The Seers’ Table May 2023

Linda D. Addison, Member of the Diverse Works Inclusion Community You can see any of “The Seers’ Table” posts since inception (March 2016) by going to the HWA main page and selecting menu item “Our Blogs / Diverse Works”. Tish Jackson recommends: Tamika Thompson has been writing for her whole adult life, crisscrossing genres until landing squarely into horror with her new fiction collection Unshod, Cackling and Naked. As someone who writes for the love of the written word, she wears all the hats—author, producer, and journalist—while creating worlds for readers to fall into. She carries degrees from Columbia and…

Asian Heritage in Horror: Introduction by K.P. Kulski

K.P. KULSKI is a Hawaii-born Korean-American author, historian, and career vampire of patriarchal tears. Channeling a lifelong obsession with history and the morose, she’s managed to birth the gothic horror novel Fairest Flesh and novella House of Pungsu. She bartered nine years of her life to the U.S. Navy and Air Force for food and later taught college history to a captive audience. Trapped by a force field, she currently resides in the woods of Northeast Ohio where she (probably) brews potions and talks to ghosts. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter: @garnetonwinter or visit garnetonwinter.com.   API/ANHPI Heritage Month…

Celebrating Our Elders: An Introduction by Linda D. Addison

Linda D. Addison, award-winning author of five collections, including How To Recognize A Demon Has Become Your Friend, the first African-American recipient of the HWA Bram Stoker Award®, received the HWA Mentor of the Year Award, the HWA Lifetime Achievement Award and SFPA Grand Master of Fantastic Poetry. Her site: www.LindaAddisonWriter.com. Introduction:  HWA Celebrating Our Elders interview series by Linda D. Addison The word wisdom is often used when talking about Elders, but what does that mean? Of all the meanings for this word, common sense is one that stood out to me. When we say someone has good common sense,…

Poets of the Dark: Interview with Denise Dumars

Denise Dumars has published hundreds of poems in journals, magazines, and anthologies, as well as authoring several volumes of poetry. She has been nominated for the Rhysling Award for speculative poetry several times, the Dwarf Stars award for poems of under 10 lines, and her book, Paranormal Romance: Poems Romancing the Paranormal, was nominated for the Elgin award. She is currently nominated for the Pushcart Prize. A retired college English professor, Denise is a fulltime writer now, writing fiction and nonfiction as well as poetry. Denise speaks on poetry and reads poetry at various conferences and conventions, including the The…

Poets of the Dark: Interview with Amanda Worthington

Amanda Worthington is a writer of the speculative whose work is alternately dark and whimsical. When she's not writing, she's probably enjoying the great outdoors, reading, working a crossword, or cuddling one of her 3 floofy cats. Her newest release is No Quarter: A Novella in Verse. What sparked your interest in horror poetry? Was there a particular event or work that inspired you to delve into the darker side of poetry? When I was about 12, I returned home from school one day and confessed that I hated reading because it was boring. My bibliophile mother would have none of…

Poets of the Dark: Interview with Colleen Anderson

Colleen Anderson is a Canadian author writing fiction and poetry and has had two collections and over 300 poems published in such venues as Grievous Angel, Polu Texni, The Future Fire, HWA Poetry Showcase and many others. She is a member of HWA and SFPA and a Canada Council grant recipient for writing. She has performed her work before audiences in the US, UK and Canada and has placed in the Balticon, Rannu, Crucible and Wax poetry competitions. Colleen also enjoys editing and co-edited Canadian anthologies Playground of Lost Toys (Aurora nominated) and Tesseracts 17, and her solo anthology Alice…

REVIEW: Whalefall by Daniel Kraus

Daniel Kraus’ novel, WHALEFALL, was reviewed by the HWA’s Mental Health Initiative Notable Works readers. On its surface, WHALEFALL is a story of Jay Gardiner, a young man swallowed by a sperm whale. His determination to escape the whale is charted on one timeline, while the backstory of significant life events is traced on another. Jay is Jonah, his old self annihilated in the belly of the beast, and his biblical journey becomes something deeply personal. The dive is not just into the ocean, but into the unexplored depths of Jay’s depression, grief, survivor guilt, abuse, and most importantly, reaction to…

Poets of the Dark: Interview with Madison McSweeney

Madison McSweeney is the author of The Doom That Came to Mellonville (Filthy Loot), The Forest Dreams With Teeth (Demain Publishing), and the poetry chapbook Fringewood (Alien Buddha Press). Her short fiction has appeared in anthologies like Zombie Punks F*ck Off (Weirdpunk/CLASH), American Gothic Short Stories (Flame Tree), and Nightmare Sky (Death Knell Press). She lives in Ottawa, Canada, tweets from @MMcSw13 and blogs at www.madisonmcsweeney.com What sparked your interest in horror poetry? Was there a particular event or work that inspired you to delve into the darker side of poetry? The first poem I can remember writing back in primary school was super spooky, so I think I’ve always been this way. I was…

Poets of the Dark: Interview with Suzanne Reynolds-Alpert

Suzanne Reynolds-Alpert is a Technical Services Librarian who writes short fiction and poetry in the horror, scifi, and dark fantasy genres. Her short stories have appeared in the anthologies Dastardly Damsels (forthcoming), Wicked Women, The Final Summons, and Killing It Softly (Vol.1). Read her poetry in the HWA Poetry Showcase Vol. VI, the anthologies Beneath Strange Stars and Wicked Witches, and in The Wayfarer: A Journal of Contemplative Literature. She published a short collection of poetry, Interview with the Faerie (Part One) and Other Poems of Darkness and Light in 2013. When not working, Suzanne can be found reading, exploring…

Poets of the Dark: Interview with Austin Gragg

Austin Gragg is a queer writer, poet, and stay-at-home dad. He’s been a finalist and multi-honorable mention in the Writers of the Future Contest, and Publishers Weekly has praised Austin’s dark fantasy as “decadent”. Austin spent four years working on the venerable Space & Time Magazine (Est. 1966) and closed his time there with a two-issue run as editor-in-chief. Formerly, Austin has been a public librarian, digital literacy instructor, and IT guy of all stripes. He studied creative writing at UMKC and lives in his hometown of Independence, MO with his partner, daughter, and four lovely, obnoxious cats. What sparked…

Poets of the Dark: Interview with Timothy P. Flynn

Timothy P. Flynn is a dark poet from Massachusetts. His previous poetry resides in Space and Time magazine, Anthocon’s book collections: Anthology Years 1-3, Wicked Tales, Wicked Creatures, Scifaikuest, haikuniverse, Haiku Journal and the HWA Poetry Showcase Vol 5 & Vol 6, and in the current HWA Poetry Showcase Vol 9. Flynn's first chapbook, Embrace the Madness, is available via eBook on Amazon. He is a member of the New England Horror Writers, an Affiliate member of the HWA, and recipient of the 2021 HWA Dark Poetry Scholarship. Follow him on Twitter: @TimothyPFlynn or on Instagram: instagram.com/timothypflynnwriter What sparked your…

Poets of the Dark: Interview with Steven Clapp

Steven Clapp is a horror and speculative fiction author from Southern California.  His past publication credits include a poem in the Horror Writers Association poetry anthology, Poetry Showcase Vol. 9 along with several short stories published in San Diego Writers Ink's annual anthology, A Year in Ink (Vol.12-15) as well as winning San Diego Writers Ink's Edgar Allan Poe Short Story Contest in 2018. Prior to that, his story "Freak"  was published in the Australian e-zine The Mind Creative. April, 2014) What sparked your interest in horror poetry? Was there a particular event or work that inspired you to delve…
Nuts and Bolts: Writing Tips From Master of Horror Joe R. Lansdale

Nuts and Bolts: Writing Tips From Master of Horror Joe R. Lansdale

Nuts and Bolts: Writing Tips From Master of Horror Joe R. Lansdale By Tom Joyce Joe R. Lansdale is the author of nearly four dozen novels, including Rusty Puppy, the Edgar Award-winning The Bottoms, Sunset and Sawdust, and Leather Maiden. He has received nine Bram Stoker Awards, the American Mystery Award, the British Fantasy Award, and the Grinzane Cavour Prize for Literature. He lives with his family in Nacogdoches, Texas. Whether it’s horror, a western, or a crime thriller, you’ll never get bored reading a Joe R. Lansdale story. In this month’s edition of “Nuts & Bolts,” the splatterpunk pioneer and multi-genre legend…

Poets of the Dark: Interview with Lori R. Lopez

Lori R. Lopez wears many hats as an award-winning Author and Poet.  She is also an Artist, Songwriter-Musician, Actress, Filmmaker, Tree-Hugger, Activist, Vegan, and Animal-Lover.  Lori roamed graveyards as a kid and conducted funerals for dead birds, squirrels, insects and spiders.  Her offbeat books include The Dark Mister Snark, An Ill Wind Blows, Darkverse:  The Shadow Hours, Odds & Ends, The Fairy Fly, Leery Lane, and The Witchhunt.  Stories and verse have appeared in The Sirens Call, Spectral Realms, Space & Time, JOURN-E, The Horror Zine, Weirdbook, Bewildering Stories, Impspired, Altered Reality, Aphelion, Oddball Magazine, Terror Tract; Anthologies such as…

Poets of the Dark: Interview with Cassondra Windwalker

Cassondra Windwalker has roamed the South, the Midwest, the West, and currently haunts the Frozen North in the company of a tolerant husband, a zombie cat, a ghost dog, and a miscellany of ghasts who sometimes share their stories over a cup of tea (or a dram of whisky.) Her novels and full-length poetry collections are available in bookstores and online. She enjoys interacting with creatives and reasonably decent people of all sorts on Twitter @WindwalkerWrite. What sparked your interest in horror poetry? Was there a particular event or work that inspired you to delve into the darker side of…

Poets of the Dark: Interview with Tania Chen

Tania Chen is a Chinese-Mexican queer writer of living nightmares. Their work was selected for Brave New Weird Anthology by Tenebrous Press, and has also appeared in Unfettered Hexes by Neon Hemlock, Apparition Lit, Strange Horizons, Pleiades Magazine, Baffling Magazine, Longleaf Review, The Dread Machine among others. They are a graduate of the Clarion West Novella Bootcamp workshop of 2021 and a recipient of the HWA’s Dark Poetry Scholarship. Currently, they are assistant editor at Uncanny Magazine and can be found on twitter@archistratego or mastodon at @archistratego@wandering.shop What sparked your interest in horror poetry? Was there a particular event or…

Poets of the Dark: Interview with Gerri Leen

Gerri Leen lives in Northern Virginia and originally hails from Seattle. In addition to being an avid reader, she's passionate about horse racing, tea, and collecting encaustic art and raku pottery. She has stories and poems in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Nature, Strange Horizons, Dark Matter and others, and has a poetry collection coming out from Trouble Department. She’s a member of SFWA and HWA. See more at gerrileen.com. What sparked your interest in horror poetry? Was there a particular event or work that inspired you to delve into the darker side of poetry? The shows I…

Poets of the Dark: Interview with John Claude Smith

John Claude Smith has had three collections and two novels published, along with tales and/or poems in Vastarien, Pluto in Furs, the HWA Poetry Showcase series, and many more magazines and anthologies. His debut novel, Riding the Centipede, was a Bram Stoker Award Finalist. He is presently shopping two novels—one weird horror, one a non-traditional spin on vampires and werewolves—and an apocalyptic, music-based horror novella. Another novel is in final revisions, while there’s a fiction collection and a poetry collection in the works, too. Busy is good. He splits his time between the East Bay across from San Francisco, and…

Poets of the Dark: Interview with Naomi Simone Borwein

Naomi Simone Borwein is a poet and academic. Her work appears or is forthcoming across a spectrum of publications: Space & Time Magazine, HWA Poetry Showcase IX (featured Poet), Beautiful Tragedies III, dancing girl press, Ghost City Review, Grim & Gilded, Ghostlight, Farside Review, Superpresent Magazine, Soliloquies Anthology, and elsewhere. Naomi is a past head poetry editor of Swamp Writing (2018-2022)—and a reader for Thanatos Review. Her academic writing spans from Horror and the Gothic into Experimental Mathematics education and mathematical philosophy. What sparked your interest in horror poetry? Was there a particular event or work that inspired you to…

Poets of the Dark: Interview with J.E. Erickson

J.E. Erickson is the author of Offerings to the Flower Moon: The Tale of the Abrams Witch (October 2022) and Dust Bunnies From Hell (October 2023). He currently writes horror and fantasy stories, and lives in an old house in the Midwestern United States with a nerdy soap maker, two spoiled dogs, and a (potentially) possessed vegetable garden. You can visit him at jeericksonwriting.com or on Twitter @maladjustined. What sparked your interest in horror poetry? Was there a particular event or work that inspired you to delve into the darker side of poetry? Poetry has always been difficult for me,…