Mythic Delirium

an international anthology of prose and verse

edited by Mike and Anita Allen

Cover art by Galen Dara

“Rich word choices and settings that blend speculative concepts with quotidian reality highlight this stellar anthology of prose and poetry from well-known editor Mike Allen (Clockwork Phoenix) and his wife and copublisher, Anita Allen … This anthology is a winner from cover to cover.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review

This new anthology from the creative team behind the critically-acclaimed Clockwork Phoenix series assembles beautiful poetry and strange prose from the first year of the digital journal Mythic Delirium.

Funded by Kickstarter, this international gathering of writers spans cultures and blurs genres, showcasing work that, in the words of co-editor Mike Allen, “makes our notoriously offbeat Clockwork Phoenix seem like a product of the straight and narrow.”

With contributions from Marie Brennan, Ken Liu, Alexandra Seidel, Karthika Naïr, Sonya Taaffe, C.S.E. Cooney, S. Brackett Robertson, Amal El-Mohtar, Virginia M. Mohlere, Georgina Bruce, Patty Templeton, David Sklar, Liz Bourke, Jennifer Crow, Brittany Warman, Yoon Ha Lee, Brigitte N. McCray, Nicole Kornher-Stace, Kenneth Schneyer, Robert Davies, Lisa M. Bradley, Sandi Leibowitz, J.C. Runolfson, Christina Sng, Beth Cato, Rhonda Parrish, Cedar Sanderson, Yukimi Ogawa, Mari Ness, Lynette Mejía and Jane Yolen. Cover art by Hugo Award winner Galen Dara.

Hungry Constellations

Poetry by Mike Allen

Introduction by Amal El-Mohtar

poems selected by dominik parisien

Cover by Paula Arwen Owen

“The poems in Mike Allen’s latest book, Hungry Constellations, make a rowdy, red-tinged tapestry, representing twenty years of work from one of the major creative forces in this genre. These poems are physical, expansive, and revolutionary. They are grand and dystopic. They seethe with the conflict of opposites. Allen likes the destructive side of creation as much as the emergent side. He likes dying gods, because they need to be revived or transformed. He writes about stars and legends and human beings contending with the monster-filled and glorious cosmos. He does it all with a relentless, energetic style, full of thought and invention.”
—Star*Line

The mutants of Wonderland threaten to smash through the looking glass as the river of Time overflows its banks. The King of Cats and the Queen of Wolves dance a duet across eons, alternately foes and lovers. Monstrous constellations come to life in the sky, hungry for people-filled worlds.

Hungry Constellations, the newest poetry collection from Nebula Award finalist and three-time Rhysling Award winner Mike Allen, surveys two decades of mind-bending verse. Editor Dominik Parisien starts with poems drawn from Allen’s previous book-length collections, Strange Wisdoms of the Dead (2006) and The Journey to Kailash (2008), then concludes the triptych with a selection of new and previously uncollected pieces, which author, poet and editor Amal El-Mohtar calls Allen’s most ambitious work to date in her introduction. Cover artist Paula Arwen Friedlander (arwendesigns.net) adroitly illustrates the collection’s Rhysling Award-nominated title poem.

Funded by a Kickstarter campaign, Hungry Constellations is Allen’s first poetry collection available in digital format.