Five Great Children’s Poetry Collections for National Poetry Month

Five Great Children’s Poetry Collections for National Poetry Month

I love poetry. Good poetry, like good prose, makes you think and makes you feel. With April being National Poetry Month, I thought I'd take the opportunity to look at some excellent horror poetry collections for young readers. Writing horror for children is a unique balancing act of being scary but not too scary. Add in meter, rhythm, and often rhyme and it can be difficult to pull off. Each of the books below have definite creep factor while still being fun and accessible to the younger reader. So if you are thinking of writing your own young horror poetry,…

The Seers’ Table May 2019

The Seers Table April 25, 2019 by HWAWeb Linda Addison, Member of the Diverse Works Inclusion Community May contains Cinco de Mayo, a celebration of victory; challenge the mundane and check out some new creators! Janet Holden introduces: Amanda Lovelace – Growing up a word-devourer and avid fairy tale lover, it was only natural that Lovelace began writing books of her own, and so she did. When she isn’t reading or writing, she can be found waiting for pumpkin spice coffee to come back into season and binge-watching GILMORE GIRLS. (Before you ask: Team Jess all the way.) The lifelong poet and storyteller currently…

The Seers’ Table April 2019

The Seers Table March 25, 2019 by HWAWeb Linda Addison, Member of the Diverse Works Inclusion Community April contains Earth Day; why not discover some ultra-earthly creators! Ace Antonio Hall introduces:      Akwaeke Emezi was born and raised in Nigeria. They received their MPA from New York University and was awarded a 2015 Miles Morland Writing Scholarship. Emezi also won the 2017 Commonwealth Short Story Prize for Africa. Freshwater is their phenomenal debut novel. Recommended work: Freshwater (Grove/Atlanta, Inc., 2018) ISBN: 0802128998, 9780802128997 About the book: Ada has always been unusual. As an infant in southern Nigeria, she is a source of deep concern to her family. Her parents…

The Seers’ Table March 2019

The Seers Table! February 26, 2019 by HWAWeb Kate Maruyama, Member of the Diverse Works Inclusion Community Linda Addison Recommends: Nibedita Senis is a queer Bengali writer, editor, and gamer from Calcutta. She acquired several English degrees in India before deciding she wanted an MFA, too, and that she was going to move halfway across the world for it. She’s a graduate of Clarion West 2015, and her work has appeared in Anathema: Spec from the Margins, Podcastle, Nightmare (June 2018, Issue #69), and Fireside. These days, she can be found in New York City, where she helps edit Glittership,…

The Seers’ Table February 2019

The Seers Table! January 28, 2019 by HWAWeb Linda Addison, Member of the Diverse Works Inclusion Community February contains National Freedom Day, so free your mind by reading something different! Theresa Derwin introduces Aaron Dries By day, Aaron Dries works as a mental health and homelessness case manager. By night, he writes fiction to keep his sanity. His novels include House of Sighs and its sequel The Sound of His Bones Breaking, Where The Dead Go To Die (co-authored with Mark Allan Gunnells), A Place For Sinners, and The Fallen Boys. His short fiction has been published in anthologies and…

2018 Bram Stoker Awards® Final Ballot

The Horror Writers Association announces the 2018 Bram Stoker Awards® Final Ballot. The HWA is the premier organization for writers of horror and dark fantasy. “This year’s nominees demonstrate a continued lineup of quality work in the horror genre,” said Lisa Morton, HWA President. “Our members and awards juries have again chosen truly outstanding works of literature, cinema, non-fiction, and poetry.” The presentation of the Bram Stoker Awards® will occur during the 4th annual StokerCon™, to be held at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The gala presentation will happen on Saturday night, May 11th. Tickets to…

2018 Bram Stoker Awards® Update

Please note the Final Ballot of nominees for the 2018 Bram Stoker Awards® will be announced on February 23. The main timeline is as follows: February 23: Announcement of Stoker Nominees – the Final Ballot – on the HWA website, via Special IM, on the HWA Facebook page, and by Press Release. Works appearing on this Ballot are Bram Stoker Award® Nominees for Superior Achievement in their Category, e.g., Novel, and everyone may refer to them as such immediately after the announcement. Important Notes for those Appearing on the Final Ballot: If your work appears on the Final Ballot (i.e.,…

Poetry and Related Sources and Links — A 2019 Update

Poetry and Related Sources and Links — A 2019 Update  By David E. Cowen Author of Bleeding Saffron and Editor of HWA Poetry Showcase Vols. III and IV   While waiting for the Bram Stoker Award to move on to the next level (and hopefully the  inclusion on this blog of excerpts from the final poetry nominee’s works) I thought it would be useful to refresh the obvious — “where do I send my poetry.” The HWA has its own list of markets as does the Science Fiction Poetry Association. Members such as Ashley Dioses have added a list to…

2018 Lifetime Achievement Award Winner Announced

Graham Masterton – Lifetime Achievement Award This year the Horror Writers Association announces Graham Masterton as Lifetime Achievement Award winner. He will receive the award at StokerCon™ 2019, held at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Masterton has provided many years of dedicated commitment to the horror community and the writing and publishing industry. “Members on the selection committee have fond memories of Masterton’s books,” reported HWA President, Lisa Morton. “Graham Masterton has influenced many horror writers. We are truly thrilled to bestow him with this award.” HWA offers the Lifetime Achievement Award once a year and…

Members New Releases – 2019

Welcome to the showcase of member publications! Select a book cover to purchase or learn more about it or the author. You can view the wall of amazing cover art from past years by using the dropdown in the menu above. And members, please sign into the members-only area to submit upcoming releases. Thank you!

The Seers’ Table – January 2019

The Seers Table! December 25, 2018 by HWAWeb Janet Holden, Member of the Diverse Works Inclusion Community In the northern hemisphere the days are short, the nights are long, while down south the summer season approaches. What better time to curl up with a good book or watch a good movie? Here are our suggestions for January. Janet Holden suggests Laura Purcell is a former bookseller and lives in Colchester with her husband and pet guinea pigs. Her first novel for Raven Books, The Silent Companions, won the WHSmith Thumping Good Read Award 2018 and featured in both the Zoe…

The Seers’ Table – December 2018

The Seers Table Kate Maruyama, Member of the Diverse Works Inclusion Community Happy December! Just in time for your holiday shopping, our Seers’ Table brings you some creepy, wonderful reading! Linda Addison recommends: Zig Zag Claybourne. Zig Zag Claybourne grew up watching The Twilight Zone and considers himself a better person for it. His fiction and essays have appeared in Apex, Strange Horizons, Vex Mosaic, Stupefying Stories, UnCommon Origins, The City (a cyberfunk anthology), and more. He loves promoting great art and posing the Great Questions, such as whether or not anybody can ever be funkier than Prince. You can…
YA Writing Prompt: Cabin Fever

YA Writing Prompt: Cabin Fever

Young Horror brings you writing prompts to energize your week with spooky writing idea inspiration. Are you writing picture books, chapter books, middle grade, or YA? Your next great idea could be sparked right here. The Horrors of Winter Break Ah...take a breath, because December brings with it Winter Break. There's a short vacation for kids, teens, and parents from the usual routine of packing lunches, school buses, and homework. Picture togetherness, smell the holiday spices, taste the hot cocoa, feel the soft flannel of matching family pajamas. Sometimes, there can be TOO much togetherness. If the weather's terrible or the…
Murder Most Fowl and Other Holiday Horrors

Murder Most Fowl and Other Holiday Horrors

Somewhere in the United States this moment, a large turkey—with glorious plumage, I would like to imagine—doesn’t know that he’s already been selected for presidential pardon for the American Thanksgiving holiday next week. In classrooms across the country, kids are consuming read-aloud picture books about other turkeys running from feast centerpiece fates. Many classroom games and educational activities are built to the theme of staving off the imminent death of the turkey—hide the turkey, disguise the turkey. Can you, young schoolchild, alter this bird’s fate and save his life? It’s all fun and games, and then we expect the child…

The Seers Table November 2018

Linda Addison, Member of the Diverse Works Inclusion Community November contains National Pizza Day; enjoy new work with your meal! Andrew Wolter recommends Larissa Glasser is a librarian, genre writer, and queer trans woman from Boston. Her short fiction has appeared in Wicked Haunted (New England Horror Writers), Tragedy Queens: Stories inspired by Lana Del Rey and Sylvia Plath (Clash Books), Procyon Science Fiction Anthology 2016 (Tayen Lane Publishing), and The Healing Monsters, Volume One (Despumation Press). Larissa co-edited Resilience: Surviving in the Face of Everything, a collection of stories by trans writers (Heartspark Press) and which was a nominee…

A Portrait of the Halloween Expert as a Young Woman By Lisa Morton

When my father passed away in 2015, I received an unexpected and lovely inheritance: thousands of color slides, many of which featured me as a baby, a toddler, and a child. One of the reasons this was remarkable was because I really thought there weren’t many photos around of me as a kid. My mom only had a handful, and for some reason – even though I remained close to my dad after my parents split up – I hadn’t realized he had so many photos. I bought a little device that would allow me to digitize the slides and…