The Bloodless Birth of Blood & Spades: In the Words of Marge Simon
Being invited to Marge Simon’s Blood & Spades column in the monthly newsletter is, for many of us, a goal to aspire to. I’ve found many of the poets I love in her column and feel privileged to have been a guest once or twice. Here, in Marge’s own words, is how this dark poetry staple came about. This will also be my last poetry blog post. From here, Sumiko Saulson will be taking over the Dark Poetry Blog. We are in good hands. –aySmith
Pete Kelly is a poet and one time voice of the band Gothamistic. He has been a horror fan since birth, so he says. He works as a shipwright when not puddle watching. A Pushcart nominee for his poem “Walk in the woods,” published in 
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, 
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.
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), America
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 
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 
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
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)
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 
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.
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
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 
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 Rome, Italy, where his heart resides always.
Naomi Simone Borwein is a poet and academic. Her work appears or is forthcoming across a spectrum of publications: 
J.E. Erickson is the author of 
