The first issue of Inkscrawl has just appeared, featuring a creepy little poem called “Unland, Unlife,” which I wrote based on a dream my wife had.
Several other good pieces in this issue, though I feel a need to call special attention to Rose Lemberg’s “If I had Reb Yoel’s violin,” which is devastating in a mere six lines.
The latest podcast from Hugo Award-winning StarShipSofa features the second installment of Diane Severson’s Poetry Planet, which, in the name of exploring the theme of “first contact,” contains two of my poems, “The Thing in the Gutter” and “On Discovery of a Habitable World.” The second of these is actually the first sf poem I ever tried my hand at.
I’m pleased to note that the podcast also contains Ann K. Schwader’s “The Ones Who Met Them,” which I’m proud to have published in Issue 21 of Mythic Delirium, also known as “The Trickster Issue.”
I’m pleased to announce that the following poems by the following poets have been accepted for Issue 25 of Mythic Delirium, which I hope to have out in early October.
Congratulations, all!
Further updating: Issue 24 is now collated and will go to the printer for binding on Monday.
And, again, if you sent me something for Issue 25 and you haven’t heard back from me yet, you need to query me. Like really, really, really soon…
If you sent me any poems to be considered for Issue 25 of Mythic Delirium and you haven’t received a response, you need to query. To my knowledge, at this moment, I have given everyone an answer.
My hope is to see Issue 25 on its way to people’s mailboxes in early October.
Now, to get Issue 24 finished….
Last week Tor Books released Nebula Awards Showcase 2011, edited by Kevin J. Anderson. Its publication marks a nice milestone for me as an editor that I feel the need to make a little note of.
The book reprints Saladin Ahmed’s “Hooves and the Hovel of Abdel Jameela,” a 2009 Nebula finalist for Best Short Story that I first published in Clockwork Phoenix 2: More Tales of Beauty and Strangeness, and Amal El-Mohtar’s “Song for an Ancient City,” the 2009 Rhysling Award winner for short poem, which I published in Mythic Delirium 19. In other words, an editorial double whammy.
Mind you, Saladin and Amal are both intimidatingly good writers, and I think these pieces would have done well wherever they wound up. But I’m proud that I got to showcase them first.
My poem “Splendours to Devour” has just appeared in the June issue of Ideomancer. It’s a rather quirky end-of-the-world poem, inspired in part by a conversation with my pal Nicole Kornher-Stace. If you like it, I hope you’ll leave a comment there.
Last week I mentioned a poetry sale to a market so new it didn’t yet have an URL. Well, inkscrawl now has a URL, http://www.inkscrawl.net/, where submission guidelines can be found. Go check them out.
My brain is scrambled by the opposing forces of a virus invasion and the drugs that fight them, but I’m just coherent enough to make mention that I’ve sold another of the “Claire-dare” poems, “Heart’s Delight,” to Not One of Us. This poem in particular was prompted by Nicole Kornher-Stace, who offered me this delightful image to work with:
Presenting, at last, the cover art for Mythic Delirium 24:
So, obviously, the issue itself won’t be reaching folks until June. We apologize sincerely for the delay.
I can however offer some proof that the issue is worth the wait. Alexa Seidel has written a review that’s now up at the Fantastique Unfettered website:
“[A] venture into lightheartedness” is what editor Mike Allen calls this latest issue of Mythic Delirium. The poetry assembled here certainly makes for an excellent adventure, and lightheartedness often plays a part, but even so, all these lyrical quests have a weighty center.
Congrats to contributors Elissa Malcohn, Ian Watson, Marcie Lynn Tentchoff, Lucien E.G. Spelman, Serena Fusek and Shira Lipkin, whose poems receive special mention.
