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Consumed, Reduced to Beautiful Grey Ashes
This collection of poetry received the HWA Bram Stoker award and includes interior illustrations by Marge Simon, full color cover by Colleen Crary, and an introduction by Charlee Jacob
Consumed, Reduced To Beautiful Grey Ashes captures the path between things gone bad and transformation. This volume includes both original pieces and reprints from such sources as Edgar: Digested Verse, Dark Regions, and Pirate Writings.
56 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2001
96 people want to read
About the author
Linda D. Addison
72 books58 followersLinda D. Addison was born in Philadelphia in 1952. She is the oldest of nine children and received a bachelor of science in mathematics from Carnegie-Mellon University. She is the author of three collections: “Being Full of Light, Insubstantial”, “Consumed, Reduced to Beautiful Grey Ashes” and “Animated Objects” (Space & Time Books). Her work has also appeared in numerous publications, including Essence magazine, Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine and Doorways magazine,.
In 2001, Addison was the first African-American to win the HWA's Bram Stoker Award for superior achievement in poetry for “Consumed, Reduced to Beautiful Grey Ashes”. Other prominent recipients of this distinguished award include authors, Alice Sebold (Lovely Bones) and J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter Series).
She was honored with her second Bram Stoker Award for her third collection of poems titled “Being Full of Light, Insubstantial” (Space & Time Books).
She is the only author with fiction in three landmark anthologies that celebrate African-Americans speculative writers: the award-winning anthology Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction (Warner Aspect), Dark Dreams (Kensington), and Dark Thirst (Pocket Book).
Her work has made frequent appearances over the years on the honorable mention list for Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror and Year’s Best Science-Fiction.
In 2001, Addison was the first African-American to win the HWA's Bram Stoker Award for superior achievement in poetry for “Consumed, Reduced to Beautiful Grey Ashes”. Other prominent recipients of this distinguished award include authors, Alice Sebold (Lovely Bones) and J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter Series).
She was honored with her second Bram Stoker Award for her third collection of poems titled “Being Full of Light, Insubstantial” (Space & Time Books).
She is the only author with fiction in three landmark anthologies that celebrate African-Americans speculative writers: the award-winning anthology Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction (Warner Aspect), Dark Dreams (Kensington), and Dark Thirst (Pocket Book).
Her work has made frequent appearances over the years on the honorable mention list for Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror and Year’s Best Science-Fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 3, 2021
CW: domestic abuse. This collection isn't strictly speculative (as explained in the intro), but there 's a common thread about examining the horrific and obscene aspects of humanity. It talks about possessiveness in romantic or sexual relationships (both perpetrating and being on the receiving end), feeling misunderstood, and mourning. In terms of the fantastical elements, this collection includes dragons, zombies, bottle trees, and assorted malevolent supernatural forces. My favorite poems were Have We Met Before?, Avenging Dream, and Firey Oracle. I was most drawn to the poems with passionate, dramatic/firey tones.
January 14, 2024
Ok, I love the poems in this book. I also once met this author at a horror convention, and it was incredibly delightful to interact with her. I'd definitely recommend this poetry collection. These poems are moving and lyrical and so good.
I would not recommend, however, falling for the marketing of this book. Consumed, Reduced to Beautiful Grey Ashes is published by a SFF publisher. It's categorized as fantasy-poetry. I was introduced to it at a horror convention, where I was told, yes this poetry collection is horror-fantasy-scifi.
Aaand.... it's not?
It starts in the introduction, where someone from publisher openly admits "we-ell, this isn't what we usually publish, but IT'S REALLY GOOD." It's like being told to squint your eyes to see the artistry in a work before someone shows you the piece. Odd vibe, I thought. Then I started reading. I squinted pretty hard at these poems (metaphorically, of course) and I have to say...... yeah I'm not seeing the genre part of this poetry collection.
Again, these are incredibly good poems. I enjoyed the time I spent between the pages of this collection. But they're predominantly about family, breakups, falling in love, existential crisis- the same basic principles of non-genre specific poetry.
In my mind this is a marketer/publishing thing so I'm not docking my review any stars. But also, I'm slightly confused why the source material is so divorced from what it's being sold as.
I would not recommend, however, falling for the marketing of this book. Consumed, Reduced to Beautiful Grey Ashes is published by a SFF publisher. It's categorized as fantasy-poetry. I was introduced to it at a horror convention, where I was told, yes this poetry collection is horror-fantasy-scifi.
Aaand.... it's not?
It starts in the introduction, where someone from publisher openly admits "we-ell, this isn't what we usually publish, but IT'S REALLY GOOD." It's like being told to squint your eyes to see the artistry in a work before someone shows you the piece. Odd vibe, I thought. Then I started reading. I squinted pretty hard at these poems (metaphorically, of course) and I have to say...... yeah I'm not seeing the genre part of this poetry collection.
Again, these are incredibly good poems. I enjoyed the time I spent between the pages of this collection. But they're predominantly about family, breakups, falling in love, existential crisis- the same basic principles of non-genre specific poetry.
In my mind this is a marketer/publishing thing so I'm not docking my review any stars. But also, I'm slightly confused why the source material is so divorced from what it's being sold as.
July 11, 2019
On a granular level, I found Addison's first collection of poetry to be a little uneven, with some of the poems too cryptic and some overly simplistic, but others brutal in their clarity. The net effect of all of them side by side, however, is powerful, creating a sense of raw honesty and struggle that mirrors our own uneven feelings and recovery when we have experienced trauma and are trying to work through it.
This sense of movement toward recovery is solidified by the arrangement of the poems, with poems toward the beginning of the volume focused more on simply feeling, and poems toward the end gradually shifting toward reacting. By the end of the collection, I feel like I have been reading someone's personal poetry journal, and this unknown narrator has ultimately ended up in a place of power--though whether that power is rooted in plans for vengeance, plans for moving on, a sense of self-acceptance, or some combination is left (enticingly) unclear and open to interpretation.
I'm glad I picked this up. It's a little heavy, and best read in handfuls of poems at the time, but (as I think the unnamed narrator would agree), worth the journey.
This sense of movement toward recovery is solidified by the arrangement of the poems, with poems toward the beginning of the volume focused more on simply feeling, and poems toward the end gradually shifting toward reacting. By the end of the collection, I feel like I have been reading someone's personal poetry journal, and this unknown narrator has ultimately ended up in a place of power--though whether that power is rooted in plans for vengeance, plans for moving on, a sense of self-acceptance, or some combination is left (enticingly) unclear and open to interpretation.
I'm glad I picked this up. It's a little heavy, and best read in handfuls of poems at the time, but (as I think the unnamed narrator would agree), worth the journey.
December 30, 2022
My favorite of Linda's collections so far. I have three more to read. The poems in this book have so many layers, one could spend a week reading the same poem every day and not discover all the nuances. Highly recommend.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews