Book Review: Inhuman, by Joshua Gage

I've had this book for a year or so now, but haven't been able to find the time to read it until this week.  Zombies have invaded popular culture for a while now, and there's plenty of zombie poetry to be found.  Some of it is good, and some of it is crap that people are just throwing out there to try to make money.  Inhuman: Haiku from the Zombie Apocalypse is a strong collection of zombie poetry that can stand with the best of them.

Inhuman is a small chapbook of zombie poems, written by Joshua Gage.  It's almost pocket-sized (5.5" x 8.5") and it's only 36 pages long.  The book is broken into four sections: Genesis, Outbreak, Invasion, and Survival.

The haiku in this book paint a vivid picture of how the zombie apocalypse begins.  Gage shows you exactly what takes place, in stark snapshots of terror and confusion.

open grave
the moonlight glistens
on coffin splinters

Some of the poems bring the scenes into focus, while others are jagged action shots.  All are good, and make this an outstanding collection.

subway doors
the stretch of its skin
before it rips free

There are far too many good poems to list or describe them all here.  Gage is a master poet, using the haiku form effectively.  Punctuation is minimal, letting the images speak for themselves.  The haiku are spread out enough that they don't seem crowded on the page.

The book includes poems that have been published in journals and magazines, including Fear and Trembling, Niteblade, Scifaikuest, and more.  There is an excellent introduction by Deborah P. Kolodji that discusses both zombie poetry in general and this collection in particular.

Inhuman: Haiku from the Zombie Apocalypse is #18 in The Poet's Haven Author Series, published in May 2013.  It sells for $6 on both the Poet's Haven website and Amazon.com.  It is well worth the price.  Inhuman is the best collection of zombie haiku I've read.

Belated congrats to Josh Gage

I know this is late, but I just found out about it. Congrats to Joshua Gage for winning the 2010 Flip Kelly Poetry Prize! That's a pretty big deal. You can read one of his winning poems, a haunting take on a popular fairy tale, below the announcement.

Book review: Intrinsic Night

Intrinsic Night is a book of cinquains co-authored by two of speculative poetry's rising stars, J.E. Stanley and Joshua Gage. Many (but not all) of the poems are speculative in nature -- some fantasy and horror but a lot of science fiction.

The cinquain is a hard form to write in, because it's so constraining, but both Stanley and Gage seem to have mastered it. This collection boasts 68 pages of cinquains, including some linked or sequential poems. Several of the poems have appeared in other publications, like Lilliput Review, Amaze: The Cinquain Journal, and Goblin Fruit.

The poems are broken into different sections, and don't appear to be in any particular order with regards to the poets themselves. Sometimes they alternate, while other whole pages will be devoted to either Stanley or Gage. This randomness of authorship works well, leaving the reader unable to nail down a specific rhythm between the two poets.

There are many great poems in this book, like Gage's "Kerouac:"

his ghost
haunts the highways,
watching the horizon
like a wisp of cigarette smoke,
thumb up

While the back of the book says that the cinquains contained within are "intended more to jog your mind... than to clarify the great secrets of existence," some of the poems do delve deeper, like Stanley's "Intraocular Implant:"

The lens
in my right eye
should last for thirty years.
What then, might it see after I
am gone?

Many of the poems in Intrinsic Night are allusory, referring to fairy tales, mythologies, or even mathematics. Some of these allusions went over my head, but that speaks more toward my ignorance than anything else.

Intrinsic Night is a solid collection of cinquains written by two talented poets. The book is professionally printed and perfect bound, with cover art by Scott Virtes. It is available from The Genre Mall for $5.85 plus shipping.

some new books, random news

For anyone looking for new books to read (or give as gifts), two new books have just cropped up from Sam's Dot Publishing. The first is a collaboration from poets Joshua Gage and J.E. Stanley titled Intrinsic Night. The book is a collection of cinquain, and it can be pre-ordered from the Genre Mall for $5.85 plus shipping. There are some sample poems from the book on Josh Gage's blog.

The second book is a novella by Niteblade editor Rhonda Parrish, "Shades of Green." The scheduled release date is January 1st, 2010, so it should be available for pre-order sometime before then. The book is set in the same world as her story "Sister Margaret," which has gotten some great reviews.

In other news, Necrography has just announced it will be closing. Another good magazine gone by the wayside. If you haven't read the first (and only) issue, copies are still available from the website.

For haiku enthusiasts, Don Wentworth (editor of Lilliput Review) has just announced the 2nd Annual Basho Haiku Challenge. Up for grabs this time is a copy of Bashō and His Interpreters: Selected Hokku with Commentary, edited by Makoto Ueda, as well as a 15-issue subscription to Lilliput Review. Winners will also be published in the contest anthology (and receive free copies). Entry is free, and the deadline is Oct. 31st.

two calls for submissions

We have two markets today in need of your submissions. The first comes from speculative poet Joshua Gage:

Many poets sent scifaiku in for the promotional pamphlet that Deborah Kolodji distributed at HNA and WorldCon. So many, in fact, that I was forced to make some really difficult decisions and only choose a few. I went with a more scifi theme, and the final results can be seen here:

http://www.sfpoetry.com/files/Scifaiku_Sampler_Aug2009.pdf

Because this project was so much fun, and because there was such interest in it, I thought I'd put together another pamphlet, this time focused on horror. Please send me your best horror themed haiku (horrorku?), published or unpublished, for this collection. If the poem has been published, please let me know where.

I look forward to reading all your great work!

Send submissions to Josh at pottygok[at]yahoo[dot]com by September 15th.

The Enchanted Conversation is a new online journal focusing on fairy tales. They want short stories, poems, artwork, and articles relating to their theme (which for the first issue will be "Sleeping Beauty") and they'll pay 4 cents/word ($10/poem) via PayPal. They'll be reading submissions until November 15th, unless they receive enough quality work before then.

Now for some unabashed bragging. One of my horror haiku just went live over at Fear and Trembling, and my short story "The Book" is part of the current issue of Sorcerous Signals (with a great illustration by Marge Simon). Bragging over.

Black Ink Horror & some more stuff to read

I just got a copy of Black Ink Horror #5 in the mail from the awesome team of Tom and Billie Moran. I gotta say, it's an amazing issue. "Twas the Night" by MontiLee Stormer is a great story, a twisted take on Christmas way different than anything I've ever seen before. "A Hand-Made Christmas" is another good story, by David E. Greske. There are plenty more stories and poems, including two short poems, "Mimic" and "Reap," by Kristine Ong Muslim. It's 158 pages of horror, nicely bound and printed, for only $10.75 (in the U.S.). If you've never read Black Ink Horror, this is a great issue to start with.

The new issue of NewMyths.com is now online, featuring a poem each by Josh Gage and Marge Simon.

If you're more in the mood for senryu, check out these two poems about veterans by bear creek haiku editor Ayaz Daryl Nielson.

And if you've heard of the massive spec poetry anthology Anomalous Appetites but haven't bought your copy yet, here's a review from New Zealand that can hopefully change your mind. (I think the price has gone down recently, but I could be wrong.)

Review: breaths by Joshua Gage

breaths is a collection of haiku from Cleveland poet Joshua Gage. Gage has already made a name for himself as a speculative poet, and with breaths he shows that he has a talent for writing haiku as well.

If the blurbs on the front and back covers of the book from Michael Dylan Welch, Randy Brooks, Stanford M. Forrester, and Ferris Gilli can't convince you that breaths is worth reading, then I really don't think you'll listen to what I have to say. But this is my review, so I'll say it anyway.

The book collects 54 pages of haiku and senryu, broken into groups by season. The poems are gritty and honest, and have that rare intrinsic rhythm that marks the difference between good haiku and great haiku.

fireflies
my son writes his name
with a sparkler

Gage uses punctuation sparingly in these poems, preferring to let the words themselves set their own pace.

the smell of funnel cake
fireworks light up
a dead cardinal

Each of the haiku stands easily on its own, but taken as a whole, the book is something much more than just a group of poems. It is a look at the world through someone else's eyes, the good and the bad laid bare and unfiltered for your viewing pleasure.

remembering her embrace
lemon juice stings
my sliced finger

breaths is available from vanZeno Press and Amazon for $19.95 plus shipping. Any fan of contemporary haiku should pick up a copy.

UPDATE: breaths is available digitally (free of charge) from The Haiku Foundation.

New Scifaikuest, some fiction markets

The August issue of Scifaikuest is available now. It's their 6th anniversary issue, and it's packed with great poems by too many well-known poets to name here. Well, okay, I'll name a few -- John J. Dunphy, Michael Dylan Welch, Kurt MacPhearson, and Kendall Evans. There's also an informative article about modifying haiku into scifaiku by Joshua Gage, and a couple of funny cartoons. Also, check out the online issue, which has unique content not found in the print version.

Here are a few speculative fiction markets to submit to:

- Flash Fiction Online: Stories between 500 and 1000 words, genre fiction welcome. Pays $50/story.
- Day of the Dead: Pays $25 and 1 contributor's copy, welcomes "subtle horror." Deadline Oct. 31st.
- Dark Jesters: Looking for humorous horror stories, 1500 to 2000 words. Pays $40 and 1 copy. Deadline Nov. 30th.

And last but not least, congratulations to Pete Tennant and the rest of the Whispers of Wickedness review team, who won this year's British Fantasy Award for Best Non-Fiction. I'm proud to have been a very small part of that team (though I'm sure they still would've won without me!). Read some of the award-winning reviews here.

A new Bits & Pieces review and a cool horror story

Joshua Gage wrote a review of my chapbook of short horror poems, Bits & Pieces, which is posted on the Cleveland Poetics blog. He ordered the book through The Genre Mall and apparently got some extra goodies with it, which is awesome.

I was getting ready to write a post about the Cleveland Poetics site, even before the great review. It's a neat site, with contributed content from several different writers. They post anonymous poetry critiques on Fridays (where anyone can comment on the poems), and recently there have been some lively haiku discussions, which you can read here and here. Before I found this site I had no idea what a ghazal was.

If you find yourself with a few extra minutes and want to read a great horror story, check out former Theatre of Decay editor Chris Reed's creepy little tale, "Lily's Grave," posted on Killer-Works.com.

New anthology, two haiku

Karen Romanko, editor of the speculative e-zine Raven Electrick and the print anthology Sporty Spec: Games of the Fantastic, is accepting submissions (starting tomorrow) for a new anthology -- Cinema Spec: Tales of Hollywood and Fantasy.

Submit 1 story (up to 2000 words) and/or 1 poem (up to 49 lines) at a time. Pays semi-pro rates plus a contributor's copy and will accept reprints. Submissions are open until filled.

While you're brainstorming your submission, check out two good (but very different) speculative haiku by Aurelio Rico Lopez III and Joshua Gage.