In December: Tom Piccirilli, Bram Stoker Award Winner

☢ To finish up 2014, a year that has seen the HWA Poetry Page shine a spotlight on Bram Stoker Award winning poets (as well as publishing the first HWA book of poetry), I’m honored to present an interview with poet Tom Piccirilli, who won the very first Bram Stoker Award for Poetry for A Student Of Hell in 2000. His latest book of poetry, Forgiving Judas, is now available. HWA: Any chance you still have the first poem you ever wrote, or something equally early in your poetry career? TP: No, I wouldn’t want to subject anyone to my…

Dark Poetry Scholarship Rules

Rules – The Dark Poetry Scholarship. Authority – the Dark Poetry Scholarship is established by the authority of the Horror Writers Association Board. Only Horror Writers Association (HWA) members in good standing as of 1 March in the year the Award is given are eligible to receive either Scholarship. As a result, only those persons who are members of the HWA may apply. The application period shall be between 1 November and 31 December. The Board will appoint a sub-committee of no less than three members, who will be the sole determinants of the winners of each Scholarship. The sub-Committee…
The Manufacturer of Sorrow by Michelle Scalise

In November: “Michelle Scalise and The Manufacturer of Sorrow”

☢ Michelle Scalise's poetry has appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines. She was nominated for the 2010 Spectrum Award which honors outstanding works of fantasy and horror that include positive gay characters and the 2000 Rhysling Award for poetry. Her fiction has received honorable mention in Years Best Fantasy and Horror and her first collection, Intervals of Horrible Insanity, was listed as one of the top ten books of 2003 by SFSite. Her fiction collection, Collective Suicide, was published by Crossroad Press in 2012. Eldritch Press has just published a collection of her poetry, The Manufacturer of Sorrow, and Michelle was gracious enough…

In October: “Bram Stoker nominated poet Stephanie Wytovich”

☢ To celebrate Halloween, the HWA Poetry Page will be covering another 2013 Bram Stoker nominated poet: Stephanie Wytovich. Stephanie’s collection, Hysteria: A Collection of Madness, is an intense and thrilling debut that has me eagerly anticipating her next book (more on that later). To help celebrate this Halloween season, Stephanie dropped by the virtual HWA Poetry Page HQ for an interview: HWA: Do you still have the first poem you ever wrote? Would you be willing to share it? SW: I actually do not. When I was younger, I kept all of my poetry in a collection of notebooks…

In September: “A Spotlight on Sandy DeLuca”

☢ Continuing to look closer at the poets nominated for the 2014 Bram Stoker Award, this month’s Poetry Page shines a spotlight on Sandy DeLuca, who was nominated along with poet Marge Simon for Dangerous Dreams, from Elektrik Milk Bath Press. In addition to her poetry, Sandy is also an artist. SD: My paintings are influenced by my own distinct world. Always changing. Sometimes bright splashes of color—without shape—fill my canvases. Other times figures emerge, eccentric women, with large eyes and fingernails painted black. Some occupy strange landscapes. Some are inspired by the fiction and poetry I write. Others are…

In August: “Bruce Boston’s Dark Roads”

☢ This month’s Poetry Page shines a spotlight on Bruce Boston. His collection, Dark Roads, was nominated for the Stoker this year. Bruce’s poetry and fiction have appeared in hundreds of publications, including Asimov's SF, Amazing Stories, Realms of Fantasy, Strange Horizons, Weird Tales, The Pedestal Magazine, The Twilight Zone Magazine, Year's Best Fantasy & Horror, and the Nebula Awards Showcase. His poetry has received the Bram Stoker Award, the Asimov's Readers' Award, the Rhysling Award of the Science Fiction Poetry Association, the Balticon Poetry Award, and the Grandmaster Award of the SFPA. His fiction has received a Pushcart Prize…

In July: “Embrace the Hideous Immaculate by Chad Hensley”

The HWA Poetry Page is going to take a one-month break from covering the 2013 Stoker nominees in order to cover a 2014 poetry publication. One of my goals for the HWA Poetry Page is introduce new poets with an in-depth look at their debut poetry collections. This month, we’ll be looking at Embrace the Hideous Immaculate by Chad Hensley. One of the most interesting stories behind this collection is the wonderful series of events that lead to the publication of Embrace the Hideous Immaculate. So interesting, in fact, that I wanted to present the same story from two different…

In June: “Superior Achievement in Poetry Collection: Four Elements”

for Superior Achievement in Poetry Collection: Marge Simon, Rain Graves, Charlee Jacob, and Linda Addison— Four Elements (Bad Moon Books/Evil Jester Press) Linda Addison: http://www.cith.org/linda/ Bad Moon books: http://www.badmoonbooks.com/home.php Marge Simon: http://www.margesimon.com Rain Graves: http://raingraves.blogspot.com Charlee Jacob: http://www.charleejacob.com Evil Jester Press: http://eviljesterpress.com/main We’ll be exploring the other nominated works in more depth throughout 2014 but I wanted to begin with the winner of the Stoker. Four Elements is a thoughtful, intriguing, brilliant and beautiful work (four adjectives, one for each element, obviously) that is a well-deserved winner. To celebrate, I interviewed Linda Addison and Rain Graves along with Roy K.…
In May: “Inaugural HWA Horror Poetry Showcase” Part II

In May: “Inaugural HWA Horror Poetry Showcase” Part II

"Acceptances for those poems chosen to be in the Inaugural HWA Horror Poetry Showcase ebook have been sent out. Thank you to everyone for all of your wonderful submissions." ☠ With well over 100 submissions from around the world, the Inaugural HWA Horror Poetry Showcase has come to an end. There was an astounding breadth of subject matter and themes and styles and all of them had one thing in common: the desire to scare the reader, to shine a light into the darkness. It has been a tremendous honor for all those poets to trust their poems to us.…

In May: “Inaugural HWA Horror Poetry Showcase”

☠ With well over 100 submissions from around the world, the Inaugural HWA Horror Poetry Showcase has come to an end. There was an astounding breadth of subject matter and themes and styles and all of them had one thing in common: the desire to scare the reader, to shine a light into the darkness. It has been a tremendous honor for all those poets to trust their poems to us. In addition, I wanted to thank Marge Simon and Jonathan Maberry for their dedication to the Showcase. Many hours were spent discussing these poems and I’m thrilled to finally…

In April: “Bram Stoker Award Nominees: Super Achievement in a Poetry Collection”

On May 10, the 2013 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection will be given to one of the following five nominated works. Since April is National Poetry Month and the Horror Writers Association is celebrating with our inaugural Horror Poetry Showcase, I wanted to celebrate the five nominated collections as well, to provide a glimpse into the brilliant world of "horror poetry." Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection Bruce Boston – Dark Roads: Selected Long Poems 1971-2012 (Dark Renaissance Books) Helen Marshall – The Sex Lives of Monsters (Kelp Queen Press) Marge Simon and Sandy DeLuca…

HWA Horror Poetry Showcase

To celebrate National Poetry Month, the Horror Writers Association will be holding their inaugural HWA Horror Poetry Showcase in April 2014. Open to all poets, the Showcase will be accepting submissions throughout the month of April with four poems chosen by HWA member judges to be honored on the HWA website. Submission Guidelines: Submissions will be accepted via Submittable from April 1-30, 2014 and all rights will remain with the poets. Those interested in submitting should visit www.horror.org on or after 1 April to access the submissions link. We are looking for more than "blood, guts, worms," etc. Just being…
In March: “Found Poetry” with Terrie Leigh Relf & HWA Poetry Showcase Announcement

In March: “Found Poetry” with Terrie Leigh Relf & HWA Poetry Showcase Announcement

Poet Terrie Leigh Relf talks about “Found Poetry” and shares a little bit of herself and her own work this month. Personally, before reading this article, I’d never heard of “Found Poetry” and it’s a fascinating literary field. Special thanks to Terrie for pulling back the curtain a little on a lesser known form of poetry. ☠ What Is Found Poetry and Where-Oh-Where Can It Be? by Terrie Leigh Relf While on staff at Alban Lake Publishing, one of our regular contributors and a writer friend, Lauren McBride, asked me about found poetry. When she requested an article on this…
Strangulation

February in Poetry: “Women in Horror” & Introduction by Peter Adam Salomon, Editor

'Strangulation' by Marge Simon In the ‘November in Poetry’ column, poet Wendy Rathbone touched on an eternal truth that is so vital that I wanted to follow up on it. Wendy spoke of the ‘earliest and best known darker tales’ being poems: “Beowulf,” “The Iliad,” “The Odyssey.” Dark poetry continues throughout known history from Dante’s “Inferno” to Milton’s “Paradise Lost” to William Blake to Poe. This month, I’d like to go back even further in time, to show just how important the darkness has been, not just to poetry, but to all literature. One of the oldest surviving works of literature…

November in Poetry: Wendy Rathbone’s “Why I Love Dark Poetry”

With extreme pleasure, I'm thrilled that our guest this month is Wendy Rathbone. She has has had over 500 poems published in various magazines and anthologies including Asimov's and Strange Horizons, and dozens of stories published in anthologies such as: Hot Blood, Writers of the Future 7, Bending the Landscape, Mutation Nation and more. Her newest short story "I Keep The Dark That Is Your Pain" will be published in the 2014 anthology: A Darke Phantastique. Her new sf novel Pale Zenith from Eye Scry Publications is available in print at http://goo.gl/12A7lx or Kindle at http://goo.gl/oSkCw5. Her omnibus poetry book…

September in Poetry: Conlon, MacAllister, McWhorter, Sutter, Schwader, Marshall, and Giron

This month we have an eclectic group of poems from some bright stars poetry-- Greg McWhorter, D.G. Sutter, Ann K. Schwader, Amy K. Marshall, S. J. Giron and Carol MacAllister. We also have another treat in store for you this time! Our guest is none other than Christopher Conlon. One of the brightest stars of contemporary literature, Chris is now delving into genre poetry and prose.

August in Poetry: Boston, Faherty, Schwader, MacAllister

This month we have a reprinted column from the Blood and Spades column by the brilliant Bruce Boston, as well as a host of reprinted poetry from other luminaries--JG Faherty,  Ann K. Schwader, and Carol MacAllister--of the HWA. The poems were selected this month to exhibit the versatile styles and voices of our members, and next month we have a number of additonal pieces which define our poets' originality and their unique perception of the world. *** ILLUMINATING THE PROSE POEM by Bruce Boston * The human mind is prone to create labels in order to understand the world around…
July in Poetry: Dorr, Deininger, Faherty, Bilof

July in Poetry: Dorr, Deininger, Faherty, Bilof

This time we have the poetry of Keith Deininger, J G Faherty and Vincenzo Bilof. We also are including an archived Blood & Spades column by James Dorr. *** Art copyright Sandy DeLuca 2013 * "Memento of Truth" by Vincenzo Bilof   You can die this way, cry this way, hide this day, burn this fate. Nobody has to unravel the mystery behind my eyes, the natural and super-mystical way I carve into your thighs. Slightly, (one gash) a sordid, artistically-placed em-dash. Is that a tear I see fall from those bright white orbs?   (Can't you see)   this…

Welcome to Poetry Awareness

*** Welcome, we're kicking off Poetry Awareness with a new poem by Marge Simon, from her Stoker nominated book THE MAD HATTERY...among other goodies... Lovecraft's Wife   I owned a hat shop when we met, a tradeswoman of distinction, beloved by my aunts, who frowned when they saw his long jaw and meager prospects.   "Sonia," he would say, "may we dine at home, as proper folk, for I fear your aunts will eat me live."   And I would tell him otherwise, for I so craved human company, after reading his most gruesome tales, that crept into the fine…

Interview with Bruce Boston at Darkeva’s Dark Delights

Darkeva interviews World Horror Convention’s Poet Guest of Honor, Bruce Boston. Darkeva: There’s definitely a strong contingent of poets among the sci-fi/fantasy/horror communities, and you’re certainly one of the most accomplished with publications in all the top magazines. Tell us a bit more about how you got your first few sales. BB: I was publishing poetry in literary magazines, mostly non-paying, some of it speculative, throughout the 1970s, though I didn’t yet have the label “speculative” for it. I’d also sold a few science fiction stories to commercial anthologies. In 1978 I saw a market report for a magazine titled…