HOLISTIC HORRORS: An interview with Dave Jeffery

Trigger Warning: This article addresses mental health. An interview with Dave Jeffery Today on Holistic Horrors I have the privilege to interview my HWA Wellness Committee co-chair, Dave Jeffery, about his short story, “A Latent Lament for Heather Menzies”, which appears in Strange Tales of Terror (editor Eugene Johnson from Independent Legions). In the story the protagonist suffers from late-stage dementia, including aphasia and immobility. It’s a tough topic, and one Dave treats with sensitivity and poignancy. Thanks for joining us, Dave.  
Coming to a Shelf Near You: Poetry Showcase Volume X

Coming to a Shelf Near You: Poetry Showcase Volume X

Submit your poem here from April 15-May 15. A decade ago, Peter Adam Salomon had an excellent idea. He wanted to recognize horror and dark poetry as a genre. He brought his idea to then president Rocky Woods and the first HWA Poetry Showcase was born. The response from our membership was excellent and the Showcase has been published every year since. Many of us can credit the Showcase with boosting our careers. I'm one of those—my first professional sale as a poet was to Peter for Volume II. Were it not for his encouragement, I wouldn't be here now.…

YOU WILL NEVER BE FREE OF ME

Trigger Warning: This article addresses mental health. Henry Corrigan is a bestselling author, husband, father, and bisexual creative who loves to write every kind of story. His debut horror novel, A Man in Pieces, won the Silver Medal from Literary Titan and went to #1 in U.S. Horror Fiction on Amazon. Always an avid reader, Henry started writing poetry in middle school, but it wasn’t until he started writing erotica in high school that he really learned the mechanics of writing. What started out as private stories and love letters, soon became publications in anthologies. As a member of the…

Celebrating National Haiku Writing Month: The Thrills of Horror Haiku

As February marks National Haiku Writing Month, it's time to explore the dark and eerie side of poetry. Horror haiku presents a unique opportunity to craft spine-tingling tales in just three lines often using a pattern of 5-7-5 syllables. These mini-stories can evoke fear and suspense, making them perfect for fans of horror and thriller genres. In this post, we'll go over tips and ideas for writing effective horror haiku that will send shivers down your reader's spines. First and foremost, horror haiku should have a strong visual element. Use vivid imagery to paint a picture in your reader's mind…

OLD WIVES’ TALE

Trigger Warning: This article addresses mental health.   Cindy O’Quinn is a four-time HWA Bram Stoker Award-nominated writer. Born and raised in the mountains of West Virginia, now living and writing on the old Tessier Homestead in northern Maine.

HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THE RAIN? │ Tim Waggoner

Trigger Warning: This article discusses mental health. Written by Tim Waggoner In addition to being a writer, I teach composition and creative writing at Sinclair College in Dayton, Ohio. In my composition courses, I tell students to avoid beginning their essays with “According to Webster’s Dictionary . . .” and then defining a term that readers are already familiar with. “We don’t need to know what a dictionary says,” I tell them. “We need to know what you say.” So guess what I’m about to do? According to John Hopkins Medicine website, “Dysthymia is a milder, but long-lasting form of…

Carina Bissett reads from POETRY SHOWCASE IX

Carina Bissett joins us today with a reading of their poem, "A Lacing of Lavender" from Poetry Showcase IX. If you haven't purchased your copy yet of the newest Poetry Showcase, it's just one click away. Better yet, collect the whole series! Reviews and shares are always welcome. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmw0QL5oNIk Carina Bissett is a writer and poet working primarily in the fields of dark fiction and fabulism. Her short fiction and poetry have been published in multiple journals and anthologies including What Remains, Upon a Twice Time, Bitter Distillations: An Anthology of Poisonous Tales, Arterial Bloom, Gorgon: Stories of Emergence, Weird…

SERPENT’S WAKE: ADDRESSING TRAUMA AND RECOVERY

Trigger Warning: This article addresses mental health An interview with L.E Daniels This month on Holistic Horrors, the Wellness Committee is pleased to welcome author-editor L.E. Daniels (Lauren Elise) to talk about her novel Serpent’s Wake: A Tale for the Bitten, a beautiful and powerful novel which addresses themes of mental illness and recovery. A Rhode Islander living in Australia, Lauren Elise Daniels earned her MFA in Creative Writing with Emerson College in the 1990s. Her novel, Serpent’s Wake: A Tale for the Bitten was published in 2018. With Geneve Flynn, she co-edited Aiki Flinthart’s legacy anthology, Relics, Wrecks and…

Madison McSweeney reads from POETRY SHOWCASE IX

Madison McSweeney joins us today with a reading of their poem, "Cannibal Mutant Maneating Spider" from Poetry Showcase IX. If you haven't purchased your copy yet of the newest Poetry Showcase, it's just one click away. Better yet, collect the whole series! Reviews and shares are always welcome. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IGkcyHYjXQ Madison McSweeney is the author of The Doom That Came to Mellonville (Filthy Loot), The Forest Dreams With Teeth (Demain Publishing), and the poetry collection Fringewood (Alien Buddha Press). Her short fiction has appeared in American Gothic Short Stories and Zombie Punks F*ck Off. She lives in Ottawa, Ontario, blogs at…

Corinne Hughes reads from POETRY SHOWCASE IX

Corinne Hughes joins us today with a reading of their poem, "Meadows" from Poetry Showcase IX. If you haven't purchased your copy yet of the newest Poetry Showcase, it's just one click away. Better yet, collect the whole series! Reviews and shares are always welcome. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIXBEUR6b_8 Corinne Hughes is a queer poet and fiction writer. Her work has been supported by Tin House and the National Book Foundation. Her poetry can be found in Passengers Journal, Cathexis Northwest Press, Cirque Journal, Grim and Gilded, and is forthcoming in the next SMEOP anthology by Black Sunflowers Poetry Press. She currently serves…

Rook Riley reads from POETRY SHOWCASE IX

Rook Riley joins us today with a reading of their poem, "Strange Geometry" from Poetry Showcase IX. If you haven't purchased your copy yet of the newest Poetry Showcase, it's just one click away. Better yet, collect the whole series! Reviews and shares are always welcome. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OWxGKNuEUw Rook Riley is a horror author, game enthusiast, and all-around linguistic badass trained in Krav Maga and spoon warfare.  Hobbies include binge-watching Netflix and collecting tattoos.

Colleen Anderson reads from POETRY SHOWCASE IX

Colleen Anderson joins us today with a reading of their poem, "Our Lady of Holy Death" from Poetry Showcase IX. If you haven't purchased your copy yet of the newest Poetry Showcase, it's just one click away. Better yet, collect the whole series! Reviews and shares are always welcome. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYEZ_3YE0kI Colleen Anderson is a multiple award nominee, with poetry widely published in many venues, including Andromeda Spaceways, Lucent Dreaming, Shadow Atlas and Heroic Fantasy Quarterly. Colleen lives in Vancouver, BC and is a Canada Council and BC Arts Council grant recipient for writing and has performed her work before audiences…

Sumiko Saulson Reads as a Showcase 8 Alumni

Sumiko Saulson joins us today with a reading of their poem, "On Darkest Night of Faerie Bright" as a Poetry Showcase Alumni. If you haven't purchased your copy yet of the newest Poetry Showcase, it's just one click away. Better yet, collect the whole series! Reviews and shares are always welcome. https://youtu.be/DWiCbRwv90g Sumiko Saulson is an award-winning author of Afrosurrealist and multicultural sci-fi and horror whose latest novel Happiness and Other Diseases is available on Mocha Memoirs Press. Winner of the HWA Scholarship from Hell (2016) BCC Voice "Reframing the Other" contest (2017), Mixy Award (2017), Afrosurrealist Writer Award (2018),…

Ai Jang reads from POETRY SHOWCASE IX

Ai Jang joins us today with a reading of her poem, "A Barrening Mother" from Poetry Showcase IX. If you haven't purchased your copy yet, it's just one click away. Better yet, collect the whole series! Reviews and shares are always welcome. https://youtu.be/TLvrj75_HIg Ai Jiang is a Chinese-Canadian writer and an immigrant from Fujian. She is a member of HWA, SFWA, and Codex. Her work can be found in F&SF, The Dark, Uncanny, The Puritan, Prairie Fire, The Masters Review. Her debut novella Linghun (April 2023) is forthcoming with Dark Matter INK. Find her on Twitter (@AiJiang_) and online (http://aijiang.ca).

Leigh Hennig reads from POETRY SHOWCASE IX

Leigh Hennig joins us today with a reading of his poem, "The Interview" from Poetry Showcase IX. If you haven't purchased your copy yet, it's just one click away. Better yet, collect the whole series! Reviews and shares are always welcome. https://youtu.be/NmBVpTHxD58 R. Leigh Hennig is a writer, editor, and horror enthusiast living with his beautiful wife and three awesome kids in coastal New England. Previously he taught a series of classes on horror in literature with the King County Library System in Seattle, has written numerous essays on disability in speculative fiction (along with the usual slew of science…

Denise Dumars reads from POETRY SHOWCASE IX

Denise Dumars joins us today with a reading of her poem, "Cusp of Conjure" from Poetry Showcase IX. If you haven't purchased your copy yet, it's just one click away. Better yet, collect the whole series! Reviews and shares are always welcome. https://youtu.be/J0uYDTyL9bQ Denise Dumars is a widely published, award-winning poet, short fiction, and nonfiction writer. Her poetry collection Paranormal Romance: Poems Romancing the Paranormal, was nominated for the Elgin Award. Each October she participates in a vampire poetry performance troupe called Casketeria, with appearances in Los Angeles and Orange Counties. Her column "Stealth SF: Finding Speculative Poetry in Non-Genre…

Colleen Anderson reads from POETRY SHOWCASE IX

Colleen Anderson joins us today with a reading of her poem, "Our Lady of Holy Death" from Poetry Showcase IX. If you haven't purchased your copy yet, it's just one click away. Better yet, collect the whole series! Reviews and shares are always welcome. Colleen Anderson is a multiple award nominee, with poetry widely published in many venues, including Andromeda Spaceways, Lucent Dreaming, Shadow Atlas and Heroic Fantasy Quarterly. Colleen lives in Vancouver, BC and is a Canada Council and BC Arts Council grant recipient for writing and has performed her work before audiences in the US, UK and Canada.…

Hillary Dodge reads from POETRY SHOWCASE IX

Hillary Dodge joins us today with a reading of her poem, "Something to Know About the Wind At the Cliff House" from Poetry Showcase IX. If you haven't purchased your copy yet, it's just one click away. Better yet, collect the whole series! Reviews and shares are always welcome. https://youtu.be/KoIG_0nDVls Hillary Dodge is an award-winning editor and author of several speculative short fictions as well as three nonfiction books. She spends a good deal of time traveling, going places that are forbidden, and eating. She once had tea with a Roma in a cave in the mountains of Spain. Another…

Jamal Hodge reads as a Showcase 8 Alumni

Jamal Hodge joins us today with a reading of his poem, "The Silence of God" as a Poetry Showcase Alumni. If you haven't purchased your copy yet of the newest Poetry Showcase, it's just one click away. Better yet, collect the whole series! Reviews and shares are always welcome. https://youtu.be/j-GbMgeLxHU JAMAL HODGE is a multi-award-winning filmmaker and writer from Queens NYC who has won over 70 awards with screenings at Tribecca Film Festival, Sundance, and the Cannes Short Film Corner. He has directed the first season of Investigation Discovery Channel's Primal Instinct' and has come on as a Producer on…

Monica S. Kuebler reads from POETRY SHOWCASE IX

Monica S. Kuebler joins us today with a reading of her poem, "Blowtorch" from Poetry Showcase IX. If you haven't purchased your copy yet, it's just one click away. Better yet, collect the whole series! Reviews and shares are always welcome. https://youtu.be/UMO6Ar3GLMY Monica S. Kuebler is co-coordinator of the Ontario Chapter of the Horror Writers Association and has spent the last two decades wearing a variety of editorial hats at Rue Morgue magazine, for whom she penned Rue Morgue Library #3: Weird Stats and Morbid Facts. She also writes poetry and monster stories; her young adult vampire serial ‒ which…