Spectral Realms No. 23

The twenty-third issue of Spectral Realms, Hippocampus Press's acclaimed journal of weird poetry, contains vibrant verse of fantasy and terror by such leading figures as Wade German, Ann K. Schwader, Ngo Binh Anh Khoa, Scott J. Couturier, John Shirley, Jessica Amanda Salmonson, and Darrell Schweitzer.

Manuel Pérez-Campos envisions a terrifying jaguar-goddess; Adam Bolivar contributes more of his verse in Anglo-Saxon meter; David Barker provides two more sonnets inspired by Lovecraft's Fungi from Yuggoth; Jack Ranieri's long poem tells of a church that has been turned into a nightclub and the baleful events therein; Lauri Taneli Lassila ponders the "Tomb of Nyarlathotep"; and Dmitri Akers pens a brooding sonnet on the Egyptian crocodile god Sobek. Prose poems by Maxwell I. Gold, Livia E. DeSouza, and Mark Howard Jones enliven the issue.

Among the classic reprints are a poem by John H. Fowler (appreciated by H. P. Lovecraft) and a new translation by J. G. Maybrook of Heinrich Heine's immortal poem "The Lorelei." S. T. Joshi reviews recent poetry volumes by two New York poets, LindaAnn LoSchiavo (a frequent Spectral Realms contributor) and M. G. Turner.