Archive of the Odd

I don’t want to say that 2025 was an annus horibilis for the Archive. We published Issue 5, which is so stunningly strange that I can only imagine what 2021 Cormack (who was, in retrospect, wildly naïve about unfiction and how odd literature can be) would have thought. We began work on issue 6, which will be out in a mere two weeks (January 15, 2026)! We made art, made plans, made moves.

But that doesn’t explain the fact that so much that was supposed to be done in 2025 simply isn’t, that I am behind in ways that I repeatedly promised not to be, only to have those promises slip away. We still, for instance, have not finished responding to submissions for Issue 7. The lateness of these responses has become something of an albatross around my neck, and despite occasional spurts of productivity, I have let many of our submitters down. I truly, truly apologize for that. We ended up extremely behind on issue 6, pushing its publication from an initial rosy projection of Fall 2025 to the beginning of 2026.

I want to make this post into a chipper “don’t worry, my New Year’s Resolution is to get everything done immediately, and it will be smooth sailing from there.” Unfortunately, I can’t. The Archive is largely a one-person operation, and that one person has not been doing well. There isn’t much I can reveal without getting into personal details about other people, or about myself that wouldn’t feel like a bit of melodrama to round out 2025. Suffice to say, though, that the Archives were not the only part of my life I struggled to tend to, and which I am in the process of repairing.

So, for 2026, I want to start with an apology to everyone who has been waiting on us, and to everyone who has queried us and who I did not respond to. I am not sure yet what my solution to this will look like. It may take a while for me to be able to put any solution in place, which is not what I want to say, but it is the honest truth. I am accepting help in my personal life to improve my situation, and I am adjusting my own deadlines to reflect my current capacity, with hopes that that will soon change.

Thank you so much to everyone who has stuck with us, and I hope 2026 can reward your patience with new and strange creations. We’re going to make it, and if we’re going to make it, we’re going to make it weird.

-Cormack (CM) Baldwin