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Announcing our first guest-edited issue

We’re trying a number of things this year we’ve never done, perhaps none of them more radical than opening up the zine to guest editors. But we’re going to do exactly that. From Oct. 9 to Nov. 9, we will reopen to submissions for Issue 22, which will be a special issue guest-edited by Amal El-Mohtar and Jessica P. Wick, co-editors of the dynamic Internet poetry journal Goblin Fruit. (For this issue only, we’ll have a specially designated e-mail submissions address; more details about that forthcoming once it exists.) This, by the way, was in the works well before Amal won a Rhysling Award for a poem published in Mythic Delirium (see below).

In case you’re wondering, Issue 21, The Trickster Issue, a specially-themed issue that continues our year-long anniversary celebration, is coming together nicely, with new poetry from Danny Adams, Jennifer Crow, Kendall Evans and David. C. Kopaska-Merkel, Theodora Goss, Ann K. Schwader, Sonya Taaffe, Catherynne M. Valente, JoSelle Vanderhooft, Jessica Wick and others still to come. But Mythic Delirium doesn’t open to new submissions until Jess and Amal step in Oct. 9.

Amal and Jess also contributed to Issue 20, the oversized 10th Anniversary Issue, which features a uniquely illustrated poem by Neil Gaiman. Featured last year, their poem "Apple Jack Tangles the Maidy Lac with a Red, Red Ribbon" was written in alternating voices. You can listen to recordings in which Jess and Amal trade parts.

We propose a little contest giveaway. Take a guess which poet (and future Mythic Delirium guest editor) wrote which part of this poem. Send your guess to mythicdelirium@gmail.com with the word "CONTEST" in the subject line (and your postal address would be helpful too) before Aug. 31 and, whether or not you’re right (we’ll let you know at the end) you’ll become eligible to receive one of five free copies of our 20th issue, with it’s specially hand-stamped artwork to go with Neil’s poem. (We note, we made 350 of these, and we’ve only got about 100 left now.)

The Goblin Queens

Amal El-Mohtar wins 2009 Rhysling Award

Amal El-Mohtar in Damascus

We at Mythic Delirium are proud to offer our heartfelt congratulations to Amal El-Mohtar, whose poem "Song for an Ancient City" from Mythic Delirium 19 (and featured on our site, with an audio reading) won the 2009 Rhysling Award for short poem. We were thrilled to be present at ReaderCon in Burlington, MA, on July 11, when the Science Fiction Poetry Association’s Rhysling Awards were announced and Amal learned in person that her poem won in its category in a landslide vote.

An Ottawa resident, Amal found the inspiration for her poem during a recent visit to Damascus. With her friend and fellow poet Jessica P. Wick, she founded the critically acclaimed online poetry journal Goblin Fruit, now in its fourth year of publication. Aside from in our pages, her poetry has appeared in Ideomancer, Lone Star Stories, Abyss & Apex, Chiaroscuro, Sybil’s Garage and Star*Line, and her fiction has appeared and is forthcoming in Shimmer, Cabinet des Fées, and Strange Horizons. She’s currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Cornwall, England.

We also want to congratute the other poets who had poems up for the Rhysling Award this year. Those were: "Mrs. Margery Lovett, Her Book," Gemma Files (Issue 18); "Awaré for the Woman who Disappears in Silence," Jeannine Hall Gailey (Issue 18); "Tammuz to Ishtar," Delbert R. Gardner (Issue 19); "The Devourer," Sonya Taaffe (Issue 19); "To the River," Jessica Paige Wick (Issue 19).

We’re also proud to note that Amal’s win marks the third Rhysling Award within six years for a poem first published in Mythic Delirium, following Theodora Goss’s "Octavia Is Lost in the Hall of Masks" in 2004 and F.J. Bergmann’s "Eating Light" in 2008. We’re certainly grateful for the continuing affirmation of the quality of the poetry we publish.

Our 10th Anniversary Issue Is Here!

Neil Gaiman; photo by Sophia Quach Mythic Delirium is delighted to celebrate our 10th anniversary of publishing the best off-beat and eclectic speculative poetry with a landmark event in the history of our little do-it-yourself ’zine. Our newest issue, No. 20, showcases an original poem from best-selling and multiple award-winning author Neil Gaiman. For many Neil needs no introduction, with his newest novel The Graveyard Book winning the Newbery Medal just before Henry Selick’s 3D animated adaptation of his Hugo, Nebula and Bram Stoker Award-winning novella Coraline debuted in multiplexes nationwide.

A true jack-of-all-mediums and a master entertainer, Neil has exhibited astonishing versatility over nearly three decades, whether writing for comics, writing novels, writing screenplays, writing children’s picture books, or writing poems, a number of which appear in his short story collections. It’s hard to express how proud we are to have him on board for the final issue of our first 10 years, but take our word for it, we’re proud. And we’re certain you’ll find his new poem, titled "Conjunctions," a surreal vision centered around an image both comic and disturbing, to be a genuine treat for both Neil’s fans and for fans of speculative verse.

The first 350 copies of the issue feature an illustration for Neil’s poem hand-colored by artist Tim Mullins.

But Neil’s contribution isn’t the only ingredient that makes our 20th issue the largest and most exquisitely strange confection we’ve ever produced. This outsized issue contains 40 pages of odd and adventurous verse, featuring such voices familiar to long time subscribers as Sonya Taaffe, Darrell Schweitzer, F.J. Bergmann, Kendall Evans, Samantha Henderson, G.O. Clark, Danny Adams, Jessica Paige Wick, Amal El-Mohtar and Deborah P Kolodji. Over the years Mythic Delirium has given a number of writers and poets their very first publications, a source of considerable pride for us, and our anniversary issue is no exception, with nearly half of the poems scribed by contributors who, like Neil, are appearing in our pages for the first time. There’s a surprise on every page. This is certainly an issue you shouldn’t miss.

(Click here to see the complete table of contents.)

(Click here to see the complete wraparound cover art.)

Mythic Delirium 20 is available directly from this website via PayPal or credit card at special prices beginning at $6.50; however, should you choose instead to subscribe, you’ll receive this extra-large special issue as the first issue of your subscription at no extra cost whatsover. All prices for domestic, Canadian, U.K. and world purchases are listed to the right above the appropriate PayPal buttons.

If you wish to pay via postal mail, the same prices apply; checks or money orders in U.S. Funds should be sent to Mike Allen, 3514 Signal Hill Ave NW, Roanoke VA 24017.

Order our 10th Anniversary Issue
featuring Neil Gaiman

Domestic: $6.50
Canada/United Kingdom: $7.50
World: $8.50

Costs, shipping included


One Year Subscription (2 issues)
Domestic: $9.00
Canada/United Kingdom: $11.00
World: $15.00

Costs, shipping included


Two Year Subscription (4 issues)
Domestic: $16.00
Canada/United Kingdom: $20.00
World: $28.00

Costs, shipping included

Photo of Neil Gaiman by Sophia Quach.

Older news


 

Featured Poems

From Mythic Delirium, Issue 22, Winter/Spring 2010

The Reaper’s Wife

Susan Slaviero

Illustration by Paula Friedlander.

This text will be replaced

Read by Kate Baker
this is here to make the spacing work

I keep track of every bullethole and phantom limb,
because he has no patience for minutiae—
for the carnivorous reeds that consume damsel-
flies at the swamp-edge, or for boys’ severed fingers, 
buried in rural yards and marked with plaster stones.

I am a hagiographer for girls who leave high school,
still virgins. They should be allowed one last candy
necklace, I say, and spared such things as hazy 
diagnoses, rotting nectarines, or wolf whistles
after 10 p.m. Meanwhile, black dogs thump
their tails at the rims of freshly mown lawns,
their tongues a mutable pink, lolling in cursive
shapes and question marks. Breed and release.

He has little interest in small-town spinsters,
who often age beyond what is expected. 
These wizened apples, Appalachian 
folk art crafted by inertia
and reminiscent of succubae. They are Jupiter’s
moons without the volcanoes, without 
the possibility of some ancient fecundity.

He is so forgetful. If I did not trim his beard
and wings at swift intervals of a turned hourglass,
he would surely swell into a nest of hair and dust,
develop icicles on the tips of his feathers
and be pecked apart by his own flock
of hungry crows. Yes, he is a psychopomp
with prophetic fingers. Still, that’s no excuse.

We are connected for the span of a sleepwalker’s kiss.
I anticipate my own queening: when the pennies
are stripped from my pupils, and I am handed a green sprout,
never-fading, to be carried between my thumb and index finger.
I might ask the children to stroke each leaf in turn,
or to grow their own sprouts from tiny nailbeds
as a balm for the sleepless. Together, we might re-create 
the world as somnambulists, as dreamers who can see 
only the horse, never the blade or bone.

this is here to make the spacing work

 

From Mythic Delirium, Issue 22, Winter/Spring 2010

Cave-smell

Shweta Narayan

Illustration by Daniel Trout.

This text will be replaced

Read by Shweta Narayan

this is here to make the spacing work

	 My mother was a brown bear
	 honey-lover, heavy paw
	 cave-smelling warm

You say I am a girl
though my fur hangs heavy
and my claws click, stumbling careful
on your keyboard

	 You smelled breath and fur
	 leavings and closed spaces
	 set me down, backed away
	 tranq gun raised

I ask: <<What will I be?>>
A celebrity, you say. A triumph of neuroscience
and philanthropy.

Words too long to type. I say: <<No,
go to school.>>
You laugh and pet me.
Bright girl, brown girl,
bears don't do that.

	 I smelled home
	 but she worried that implant plate with her rough tongue
	 licked shaved skin raw

	 and if she spoke
	 I did not know the words.

And there's a laugh in your smile
when I eat honey or sashimi
And fear in your anger
when I snarl

though you do these things too.

	When you called
	in my new tongue
	I did not look back at her

So I click, heavy-clawed
and write my halting
small-word
cave-smell stories
in the tongue you taught

And wonder if my daughters will read them
or if they will be brown bears.

this is here to make the spacing work

 

A Special Mythic Delirium Presentation

From Mythic Delirium, Issue 19, Summer/Fall 2008

Poem by Mythic Delirium 22 guest editor Amal El-Mohtar

Arabic translation by Oussama El-Mohtar

أغنية إلى مدينة قديمة

This text will be replaced

Read by Oussama El-Mohtar

دعني من عطرك يا عطّار
دعني من وَردِك والعنبرْ
من عطر العود، من المِرِّ
دعني من خشب الصندلْ
دعني من عطرك يا عطّار.
كلُ ما احتاجه بعضُ غبارْ
أضمُّه في راحتي الصغيرة
كقطعة نقدِ، كحبة خردلْ
كمفتاح وَشَمه الصدأ
كلُ ما أحتاجه هذه الأرض
التي ليست بأرض
بل زفير مدينة تنبض بالحياة
أغنية امرأة عظامها ناياتِ
تلعب فيها الريحْ
ويرقص الهواء على شفتين تقطران نسغًا يفيض بالحياة.
هذا الغبار المهتّزُ من قرع الطبول
المتساقط من فتحة باب، من دعسة بنت حافيةِ فوق الأدراج الحجرية
هذا الغبار بلون القرفة ألبَسُه عطرًا كما الصبايا يلبسن عطر الياسمين والليلك
فتشير فتاة عيناها من زبد البحر
وجلدها بلون الغسق صارخة:
"ها صبيّة في فجوة حنجرتها سبعة آلاف سنة
ها صبيّة تصبُّ من فمها القوافل والمماليك
ومن شفتين تعرفان عن معابد الشمس
أكثر من الورد، تزحف جحافل المغول."

داماس، دمشق، أغنية انشدها لنفسي
أبحث عن فمها ليلتقي بفمي
أجمع راحة يدي إلى راحة يدها
أتأمل تطابق الأصابع
إنها ملمس النقود المعدنية ورنّتها
إذ تهتزُّ في فنجان نحاسي
إنها النردُ، تبييت الملك في لعبة شطرنج
طعق الخيّال على المرمر إذ يجتاح البرج
إنها صخب الدفوف والدربكَّة
تنهيدة الناي وتأملِّ القانون
إنها شكواكم يا عطّار، شكوى أيادي التجار
المصبوغة بألوان التوابل
أما ضحكتها فيشوبها الغبار يا عطّار.

أودّ لو أشربه هذا الغبار
ينشِّف فمي هذا الضجيج، هذه الأزقةُ
تصبح ألمًا صحراويًا في حنجرتي
وردة شوكية تخرج من أحشائي
عطرًا موجعًا في رئتيَّ لا أتعطر بغيره.
سأسكب العطرَ من عينيَّ يا عطّار
أخلط ملحَه بغبارها
أخمّر أناملي في حجارتها
وأرفعها إلى شفتيَّ.

Song for an Ancient City

This text will be replaced

Read by Amal El-Mohtar

Merchant, keep your attar of roses,
your ambers, your oud,
your myrrh and sandalwood. I need
nothing but this dust
palmed in my hand’s cup
like a coin, like a mustard seed,
like a rusted key.
I need
no more than this, this earth
that isn’t earth, but breath,
the exhalation of a living city, the song
of a flute-boned woman,
air and marrow on her lips. This dust,
shaken from a drum, a door opening, a girl’s heel
on stone steps, this dust
like powdered cinnamon, I would wear
as other girls wear jasmine and lilies,
that a child with seafoam eyes
and dusky skin might cry, there
goes a girl with seven thousand years
at the hollow of her throat, there
goes a girl who opens her mouth to pour
caravans, mamelukes, a mongolian horde
from lips that know less of roses
than of temples in the rising sun!

Damascus, Dimashq
is a song I sing to myself. I would find
where she keeps her mouth, meet it with mine,
press my hand against her palm
and see if our fingers match. She
is the sound, the feel
of coins shaken in a cup, of dice,
the alabaster clap of knight claiming rook,
of kings castling — she is the clamour
of tambourines and dirbakki,
nays sighing, qanouns musing, the complaint
of you merchants with spice-lined hands,
and there is dust in her laughter.

I would drink it, dry my tongue
with this noise, these narrow streets,
until she is a parched pain in my throat, a thorned rose
growing outwards from my belly’s pit, aching fragrance
into my lungs. I need no other. I
would spill attar from my eyes,
mix her dust with my salt,
steep my fingers in her stone
and raise them to my lips.

“The Reaper’s Wife” and accompanying illustration first appeared in Mythic Delirium, Issue 22, Winter/Spring 2010. “The Reaper’s Wife” copyright © 2010 by Susan Slaviero. Illustration by Paula Friedlander, copyright © 2010. Voice recording by Kate Baker, © 2010; all rights reserved. “Cave-smell” and accompanying illustration first appeared in Mythic Delirium, Issue 22, Winter/Spring 2010. “Cave-smell” copyright © 2010 by Shweta Narayan. Illustration by Daniel Trout, copyright © 2010. Voice recording by Shweta Narayan, © 2010; all rights reserved. “Song for an Ancient City” first appeared in Mythic Delirium, Issue 19, Summer/Fall 2008. “Song for an Ancient City” copyright © 2008 by Amal El-Mohtar. Translation copyright © 2010 by Oussama El-Mohtar, first appeared in Fikr magazine, January 2010. Voice recordings by Amal El-Mohtar, © 2008, and Oussama El-Mohtar, © 2010, all rights reserved. These poems and illustrations may not be reproduced in any form without the authors’ and artists’ express written permission.

Previous classic and featured poems by:

Jessica Paige Wick, Constance Cooper and Ann K. Schwader
Amal El-Mohtar & Jessica Paige Wick, Lindsey Nair and F.J. Bergmann
Holly Dworken Cooley and Ian Watson
Amal El-Mohtar and Jessica Paige Wick
David C. Kopaska-Merkel and Gene van Troyer
Jeannine Hall Gailey and Charlee Jacob
Theodora Goss and Sonya Taaffe
Samantha Henderson and Ann K. Schwader
Catherynne M. Valente and Anna Tambour


Subscribe to Mythic Delirium!

Send checks in U.S. funds to Mike Allen, 3514 Signal Hill Ave. NW, Roanoke VA 24017, USA, or order via PayPal or credit card using the buttons below.

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One Year Subscription (2 issues)
Domestic: $9.00
Canada/United Kingdom: $11.00
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Costs, shipping included
Two Year Subscription (4 issues)
Domestic: $16.00
Canada/United Kingdom: $20.00
World: $28.00

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Available Mythic Delirium Issues

To view the complete wraparound covers, click on the cover images below.

Mythic Delirium 21 Mythic Delirium 22
Issue 21
The Trickster Issue
(contents)
Issue 22
The Goblin Delirium Issue
(contents)
IT'S HERE!

Mythic Delirium Eighteen Mythic Delirium Nineteen Mythic Delirium Twenty
Issue Eighteen
(contents)
Read The Fix review!
Issue Nineteen
(contents)
Issue Twenty
10th Anniversary Issue
(contents)
IT'S HERE!

Mythic Delirium Fifteen Mythic Delirium Sixteen Mythic Delirium Seventeen
Issue Fifteen
(contents)
Issue Sixteen
(contents)
Issue Seventeen
(contents)
Read THE FIX review!

Previous Issues

All cover art by Tim Mullins, Copyright © 2006, 2007, 2008.
All site logos by Tim Mullins.


New from Mythic Delirium Books!

In DeepSpace Shadows Mythic Delirium proudly announces the release of In Deepspace Shadows: A Dramatic Poem in Two Acts, a ground-breaking work from Rhysling Award-winning poet Kendall Evans — a two-act science fiction play in verse, fully illustrated. Nebula Award-winning author Sheila Finch dubs Evans’ unique creation "rich and strange, as Christopher Marlowe might have written about Deep Space if he’d only known." With a color cover, 36 pages, fully illustrated by Mythic Delirium regulars Don Eaves, Terrence Mollendor and Tim Mullins.

"Why journey to a place of nothingness? For the language that takes you there. Kendall Evans’ In Deepspace Shadows: A Dramatic Poem in Two Acts is the future scripted by Cyril Tourneur after Isaac Asimov, an eerie and elegant creation within which conspiracies, mutinies, and madness unfold in electromagnetic pulses and static recharge — stage directions, set design, iambic pentameter and all. Gather four friends; read this mechanical fantasia aloud. Like the light of dead stars, its images will haunt your sky long after their words have been put away." — Sonya Taaffe

In Deepspace Shadows is available directly from this website via PayPal or credit card for $6, shipping included; via postal mail, checks or money orders for $6 in U.S. Funds should be sent to Mike Allen, 3514 Signal Hill Ave NW, Roanoke VA 24017.

MYTHIC, volume two

STILL AVAILABLE!
($11, includes shipping)

Click here for the complete cover, table of contents and sample passages

Read the Strange Horizons review.
Read the SF Site review.
Read the Locus review.

The world’s greatest sorcerer is losing his mind, and all the nations wait in fear for his next move. The faces of the future gaze forward and back, and sirens don’t always sing the songs you expect. Deserts speak with the voices of girls, mothers and stepmothers are two pages of the same book, and churches house things stranger than angels. But in the afterlife, you never know when an absinthe spoon will come in handy . . . .

With new writings by Leah Bobet, Richard Parks, Cherie Priest, Catherynne M. Valente, Ekaterina Sedia, Lawrence Schimel, Sonya Taaffe, Steve Rasnic Tem, Jo Walton and more

MYTHIC, volume one

STILL AVAILABLE!
($11, includes shipping)

Click here for the complete cover, table of contents and sample passages

Read the SF Site review.
Read the Strange Horizons review.
Read the Tangent Online review.

Amid the hard-scrabble West Virginia coal mines, a terrible magical vengeance takes an equally terrible toll on a young boy’s heart. Ancient gods provide metaphors for a father’s love and a child’s grief, and Cinderella’s shattered glass slippers become a window into the horror of the Holocaust. A mythic tale of a little girl’s rebellion explains all the craziness of weather, and the Wandering Jew reveals the truth about the Loch Ness Monster ...

Off-beat new talents like Matthew Cheney, Theodora Goss, Richard Parks and Sonya Taaffe alongside veterans such as Joe Haldeman and Ian Watson ... unique literary smorgasbord of humor and horror, wonder and wisdom.


MYTHIC reading!

The authors of MYTHIC participated in a group reading at ReaderCon 17, Saturday, July 8, 2006, 1 p.m. For photos of the event, look here.


Mythic Delirium News

F.J. Bergmann wins 2008 Rhysling Award for short poem

F.J. Bergmann We at Mythic Delirium were proud to get the news that F.J. Bergmann claimed the 2008 Rhysling Award in the short poem category from the Science Fiction Poetry Association for her whimsical and satirical poem "Eating Light" in Issue 17. Bergmann’s poems and stories have appeared in numerous other venues, both genre-oriented and literary; we’re certainly glad that we could be the venue for her winning poem. Congratulations, Jeannie!

Even more honors for Mythic Delirium writers!

In addition to F.J. Bergmann’s win in the 2008 short poem category, we’re proud to mention that Kendall Evans’ "dramatic poem in two acts" In DeepSpace Shadows was alos honored by the Science Fiction Poetry Association’s Rhysling Awards, winning second place in the long poem category. We’re glad to have worked with Kendall on publishing this one-of-a-kind work.

In total, ten poems we first published in 2007 were nominated:

In DeepSpace Shadows, Kendall Evans

From Mythic Delirium 17: "Eating Light," F.J. Bergmann; "After Appomattox," Holly Cooley; "How to Hide in a Japanese Print," Lila Garrott; "Weightless," K.S. Hardy; "Nine Days Out—," Jaime Lee Moyer; "Brothers in Arms," Marsheila Rockwell; "Gleipnir Diaries," JoSelle Vanderhooft.

From Mythic Delirium 16: "Next Time Write It Down," Charles Saplak; "Eating the Breadcrumbs," Erzebet YellowBoy.

In addition, several writers published in Mythic Delirium in 2007 received Honorable Mentions in the 2008 volume of The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, edited by Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link and Gavin Grant.

From Mythic Delirium 17: Leah Bobet, "Fitcher’s Third Wife"; Holly Cooley, "After Appomattox"; M. Frost, "The Witch’s Daughter"; JoSelle Vanderhooft, "Gleipnir Diaries."

From Mythic Delirium 16: Rob Cook, "Weathermen"; Samantha Henderson, "King’s Man"; Jessica Paige Wick, "After the Voice Was Taken."

We want to heartily congratulate all these authors for their fine work.

More honors for Mythic Delirium writers!

We’re proud to announce that two of the poems published last year in MYTHIC were honored by the Science Fiction Poetry Association’s 30th annual Rhysling Awards, winning second place in their respective categories: "The Eight Legs of Grandmother Spider" by Catherynne M. Valente (long) and "god is dead short live god" by Joe Haldeman (short). Congratulations to both these excellent writers for their great work.

In total, eleven poems we first published in 2006 were nominated:

From MYTHIC: "Sakhmet the Destroyer" by Gary Every; "god is dead short live god" by Joe Haldeman; "Kristallnacht" by Lawrence Schimel; "The Eight Legs of Grandmother Spider" by Catherynne M. Valente.

From MYTHIC 2: "Siren’s Call" by Deborah P. Kolodji; "Homecoming" by Sonya Taaffe.

From Mythic Delirium 14: "Africa Screams" by Mikal Trimm; "The Descent of the Corn-Queen of the Midwest" by Catherynne M. Valente; "The Minotaur’s Last Letter to His Mother" by JoSelle Vanderhooft; "Cobwebs in Heaven" by Ian Watson.

From Mythic Delirium 15: "To a Lover Dying Old" by Lida Broadhurst.

In addition, several writers published in Mythic Delirium and the MYTHIC anthologies in 2006 have received Honorable Mentions in the 2007 volume of The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, edited by Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link and Gavin Grant.

From MYTHIC: "Beauty to the Beast" by Theodora Goss; "Cemetery Seven" by Charles Saplak; "Exorcisms" by Sonya Taaffe; "The Eight Legs of Grandmother Spider" by Catherynne M. Valente.

From MYTHIC 2: "Bluebeard’s Second Wife" by Helena Bell; "The Immigrant" by Cherie Priest; "Simargl and the Rowan Tree" by Ekaterina Sedia; "Homecoming" by Sonya Taaffe; "The Tale of the Desert that Vanished Inside Her" by JoSelle Vanderhooft; "Moonstone" by Erzebet Yellowboy.

From Mythic Delirium 14: "The Descent of the Corn-Queen of the Midwest" by Catherynne M. Valente.

From Mythic Delirium 15: "Tarahamura Chiles" by Gary Every; "Bal Macabre" by Theodora Goss; "Transformation" by Julie Shiel; "Two Rivers" by JoSelle Vanderhooft.

We want to heartily congratulate all these authors for their fine work.

Mythic Delirium editor reviewed in The Philadelphia Inquirer

Strange Wisdoms of the Dead Mythic Delirium editor and publisher Mike Allen’s newest collection, Strange Wisdoms of the Dead, was reviewed by The Philadelphia Inquirer book review editor Frank Wilson in his Editor’s Choice column. Wilson wrote that Mike’s poems "do a fine job of making the human scary and the scary human."

Mythic Delirium writers receive honors!

Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror 19

Mythic Delirium 13

Mythic Delirium 12

We’re proud to announce that six poems published in Mythic Delirium in 2005 received Honorable Mentions from the 2006 volume of The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, edited by Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link and Gavin Grant.

From Issue 13: Constance Cooper, "How the Sea People Mourn"; "Les Berceaux" by Jaida Jones; "Arise" by Aurelio Rico Lopez III; "Crow Eats Carrion" by Carma Lynn Park; "The Queen of Hearts" by Catherynne M. Valente.

From Issue 12: "Tarot in the Dungeon" by Sonya Taaffe.

Seven poems we published in 2005 were also nominated for the Rhysling Award, given each year by the Science Fiction Poetry Association:

From Issue 13: "Utnapishtim on Friday After Dessert" by Danny Adams; "How the Sea People Mourn" by Constance Cooper; "Lost Over East Texas" by Ann K. Schwader; "Ibis, Scribe" by Sonya Taaffe.

From Issue 12: "Rapunzel, Rapunzella" by Kendall Evans; "Genetics" by Charles Saplak; "Tarot in the Dungeon" by Sonya Taaffe.

We want to congratulate all these authors for their fine work.

Editor Mike Allen also received honors from these venues. His poem "The Strip Search" won the 2006 Rhysling Award for Short Poem. Five others were nominated: "Chagall’s Lamp," "Picasso’s Rapture," "Rattlebox" (with David C. Kopaska-Merkel), "TimeFlood" (with Ian Watson, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Feb. 󈧉) and "Thanomorphosis" (with W. Gregory Stewart, The Magazine of Speculative Poetry, Dec. 󈧉).

Mike also received ten Honorable Mentions from The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror for poems published in 2005. They were: "The Disturbing Muses," "The Golden Helmet (Casque d’Or)," "Picasso’s Rapture," "Pollock’s Knives" (all from his collection Disturbing Muses); "The Elders," "The Night Gardeners" and "Asunder" (with Christina Sng), from Star*Line; "The Captive Pleads with the Memory Carver" (Tales of the Unanticipated 26); "The Clairvoyant, Between Dark and Dream" (Jabberwocky 1); "The Unseelie Tree" (Space & Time 99).

Books by Mythic Delirium authors in 2005

POSTCARDS FROM THE PROVINCE OF HYPHENS by Sonya Taaffe SINGING INNOCENCE AND EXPERIENCE by Sonya Taaffe SEPARATE DESTINATIONS by Kendall Evans & David C. Kopaska-Merkel DISTURBING MUSES by Mike Allen STRANGE WISDOMS OF THE DEAD by Mike Allen
2005 was a landmark year for books with Mythic Delirium associations.

Sonya Taaffe, whose poems first appeared in our pages, and who has appeared in every issue since Issue 5, produced the poetry collection Postcards from the Province of Hyphens, gathering nearly every poem of hers we’ve published. In addition, her critically-lauded short story collection, Singing Innocence and Experience contains her poems "Tarot in the Dungeon" and "Eelgress and Blue," first published in Mythic Delirium 12.

Kendall Evans and David C. Kopaska-Merkel, both frequent contributors to Mythic Delirium, produced a chapbook of surreal collaborations, Separate Destinations, holding three mind-bending poems that first appeared in our pages (among them a piece titled "Mythic Delirium"). Mythic Delirium editor Mike Allen wrote the books introduction.

Editor Mike Allen had books of his own come out, including the chapbook Disturbing Muses collection a series of dark fantasy poems inspired by the paintings of 19th and 20th century masters. His 10-year-retrospective, Strange Wisdoms of the Dead, coming in January from Wildside Press, is now available for pre-order on his website.

Nine Mythic Delirium poems receive honors from 2005 Year’s Best

Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror We’re proud to announce that nine poems published in Mythic Delirium in 2004 received Honorable Mentions from the 2005 volume of The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, edited by Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link and Gavin Grant.

From Issue 10: "Necropolis" by Constance Cooper; "Apocalypso" and "Lilim, After Dark" by Sonya Taaffe; "September" by Bud Webster; "Musings About Seth" by Jane Yolen.

From Issue 11: "Azurite Mine" by Gary Every; "The Prairie Whales Are All Extinct" by Nicholas Ozment; "The Laying-Out" and "Tzaddik" by Sonya Taaffe.

Theodora Goss wins 2004 Rhysling Award for long poem

Theodora Goss We at Mythic Delirium were proud to learn that Theodora Goss has won the 2004 Rhysling Award in the long poem category from the Science Fiction Poetry Association for "Octavia Is Lost in the Hall of Masks," her dark-fantastic prose poem from Issue 8. Goss, a graduate student working on her Ph.D. at Boston University, has been nominated for the Nebula Award for her short fiction, and has appeared in two volumes of The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. We want to congratulate Dora on adding the Rhysling Award to her list of accomplishments!

Seven Mythic Delirium poems receive honors from 2004 Year’s Best

Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror We’re proud to announce that seven poems published in Mythic Delirium in 2003 received Honorable Mentions from the 2004 volume of The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, edited by Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link and Gavin Grant.

From Issue 8: "After You Die #12: Dark City" by David Bain; "Octavia Is Lost in the Hall of Masks" by Theodora Goss

From Issue 9: "Seeing Aphrodite" by Jennifer Finstrom; "Shadow Tales" by Serena Fusek; "While Considering the Possibility of Using the Columbia River Gorge as the Setting for an Epic Fantasy" by Mario Milosevic; "Hadrian" by Darrell Schweitzer; "Kaddish for a Dybbuk" by Sonya Taaffe.

In her introduction, Datlow also gave recognition to Mythic Delirium illustration duo Don Eaves and Terrence Mollendor and cover artist Tim Mullins.

Poems by Ursula K. Le Guin to appear in Mythic Delirium

Ursula Le Guin Over the next year, we at Mythic Delirium will share with our readers three hard-to-find poetic gems from Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Grand Master Ursula K. Le Guin. Best known for such classics as The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed and the Earthsea novels, Le Guin is also quite an accomplished poet. We at Mythic Delirium are honored to be able to include fantasy-themed poems from her 1981 collection, Hard Words, in upcoming issues 11 and 12. If you can’t wait, some of Le Guin’s recent non-fantasy themed poems are readily available on her website.


Mythic Delirium Guidelines

Mike Allen, Editor and Publisher
3514 Signal Hill Ave NW
Roanoke, VA 24017-5148

NOTE: Mythic Delirium is currently closed to submissions.
We will reopen on March 1, 2011. When we reopen,
we will no longer accept postal mail submissions.
In an effort to be a little more "green,"
we will be accepting electronic submissions only.

Mythic Delirium is a biannual journal that publishes science fiction, fantasy, horror, surreal and cross-genre poetry. We do not publish fiction. While any style of poem is fair game, Mythic Delirium is unusual in that we are not adverse to well-done rhyme and meter. When considering sending a rhyming poem to us, keep in mind that the best rhyme does not call attention to itself and that properly done traditional poems possess consistent rhythm; lines don’t just end in words that sound similar.

We are interested in work that demonstrates ambition, that casts new light on genre tropes, that introduces readers to the legends of other cultures, that re-evaluates the myths of old from a modern perspective, that twists reality in unexpected ways.

Payment for all unsolicited work: $5 on publication. No reprints.

Sample copies/Subscriptions: Send $5 for a sample copy to Mike Allen, 3514 Signal Hill Ave NW, Roanoke, VA 24017-5148. (Rate applies to U.S. residents only. If you live outside the U.S., and wish to purchase a sample copy, contact the publisher at mythicdelirium[at]gmail[dot]com.)

Mythic Delirium prefers electronic submissions. Most formats acceptable, text format or RTF files preferred. There is no limit on the number of submissions to send, but keep it reasonable (6, for example, is reasonable; 60 is not). Such submissions may be sent to mythicdelirium[at]gmail[dot]com.


This Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Net Ring site
is owned by
Mike Allen.

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