Bewildering Stories welcomes...

Trevor Almy

Trevor lives with his family in Jackson, Mississippi, where he has been a high-school English teacher and is now a curriculum designer at a community college. His favorite authors are Haruki Murakami, George Saunders, and Cormac McCarthy.

“First Tape” will certainly intrigue readers with Franz Kafka’s matter-of-fact style equipped with late 20th-century technology.

Readers will also be puzzled by the curious life of Bernie Grimmel. “The Mother” — is she Bernie’s mother or something else? — records Bernie’s every waking moment on VCR tapes and then forces Bernie to watch them replayed every evening. Bernie is aware of the absurdity but notes that the viewings last only one hour each. Are the tapes played on fast-forward?

The Mother says, “The camera doesn’t lie.” Maybe not, but do the videotapes lie? Bernie’s memories sometimes differ markedly from what he sees on the TV screen. At the end, readers are left with a puzzle: does the story overstep BwS’“dream stories” guideline? If so, who or what is doing the dreaming? And what might be on that mysterious “First Tape”?!

Trevor Almy’s bio sketch can be found here.

Welcome to Bewildering Stories, Trevor. We hope to hear from you again soon and often!