Logorrhea

For most of us, these prizewinning spelling bee words would be difficult to pronounce, let alone spell. We asked twenty-one of today’s most talented and inventive writers to go even further and pen an original tale inspired by one of dozens of obscure and fascinating championship words. The result is Logorrhea—a veritable dictionary of the weird, the fantastic, the haunting, and the indefinable that will have you spellbound from the very first page.

Including twenty-one stories and the inscrutable words that inspired them:

Chiaroscuro: “The Chiaroscurist” by Hal Duncan
Lyceum: “Lyceum” by Liz Williams
Vivisepulture: “Vivisepulture” by David Prill
Eczema: “Eczema” by Clare Dudman
Sacrilege, Semaphore: “Semaphore” by Alex Irvine
Smaragdine: “The Smaragdine Knot” by Marly Youmans
Insouciant: “A Portrait in Ivory” by Michael Moorcock
Cambist: “The Cambist and Lord Iron: A Fairy Tale of Economics” by Daniel Abraham
Logorrhea: “Logorrhea” by Michelle Richmond
Pococurante: “Pococurante” by Anna Tambour
Autochthonous: “From Around Here” by Tim Pratt
Vignette: “Vignette” by Elizabeth Hand
Sycophant: “Plight of the Sycophant” by Alan DeNiro
Elegiacal: “The Last Elegy” by Matthew Cheney
Eudaemonic: “Eudaemonic” by Jay Caselberg
Macerate: “Softer” by Paolo Bacigalupi
Transept: “Crossing the Seven” by Jay Lake
Psoriasis: “Tsuris” by Leslie What
Euonym: “The Euonymist” by Neil Williamson
Dulcimer: “Singing of Mount Abora” by Theodora Goss
Appoggiatura: “Appoggiatura” by Jeff VanderMeer