Kathe Koja
Cover Reveal for Kathe Koja’s The Cipher

We are so excited to reveal the cover for the paperback reissue of Kathe Koja’s Bram Stoker and Locus award-winning classic, THE CIPHER. Keith Rosson created the stunning new cover! The Funhole is BACK!
The Cipher

On Sale Now!
Winner of the Bram Stoker Award and Locus Awards, finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award, and named one of io9.com's "Top 10 Debut Science Fiction Novels That Took the World By Storm." With a new afterword by Maryse Meijer, author of Heartbreaker and Rag.
"Black. Pure black and the sense of pulsation, especially when you look at it too closely, the sense of something not living but alive." When a strange hole materializes in a storage room, would-be poet Nicholas and his feral lover Nakota allow their curiosity to lead them into the depths of terror. "Wouldn't it be wild to go down there?" says Nakota. Nicholas says, "We're not." But no one is in control, and their experiments lead to obsession, violence, and a very final transformation for everyone who gets too close to the Funhole.
Press & Endorsements
- Josh Malerman, NYT-best-selling author of Bird Box and Malorie – “The Cipher is a stone-cold landmark of the genre. Written by a sphinx, a gift, the rarest of talents. And like the works of M.R. James, Shirley Jackson, Poe, and Stephen King, horror isn’t the same, in all its current height and depth, without it. Be prepared: this book will change you.”
- Daniel Kraus, NYT-bestselling author – “Audacious, acerbic, grotesque, ravishing, stifling, sensual, iconic – there will never be another novel like this one.
- Will Errickson, Too Much Horror Fiction – “When I first read THE CIPHER in 1991, I hardly knew what to make of it. But I knew one thing for sure: horror fiction had never seen anything like Kathe Koja’s obsessive and impressionistic prose and ruthlessly dire worldview before. After years of reading mainstream Eighties horror paperbacks about normal people’s lives upended by the usual supernatural monstrosities, I was primed and ready for this new voice. Koja’s fearless depiction of bickering 20-something art failures stumbling upon an actual nothing and then watching with detached fascination as their squalid lives disintegrate around it was the darkest kind of revelation for me. I haven’t stopped thinking about THE CIPHER in the 30 years since, and my numerous reads of it always yield fresh new horrors from its reflective deeps. I practically began my blog, Too Much Horror Fiction, so I could write seriously about it. Over those years its reputation has only grown, and today I am delighted to see that THE CIPHER is once again in the hands—pun fully, deeply intended—of a new generation of horror fans eager, as ever, to peer into the abyss… and whatever lies beyond.”
- Publishers Weekly – “This powerful first novel is as thought-provoking as it is horrifying.”
- Locus Magazine – “So visceral and so right.”
- Booklist – “This entry into the body-horror canon carries with it the kind of fatalism horror readers prize—it’s going to end badly, for sure, but just how badly?”
In the meantime, be sure to sign up for news on the release of Kathe’s VELOCITIES and the paperback reissue of THE CIPHER:
Beast Heart
2020 Awards Shortlisters, Longlisters so far!

It is that time of the year and we are already blown away at the showing from our 2020 catalog! We have had Bram Stoker Award Nominee (VELOCITIES, Kathe Koja) & Prelim Ballot (THE ATTIC TRAGEDY, J. Ashley-Smith), BSFA Award Longlist (“THE ROAD TO WOOP WOOP”, Eugen Bacon), Locus Award Prelim Ballot (VELOCITIES, Kathe Koja & THE ROAD TO WOOP WOOP, Eugen Bacon), and Foreword Indies Best Book of the Year finalists (DEPRIVATION, Roy, Freirich; BEAST HEART, Kyle Richardson; ROAD SEVEN, Keith Rosson & THE ROAD TO WOOP WOOP, Eugen Bacon). We loved these books from the start and that’s why we published them, so it warms our heart to see these amazing authors’ babies getting the attention they deserve. We hope you’ll check them out if you haven’t already.
2020 Awards – Shortlisters & Longlisters
Previous Award Winners, Shortlisters, Longlisters
Kathe Koja
2021 Summer Scares Reading List: The Cipher by Kathe Koja & More

In celebration of National Library Lover’s Day, the Horror Writers Association (HWA), in partnership with United for Libraries, Book Riot, and Booklist, announced their third annual Summer Scares Reading List, which includes titles selected by a panel of authors and librarians and is designed to promote horror as a great reading option for all ages, during any time of the year. This year Kathe Koja’s classic Bram Stoker Award winning THE CIPHER is on the list in the adult category!
The Cipher
Winner of the Bram Stoker Award and Locus Awards, finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award, and named one of io9.com's "Top 10 Debut Science Fiction Novels That Took the World By Storm." With a new afterword by Maryse Meijer, author of Heartbreaker and Rag.
"Black. Pure black and the sense of pulsation, especially when you look at it too closely, the sense of something not living but alive." When a strange hole materializes in a storage room, would-be poet Nicholas and his feral lover Nakota allow their curiosity to lead them into the depths of terror. "Wouldn't it be wild to go down there?" says Nakota. Nicholas says, "We're not." But no one is in control, and their experiments lead to obsession, violence, and a very final transformation for everyone who gets too close to the Funhole.
More info →Kathe Koja
Paula Guran Reviews Velocities by Kathe Koja for Locus Magazine

Paula Guran at Locus Magazine reviewed Kathe Koja’s Velocities in the November issue of the magazine. Locus magazine is definitely worth checking out if you aren’t already subscribed.
The stories are exquisitely written … An excellent assemblage by a virtuoso writer.
LOCUS MAGAZINE | PAULA GURAN
Velocities: Stories
Dark, disturbing, heartfelt, and utterly addictive!
From the award-winning author of The Cipher and Buddha Boy, comes Velocities: Stories, Kathe Koja's second electrifying collection of short fiction. Thirteen stories, two never before published, all flying at the speed of strange.
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Rebecca Gomez Farrell’s Wings Unfurled coming 2022
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2021 Releases from Meerkat Press
- Kathe Koja7 months ago
The Cipher Fan Art Contest
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Meerkat Press Signs Steve Simpson’s The Purpose of Reality, a Two Volume Set of Poetry, Short Fiction, and Art.