HWA Poetry Showcase Volume IV

HWA Poetry Showcase #4

by David E. Cowen (Editor), Bruce Boston (Contributor), Clay F. Johnson (Contributor)

This fourth volume in the Horror Writers Association's acclaimed Poetry Showcase series features more of the exciting, disturbing, and beautiful verse that has made these collections favorites with lovers of the darkly lyrical. Includes new work by such popular poets of the macabre as Bruce Boston, Alessandro Manzetti, Ann K. Schwader, Marge Simon, and Stephanie M. Wytovich.

Genres: Horror, Poetry

98 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 15, 2017

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

The HWA Poetry Showcases are all fantastic books. I've given these books to my friends and family and love hearing about their reading enjoyment, sometimes with tea, or before bed, or in the company of dogs. I'm very thankful that my poem "Stranded" was honored with a special mention in this book, it's wonderful to know that it really gave people a dark thrill. There are so many great poems in this edition, I liked all of them, and there are some which continue to haunt me. My favorites were "Night of Tears" by Marge Simon and Alessandro Manzetti, "Pterodactyls" by Mark Kirkbride, "The Oak Tree's Shade" by Gerry Huntman, "The Orb" by Michael H. Hanson, "They May Not Tell Tales, but They Do Sing Songs" by Nina Shepardson, and "Unravel" by Annie Neugebauer. These books are all worth a spot on the shelf!

[Ann Schwader · Rating 4 out of 5]

[Disclaimer: I have a poem in this collection. Furthermore, it's one of the "special mention" poems the jurors chose to recognize this year. Please consider this review as more of a buyers' guide.]

This year's HWA Poetry Showcase celebrates the poetic side of the Dark Art of horror writing, as practiced by the HWA membership. It functions as both a contest and a showcase -- there are 3 Featured Poems (winners) and 3 Special Mention poems ( runners-up). The Kindle edition is fully indexed, and all the poems appear to have survived the conversion from print -- at least, so far as I could tell by comparing to a PDF copy. This in itself is notable!

The poems themselves are very diverse -- mainly free verse, but with a fair number of formal works as well. Most of the poems here are narrative. Subject matter and tone vary widely, though there was quite a bit of graveyard/ body horror. Almost all the works here would be very accessible to readers of prose horror.

An optimistic "Note from the Editor" -- David E. Cowen -- celebrates and comments upon the survival of dark poetry and other speculative verse, even in a time when mainstream poetry seems to be struggling in America.

[Suz Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The task of the contemporary poet is not to complain about their microscopic world but to transform the macrocosm.”—from editor David E. Cowen’s introduction

So many great poems in this installment of the HWA Showcase!

My favorites include:
“Mirror Madness” by Bruce Boston
“My Little a green Secret” by Clay F. Johnson
“The Apocalyptic Mannequin” by Stephanie M. Wytovich
“Night of Tears” by Marge Simon and Alessandro Manzetti
“After the End, Before the Dead” by Aimee Williams
“Cthulhu, Call Your Mother” by Lenore Hart
“Doll” by Allan Rozinski
“Erato” by K. Scott Forman
“Love at First Sight” by Kerri-Leigh Grady
“Mirrored Devourer” by R. J. Joseph
“Road Kill Technician” by Lina Sophia Rossi
“Skin to Scales”by Chad Stroup
“The Parasite” by JG Faherty
“The Resurrection of Snow” by Angela Yuriko Smith
“The Square Root of Dying” by Lisa Lepovetsky

[Joseph VanBuren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am never disappointed by an HWA Poetry Showcase, and this one ranks up there with the best. A lot of poets I know and love plus some that were new to me. What's great about the HWA is that they publish newer authors alongside veterans, which makes for a great selection with a wide range of voices and styles. As with any anthology, some pieces spoke to me more than others. But this is a solid collection for anyone who loves horror in all its multi-dimensional and often misunderstood glory.

[Tatiana Fajardo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I consider this anthology a great reading. The three poets on the cover are excellent, their outstanding poems about madness, poison and an apocalyptic mannequin are delightfully spooky. I found the rest of the poems entertaining and the overall quality of the work was a pleasant surprise. I highly recommend it.