New issues of Illumen and Star*Line

The Winter 2019 issues of Illumen and Star*Line have hit the presses. (Illumen should be available for purchase soon.) Each include some stellar poems. Pick up a copy of either to support the small presses and consume good poetry at the same time.

Illumen's large type and generous use of white space make it an easy magazine to read. Standouts from this issue include Marge Simon's dark and rhythmic "A Sky of Blackbirds" and David C. Kopaska-Merkel's paradoxical "Do-Overs." There's also an interview with speculative poetry's dark princess Christina Sng and a scifaiku page.

Star*Line #42.1 is packed with poems of varying lengths, forms and subjects. Speculative haiku are scattered throughout like sprinkles on a cupcake. This issue includes noteworthy poems by Ayaz Daryl Nielson, Noel Sloboda, Carolyn M. Hinderliter, and more. If you've always wondered whether a sonnet about a human-eating troll could work, P M F Johnson proves that it can.

Open Reading Periods

Here are some haiku and speculative magazines with current open reading periods:

- Acorn: open through Aug 31st
- Frogpond: open through Aug 1st
- Goblin Fruit: open through Sept 1st (pays $5/poem)
- Ideomancer: open through July 31st (pays $0.03/word for fiction, $6/poem)

Star*Line, which used to have scheduled reading periods, is now open to submissions all the time.

Star*Line, Rhysling nominations

For all you speculative poets, Star*Line is once again open for submissions. Editor Marge Simon is currently reading for the July/August issue (no theme) and the September/October issue (dark poetry, any genre).

Also, for SFPA members, you need to get your Rhysling nominations in by February 2nd. You can nominate one short poem and one long poem. Find all the details here.

One last note... if you entered the Penumbra Haiku Contest last year and wondered why you haven't seen the results yet, one of the judges was in a car accident, so the judging has been delayed. But don't worry... they haven't forgotten about us.

Zombie Haiku and a haiku contest

What better way to combine haiku and horror than with a book called Zombie Haiku: Good Poetry For Your...Brains? Written by Ryan Mecum, the book is a collection of haiku written from the point of view of a zombie. I haven't read the book, but after checking out the Zombie Haiku website, I'm ordering it now. There is an awesome 3-minute YouTube video, featuring some of the poems from the book read by blood-soaked zombies, as well as zombie haiku written by famous people, from Billy Collins to Michael Ian Black. (Thanks to Don Wentworth, editor of Lilliput Review and Modest Proposal Chapbooks, for the link!)

And speaking of haiku, if you're a member of FanStory.com (which I think is free, but I could be wrong), they've got a haiku contest running right now, with a $100 Visa gift card top prize. Deadline is December 10th, and second and third place poems win "member dollars." I'm not sure exactly what member dollars will buy you, but I'm pretty sure they'll buy you more than no dollars at all.

Get your stories and poems ready... both Apex Digest and Star*Line will reopen to subs on January 1st.

New SFPA Contest

That's right, the Science Fiction Poetry Association is now accepting submissions for its 2008 Poetry Contest. Submit up to 3 unpublished poems, 20 lines or fewer, on the theme of "Energy." The contest deadline is August 31st, and best of all, there's NO ENTRY FEE! Check out the guidelines for the list of cool prizes (including cash).

Star*Line, the SFPA's poetry journal, is still closed to submissions but should be reopening soon.

Dreams & Nightmares #80 was just released, and it's filled with great poems by the likes of Ann K. Schwader, Deborah P. Kolodji, and Terrie Leigh Relf. There's also an alternate take on a familiar fairy tale by Joshua Gage, and a powerful short poem by Charles A. Gramlich.

New issue of Twisted Tongue out

The new issue of Twisted Tongue is out now, available for free download from Lulu.com (or, if you're like me and you get most of your reading done in the bathroom, you can buy the paper copy instead). It's got stories by Michael A. Kechula, Peter Tennant, and P.S. Gifford. If that's not enough, there's a whole slew of poems by Paul Weightman (and a few scifaiku by yours truly).

Twisted Tongue will be reopening to subs soon, and editor Claire Nixon is especially looking for Christmas-themed items. Check the website for updates.

Also reopening soon is Star*Line... can you believe it's July already?

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.