Twisted in Dream: The Collected Weird Poetry of Ann K. Schwader

Praise for Ann K. Schwader's poetry: Ann Schwader, poet and "imaginer" par excellence, represents in her considerable mythopoeic art something at once remarkably novel and yet somehow reassuring despite her often dystopian vision. She deploys her craft and technique to offer us in depth a wide range of adventures, past, present, and future, whether alluring, distressing, or horrific. -Donald Sidney-Fryer The dark and enchanting verse of Ann K. Schwader weaves layers and labyrinths of wonder and beauty. Her work burns with language perfumed with mighty magic. It is not to be missed! -Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. Ann K. Schwader's intoxicating poetry is as authentically Lovecraftian as it is brilliantly original. This is poetry that is truly transporting. Superb! -W. H. Pugmire It takes more than mastery of rhyme, meter, euphony, and alliteration to preserve the emotional essence of the weird poetry of Lovecraft, Chambers, and Frank Belknap Long. Ann Schwader's poetical vision re-evokes the same senses of terror based on the weird prose she offers in rhythmical form. It is as though one is reading the dreams of a gargoyle. -Fred Phillips, author of From the Cauldron From early inspiration by H. P. Lovecraft, and later science fiction, Ann K. Schwader's own voice speaks ever more confidently and resonates with messages profound and relevant, universal and perennial. -Charles Lovecraft If Yog-Sothoth knows the gate, is the gate, is the key and guardian of the gate, then likewise, Ann K. Schwader's weird verse opens a gate to lonely places where the Words have been spoken and the Rites howled through at their Seasons. Schwader's verse-haunting, evocative, arresting in both conception and imagery-gibbers like Old Ones' voices on the wind, and like the earth that mutters with Their consciousness. -Leigh Blackmore, author of Spores from Sharnoth