The Seers’ Table May 2024

Kate Maruyama, Member of the Diverse Works Inclusion Community

Linda D. Addison recommends:

Pixie Bruner is a poet, writer, editor, and cancer survivor. She lives in Atlanta with her doppelgänger and some sketchy cats. Her poetry has been published or forthcoming in Space & Time Magazine, Crystal Lake Publishing, Star*Line, Punk Noir, Dreams and Nightmares, and more. The Body As Haunted (Authortunities Press) is her debut poetry collection. She wrote for White Wolf Gaming Studio. HWA and SFPA Member.

Recommended Reading: The Body as Haunted (Authortunities Press, April 2024)

Poem from the collection:

Petit Mals I-III 

I
The sun is too strong in mornings.
The mom plant has withered,
I carve my lover into lean slices,
so his mother will never find out.

II
The words that came out
were the wrong words entirely
Instead I uttered a knotted maraschino stem
but I swear I meant “I love you”.

III
I hear him speaking in his sleep between snores
drunkenly having a conversation with a ghost
He mumbles the coordinates with enough enunciation
I leave my body as he gnaws on my hair.

Follow Bruner at: Facebook: pixiebruner; Substack: pixiebruner; Twitter: MokeyGrey

Book cover art by Gemma Files.

 

And

Christina Lux holds a Ph.D. in Romance Languages from the University of Oregon, a Certificate in Conflict Resolution from Cornell University, and Certificates in Conflict Analysis, Negotiation, and Mediating Violent Conflict from the United States Institute of Peace. She served as a short-term Cultural Envoy to Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, where she led creative writing workshops with youth who had survived the civil war. Her book of poetry, War Bonds, was recently published by FlowerSong Press. Her poetry has appeared on National Public Radio, in the Houston Chronicle, and in textbooks by Oxford University Press, as well as in journals such as Women’s Studies Quarterly and Consilience. Born in Pasadena, California, she lived in Planada, California for several years before moving to Texas, then Québec, followed by five years in Cameroon, returning to the U.S. for university studies. She is currently Managing Director of the Center for the Humanities at the University of California, Merced.

Recommended Reading: War Bonds (FlowerSong Press, March 2024).

Excerpt, two poems:

 

wingspan

para Alicia

do you know the wingspan of poems?
soaring across the border?
smashing the bits in our mouths?
so our tongues may stutter, skipping
through languages
to build the beat of radical love?

#

weight of water

do you know the weight of water?
carried on the head for a mile?
sprayed by cannons?
scooped to wash the bodies of your dead?

#Cameroon #Afghanistan

Follow the author at: Twitter: @ca_lux; Instagram: @christinaluxwriting; Facebook: @caluxwriting .

Geneve Flynn recommends:

Pamela Jeffs is an Australian horror author with a love for writing short fiction. Pamela has published six short story collections, co-authored an anthology with Aiki Flinthart, titled The Zookeeper’s Takes of Interstellar Oddities, and published 90+ short stories in various national and international magazines and anthologies including SNAFU: Punk’d (Cohesion Press) and Lawless Lands: Tales from the Weird Frontier (Falstaff Books). She has been shortlisted for multiple awards throughout her career including numerous Aurealis Awards, Ditmar Awards, and has been noted multiple times in the Writers of the Future Competition. This year, Pamela is a three-time Aurealis Award finalist and a two-time Australian Shadows Award finalist. For more information, visit her at http://www.pamelajeffs.com.

Recommended Reading: Precarious Waters and Other Dark Tales.

Excerpt from Precarious Waters and Other Dark Tales:

I lift my seal chin as a hundred-strong pod of dolphins surge into the protected bay. They are herded by a cluster of ramshackle boats, all bristling with handheld harpoons and string nets. Fisher folk line the rails, their individual details blurred with distance—all except for one man. And I recognise him. The grey-blond captain of the lead boat stands in the bow, dark eyes thinned against the wind and a harpoon in hand. His red jumper is a shock of colour against the clean blue of the water.

A chill ripples across my pelt.

The dolphins mill in the centre of the bay, voices cacophonous and dorsal fins chopping the water to whitecaps. Chitters and squeaks grow desperate as the animals are pinned against the shoreline.

“Ram the boats,” cries a large bull. He turns and, with nose down, dives—a bullet through the water.

He is the first to die, his blood spilled by a harpoon through his back.

The pod panics. Torpedo bodies, silver and blue, leap from the water, twisting, desperate to out-manoeuvre the fishermen. Dolphins scatter in all directions. Their songs dissect the air, heavy with terror and anguish.

The fishermen target the calves first. The shrieks of dying infants tremble through the water. Their mothers reply, slowed by grief as they try to push the floating corpses of their young to safety. Then they too fall to harpoons.

Soon the sea roils red.

Review for The Zookeeper’s Tales of Interstellar Oddities: “… a showcase for the fecund imagination of two of Australia’s ingenious writers of speculative fiction, Aiki Flinthart and Pamela Jeffs …” — Clare Rhoden, Aurealis Magazine

To discover more books by Pamela Jeffs and be notified of new releases, deals and specials, visit and subscribe at http://www.pamelajeffs.com.

Twitter: @Pamela_Jeffs
Facebook: @pamelajeffsauthor
Bluesky: @pamelajeffs.bsky.social
Author photo credit: Sarah Bradford Photography

Kate Maruyama recommends:

I’m always on the lookout for those quiet, excellent writers. Sara Chisolm has been writing spooky stuff for a number of years now, and when I heard her read from her short story at an event at Altadena Library, she knocked my socks off. I wanted to make sure her work got out there, only to find she’s already making a dent! Her bio: Sara Chisolm is a speculative-fiction writer based in the Los Angeles area. Her most recent short story appears in Issue 30 of Fiyah Magazine out now! You can catch her hoarding coffee in a corner of a local bookstore, hunched over her laptop, writing speculative fiction.

Recommended reading:

From her short story, “We Found Love as the Undead” featured in Made in LA, Volume Three:

The outlines of her round face and full lips were being kissed by the light of the paper lanterns. Her hair appeared like an ink spill, overlapping shadows and hanging slightly in her hooded eyes. The picture moved, smiling and winking at Satoshi as he filled in the curves of her full-figured body. He felt sticky. A layer of fresh sweat formed over him. He stopped spraying and shook the can when the delicate translucent beads of spray splattered unevenly over his curled-up fingers. Sparks flew from the can, signaling him to end his painting.

His masterpiece began to frown. Akiko’s lovely smooth face rippled as if a stone were skimmed on the surface of a pond or lake. She became rough where she’d been smooth, colorful where she’d been pure light. The twirling glow of the lanterns caught it all. Akiko’s lopsided face resembled a colorful lollipop that had been abandoned on the sidewalk to the mercy of the sun. Her limbs bent outward, as if her body could never regain its own balance. Her black hair shivered into a shocking violet color. There was something primal in her permanent sneer. Satoshi felt his spine twitch as he drew back his body.

The creation sat up and glared at Satoshi. “I get more unfuckable every time you bring me back. This is ruining my love life.”

You can follow Sara on Twitter @LamDemelam or on Instagram @chisolm.sara