DESCENT INTO LIGHT: Mike Allen’s Home Page

This post is a little late, but then that tricksy Larry Santoro ran my column a little early! Regardless, there’s a new “Tour of the Abattoir” up at Tales to Terrify, in which Shalon Hurlbert and I talk about Let the Right One In in

Monday, I mentioned selling my new short story “Still Life With Skull” to Solaris Rising 2: The New Solaris Book of Science Fiction. What I didn’t mention was the minor miracle involved in finishing it and the people I need to thank. See, as it

Tonight I’ll be performing my poem “The Strip Search” at The Best of  the Best of No Shame Theatre, 8 p.m. at Mill Mountain Theatre’s Waldron Stage on Church Avenue in downtown Roanoke. The show is close to sold out already, but I believe there

† This coming Wednesday at The Lyric Theatre in Blacksburg, I’ll be giving a presentation, “How to Run a Successful Kickstarter,” as part of PechaKucha Night Volume 3. The music starts at 6 p.m., the show at 7 p.m., space and tickets are limited. (The

Man, have I got a lot of stuff going on. Anita and I will be there starting Thursday, July 12. Friday July 13 11:00 AM NH    Group Reading: Mythic Poetry. Mary Agner, Mike Allen, Erik Amundsen, Leah Bobet, C.S.E. Cooney, Gemma Files, Gwynne Garfinkle, April

Karen Burnham, who runs the Locus Roundtable at Locus Online, has rounded up a series of speculative poetry-related posts, podcasts and interviews for the month of May, and I got to be first out of the gate. Here’s my guest blog post: “Let us go

Tales to Terrify is the new sister podcast to StarShipSofa, focused exclusively on horror. Madman Tony C. Smith invited me to contribute a monthly column to Tales to Terrify. I just finished recording the first installment. I’m calling it “Tour of the Abattoir.” Said abattoir

Here’s a curious turn for you: I’m once again being asked to teach in a reputable setting. Saturday, January 28 at 9 a.m. on the Hollins University campus, I’ll give a presentation called “The Last Redoubt: Writing Short Stories for Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror

Tonight I’m going to read three brief short stories as part of a Studio Roanoke event called “The Big Idea.” I adore how they’ve billed me: Featuring Death Newman, Chris Shepard, Illusions by Nelson Oliver, and creepiness from Mike Allen! Sat. Oct. 29th, 8PM, $5.00

Anita and I intend to host a book launch for C.S.E. Cooney’s Jack o’ the Hills and Nicole Kornher-Stace’s The Winter Triptych from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday — it should serve as something of a bridge between the Steam-Powered: Lesbian Steampunk Stories reading and