#Avra Margariti

[evilios]

Since I realized I never posted on this one:

🐂 Kairo’s Flock by Avra Margariti

A very fresh perspective on the combined issue of parental inheritance, captivity, monstrosity and, in some way, generational trauma/curse following the descendants. Working with imagery of Icarus and the Minotaur fused with Frankenstein-like narrative themes is not an easy job, but I find that this short story does it well.

Some spoilers ahead:

The first thing that attracted me was the way the myth is present in this story. It is not a direct "story of X mythological character", but it is a story of Kairo who descends from a father, clearly inspired by Icarus, and a grandfather, who is evidently given character through being a prism of Daedalus.

I am actually genuinely amazed by the outlook on monstrosity and hubris in this one. I won't spoil major things about the plot, just some general ideas, but having Kairo possess this strong association with and familiarity with the flock of falcons is very interesting. His dreams of the Minotaur locked in the labyrinth seem to be, perhaps, mimicking his own insecurity of his place in the world: whether he's more human or more a bird. Having the weight of monstrosity imposed on you and to deal with the knowledge that you'd be scorned by the Gods (hubris is a thing in this story but in a very abstract manner) for reaching where you shouldn't be offers interesting background for exploring limitations of your own being.

[flashinaflash]

The Walls Between Us by Avra Margariti

The Wall wasn’t there one night, until the next morning, it was. It sliced our property right through the middle.

Published in our December 9, 2022 newsletter. Full story is under the cut.

Link to sign up for the newsletter is in the blog description!

The Wall wasn’t there one night, until the next morning, it was. It sliced our property right through the middle. Our mother’s green garden and the main house where my sister lived vanished behind stone. Gray and gritty, it shot up toward the cirrus clouds. I was left with the garden shed, which I had converted into a studio apartment months ago while trying to figure my life out after university.

Over the next weeks, speculating about the Wall became people’s favorite activity. It came from outer space, some said, because the runes engraved on it didn’t belong to any language we recognized. No, it was the fae folk, someone else said. Our town had offended the Unseelie Court, and its Queen magicked up the Wall around us in retaliation. No matter how far anyone traveled along either side, there was no end, nor a beginning. Some of us tried to vault over the Wall, with various trips to the local doctor’s office afterward. Others took to scaling it with similar results. An old man--a dynamite-hoarder--tried to blow the Wall’s foundations up but only earned himself a pair of singed eyebrows and a mouthful of gunpowder.

It wasn’t just our town, we suspected; it was the whole world. But all I cared about was my older sister. Phone calls and messages proved impossible to reach her, as did most other forms of modern communication. So I became creative.

One late evening, I lit a fire in my half of the garden and kept feeding it until it blazed. I knew my sister hadn’t left our house, same way I stayed put in the garden shed. She was there, on the other side, through stone and thrumming magic. I only needed to reach her. Smoke signals, then Morse code, which I tapped against the runes, now half-covered by moss and an explosion of colorful graffiti.

On nights when I clutched my sister’s graduation photo to my chest or scrolled through her old social media, full of crooked smiles and chipped nail polish, I worried that the Wall wasn’t a wall at all. What if it stretched and stretched, a block of stone that had engulfed the other side, demolished it to nothing but powdered bone and brick?

That was when the swallow came. It was spring, and I’d began working on our mother’s garden again. I figured the herbs and vegetables would come in handy if the town’s food supplies ran out. The swallow sailed through the blue of the sky, landing on the shade the Wall cast on my side.

It held an ultrasound in its beak--I was going to have a nephew. I touched the grayscale laminate and felt against my fingertips my sister’s fierceness: fear and love and the will to make a family in this brand-new coward world. I didn’t ask the swallow why it hadn’t brought me a letter. Part of me suspected my sister and I no longer spoke the same language. But I didn’t need a letter. Not when the swallow’s gift was so utterly precious.

I went into the garden shed and returned with the engagement ring our grandmother once gave me. I wasn’t going to need it anytime soon, but I thought my sister might. I kissed the ring before I carefully settled it in the swallow’s beak and watched the bird fly away, circling high over the wall until it disappeared over the other side.

I expected a wedding photo next. Perhaps some white tulle or sugared almonds. Instead I got a pacifier and gasped with the agony of childbirth, screamed through the silence where a baby’s cries should have been. I cradled the pacifier in my hands, knowing I would never meet my nephew even if the Wall were to dissolve the very next morning.

I dreamed of my sister and I growing up. The nights she would drive us to the hills, starry-eyed and frost-brained as we watched the sky and sipped milkshakes until dawn. The time she chased my school bullies away with a rusty pipe and a banshee wail.

I lost track of all that we sent back and forth via a different bird each time, the way I lost track of days and months. A tear-soaked monogrammed handkerchief when our mother died of sadness. My new girlfriend’s empty lipstick tube. A poem about sisters and birds made of graffiti words found all over the Wall, pieced together and made whole.

The Wall was there one day. I was sprawled out on the grass beside it, staring at the sky, the same sky my sister saw on the other side. The bird was a swallow, same as the first time. I sat up as it swooped down, laying a cherry blossom in my cupped palms. And I cried as my fingers closed around it, my tongue greedily tasting the dust of a wall, crumbling.

Avra Margariti is a queer author and poet from Greece, with publications in Daily SF, Flash Fiction Online, Baffling Magazine, and elsewhere.

Twitter

[thaoworra]

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association recently released the poems that made it to the finalist stage for consideration for the 2024 Rhysling Awards for Short and Long Speculative Poems of the year. Congratulations to all of the nominees! This will be the 46th year these awards have been conferred!

Short Poems (50 finalists)

Attn: Prime Real Estate Opportunity!, Emily Ruth Verona, Under Her Eye: A Women in Horror Poetry Collection Volume II

The Beauty of Monsters, Angela Liu, Small Wonders 1

The Blight of Kezia, Patricia Gomes, HWA Poetry Showcase X

The Day We All Died, A Little, Lisa Timpf, Radon 5

Deadweight, Jack Cooper, Propel 7

Dear Mars, Susan L. Lin, The Sprawl Mag 1.2

Dispatches from the Dragon's Den, Mary Soon Lee, Star*Line 46.2

Dr. Jekyll, West Ambrose, Thin Veil Press December

First Eclipse: Chang-O and the Jade Hare, Emily Jiang, Uncanny 53

Five of Cups Considers Forgiveness, Ali Trotta, The Deadlands 31

Gods of the Garden, Steven Withrow, Spectral Realms 19

The Goth Girls' Gun Gang, Marisca Pichette, The Dread Machine 3.2

Guiding Star, Tim Jones, Remains to be Told: Dark Tales of Aotearoa, ed. Lee Murray (Clan Destine Press)

Hallucinations Gifted to Me by Heatstroke, Morgan L. Ventura, Banshee 15

hemiplegic migraine as willing human sacrifice, Ennis Rook Bashe, Eternal Haunted Summer Winter Solstice

Hi! I am your Cortical Update!, Mahaila Smith, Star*Line 46.3

How to Make the Animal Perfect?, Linda D. Addison, Weird Tales 100

I Dreamt They Cast a Trans Girl to Give Birth to the Demon, Jennessa Hester, HAD October

Invasive, Marcie Lynn Tentchoff, Polar Starlight 9

kan-da-ka, Nadaa Hussein, Apparition Lit 23

Language as a Form of Breath, Angel Leal, Apparition Lit October

The Lantern of September, Scott Couturier, Spectral Realms 19

Let Us Dream, Myna Chang, Small Wonders 3

The Magician's Foundling, Angel Leal, Heartlines Spec 2

The Man with the Stone Flute, Joshua St. Claire, Abyss & Apex 87

Mass-Market Affair, Casey Aimer, Star*Line 46.4

Mom's Surprise, Francis W. Alexander, Tales from the Moonlit Path June

A Murder of Crows, Alicia Hilton, Ice Queen 11

No One Now Remembers, Geoffrey Landis, Fantasy and Science Fiction Nov./Dec.

orion conquers the sky, Maria Zoccula, On Spec 33.2

Pines in the Wind, Karen Greenbaum-Maya, The Beautiful Leaves (Bamboo Dart Press)

The Poet Responds to an Invitation from the AI on the Moon, T.D. Walker, Radon Journal 5

A Prayer for the Surviving, Marisca Pichette, Haven Speculative 9

Pre-Nuptial, F. J. Bergmann, The Vampiricon (Mind's Eye Publications)

The Problem of Pain, Anna Cates, Eye on the Telescope 49

The Return of the Sauceress, F. J. Bergmann, The Flying Saucer Poetry Review February

Sea Change, David C. Kopaska-Merkel and Ann K. Schwader, Scifaikuest May

Seed of Power, Linda D. Addison, The Book of Witches ed. Jonathan Strahan (Harper Collins)

Sleeping Beauties, Carina Bissett, HWA Poetry Showcase X

Solar Punks, J. D. Harlock, The Dread Machine 3.1

Song of the Last Hour, Samuel A. Betiku, The Deadlands 22

Sphinx, Mary Soon Lee, Asimov's September/October

Storm Watchers (a drabbun), Terrie Leigh Relf, Space & Time

Sunflower Astronaut, Charlie Espinosa, Strange Horizons July

Three Hearts as One, G. O. Clark, Asimov's May/June

Troy, Carolyn Clink, Polar Starlight 12

Twenty-Fifth Wedding Anniversary, John Grey, Medusa's Kitchen September

Under World, Jacqueline West, Carmina Magazine September

Walking in the Starry World, John Philip Johnson, Orion's Belt May

Whispers in Ink, Angela Yuriko Smith, Whispers from Beyond (Crystal Lake Publishing)

Long Poems (25 finalists)

Archivist of a Lost World, Gerri Leen, Eccentric Orbits 4

As the witch burns, Marisca Pichette, Fantasy 87

Brigid the Poet, Adele Gardner, Eternal Haunted Summer Summer Solstice

Coding a Demi-griot (An Olivian Measure), Armoni “Monihymn” Boone, Fiyah 26

Cradling Fish, Laura Ma, Strange Horizons May

Dream Visions, Melissa Ridley Elmes, Eccentric Orbits 4

Eight Dwarfs on Planet X, Avra Margariti, Radon Journal 3

The Giants of Kandahar, Anna Cates, Abyss & Apex 88

How to Haunt a Northern Lake, Lora Gray, Uncanny 55

Impostor Syndrome, Robert Borski, Dreams and Nightmares 124

The Incessant Rain, Rhiannon Owens, Evermore 3

Interrogation About A Monster During Sleep Paralysis, Angela Liu, Strange Horizons November

Little Brown Changeling, Lauren Scharhag, Aphelion 283

A Mere Million Miles from Earth, John C. Mannone, Altered Reality April

Pilot, Akua Lezli Hope, Black Joy Unbound eds. Stephanie Andrea Allen & Lauren Cherelle (BLF Press)

Protocol, Jamie Simpher, Small Wonders 5

Sleep Dragon, Herb Kauderer, The Book of Sleep (Written Image Press)

Slow Dreaming, Herb Kauderer, The Book of Sleep (Written Image Press)

St. Sebastian Goes To Confession, West Ambrose, Mouthfeel 1

Value Measure, Joseph Halden and Rhonda Parrish, Dreams and Nightmares 125

A Weather of My Own Making, Nnadi Samuel, Silver Blade 56

Welcoming the New Girl, Beth Cato, Penumbric October

What You Find at the Center, Elizabeth R McClellan, Haven Spec Magazine 12

The Witch Makes Her To-Do List, Theodora Goss, Uncanny 50

The Year It Changed, David C. Kopaska-Merkel, Star*Line 46.4

Voting for the Rhysling Award begins July 1; a link to the ballot will be sent with the Rhysling Anthology, as well as with the July issue of Star*Line. More information on the Rhysling Award can be found here.

[lauravanarendonkbaugh]

Cover Reveal!

Cover reveal! Feast your eyes on CARPE NOCTEM, a collection of stories about the night. A little spooky, a little edgy, and an extra surprise you might not expect from a book… Pre-order at https://amzn.to/457SWYw (other retailer links to come!).

Night transforms the world. Owls and bats claim the sky from songbirds, nocturnal predators prowl beneath cover of darkness, and cloying shadows grow thick enough to swallow a scream. As the saying goes: people aren’t truly afraid of the dark—they fear what could be in the darkness with them. The twenty-two authors featured within the pages of Carpe Noctem descended into these midnight waters to explore the deepest horrors and wildest wonders which darkness cloaks. This anthology is not for the faint of heart. Carpe Noctem offers an exclusive solo-roleplaying game by Maxwell Lander to serve as your guide to this collection of nighttime tales. Or you can journey alone. What’s the worst that could happen? Featuring works by Teresa Aguinaldo; Tyler Battaglia; Stewart C Baker; Beth Cato; Barry Charman; Tommy Cheis; Jonathan Chibuik; Derek Des Anges; Richard DiPirro; David J. Fortier; David Jón Fuller; Chadwick Ginther; Joseph Halden; Richard Lau; Jennifer Lesh Fleck; Avra Margariti; Thomas C. Mavroudis; Cat McDonald; Paul McQuade; Ville Meriläinen; Tais Teng; and Laura VanArendonk Baugh.

[flameswallower]

here's the kickstarter for a horror anthology i have a story in. the theme was plants and fungi, and my story is about fungi. it is also about grief and loneliness and the circle of life. there are a lot of other cool authors in this anthology, such as avra margariti. okay thanks for your time

...the biggest fungus of all time was Prototaxites, which could grow 25 feet high and three feet wide. it lived during the Silurian and Devonian periods, well before most large land plants and animals.

[acoupofowls]

Now on sale - Other & Different! An anthology of diverse fiction

Available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and direct from our own shop! To help us maximise profits - the first six months of which will be donated to charity - we encourage you to order through our shop where we stock both ebook and paperback copies.

Buy in our Shop! Free shipping to UK

​Buy from Amazon UK Buy from Amazon US Buy from Barnes & Noble

A diverse anthology from writers around the world. From prehistory to the not-too-distant future, "Other & Different" features folklore, fantasy, gothic, speculative, supernatural, sci-fi, weird, horror, and contemporary fiction exploring what it is to be other or different.

Thirteen all new stories from: Busayo Akinmoju, Malik Berry, A.M. Gautam, Anita Goveas, Heather Haigh, Miriam H. Harrison, Anastasia Jill, Avra Margariti, Kyungseo Min, Samir Sirk Morató, Corinne Pollard, Jonathan Olfert, and Marianne Xenos.

The first six months of which will be donated to our two chosen causes North American non-profit Rainbow Railroad and UK charity Rainbow Migration.

More information about our contributors and the charities we will be supporting can be found here.

Check out our blog posts about Other & Different, including Q&As with the authors.

[shortlesbian]

A thread I saw on Twitter from Avra Margariti about the importance of endings that are ambiguous, and true to what you've written. Link.

[4liciaphen]

This month, I was lucky enough to have my illustration featured on the cover of the July issue of Small Wonders Magazine! 💌 The thought of having my work displayed alongside such a beautiful collection of stories and poems has been so exciting ⚜️ . Shoutout to Co-Editors in Chief Cislyn Smith and Stephen Granade who offer a place for these stories to live 🩵 And a very special thank you to Small Wonders’ Art Director Grace Choi, who brought up the opportunity, encouraged me to try my luck, and designed this awesome cover! 🍀🫶🏼 . This issue features the written works of Rich Larson, Mary Alexandra Agner, Dafydd McKimm, André Geleynse, Avra Margariti, L Chan, Emily Scharff, Lisa M. Bradley, and Brigitte N. McCray 💌

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Tagged by @slowlymychaos.

last song: Με τόσα ψέματα was the last song in the Alkinoos Ioannidis concert video I was watching last night, so.

currently watching: Shhhhhh. 🤫😉 That said, I did finish that Alkinoos show recently, and I've got a recent Giannis Haroulis show for the next time I'm on YT in search of concert footage to watch. (Weird as hell to think that Haroulis is coming here and I'm going to be at another date on the same tour in November. Especially since my mom is also a huge fan who'll probably make every effort to be at the show in Chania this month; I haven't seen her in years, but this is sort of like a dorkier version of that thing you see in media where separated loved ones both look up at the moon and think about how it's the same moon they're looking at.)

currently reading: I haven't touched it in a bit, but I was in the middle of The Saint of Witches by Avra Margariti, a fun little volume of horror poetry. Definitely recommend.

current obsession: Eh, I don't think I can muster that sort of investment in anything right now, and if I could it probably wouldn't be something I'd be willing to post about on here.

[paralogion]

If you have any interest in the topic btw I recommend my friend's recently published flash fic

they should hire me as like a stunt double but for when they need someone to express screaming and falling to their knees and tearing at their clothes levels of grief in movies and shows. not only would i be great at it but i think that a regularly scheduled cathartic wail would do things not even the best medication and therapy money can buy could for my mental health. you wouldn't even have to pay me i'd just show up ready to go like a working dog finally getting an opportunity to fulfil its life's purpose.

[thehorrortree]

Deadline: March 15th, 2023 Payment: US 4¢/word rounded up to nearest dollar; minimum US $4, maximum $25 Theme: Poetry involving fungi! Details below Eye to the Telescope 48, Fungi, will be edited by Avra Margariti. FUNGI: Mushrooms, molds, and other fungi are organisms that live all around us, yet for the longest time they have eluded classification. They can offer sustenance and ensure survival, or cause a slow, poisoned death. Their mycelium and spores spread--subterranean, airborne--beyond our perception. Within forest ecosystems, fungi are decomposers: feeding on dead matter, returning the nutrients to the soil in a perpetual cycle of destruction and rebirth. I am particularly interested in cli-fi, body horror, and fabulism from marginalized voices. Make me feel the sublime ache of metamorphosis, the transcendental comfort of belonging in a colony. Send me poems about prehistoric Prototaxites populating the earth; mycologists using parasitic cordyceps to reanimate the dead; Amanita princesses, priests, and witches; the Fungal Folk evolving to survive in space, a starship built out of their own filaments and tendrils. Embrace the beauty in decay, and let your imagination mushroom like foxfire gleaming bioluminescent through the forest dark. Submission Guidelines SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS Use the form at bit.ly/SFPAettt48 to submit. Please submit 1–3 unpublished poems in English (ideally, attached as .docx or .txt) and include a short bio. Translations from other languages are acceptable with the permission of the original poet (unless public domain). Inquiries only to ettt48@sfpoetry.com with “ETTT” in the subject line. Deadline: March 15. The issue will appear on April 15, 2023. Payment and rights Accepted poems will be paid for at the following rate: US 4¢/word rounded up to nearest dollar; minimum US $4, maximum $25. Payment is on publication. The Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association normally uses PayPal to pay poets, but can also send checks. Eye to the Telescope is an online publication. Therefore, First Electronic Rights (for original unpublished poems) are being sought. Who can submit? Anyone writing speculative poetry. What is Speculative Poetry? Speculative poetry is poetry which falls within the genres of science fiction, fantasy, and supernatural horror, plus some related genres such as magic realism, metafiction, and fabulation. It is not easy to give precise definitions, partly because many of these genres are framed in term of fiction rather than poetry. A good starting point is “About Science Fiction Poetry” by Suzette Haden Elgin, the founder of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. Despite its title, this article is applicable to all forms of speculative poetry. Tim Jones, editor of Issue 2, had a go at defining science fiction poetry on his blog, in two parts (These blog posts date from 2009, and the Voyagers anthology has since been published. These posts do refer specifically to science fiction poetry, rather than the broader field of speculative poetry.): timjonesbooks.co.nz/2009/02/08/what-is-science-fiction-poetry-part-1-definition/ .timjonesbooks.co.nz/2009/02/15/what-is-science-fiction-poetry-part-2-history/ What Is the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA)? As the SFPA says on its website at sfpoetry.com, “The Science Fiction Poetry Association was founded in 1978 to bring together poets and readers interested in science fiction poetry. What is sf poetry? You know what they say about definitions—everybody has one. To be sure, it is poetry (we’ll leave that definition to you), but it’s poetry with some element of speculation—usually science fiction, fantasy, or horror. Some folks include surrealism, some straight science.” See the SFPA site for lots more information—and please consider joining. Via: Eye to the Telescope Magazine.

[lgbtqreads]

New Releases: October 4, 2022

New Releases: October 4, 2022

Moonflowers and Nightshade: an Anthology of Sapphic Horror ed. by Samantha Kolesnik (1st) Moonflowers and Nightshade presents eighteen original sapphic horror stories, including works by: Alex Luceli Jiménez, Christina Ladd, G.B. Lindsey, Kat Siddle, G.E. Woods, Rae Knowles, Lowry Poletti, Cyrus Amelia Fisher, Jade Lancaster, Archita Mittra, Ali Seay, Hailey Piper, Anastasia Dziekan, E.F.…

[thaoworra]

With November we have all of the winners finally in for the major Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association awards. This was a big year for all as the association marked its 45th year. Congratulations to all of this year’s winners and nominees, and a big round of applause to all of the chairs who worked tirelessly to ensure a smooth process:

Elgin Awards Now in its tenth year, the first place Elgin Award winner for Book of the Year is Some Disassembly Required by David C. Kopaska-Merkel (Diminuendo Press, 2022). Second place went to The Saint of Witches by Avra Margariti (Weasel Press, 2022), while third place was a tie between  Elegies of Rotted Stars by Tiffany Morris (Nictitating Books, 2022) and Not a Princess, But (Yes) There Was a Pea & Other Tales to Foment Revolution by Rebecca Buchanan (Jackanapes Press, 2022),  The Elgin Award winner for Chapbook of the Year is The Last Robot and Other Science Fiction Poems by Jane Yolen (Shoreline of Infinity, 2021). The second place chapbook was Spacers Snarled in the Hair of Comets by Bruce Boston (Mind’s Eye Publishing, 2022).  The third place went to Cajuns in Space by Denise Dumars (self-published, 2022).

Morgan L Ventura served as the 2023 Chair of the Elgin Awards. 78 members voted on the selections. 58 books had been nominated and 18 chapbooks had been nominated.

Rhysling Awards For the Rhysling awards, in the Long Poem category, Colleen Anderson’s “Machine (r)Evolution” from Radon Journal 2 received first place. In the Short Poem category there was a tie between Jennifer Crow’s “Harold and the Blood-Red Crayon” from Star*Line 45.1 and Terese Mason Pierre’s “In Stock Images of the Future, Everything is White” from Uncanny 46.  The second place award in the Long Poem category went to Rebecca Buchanan’s “The Bone Tree” from Not A Princess, but (Yes) There was a Pea, and Other Fairy Tales to Foment Revolution (Jackanapes Press) and the second place in the Short Poem category went to Sarah Grey’s “Bitch Moon” from Nightmare Magazine 118. The 2023 third place Long Poem was  Akua Lezli Hope’s “Igbo Landing II” which first appeared in Black Fire—This Time, ed. Kim McMillon (Aquarius Press). The third place award for Short Poem was a tie between Amelia Gorman’s “The Gargoyle Watches the Rains End” from The Gargoylicon: Imaginings and Images of the Gargoyle in Literature and Art ed. Frank Coffman (Mind’s Eye Publications) and Lisa Timpf’s “First Contact” from Eye to the Telescope 44. Rhysling honorable mentions in the Short Poem category included “Field Notes from the Anthropocene” by Priya Chand Nightmare Magazine 116,  “Near the end, your mother tells you she’s been seeing someone” by Shannon Connor Winward, from the SFPA Poetry Contest, and “Dinner Plans with Baba Yaga” by Stephanie M. Wytovich from Into the Forest: Tales of the Baba Yaga. In the Long Poem category, honorable mentions were given to “Herbaceous Citadel” by Avra Margariti in The Fairy Tale Magazine January 4,  “Living in Rubble” by Gerri Leen from Eccentric Orbits 3, and “The Thing About Stars” by Avra Magariti from The Saint of Witches (Weasel Press).

Maxwell I. Gold was this year’s Rhysling chair. 102 short poems were nominated, and 70 long poems were nominated from across 94 publications and collections. 114 members voted.

Dwarf Stars The 2023 Dwarf Stars were tied for first place with “Believe the Graves” by Rasha Abdulhadi from The Deadlands 16 and “In Perpetuity” by Bruce Boston in Analog, July/August 2022. The second place award went to “Excerpt from a Proposal for the New City” by Alyssa Lo from Strange Horizons, 11/14. The third place was tied between “As Slow as Starlight” by Kim Whysall-Hammond in Frozen Wavelets 7, “Surviving” by Sumiko Saulson in The Rat King: A Book of Dark Poetry (Dooky Zines), and  “Trichotillomania” by Warsan Shire in Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head (Random House). This year’s chairs were David C. Kopaska Merkel and Miguel O. Mitchell, PhD. This year 120 members reviewed 105 poems across 54 venues.

SFPA Poetry Contest Judge Michael Arnzen selected the winners of this year’s SFPA Poetry Contest. Prizes were offered in three divisions: Dwarf (≤10 lines), Short, and Long (50+ lines). Contest chair R. Thursday received 439 entries (114 dwarf-length, 253 short, and 72 long poems) from around the world.

Dwarf Form: First place “Calcination” by Colleen Anderson Second place “What Ghosts Didn’t Do” by Mary Soon Lee Third Place [open window] by Michael Nickels-Wisdom

Dwarf Form Honorable Mentions: “All Sales Final!” by Alan Vincent Michaels “Starstruck” by S. Iya Iya “My Mother’s Eyes” by Chad Stanke “Poisoned Gold Sprinkles” by Greer Woodward “Black Sea” by Anna Cates

Short Form: First place “Abraham Lincoln Addresses the Nation Before He is Executed by Interstellar Invaders” by Kate Boyes Second place “Embryo Warehouse” by Amber Winter and Joshua St. Claire Third Place “A Jar of Cherries” by Jay Caselberg

Short Form Honorable Mentions: “Hovering Free” by Hamant Sing “In Which I Tell You Speculative Fiction is the Trans Body” by West Ambrose “Charming” by Anna Cates “Considering Fuseli’s ‘The Nightmare'” by Frank Coffman “Enceladus Elegy” by Bradley Earle Hoge

Long Form: First place “Metamorfish” by Randall Andrews Second place “Nightmare in Blue” by Kurt Newton Third Place “Wake Unto Death” by Lori R. Lopez

Long Form Honorable Mentions: “This Body Isn’t Mine” by Christina Connerton “The Odd Couple” by Anna Cates “The Origin of ‘The Steamster'” by Jerri Hardesty “Panopticon” by F.J. Bergmann “An Eschaton of Ice” by John Bell

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association was established in 1978 by Suzette Haden-Elgin and has an international membership representing over 19 nations and cultures including United States, Italy, Canada, Brazil, United Kingdom, Ireland, Romania, Poland, Denmark, Germany, France, Spain, Israel, South Africa, Singapore, Thailand, Laos, the Hmong, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association publishes two journals: Star*Line and Eye to the Telescope. It oversees three major literary awards for poetry: The Rhyslings, the Dwarf Stars, and the Elgin Awards. They also conduct an annual science fiction poetry contest and other special events and gatherings. Further, they also provide resources for emerging and established poets seeking professional publication and networking opportunities.

[wecandoit]

what i read | jun-jul

note: digital versions of most books can be found on Z-library] '*' indicates a trigger warning (direct references to death, abuse, violence, obvious triggers for mental illnesses)

Books

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

The Inseparables by Simone de Beauvoir

Masterpieces of Art: Vincent Van Gogh by Stephanie Cotela Tanner

The Deep by Rivers Solomon

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara*

Articles + essays

How Britain's Opium Trade Impoverished Indians (rec from @/apricitystudies)

Bad Therapy*

Life After a Traumatic Event and the Problem with the Resilience Narrative (rec from @/apricitystudies)

Bias in Mental Health Diagnosis Gets in the Way of Treatment

Waking Up Late Doesn't Mean You're Not Successful

Brain Function of Night Owls and Larks Differ

Muslim Feminism is not a Paradox

How Do Women Really Wield Power?

Little Archer, Big Mystery

The Anxiety of Influencers (rec from @/saintbronte)

Leaked Amazon Memo Shows the Company is Running Out of People to Hire

Uber Files: Greyballing, kill switches, lobbying - Uber's dark tricks revealed

How To Help Someone Financially Without Being Rude (Or Ruining The Friendship)

Arabs believe economy is weak under democracy

Why 'Spirited Away' is Japan's Greatest Animated Film

Mountain Gorillas: The Ripple Effect of Conservatism

Short stories

The Light at the Edge of the World by Avra Margariti

For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When Popeye’s Chicken Was Enuf

Seafoam & Cinders by M.K Hutchins

Emotional Morons by Becky Mandelbaum

Videos + podcasts (yes i know this isn't reading let me live okey)

How To Keep a Commonplace Book

why do the 'it girls' quit?

The most successful pirate of all time

The Gilmore Girls Diet and Food Obsession: A Deep Dive*

DKMH by Dacre Montgomery (poetry podcast)

[weirdletter]

Vastarien: A Literary Journal, Vol. 3, Issue 1, edited by Jon Padgett, Grimscribe Press, Spring 2020. Cover art and internal illustrations by Dan Sauer , info: vastarien-journal.com.

Vastarien is a source of critical study and creative response to the corpus of Thomas Ligotti as well as associated authors and ideas. The journal includes nonfiction, literary horror fiction, poetry, artwork and non-classifiable hybrid pieces.

Contents: Moriya – Dean Paschal The Querent – Samantha Bolf To her Lord, the Almighty, upon the reviving of Ezekiel’s bones – M. Christine Benner Dixon Objects of Desire and Dreams of Objectification in Thomas Ligotti’s Short Stories – Deborah Bridle Common Plants of Southeastern Pennsylvania – Jill Winsby-Fein Mus Musculus–Wet Specimen, Felis Catus–Full-Body Mount – Avra Margariti Judas Goat – Elliott Gish The Hollow Songs of Father Prester – S.L. Edwards The Way of Silence – Ramon Elani The Book – Amar Benchikha The Mania of the Unforgotten – Pete Rawlik Thomas Lovell Beddoes: Marginalia in a Cadaveric Atlas – Wade German The Prettiest Girl – Christopher Ropes The Aspen Wretch – Daphne Gem Host We’ve All Gone to the Magic Show – Todd Keisling The Park of Eternally Loitering Fathers – Adrian Van Young