This twelfth issue of Hippocampus Press's award-winning journal of weird poetry begins with David Barker's affecting acrostic sonnet in memory of the late W. H. Pugmire. Contributions by other leading contemporary poets--Leigh Blackmore, Frank Coffman, Adam Bolivar, Benjamin Blake, Christina Sng, and many others--are scattered throughout the issue. We also find vivid and evocative prose poems by Maxwell I. Gold, Manuel Arenas, and Wade German. Thomas Tyrrell writes a poem in tribute of renowned fantaisiste Lord Dunsany; Don Webb evokes the shade of Edgar Allan Poe; Carl E Reed draws upon the work of Arthur Machen; and Manuel P rez-Campos pays homage to the comic book Creepy. Nicole Cushing contributes a poem that fuses grimness and beauty, while Scott J. Couturier teases out the horrific potential of Greek myth. Two classic reprints--by Ernest Dowson and Arthur Symons--hint at the bountiful stores of weirdness in poetry of the turn of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. S. T. Joshi offers his assessment of Wade German's recent poetry collection, while Donald Sidney-Fryer waxes eloquent about D. L .Myers's long-awaited omnibus.

Spectral Realms No. 12: Winter 2020

Literature & Fiction

Sng, Christina

Coffman, Frank

History & Criticism

Hippocampus Press

The willow is femininity, desire, death. Rebirth. With its ability to grow from a single broken branch, it is the living embodiment of immortality. It is the yin that wards off malevolent spirits. It is both revered and shunned. 
In Tortured Willows, four Southeast Asian women writers of horror expand on the exploration of otherness begun with the Bram Stoker Award-winning anthology Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women. 
Like the willow, women have bent and bowed under the expectations and duty heaped upon them. Like the willow, they endure and refuse to break. 
With exquisite poetry, Christina Sng, Angela Yuriko Smith, Lee Murray, and Geneve Flynn invite you to sit beneath the tortured willow’s gravid branches and listen to the uneasy shiver of its leaves.

Tortured Willows: Bent. Bowed. Unbroken.

Smith, Angela Yuriko

MURRAY, Lee

Flynn, Geneve

Poetry

Yuriko Publishing LLC

Mothers protect, nurture, love, and adore...but what if they are more than just their title? In these 33 stories and poems, we examine what motherhood is and explore mothers of all kinds. With over 300 pages of horror, dark fantasy, science fiction, and poetry, we introduce the motivations and compulsions that make up a mother-both good and evil. Whether they are robot mothers, evil stepmothers, or sociopathic mothers-to-be, these stories will illuminate what's really going on inside of that woman we think we know so well...Mother.

Mother: Tales of Love and Terror

EVENSON, BRIAN

Langan,John

Files, Gemma

Iglesias, Gabino

Piper, Hailey

Becker, Willow Dawn

Tem, Steven Rasnic

Coles, Donyae

Genre Fiction

Weird Little Worlds

Tales of the Talisman 6-1

Dorr, James S.

Mitchell, Karen Anne

Smith, Joy V.

Brines, Mike

Tavares, Frank

Hadrosaur Productions

Hold your screams and enter a world of seasonal creatures, dreams of bones, and confessions modeled from open eyes and endless insomnia. Christina Sng’s A Collection of Nightmares is a poetic feast of sleeplessness and shadows, an exquisite exhibition of fear and things better left unsaid. Here are ramblings at the end of the world and a path that leads to a thousand paper cuts at the hands of a skin carver. There are crawlspace whispers, and fresh sheets gently washed with sacrifice and poison, and if you’re careful in this ghost month, these poems will call upon the succubus to tend to your flesh wounds and scars. These nightmares are sweeping fantasies that electrocute the senses as much as they dull the ache of loneliness by showing you what’s hiding under your bed, in the back of your closet, and inside your head. Sng’s poems dissect and flower, her autopsies are delicate blooms dressed with blood and syntax. Her words are charcoal and cotton, safe yet dressed in an executioner’s garb. Dream carefully. You’ve already made your bed. The nightmares you have now will not be kind. And you have no one to blame but yourself.

A Collection of Nightmares

Raw Dog Screaming Press

Recipient of the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Poetry A Collection of Dreamscapes by Christina Sng is an exploration of the darkness inside us, the shadow-self that screams and begs, forever fighting to claw itself out. It's a siren song of transformation, an uncovered diary that bleeds fairy tales and dystopias, and it reads like a grimoire full of spells and curses that bring monsters and madmen to life. Between these pages, readers will meet women who hide behind the taste of poisoned apples, who set themselves on fire, who weep at riverbanks, the taste of freedom too much to swallow, too heavy to bear. They will be whisked away to faraway lands and unimaginable worlds, the drip of fog-soaked dreams a steady flow down their throats while they choke on betrayal and bathe in the waters of tears twice cried.Sng's poems are a blend of dark fantasy and science fiction, a changeling's whisper and an ogre's cry. They are both subtle and violent, and they weave themes of empowerment and strength through stars and earthquakes, forcing us to push away the rubble and look at what we've had to do to survive. They are the sacrifice in the forest and the haunting in the house, every gasp and ancient fear a reflection of the violence we've had to bury deep inside ourselves, all those battle cries and reimagined dreams we desperately try to forget. Here, Sng marries blood and magic, forever walking hand-in-hand with scar and ash, their imprints both a nightmare and a blessing, a dream and the truth.Swallow them carefully. Once they're inside you, there's no getting them out.

A Collection of Dreamscapes

"Almond-eyed celestial, the filial daughter, the perfect wife. Quiet, submissive, demure. In Black Cranes, Southeast Asian writers of horror both embrace and reject these traditional roles in a unique collection of stories which dissect their experiences of otherness, be it in the colour of their skin, the angle of their cheekbones, the things they dare to write, or the places they have made for themselves in the world. Black Cranes is a dark and intimate exploration of what it is to be a perpetual outsider."--Publishers description.

Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women

Chupeco, Rin

Bulkin, Nadia

Mason, Rena

Cuyegkeng, Elaine

Yuriko Smith, Angela

Lee, Gabriela

United States

Omnium Gatherum Media

A collection of tiny terrors from Bram Stoker Award winner Christina Sng. The Gravity of Existence is a weight lifted, a monster freed, a princess with sneakers, a spell for a better world. From one of the leading voices in dark verse, this collection delights in the misunderstood, putting a new spin on werewolves, basilisks, sirens, ghosts, aliens, pandemics, fairy tales, and myths. Sng gives new voice to classic heroines and the result is terrifying, magical, and fantastic.

The Gravity of Existence: Poems

Self-Help

Relationships

Interstellar Flight Press

Sing O Muse, of the rage of Medusa, cursed by gods and feared by men…\nFrom the mists of time, and ages past, 
The muses have gathered; hear now their songs.\nA web of revenge spun ‘neath the moon; 
A poet’s wife who breaks her bonds; 
A warrior woman on a quest of honor; 
A painful lesson for a treacherous heart; 
A goddess and a mortal, bound together by the travails of motherhood. 
And more.\nListen to the muses, as they sing aloud…HER story.\nMusings of the Muses, 65 stories and poems based on Greek myths, is an anthology of monsters, heroines, and goddesses, ranging from ancient Greece to modern day America. They, like the myths themselves, cast long shadows of horror, fantasy, love, betrayal, vengeance, and redemption. This anthology revisits those old tales and presents them anew, from her point of view.

Musings of the Muses

Townend, SJ

Ellis, Stephanie

Vassallo, Heather

Blackstone, Callie S.

Lappin, Kenzie

Cleaveland, Kristin

Wenzel, Romy Tara

Dillon, Ruschelle

Brigids Gate Press, LLC

A transcendental anthology of women in horror, altering all you know by revamping traditional lore while exploring the unfathomable and the obscure.Prepare yourself for a harrowing journey through Dastardly Damsels, an anthology that redefines horror with a powerful lineup of female authors. This collection dares to explore the darkest corners of the human psyche and the supernatural, presenting a diverse range of chilling narratives that will captivate and unsettle you.From the Victorian Era's haunted secrets to futuristic global disasters, Dastardly Damsels serves up an array of stories that blend psychological fear with mythological intrigue. Dive into tales of revenge with a twist, where women wield dark powers and confront terrifying entities, from cannibalistic horrors to vengeful ghosts. Experience the suspense of a secretive stripper turned avenger, a gladiatrix with a taste for brutality, and a peculiar elevator with a sinister personality.If you're ready for a blend of suspense and horror narratives that push the boundaries of traditional lore, Dastardly Damsels is your ticket to an unforgettable reading experience.

Dastardly Damsels

HOLDER, NANCY

Rose, Rie Sheridan

Kilpatrick, Nancy

Lockhart, Suzie

Wolfe, Jezzy

Publishing, Crystal Lake

Kassa, Naching T.

Halbert, Marianne

Fortier, Mary Genevieve

Crystal Lake Publishing

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