Boston, MA—March 10, 2026
Ruadán Books is delighted to announce that it has signed a deal with Jamal Hodge to publish Shards of Gotham: New York City Through the Looking Glass, an anthology of dark fiction inspired by a love of New York and the city’s most pivotal real and imagined events, scheduled for the Summer of 2027.
Jamal Hodge previously edited Bestiary of Blood: Modern Fables & Dark Tales, published by Crystal Lake Publishing in 2024, which was longlisted for the British Science Fiction Awards and significantly recognized by Ellen Datlow in her The Best Horror of the Year 17 recommendations. Shards of Gotham is his second outing as an editor, featuring stories from Jonathan Maberry, Paul Tremblay, Clay McLeod Chapman, Sharee Renée Thomas, Tim Waggoner, Linda Addison, L. Marie Wood, Jennifer Anne Gordon, and more.
“It [Shards of Gotham] could not have found a better home than Ruadán Books.”
Jamal Hodge, Editor
“The greatest city in the world is a cruel mistress that holds her secrets close,” Jamal says. “As one of her native sons, I’ve often wondered at the mysteries behind her glass towers, the secrets along the pipes, trains, and drains of her veins. New York is the place where all peoples, all worlds meet… What if we explored those worlds of history and each future possibility through speculative fiction’s darkest lens? To discover what the city gives and what it takes.”
Ruadán Books CEO R.B. Wood adds, “I’ve been an admirer of Jamal’s work since Bestiary of Blood. While I was first impressed by his acumen as an editor, I’ve come to love his poetry and fiction as well. We are so happy to have him onboard with Ruadán for his newest anthology!”
“It could not have found a better home than Ruadán Books,” Jamal continues. “Like through Lewis Carroll’s looking glass, in these stories, we find familiar worlds inverted, an absurdity of perspective somehow more real than the adult rules we inhabit, showing pivotal events shaped by horror and hope in a city of remorseless ambition. The familiar becomes the strange, where no lie survives pain, and each shard cuts into a revelation.”
Shards of Gotham: New York City Through the Looking Glass is fun, frightening, and unforgiving; it’s an anthology where you get to explore the greatest what-ifs while learning what was. Like the best episodes of The Twilight Zone or Black Mirror, each story reveals society and self in a city of ceaseless becoming, and no arrival.
About Ruadán Books
Ruadán Books, founded in 2024 to publish unique stories from underappreciated talent, is bringing readers character-driven storytelling in dark speculative fiction, including dark fantasy, horror, thrillers, and crime fiction.
Connect to Ruadán Books via their social accounts or by signing up for their newsletter:
Website | Linktr.ee | Ruadán Books Newsletter
About Jamal HodgeJamal Hodge is a two-time Bram Stoker Award-nominated writer, a co-producer of an Oscar-nominated film, and an award-winning director. In literature, he is an Elgin Award winner, a Dwarf Stars Award winner, and a multiple Rhysling Award nominee whose work appears consistently in anthologies and magazines such as Chiral Mad 5, The Big Bad Book of Kaiju, Weird Tales Magazine, and Sauuti Terrors. His anthology Bestiary of Blood debuted as Amazon’s #1 New Horror Anthology Release. His two forthcoming books, the poetry collection I’m Not a Good Person, I’m a New Yorker (to be released July 7, 2026, by Crystal Lake Publishing) and the anthology Shards of Gotham (to be released 2027, from Ruadán Books), continue his exploration of pain, identity, and redemption. Discover more at www.writerhodge.com.
