She talks to wolves...

In the wake of my stepfather's death and the end of the most recent semester of graduate school, I wound up in a non-communicative lassitude. I'm trying to shake myself loose now, and am a bit horrified at how behind I am on free fiction recommendations around here. This really only calls for one thing, you know:

FREE FICTION EXTRAVAGANZA!

Oh, yes, I am going to leap forth with a veritable cornucopia of links and mini-reviews! Twice a week, to begin with, but we may do it more often as I make up for these many lost weeks.

Let's start with Mythic Delirium. Now, Mythic Delirium is an excellent poetry journal edited by Mike Allen. It's also not free: however, because Mike is wise to the ways of one good bite demanding another, he offers featured selections from Mythic Delirium with each issue. He doesn't take them away, either, as a glance at the bottom of the currently Featured section will reveal.

He also throws in the accompanying illustrations (and shares audio recordings when he has them!), because he's just a classy guy like that.

The latest issue of Mythic Delirium was guest-edited by the lovely Goblin Queens, Amal El-Mohtar and Jessica Paige Wick; I have it waiting temptingly on my shelf and will review it in full later. Just now, though, I really must encourage you to click over to the poetry journal's website proper and read the two selections from Mythic Delirium 22 that are featured.

"The Reaper's Wife" by Susan Slaviero
What can I say? This is simply beautiful and I love it: I see the South clothed here in mythical language, and one of my favorite tropes (relating to an anthropomorphized Death) pursued. The accompanying illustration by Paula Arwen Friedlander is everything I could have hoped, as well, arresting my eye and fracturing my gaze. The bold lines depict such an easily-grasped scene, yet I find my eyes also unfocusing to engage the art on a more basic level, and I am suddenly lost in an abstract pattern of dark and light.

To return to Slaviero's words, I know there are only a couple of Southern-specific phrases in the poem, but it sings to me in the lush language of Southern summer, where all is dense and slow, and so, so hot. Everything then (now) prefers to move through the dark. The poem leads me into thoughts of verdancy and decay twinned, running horses over graveyard-fields. Woven through there are hard lives and poverty, but also family strength and fierce caretaking. The more I think on "The Reaper's Wife," the more it speaks to my roots.

"Cave-smell" by Shweta Narayan
Narayan is such a strong poet, and I always find my anticipation heightened when I see her name on a TOC. My expectations were not dashed here. When I read "Cave-smell," I found myself blinking on the other side and thinking:

Oh. Oh, gosh. Sad and rough, gentle and honey-bitter.

The poem is a science fiction tale and a post-colonial meditation. It reflects on not belonging to your own home through no fault of your own, and captures such great sadness and complexity in the interstices between language and wordlessness. This poem is best read than reviewed in any greater detail, apart from this: the illustration complements the work well, emphasizing the deep discomfort and loneliness of the disconnect. I stand impressed by Narayan's poem, and troubled.

I don't have a moment, just now, to listen to the audio recordings. Or to talk about the final and amazing feature: Amal El-Mohtar's "Song for an Ancient City" and her father's translation into Arabic of the same, which definitely calls for another post. Please, though, I hope you have time to listen and to read. Come back afterward, and tell me what you think.



P.S. Remember, the Chimera Fancies A Local Habitation pendant sale begins at 9 AM PST!

This entry was originally posted at Livejournal on June 18th, 2010 at 9:24 AM. You can comment here or there.

Although the tenth anniversary edition is the first Mythic Delirium volume I've ever read, I've long been aware of the publication by reputation: many poems have appeared in Mythic Delirium (or related titles edited also by Mike Allen) that have later been nominated for the SFWA's Rhysling Awards or been honored in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror (2007), such as "The Descent of the Corn-Queen of the Midwest" by Catherynne M. Valente, "Songs for an Ancient City" by Amal El-Mohtar, and "To the River" by Jessica Paige Wick. One poem even recently won a Rhysling: "Eating Light" by F.J. Bergmann in 2008 (short poem category). (By clicking on those links, you can hear the poems read, often by the poet. Amal El-Mohtar's poetry is an especially sensuous delight when read by herself.)

Besides Mythic Delirium having such a solid pedigree, I've been intrigued by the poetry journal due to its ideological conceit: while the submission guidelines advertise that the journal publishes "science fiction, fantasy, horror, surreal, and cross-genre poetry," if the featured poems I've read on the website and the contents of Mythic Delirium #20 are anything to go by, all poems published therein exhibit some kind of world- or myth-building. All of these poems are about the way we create the larger world or the nuances of our inner worlds or the intersection of multiple personal worldviews.

I had been meaning to order an issue of Mythic Delirium for some time before #20 came out, but never found the right moment when memory and finances were properly aligned in order to do so (for the quality, it's really not expensive-- a one year subscription is $9). Of course, then Mike Allen excitedly announced that Neil Gaiman had sold Mythic Delirium a poem and would be appearing in the tenth anniversary issue. Being the unrepentant fan of Neil Gaiman's work that I am, this event rather galvanized me into securing a copy.

What I discovered was an unmitigatedly solid poetry collection; I also discovered that Neil's poem is not at all one of the best pieces in there, which led me to discover a vague sense of shame in relying on a Big Favorite Name to prompt me into securing a poetry journal I knew would more than likely be good. Of course, then I decided that if it took a Big Favorite Name with an Average Poem to draw in a vaster audience who would then discover a repository of good "off-beat and speculative poetry"--well, then, no harm done. In fact, plenty of good done! 

I wasn't totally blown away by any of the poems in Mythic Delirium #20, but I was rather delighted and pleasantly surprised by more than half the table of contents: not a bad ratio when you're talking about 25 disparate poems. To hit a few high points: I found Erin Hoffman's "Beauty Sleep" to be a compelling recreation of the "Sleeping Beauty" fairy tale, although a jarring word or two kept me from completely falling into her vision. "Hoyle's Baking Instructions" by F.J. Bergman was an intoxicating mess: either baking instructions, or instructions on how to gamble, or instructions on how to seduce a man... I'm not sure, which is both its winning and its losing card. It's just slightly too schizophrenic to be completely cohesive. Catherine Knutsson's "swansong" captivated me with its wing-beating lines, and "Millenial Mass" by G.O. Clark comes with a truly transfixing image at the end. David T. Manning both pleased and frustrated me with his "The Next Station": there's too much story there to stop with one poem! And while I found the characters intriguing and the accompanying illustration by Paula Friedlander evocative, I wasn't as engrossed by Amal El-Mohtar and Jessica Paige Wick's "Apple Jack Tangles the Maidy Lac with a Red, Red Ribbon" as I hoped to be. I think this is one poem that would be most impressive when read aloud, in character.

The rest of my list of favorites from Mythic Delirium #20 encompasses "Journeying" by Adrienne J. Odasso, "Hellawes" by Georgette Perry, "Klabautermann" by J.C. Runolfson, "From Dr. Owen's Obit" by Rolli, "From Dr. Owen's Journal (Unpublished)" by Rolli, "Last Gift from the Eldest" by Danny Adams, and "Myth" by Kim Malinowski. 

I found the remainder of the collection to be solidly average, with two exceptions: Sonya Taaffe's "Zeitgeber" was disappointing in its inability to achieve any sort of poetic resonance, the densely-rendered lines crouching on the page. And Darrell Schweitzer's "What If I Were Secretly the Phoenix?" fails to transcend the suggested mediocrity of its cinder-characterized main subject.

Another aspect of Mythic Delirium #20 that impressed me was its engagement with interior art: it featured seven illustrations specifically commissioned to accompany the poems. One of these illustrations - a star-inflicted, anatomically-correct heart - was even hand-colored by the artist Tim Mullins. Mullins' other illustration (see link below) and cover art for the issue are equally well done. I've already commented above on the powerful silhouette work of Paula Friedlander, and how one of her illustrations perfectly captured the tone of "Apple Jack Tangles the Maidy Lac with a Red, Red Ribbon."  Daniel Trout nicely depicted a forlorn sorceress of perilous ease in one of his illustrations, while Don Eaves and Terrence Mollendor disturbingly communicated the true insanity of the Astronaut Asylum in theirs (oh, "In the Astronaut Asylum" was a long poem by Kendall Evans and Samantha Henderson I so very much wanted to like more than I did).

In the end, I find myself most certainly sold on Mythic Delirium. Time to count up my pennies and purchase a proper subscription!

Relevant links:
Mythic Delirium website.
How a Mythic Delirium is assembled.
Listen to "Genesis" by Holly Dworken Cooley from Mythic Delirium #20 and see accompanying art by Daniel Trout.
Tim Mullins' illustration for Neil Gaiman's "Conjunctions."
selfavowedgeek's Rambling Not-Review of Mythic Delirium #20.
Cabinet des Fées' review of Mythic Delirium #20.
Charles Tan's review of Mythic Delirium #20 at Bibliophile Stalker.

Note to Neil Gaiman fans:
I know you want to know what Neil's poem is about. Here's an excerpt from Mike Allen's editorial that explains a bit:
"[Neil Gaiman's] poem 'Conjunctions' is, intriguingly, a companion piece to alternapunk singer Amanda Palmer's musical composition 'Trout Heart Replica,' both items apparently inspired by an extremely memorable visit to a trout farm."

Also, trivia about the title, from Neil's journal: "I was going to call my poem 'Trout Heart Replica' but when I told her that she said, 'You can't. That's what I called my song, and I got there first.' And she had."



Illustration by Paula Friedlander of "Apple Jack Tangles the Maidy Lac with a Red, Red Ribbon" above used with permission by the artist.