2024 Halloween Poetry Reading
curated by Silvatiicus Riddle
Silvatiicus Riddle (He/They) is a twice Rhysling-Nominated Dark Fantasy & Speculative Fiction Writer and Poet. He hails from the city of Gotham, where he hosts a glaring of chthonic gods disguised as cats, a hoard of books, and all of his imaginary friends. He studied English and Literature at Kingsborough. His poetry has appeared in Abyss & Apex, Dreams & Nightmares, Enchanted Living, Eternal Haunted Summer, and Spectral Realms, among others. His fiction has appeared in Apex Magazine's Strange Locations anthology, as well as being a regular contributor to the anthology series, Weird Fiction Quarterly. His newsletter, “The Goblin's Reliquary”, focuses on utilizing magic, folklore, and myth to combat entropy and despair. You may find more of his work at: http://linktr.ee/silvatiicusriddle
“Pumpkin Ash and Cypress Knees”
by Katherine Quevedo
Originally published in Boudin by The McNeese Review.
Katherine Quevedo was born and raised near Portland, Oregon, where she works as an analyst and lives with her husband and two sons. Her poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Rhysling Award, and her debut mini-chapbook, The Inca Weaver’s Tales, is available from Sword & Kettle Press. Her poems have appeared in Asimov’s, HWA Poetry Showcase, Old Moon Quarterly, Extrasensory Overload, Coffin Bell, Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, and elsewhere. When she isn’t writing, she enjoys watching movies, singing, playing old-school video games, belly dancing, and making spreadsheets. Find her at www.katherinequevedo.com.
Contrasts
by Miguel O. Mitchell
Contrasts
by Miguel O. Mitchell
Miguel O. Mitchell, PhD (he/him) is a Black speculative poet, SFF author, visual artist, and retired chemist. His poems have appeared in Amazing Stories, Dreams & Nightmares, Eye to the Telescope, Scifaikuest, Star*Line, Year's Best African Speculative Fiction (2022), and others. He has written two books of poetry, Periodic Table of Alien Species (Elements 1-86) (Barnes & Noble Press, 2021) and Surrealia (Gnashing Teeth Publishing, 2024). He is a member of the Sauúti Collective, writing poetry and short stories within the shared pan-African language and culture-influenced Sauútiverse cosmology.
Porphyria's Lover
by Anna Cates
Previously published at Abyss & Apex
Dr. Anna Cates teaches college and graduate level writing, literature, and education online. She has published a variety of books (poetry, fiction, and drama) through www.cyberwit.net, prolificpress.com, redmoonpress.com, and wipfandstock.com. One of her full-length poetry collection, Love in the Time of Covid, won an Illumination Book Award. She resides in Wilmington, Ohio with her two beautiful kitties.
The Eve of All Hallows'
by Frank Coffman
Frank Coffman is a retired professor of English, Creative Writing, and Journalism. He has published speculative poetry and fiction in a variety of magazines, journals, and anthologies. His four major speculative poetry collections: The Coven’s Hornbook & Other Poems (2019), Black Flames & Gleaming Shadows (2020), Eclipse of the Moon (2021), and What the Night Brings (2023). His occult detective short story collection is Three Against the Dark was published in 2022. Member: HWA & SFPA. He established and moderates the Weird Poets Society Facebook group. Mind’s Eye Publications: https://www.mindseyepublications.com. Blog: https://www.frankcoffman-writer.net
The Ghost Forest
by Lauren Scharhag
Previously published at Lothlorien Poetry Journal.
Lauren Scharhag (she/her) is an award-winning author of fiction and poetry, and a senior editor at Gleam. Recent honors include first place in the 2024 Rhysling Awards (long form category), and the 2024 Roadmap Short Story Competition Top 50. Her latest releases include Screaming Intensifies (Whiskey City Press), the In the King’s Power series (self-published), and Ain’t These Sorrows Sweet (Roadside Press). She lives in Kansas City, MO. https://linktr.ee/laurenscharhag
Untitled Photos
by Geoffrey A. Landis
A Candle For All Souls Day
by Geoffrey A. Landis
This poem first appeared in Siren's Call No. 52 (Winter 2020).
Geoffrey A. Landis is a Poet and Writer by night, and a NASA Scientist by day. Most recently, he won the 2024 Rhysling award for Best Short Poem for “What No One Now Remembers.” No ghosts were harmed in the making of this recording.
Cast from Darkness (Cover Art)
by Marge Simon
Halloween Poem for Marge
by Mary Turzillo
Mary A. Turzillo won a 2000 Nebula for "Mars Is No Place for Children". Her poetry collection "Lovers & Killers" won the 2013 Elgin Award for Best Collection. Her collaboration with Marge Simon, "Sweet Poison", also won an Elgin. Her latest two books are "Cast from Darkness", also with Simon, and "Cosmic Cats and Fantastic Furballs". In a Kent State Trumbull production of Macbeth, she played the First Witch.
Weird City
by Ryn Richmond
Ryn Richmond is an American residing in New Zealand. Their poetry has been published in The 4th Floor Literary Journal, Turbine, and several charity anthologies. Other work, including non-fiction work, has appeared in Another Chicago Magazine, SFRA Review, and Twin Cities Geeks Magazine. Although currently working as a freelance editor and publishing assistant, Ryn enjoys board games, contemplating building a modern-day astrolabe; and reading research for fun.
Ophelia's Return
by Kyla Lee Ward
Ophelia's Return
by Kyla Lee Ward
Previously published in the HWA Poetry Showcase Volume X, ed. Angela Yuriko Smith, Yuriko Publishing, 2024
Kyla Lee Ward is a Sydney-based author, actor and artist. Reviewers have accused her of being “gothic and esoteric”, “weird and exhilarating” and of “giving me a nightmare.” Her writing has garnered her Australian Shadows and Aurealis awards, she has placed in the Rhyslings and received multiple Stoker and Ditmar nominations. Her most recent release is the novella Those That Pursue Us Yet from Independent Legions Publishing, who published her collection of dark and fantastic fiction, This Attraction Now Open Till Late. Her two poetry collections – The Land of Bad Dreams and The Macabre Modern – are available from P’rea Press.
A Parrot in My Fireplace
by Angela Acosta
Angela Acosta, Ph.D. (she/her) is a bilingual Mexican American poet and Assistant Professor of Spanish at the University of South Carolina. She is a 2022 Dream Foundry Contest for Emerging Writers Finalist, 2022 Somos en Escrito Extra-Fiction Contest Honorable Mention, Best of the Net nominee, and Utopia Award finalist. Her Rhysling nominated poetry has appeared in Heartlines Spec, Shoreline of Infinity, Apparition Lit, Radon Journal, and Space & Time. She is author of the Elgin nominated poetry collections Summoning Space Travelers (Hiraeth Publishing, 2022) and A Belief in Cosmic Dailiness (Red Ogre Review, 2023).
Hazing Incident
by David Kopaska-Merkel, read by Diane Severson Mori
David C. Kopaska-Merkel, a retired geologist, won the 2006 Rhysling award for best long poem (for a collaboration with Kendall Evans), and edits Dreams & Nightmares magazine (since 1986). He has edited Star*line, an issue of Eye To The Telescope, and several Rhysling anthologies, co-edited the 2023 Dwarf Stars anthology, has served as SFPA president, and is an SFPA Grandmaster. His poems have been published in Analog, Asimov’s, Strange Horizons, and more than 200 other venues. Some Disassembly Required, a recent collection of dark speculative poetry, won the 2023 Elgin award. Unwelcome Guests (2024) is his latest book. Blog: https://dreamsandnightmaresmagazine.blogspot.com/
Silent Desperation
by Tony Daly
Amontillado Jr.
by Tony Daly
First published with The Horror Zine in May 2017.
Tony Daly has been writing poetry since angsty days in the early 90’s when he found an ancient tome containing his grandmother’s poetry. However, he didn’t start sending his work out to publications until after retiring from the U.S. Air Force Reserves in 2016, which leaves a rather voluminous pile of work still laying dormant, hidden in notebooks, on napkins, in margins of partially read study material, that is constantly reburied under new inspirations. For a list, that probably needs to be updated, of his published work, please visit https://aldaly13.wixsite.com/website or follow him on X @aldaly18.
Hallowe'en Window Painting
by LindaAnn LoSchiavo
Native New Yorker and award-winner, LindaAnn LoSchiavo is a member of British Fantasy Society, HWA, SFPA, and The Dramatists Guild. Books published in 2024: “Always Haunted: Hallowe’en Poems” [Wild Ink], “Apprenticed to the Night” [UniVerse Press], and “Felones de Se: Poems about Suicide” [Ukiyoto]. Accolades: Elgin Award for “A Route Obscure and Lonely” and Chrysalis BREW Project’s Award for Excellence for “Always Haunted: Hallowe’en Poems.”
Oops
by Arthur Chappell
Arthur Chappell, born in 1962, is a Preston, Lancashire UK based author and performance poet who spent half the 1980’s in an extremist religious cult. He escaped and gained a degree in philosophy and literature, taking up creative writing during his studies. Later he became a historic events re-enactor and a pub historian. In 2020, at the height of Covid Lockdown, he went down with bowel cancer. Though the tumour was removed it took much of his lower intestine with it and Arthur now wears a stoma bag for life.
The Little Ghost Who Could
by RK Rugg
The Little Ghost Who Could
by RK Rugg
Previously published in his poetry collection The Hummingbirds Have Acquired a Taste for Blood: Poems and Pictures Too Creepy for the Classroom, published by Tree-Lion Press.
RK Rugg is a dark academic whose speculative poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and short-listed for the Asimov's Readers' Favorites. He writes, studies and teaches in a New England mill town near the heart of the infamous Bridgewater Triangle. www.RaymondKRugg.com
Untitled Image
by John C. Mannone
The Halloween Day's Invasion
by John C. Mannone
John C. Mannone has poems in Windhover, North Dakota Quarterly, Poetry South, Baltimore Review, and others. He won the Dwarf Stars Award (2020); was awarded an HWA Scholarship (2017) and a Jean Ritchie Fellowship (2017) in Appalachian literature; and served as celebrity judge for the National Federation of State Poetry Societies (2018). He has five full-length collections, the latest, Dark Wind, Dark Water, a novella-length horror fiction collection, is forthcoming from Mind’s Eye Publishing. He edits poetry for Abyss & Apex and Silver Blade. He’s a professor of physics teaching mathematics and creative writing in a Tennessee magnet high school.
"Dead Souls"
by F.J. Bergmann,read by F.J. Bergmann with music by Fred W. Bergmann
F. J. Bergmann is the poetry editor of Mobius: The Journal of Social Change (mobiusmagazine.com) and freelances as a copy editor and book designer. She lives in Wisconsin with her husband Fred and fantasizes about tragedies on or near exoplanets. Her work has appeared in Abyss & Apex, Analog, Asimov’s SF, and elsewhere in the alphabet. She likes to ride horses. She is pretty sure she’d like to ride unicorns, if only they’d cooperate. She thinks imagination can compensate for anything.
A One-Way Conversation with Igor
by H. Russell Smith, read by Fabra
Unrenowned ufologist and cryptid keeper at the Area 51 petting zoo, H. Russell Smith, regularly confuses time and frequency. You can catch him Tuesday nights starting at 7Mhz somewhere in the known universe on 19:30 WABCDEFG, Radio Free Frankenstein. Curses, Fourier, he did it again!
Fabra is NYC's premier vampire hunter, ice cream chef, and pedestrian crossing subject matter expert.
Halloween Bar
by Akua Lezli Hope
Halloween Bar
by Akua Lezli Hope
Sable, Candle, and Glow
by Joan Stewart
Slipping
by Joan Stewart
Joan Stewart is an writer, artist, and editor, slipping through the bars as best possible.
Neon Lights Overpower the Stars
by AJ Wentz
This poem first appeared in The Quarter(ly) Vol. 9: In the Dark.
AJ Wentz is a writer of speculative poetry and prose living in the southern United States. Her work has appeared in Fantasy, Lightspeed, Eye to the Telescope, and elsewhere. She can be found online at www.ajwentz.com.
Ruby Bloom
by Chloe Kuelbs (used with permission)
Sangria
by Elizabeth Kuelbs
Originally published in her chapbook Little Victory (Finishing Line Press, 2021)
Elizabeth Kuelbs writes at the edge of a Los Angeles canyon. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Scientific American, Eye to the Telescope, Rust & Moth, and other publications. She’s the author of the poetry chapbooks How to Clean Your Eyes and Little Victory, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She loves doing poetry and art collaborations with her engineer daughter, Chloe Kuelbs. Visit Elizabeth online at elizabethkuelbs.com
Trick
by Vincent Miskell
First appeared in Mobius Spring/Summer 1996
Vincent Miskell’s poetry has appeared in The Lyric, Mobius, Asimov's Science Fiction, Space & Time, Star*Line, TLJ, F&SF, and in the 2006 and 2022 Rhysling Anthology. His short fiction has appeared in Rosebud, Millennium, Frontiers, Eclipse, InterText, and in the paperback anthology The Age of Wonders. His most recently published novel is The Night Stands Still, available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and so on—along with other works such as “Godspeed, Inc.” (a free download). Until 2021, he taught psychology and writing at Johnson & Wales University in North Miami.
Halloween Weather
by Michael H. Payne (combined public domain images)
Halloween Weather
by Michael H. Payne
Michael H. Payne’s poems have appeared in places like Silver Blade, Space and Time, and several recent Rhysling Award anthologies. His short stories have shown up in Asimov's, Zooscape, and Journ-E, while his novels were issued by Tor Books and Sofawolf Press. Check hyniof.com for further details.
Little Witchling
by Clarabelle Miray Fields
The Watcher in the Dark
by Clarabelle Miray Fields
Clarabelle Miray Fields is an award-winning, Rhysling-nominated speculative writer from Boulder, Colorado, who often finds herself writing at the intersection of feminism and myth. Her work has appeared in Circe's Cauldron, Corvid Queen, the 2021 Rhysling Anthology, and elsewhere. When not writing, she enjoys exploring the great outdoors and drinking the darkest coffee she can find. You can check out her website at https://clarabellefields.com
Momento Mori with a Sparrow
by Caressa Layne
2024, Oil on panel, 12x12"
The Night Pays No Mind
by Caressa Layne
Caressa Layne is an interdisciplinary visual artist, writer, and poet. Driven by oral histories, folklore traditions, and animal and plant symbolism, Caressa’s work explores themes of empowerment, mourning, and gender roles in storytelling. She is drawn to the natural world and our place beside it, embracing and celebrating the disturbing alongside the delightful. Her work has been nationally exhibited and featured in national publications. She lives in Cincinnati, Ohio. She can be found on CaressaLayne.com and Instagram @Caressa_Layne_
Early October Frost
by Scott J. Couturier
Scott J. Couturier is a Rhysling-nominated poet and prose writer of the weird, liminal, and darkly fantastic. His work has appeared in numerous venues, including The Audient Void, Spectral Realms, Tales from the Magician’s Skull, Eternal Haunted Summer, Space and Time Magazine, Cosmic Horror Monthly, and Weirdbook. His collection of short stories The Box is available from Hybrid Sequence Media, while his collection of speculative poetry I Awaken in October: Poems of Folk Horror and Halloween is available from Jackanapes Press. Currently he lives an obscure reverie in the wilds of northern Michigan with his partner/live-in editor and two cats.
A House near a Bridge
by Anthonie Waterloo (in the public domain)
Mothman Builds a Bridge
by April Ridge
April Ridge lurks in the rural hilltops of Monroe County, akin to Mothman’s tomboy cousin, listening for hints of poetry on the wind. She enjoys horror films, the sordid affairs of 1920s circus performers, long walks in pitch black tunnels and the occasional waffle cone from Jiffy Treet. Her debut chapbook Monstrous by Pure Sleeze Press was released unto an unsuspecting public last month, and can be seen in glimpses in the periphery of the mind’s eye. Her work has appeared sporadically in deep space, circling black holes until the dinner bell of eternal fame rings in its echoing chambers.
The Silent Station
by Bryant O'Hara
previously published in The Ghettobirds, Frayed Edge Press, 2021.
Bryant O'Hara is a programmer, poet, and musician - not always in that order. His poetry has been published in Star*Line Magazine, Eyedrum Periodically, Space & Time Magazine, FIYAH , Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction 2022, and SpaceFunk! anthology. His poetry collection, The Ghettobirds, was published by Frayed Edge Press. He lives in Stone Mountain, Georgia, with his wife Alice, two out of seven children, and one out of six grandchildren. To listen to more of Bryant's poems and other audio pieces, please visit https://soundcloud.com/bryant-ohara and intimateandintricate.com
Drawing of a werewolf in woodland at night
Public Domain. Main illustration for the story "The Werewolf Howls". Internal illustration from the pulp magazine Weird Tales (November 1941)." Edited by Silvatiicus Riddle
Speak of the Wolf
by Silvatiicus Riddle, read by Eri Ferrer
Silvatiicus Riddle (He/They) is a Full-time Werewolf, Part-time Ghost, last seen haunting the bones of an old amusement park on the edge of New York City. His hobbies include baking, sewing, visiting a nice museum, and raising the dead. He would like to know if anyone else has enjoyed vegan rat mince pie with gelatinous hollandaise, or if it's just him? He recently lost an arm when it detached, drifting away on a kite-string as he gathered lightning during a storm. If anyone finds it, please contact him, he misses it very much. You may find his work at: http://linktr.ee/silvatiicusriddle
Toward Samhain
by Ann K. Schwader
Ann K. Schwader’s ninth poetry collection. Unquiet Stars, was published in 2021 from Weird House Press. Ann is a two-time Bram Stoker Award Finalist, and has received Rhysling Awards for both short and long form work. She was named an Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association Grand Master in 2019. A Wyoming native, she now lives & writes in suburban Colorado. Find out more at http://www.schwader.net/
The Young Witch
by Leticia Toraci
The Young Witch
by Leticia Toraci
Leticia Toraci is a Brazilian freelance writer, poet and artist who lives with her husband, her two sons and a cat in South Germany. She has a degree in Masters of Food Science from the University of Reading, England. As a child, she won an Honorable Mention for two of her short stories in the Sao Paulo Public Servants Contest in 1986. She participated in theater in Campo Mourao, Brazil, where she recited several of her poems. She has also had art exhibits in Regensburg, Aschaffenburg and Munich, Germany
Coffins
by Adele Gardner
First appeared in Polu Texni, Nov. 7, 2021, Editor Dawn Albright, http://www.polutexni.com/?p=10815
Adele Gardner (they/them, https://gardnercastle.com/) has a poetry collection, Halloween Hearts, released by Jackanapes Press (https://www.jackanapespress.com/product/halloween-hearts) and over 500 stories, poems, art, and articles published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons, PodCastle, Flash Fiction Online, Daily Science Fiction, and more. Adele coedited Dwarf Stars 2022 with Greer Woodward (https://sfpoetry.com/ds/22dwarfstars.html) and guest-edited the Arthuriana issue of Eye to the Telescope (Issue 27, January 2018, https://eyetothetelescope.com/intros/027intro.html). Twelve of their poems won or placed in the Poetry Society of Virginia Awards, Rhysling Award, and Balticon Poetry Contest. Adele serves as literary executor for father, mentor, and namesake Delbert R. Gardner.
Previous Halloween Readings
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