantatory, and replete with surrealistic detours.” ~ Douglas Glover, Numero Cinq
No Work Finished Here started as an experiment. For years, I was fascinated by a pop art book Andy Warhol had published called A: A Novel. This so-called “novel” was not actually a work of fiction, but hundreds of pages of transcribed conversations between Warhol and his various Factory superstars. A time capsule of a magical time in 1960s New York, A is a raw, speed-fueled read. It was published as-is, meaning that the transcriptionists did not edit or revise anything they typed: This is a raw, typo-filled document.
As a result, it’s difficult to read. Yet there are glimmers of poetic sensibility and deep vulnerability within it. Inspired to dig those moments out, I re-wrote A by creating one poem from each page, staying true to the language and text found therein.
No Work Finished Here was a finalist for the 2015 Re-Lit Awards for poetry.
The Truth is Told Better This Way is my third book of poetry.
“Liz Worth has never been darker. In this new collection she transforms her craft of confessional writing into a filthy and flourishing fantasia; a witch’s brew of the most poetic magicks.”
—dalton derkson
The Truth is Told Better This Way was Listed as one of 49th Shelf’s most anticipated poetry books of 2017, and considered “far and away one of the best poetry collections of 2017” by Glass Poetry Journal.
This collection was also a finalist for the 2018 Re-Lit Awards for poetry.
Fiction
PostApoc
Now or Never Publishing, 2013
Inspired by the works of Kathy Acker, William S. Burroughs, and Lydia Lunch, PostApoc is an experimental approach to dystopian literature. The character for this story, Ang, came to me one day when I was sitting under a tree in a park nearby. Her voice came through to me clearly from beginning to end.
This is the kind of book people either love or hate. If you don’t mind being unsettled, I invite you to give it a try.
Chapbooks and Special Edition Works
Limited Edition Chapbook: Now, Imagine Yourself as a Ghost – SOLD OUT
Now, Imagine Yourself as a Ghost is a limited-run collection of poetry written between 2013 and 2022. The poems contain spells, incantations, confessions, and pop cultural occult references. Each copy is numbered, with a screen-printed cover done by hand.
This is for the reader who believes that poetry is magic. Only 50 copies available. When they’re gone, they’re gone.
Eleven: Eleven, published 2010
Trainwreck Press
A hallucinatory first-person account of strange friendships and lonely apartments.
This piece was loosely inspired by some diary entries I kept during my teens and early 20s. One summer I was revisiting my old journals and was struck by how frequently bizarre and esoteric some of my younger experiences were.
For readers who like occult-inspired experimentation and writing that pushes your imagination.
Manifestations
Published 2010
Manifestations is the follow-up to Eleven: Eleven. Written in a haunted apartment in Kensington Market, this chapbook explores a paranoid, atmospheric style.
Arik’s Dream
Published 2010
Inspired by haunted forests and spiritual dissection, Arik’s Dream follows a group of friends who seek to commune with energies and entities that exist through desolate woods, mixtapes, and dive bars.
Liz Worth, Author 