Scifaikuest, Haiku in English

The August issue of Scifaikuest is out and it's a good one.  I'm not gonna review it fully 'cause I'd be biased since one of my scifaiku are included, but there are some great poems in here by Kurt MacPhearson, Belly
Peterson, Aurelio Rico Lopez III, and LeRoy Gorman, among others.  There's scifaiku, horrorku, tanka, haibun, and more.  Definitely something for every fan of speculative poetry.  You can purchase a copy of the issue on the Alban Lake website for just $6.00, as well as check out unique free content in the August online edition.

In mainstream haiku news, a new haiku anthology that may very well take its place in the haiku pantheon next to The Haiku Anthology, The Haiku Handbook, and other staples, has just been released -- Haiku in English, edited by Jim Kacian, Philip Rowland, and Allan Burns.  This is a massive hardcover text, weighing in at 464 pages, with tons of English-language haiku.  It can be purchased on Amazon for $17.62, and it's eligible for free shipping.  (The Kindle version is only $11.99.)

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.

Bits and Pieces Review in Star*Line

The new issue of Star*Line is out, and as usual it's a good one. Packed with some great speculative poetry, as well as small press book reviews and a well-written article by Marcie Lynn Tentchoff, poetry editor at Aberrant Dreams, about subtlety in horror poetry. She makes some good points, and the article includes a few of her reprinted poems, including "Water Sprite's Lament," which first appeared in Ideomancer and can be read here.

There's a review of my chapbook, Bits and Pieces -- very favorable, I'm happy to say. Copies are still available at Spec House of Poetry and The Genre Mall.

All of the poems are good, but my favorites were the scifaiku by Karen L. Newman and Kurt MacPhearson. If you've never read Star*Line before, this is as good an issue as any to start with.