Violet Lichen Books

About Violet Lichen

Founded in 2024, Violet Lichen Books is the sister imprint of Apex Book Company. Violent Lichen was created by Marissa van Uden to give a home to those dark, literary, weird books that might be a little outside of the norm. The imprint focuses on speculative ecofiction, Weird and New Weird, and moody science fiction with uniquely memorable characters.

Violet Lichen is the publisher of ECO: The Year’s Best Speculative Ecofiction, the first ever annual “best of” anthology for ecofiction. It showcases some of the finest stories published in this genre across hundreds of magazines, journals, and collections every year.

Meet the Violet Lichen team below…

Meet the Team

Editor in Chief

Marissa van Uden grew up in New Zealand and now lives in Vermont, in a little cabin in the woods. She loves wild things, night hikes, and eerie forests. She has more than 15 years experience as a freelance editor. Her anthology credits include Strange Libations, Strange Machines, Strange Locations, and The Off-Season: An Anthology of Coastal New Weird. Her short stories have appeared in Vastarian Literary Journal, Dark Matter Magazine, Zero Dark Thirty, and Los Suelos. She can sometimes be found at @marissavu.bsky.social‬ and instagram @marissa.vu.

Managing Editor

Nichole Lightner is a weird writer and editor, living in the edges of Appalachia. She’s teasing out dark hymns from broken records when everyone in the house finally goes to sleep. She would love to talk to you about your niche hyperfocus, especially if it’s about abandoned places, ARGs or lost media. She would love to see pictures of your pets. You can find more of her work in Maudlin House, 34 Orchard, Twin Pies Literary, Thirteen Podcast, and Inner Worlds. You can find her at Instagram (@nicholeon) or @nicholeon.bsky.social.

Associate Editors

R.L. Summerling (she/her) is a part-time fiction writer and full-time squirrel watcher from Southeast London. She has fiction in the Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror, Volume 5, Interzone, Maudlin House, and Seize the Press. You can find her at http://www.rlsummerling.com..

Guan Un is an Australian-Chinese writer of speculative fiction based in Sydney. His work has been featured in LeVar Burton Reads, Year’s Best Fantasy Vol 2, Strange Horizons and more. He works as a freelance editor and has now read so much ecofic, his eyeballs are growing slightly mossy. You can find him at @thisisguan.bsky.social or guanun.com.

Alana Perrin is originally from Los Angeles but now drifts from city to city across the US, somewhat like a haint. You can find her hiking with her dog or reading with her cat. She is a slush reader for Apex Magazine.