- The WYRMHOLE
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- The WYRMHOLE (July 1, 2025)
welcome!
What’s in the Hole?
Dear Wyrms,
In this issue: It’s mostly Iz shitposting. Sorry about that. Also, you’re welcome.
The fiction reccs are good though. Those aren’t shitposting.
Isabel J Kim / July 2025 Editor in Chief / New York, NY
I can see without sight and fly without feathers, And in flight I don’t flock, though I may join a cloud. I am no ant, but you can find me in a colony; I am no hen, though I may roost; I am no star, but I go by night. What am I?
Recs & Reviews
Tia recs…
Mário Coelho, Reckoning. 2025. 4.6k words.
The world’s richest man is also its deadest! Local woman fights for ecological justice! Also, coral is living in your body! This fascinating ecopunk story gives the reader a lot to chew on, walking the line of pessimism & optimism in a way that feels angry at times and hopeful at others. Plus it features some absolutely banger lines. Well worth the read!
Carolyn recs…
Kij Johnson, Tordotcom. 2010. 1.3k words.
This story is, without exaggeration, Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery x My Little Pony, with a sprinkle of Mean Girls. That’s… the closest I can get.
Pak recs…
Corey Farrenkopf, Flash Fiction Online. March 2025. 1k words.
Flashing you with some flash! Filial piety, religious piety, and climate disasters melt into a liminal excursion with a prose style that captures the feeling of being plunged into watery depths.
Tina recs…
A Girl Goes on a Date Alone at Night
Cynthia Gómez, Nightmare Magazine. April 2025. 1k words.
A man dies under mysterious circumstances during a date. Anything more would be a spoiler because this flash piece is short and sweet!
Iz recs…
Well, my partner and I just moved in together and it’s going strangely well, so please enjoy these stories about the American Nuclear Family and also Relationships and American Flavors of Dystopia:
Sage Tyrtle, Giganotosaurus. June 2025.
All American Families and how the oppressor class is also hurt by the structures of society and the expectations around how the discarded are to be treated.
Catherynne M. Valente, Clarkesworld. August 2012.
Propaganda and growing up in the age of the atomic bombs. Pairs really fun with the above story as well.
Sophie Frances Kemp, Joyland, May 2025.
Probably the most explicit story here, tw…rape? tw….weirdness? Seriously, this one rides the line between fever dream and reality, along with riding the litfic/specfic divide. Is it good? Who can say. It’s interesting. It’s about becoming a wife.
Thomas Ha, Clarkesworld. August 2023.
Inequality! Beneath the grackle-infested sky. I think most people have read this but it fit nicely in my Theming.
Kelly Link, reprinted in Uncanny Magazine Issue Eleven
Ok, this ones not in the same vein as the others. This one’s just about finding your boyfriend you’re mid about in a fairy tale. As, you know, a palate cleanser.
The Best of June Cover Art
I’m a sucker for ring stations…
WILDCARD
Smack Barm Pey Wet
by Isabel J. Kim
Hi this is Iz and welcome to the hole. My other hole (the one in Clarkesworld) is getting a lot of attention lately, but that’s not what I’m here to talk about. What I’m here to talk about is Wigan Kebab and Smack Barm Pey Wet.
Ok, I know it’s bad form to send you off to another site from this newsletter, but please go watch this video linked below.
For those of you who didn’t go watch the video, the TLDR is that this video is about a guy going to The Trawlerman (a fish and & chips shop) in Wigan, and asking the guy working there about their local specialties. Then the Trawlerman worker starts recommending things, and that’s where shit goes off the rails. The Trawlerman guy reacts to everything like “my god. you HAVENT heard of this shit?” whenever the videographer asks for anything, and the videographer, conversely, is acting like it's his First Day On Earth and he’s never eaten food before.
This, coupled with the fact that everything being recommended is named shit like “wigan kebab” and “smack barm pey wet” and “baby’s head” means that this video was a recipe for many potential memes. No hate to the Trawlerman or the food being presented, by the way, other than it looks incredibly British and [insert the requisite jokes about British food]—I think what happened is that this broke local containment and now guys like me (Asian lady from NYC) are going D:
Like, this is the culture that created the chip butty, maybe in Wigan this is all copacetic. Maybe this is normal. And I shouldn’t throw stones—after all, my glass house (my college friends and I) invented “Irish guacamole,” which is when you scoop mashed potatoes from Wawa with potato chips. It’s pretty good when you’re drunk or when you’re 22.
But, my god. You can’t name your sammich “smack barm pey wet” without knowing people are going to go “what.” And maybe that’s the point of naming something smack barm pey wet. You want people to talk about “smack barm pey wet.” And try saying “smack barm pey wet” with your human mouth. In an odd way, it rolls off the tongue.
A weird name basically guarantees that you’re going to get memed. And in 2025, what is getting memed if not the rocket ship to fame, or at least, fifteen minutes of everyone going “haha, funny name,” every few years. Because Wigan Kebab isn’t new—this is actually a five year old meme that is having a renaissance on tumblr right now, which inevitably means it will spill over into the twitter/tiktok/bskysphere soonish. The difference between this iteration of Wigan Kebab memes and the previous one seems to be that this time it’s not just jokes about “smack barm pey wet” but about all aspects of the video.
Let’s look at some memes together:
Anyway, apparently the smack barm pey wet is good, according to this tumblr post:
Ok. enough of that. Let’s scroll back up and read some fiction together.
A parting song from the Editors…
