Spectral Realms No. 20 (Winter 2024)

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Published by our friends at Hippocampus Press! Edited by S. T. Joshi. Cover artwork: Pinckney Marcius-Simons, La Vision du Demon (Vision of a Demon), c. 1900. Cover design by Dan Sauer. 6x9 paperback, 134 pages.

Hippocampus Press is proud to commemorate ten years of our acclaimed journal of weird poetry, Spectral Realms, with the publication of the twentieth issue.

As before, it contains a diverse array of poetry by today’s leading versifiers in the realm of horror and the supernatural—John Shirley, Scott J. Couturier, Frank Coffman, Manuel Pérez-Campos, Ngo Binh Anh Khoa, Leigh Blackmore, Ann K. Schwader, and a host of others. Maxwell I. Gold and Jay Sturner contribute provocative prose poems, while a cadre of poets pen tributes to Dylan Thomas (Carl E. Reed’s “Echoing Dylan Thomas”), Robert W. Chambers (David J. Kopaska-Merkel’s “A Vision of Carcosa”), Emily Brontë (Michael Potts’s “After Heathcliff Digs Up Cathy”), and the imperishable Shakespeare (Kyla Lee Ward’s “Malvolio’s Revenge”).

Among the classic reprints are poems by the Scottish writer William Sharp and the Weird Tales poet Mary C. Shaw. The issue concludes with a detailed index of poets and poem titles to issues 11–20.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Poems

Memento Mori / John Shirley
Into the Mouth of the Sea / Maxwell I. Gold
For an Autumn Willow / Scott J. Couturier
The Baker at the Beggar’s Wedding / Amelia Gorman
The Tryst / Frank Coffman
Salute to Robert E. Howard: A Texas Writer / Carl E. Reed
Miranda’s Resolve / Kyla Lee Ward
dark wishes / Lee Clark Zumpe
A Casting Out: A Failure / Benjamin Blake
Dark Axiom / Manuel Pérez-Campos
Mother of Our Fate / DJ Tyrer
A Hollow Heart / Deborah L. Davitt
The Bone Man / Joshua Green
Necropolis / Kurt Newton
Lord and Lady / Andrew White
The Moon Is Made of Cat / Katherine Kerestman
The March / Ngo Binh Anh Khoa
Verses inspired by Le Horla / Scott J. Couturier
Shoggoths / Leigh Blackmore
Some Books Are Forbidden for Good Reason / Darrell Schweitzer
Primal Night / Ann K. Schwader
Night of the Dove / David Barker
Tatterjack; or, The Murder of Mother Goose / Adam Bolivar and Steven Withrow
Gaia’s Prophecy / John Shirley
Echoing Dylan Thomas; or, A Cri de Coeur from Reader to Writer / Carl E. Reed
That Was Epic / Maxwell I. Gold
Reading by Ghost Light / Dmitri Akers
How Love Fled / Simon MacCulloch
Moonfog / Wade German
Anathema / Lori R. Lopez
The Gorgon Queen / Ron L. Johnson II
The Savage Fantasies of Mr. Arbuthnot / Manuel Pérez-Campos
After Heathcliff Digs Up Cathy / Michael Potts
The Doom / Geoffrey Reiter
The Monsters of the Moor / Frank Coffman
In Lakewood Cemetery / Tylor James
Sacred / Lee Clark Zumpe
vampire dragon: a haiku / Kendall Evans
The Great and Final Feast / Jay Sturner
Lunar Mission / Katherine Kerestman
Beneath the Mirror Moon / Ngo Binh Anh Khoa
The Torment of Flame / Deborah L. Davitt
Love Came upon a Darkling Night / William Clunie
Hic Aqua Est / Joshua Gage
Malvolio’s Revenge / Kyla Lee Ward
By Creator Forsaken / Scott J. Couturier
Grave-Robbing 2.0: Intermediate / Darrell Schweitzer
A Vision of Carcosa / David C. Kopaska-Merkel
The Night of Mirth and Magic / Andrew White
There upon the Threshold / Carl E. Reed
Telos Falling / Maxwell I. Gold
Daughters of Phorcys / Wade German
Ravensong / Lori R. Lopez
Of Shapeshifters Spawned by the Revolution / Manuel Pérez-Campos
Sea Dream / Simon MacCulloch
Dark Sister / Lee Clark Zumpe
Infernal Nocturne / Ngo Binh Anh Khoa
The Skeleton Dance / Joshua Green

Classic Reprints

A Dream / William Sharp
Fog / Mary C. Shaw

Reviews

Mythology and Cosmicism / S. T. Joshi

Notes on Contributors

Index to Spectral Realms 11—20