Spectral Realms No. 13 (Summer 2020)

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Published by our friends at Hippocampus Press! Edited by S. T. Joshi. Cover art/design by Dan Sauer. 6x9 paperback, 142 pages.

This thirteenth issue of Spectral Realms once again features many of the leading poets of our era—Richard L. Tierney, Ann K. Schwader, Adam Bolivar, Frank Coffman, Wade German, Leigh Blackmore, and K. A. Opperman. Several writers better known for their fiction—Darrell Schweitzer, Nicole Cushing, David Barker, Curtis M. Lawson, and Don Webb—contribute poetry of metrical precision and terrifying potency.

Scott J. Couturier evokes the shade of William Hope Hodgson in “Amongst the Sargasso,” while Adele Gardner writes an acrostic dedicated to Poe in “Nevermore.” Among our prose poets, Maxwell I. Gold again stands out in his signature issue—the mingling of weirdness and technology. Manuel Pérez-Campos’s “After Verdun” evokes the horrors of war.

Spectral Realms is now attracting an international cast of contributors. From Singapore, Christina Sng has long graced our pages, and here she is joined by Ngo Binh Anh Khoa from Vietnam, Andrey Pissantchev from Bulgaria, and Tatiana Strange from Germany.

The classic reprints feature poems by two colleagues of H. P. Lovecaft, R. H. Barlow and Arthur Goodenough. Donald Sidney-Fryer supplies an extensive review of David E. Schultz’s landmark edition of the work of Leah Bodine Drake.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Poems
King Pest / Richard L. Tierney
The Protector / Ian Futter
After Verdun: A Psychomantic Vision / Manuel Pérez-Campos
Märchen (Fairy Tales) / Carl E. Reed
Nevermore / Adele Gardner
The Sleeper / Josh Maybrook
City of Skulls / Maxwell I. Gold
Among the Petroglyphs / Ann K. Schwader
The Catacombs / Tatiana Strange
Illusion of Light / Ronald Terry
The Hidebehind: A Legend of the North Country / Frank Coffman
Dream Snatchers / Ngo Binh Anh Khoa
My Bantam Black Fay / Manuel Arenas
Doubled Word / Rahul Gupta
De Quincey Mutations: Our Ladies of Sorrow / Wade German
Ithaca, Finally / Darrell Schweitzer
All That I Have Lost / Christina Sng
Astray / F. J. Bergmann
Imperishable / David C. Kopaska-Merkel
Wraith of the Versifier / David Barker
The Tongueless Dead / Leigh Blackmore
Sanctuary / Mary Krawczak Wilson
O Iranon / Charles Lovecraft
Sweet Discordia Lee / Oliver Smith
The Harvester / K. A. Opperman
The Song of Calamity Joe / Andrey Pissantchev
Jenkin / Ross Balcom
Amongst the Sargasso / Scott J. Couturier
Notre Dame Is Burning! / Lori R. Lopez
The Sweet Dreams of the Dead / James O’Melia
The Witch-Gallows / Josh Maybrook
Lord Death / Ashley Dioses
Our Lady of the Acherontia / Allan Rozinski
Legion / Benjamin Blake
Where the New Gods Dwell / Maxwell I. Gold
Imaginary Friend / Ngo Binh Anh Khoa
Lines on Austin Osman Spare’s “Arbor Vitae” / Manuel Pérez-Campos
In the Forest, Where Wild Things Live / Claire Smith
Melinoë / Wade German
Hell-Flower / Manuel Arenas
Haunted / Ronald Terry
He Who Waits / Frank Coffman
Splenetic IV: After Baudelaire / Rahul Gupta
The Graves / Steven Withrow
A Conspiracy Penetrated / Carl E. Reed
Frozen Voices / Leigh Blackmore
Calling All Witches / Adele Gardner
To the Wolves / Scott J. Couturier
Red Land, Black Pharaoh / Ann K. Schwader
Ouroboros / Frank Coffman
The Draining Chair / Thomas Tyrrell
Retrieval / F. J. Bergmann
The Rider of the Pegasi / C. d. G. Nightingale
Testament of Doom: A Paean to Clark Ashton Smith / Manuel Pérez-Campos
The Passive Vampire / Wade German
The Pores of Earth / Charles Lovecraft
Moribond / Manuel Arenas
The Variant / Maxwell I. Gold
To Gaelle Lacroix, Lone Survivor of the Trufort Massacre / Steven Withrow
Dr. Ripper, I Presume? / Carl E. Reed
Red Tresses / Scott C. Couturier

Classic Reprints
Strife / R. H. Barlow
It Will Be Thus / Arthur Goodenough

Reviews
The Sun Sings Loud and Clear / Donald Sidney-Fryer
Terror and Poignancy / S. T. Joshi
A Queen of Dark Poetry / Sunni K Brock