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The first CLOCKWORK PHOENIX volume is available now for $3.99 on Amazon Kindle! Click here to check it out.Also available at Amazon UK and in EPUB and MOBI format at Weightless Books.Editor/publisher Mike Allen writes about re-issuing the Clockwork Phoenix series in e-book form and re-visting the first volume: I’m quite proud of this first book's line-up, which includes Vandana Singh’s sf novelette rooted in in the Ramayan, “Oblivion: A Journey,” reprinted in Hartwell & Kramer’s Year’s Best SF 14; Laird Barron’s “The Occultation,” later the title story of his Shirley Jackson Award-winning collection; Deborah Biancotti’s “The Tailor of Time,” a finalist for the Aurealis Awards; David Sandner’s surreal story about Edward Lear and his feline companion, “Old Foss Is the Name of His Cat,” reprinted by Ellen Datlow in Tails of Wonder & Imagination; and 14 more, by Catherynne M. Valente, Marie Brennan, Tanith Lee, Ekaterina Sedia, John Grant, Cat Sparks, Cat Rambo, Leah Bobet, John C. Wright, Erin Hoffman, Jennifer Crow, C.S. MacCath, Joanna Galbraith and Michael J. DeLuca.The remaining two volumes in the series are in the process of conversion; and I hope to be starting on Clockwork Phoenix 4 this coming year as well, fingers crossed. I should mention, too, that this website is going to be drastically changed in the near future in anticipation of its future function as an e-book store. So stay tuned. |
Mythic Delirium is delighted to celebrate our 10th anniversary of publishing the best off-beat and eclectic speculative poetry with a landmark event in the history of our little do-it-yourself ’zine. Our newest issue, No. 20, showcases an original poem from best-selling and multiple award-winning author Neil Gaiman. For many Neil needs no introduction, with his newest novel The Graveyard Book winning the Newbery Medal just before Henry Selick’s 3D animated adaptation of his Hugo, Nebula and Bram Stoker Award-winning novella Coraline debuted in multiplexes nationwide.
A true jack-of-all-mediums and a master entertainer, Neil has exhibited astonishing versatility over nearly three decades, whether writing for comics, writing novels, writing screenplays, writing children’s picture books, or writing poems, a number of which appear in his short story collections. It’s hard to express how proud we are to have him on board for the final issue of our first 10 years, but take our word for it, we’re proud. And we’re certain you’ll find his new poem, titled "Conjunctions," a surreal vision centered around an image both comic and disturbing, to be a genuine treat for both Neil’s fans and for fans of speculative verse. The first 350 copies of the issue feature an illustration for Neil’s poem hand-colored by artist Tim Mullins. But Neil’s contribution isn’t the only ingredient that makes our 20th issue the largest and most exquisitely strange confection we’ve ever produced. This outsized issue contains 40 pages of odd and adventurous verse, featuring such voices familiar to long time subscribers as Sonya Taaffe, Darrell Schweitzer, F.J. Bergmann, Kendall Evans, Samantha Henderson, G.O. Clark, Danny Adams, Jessica Paige Wick, Amal El-Mohtar and Deborah P Kolodji. Over the years Mythic Delirium has given a number of writers and poets their very first publications, a source of considerable pride for us, and our anniversary issue is no exception, with nearly half of the poems scribed by contributors who, like Neil, are appearing in our pages for the first time. There’s a surprise on every page. This is certainly an issue you shouldn’t miss. (Click here to see the complete table of contents.) (Click here to see the complete wraparound cover art.) Mythic Delirium 20 is available directly from this website via PayPal or credit card at special prices beginning at $6.50; however, should you choose instead to subscribe, you’ll receive this extra-large special issue as the first issue of your subscription at no extra cost whatsover. (NOTE: if you wish to have the anniversary issue sent to you in addition to or instead of the current issue, please make a note in Paypal's special instruction box.) All prices for domestic, Canadian, U.K. and world purchases are listed to the right above the appropriate PayPal buttons. If you wish to pay via postal mail, the same prices apply; checks or money orders in U.S. Funds should be sent to Mike Allen, 3514 Signal Hill Ave NW, Roanoke VA 24017. |
Order our 10th Anniversary Issue featuring Neil Gaiman Domestic: $6.50 Canada/United Kingdom: $7.50 World: $8.50
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Featured PoemsFrom Mythic Delirium, Issue 25, Summer/Fall 2011
The Melancholy of MechagirlCatherynne M. Valente
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Read by Catherynne M. Valente |
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X Prefecture drive time radio
trills and pops
its pink rhinestone bubble tunes—
pipe that sound into my copper-riveted heart,
that softgirl/brightgirl/candygirl electrocheer gigglenoise
right down through the steelfrown tunnels of my
all-hearing head.
Best stay
out of my way
when I’ve got my groovewalk going. It’s a rhythm
you learn:
move those ironzilla legs
to the cherry-berry vanillacream sparklepop
and your pneumafuel efficiency will increase
according to the Yakihatsu formula (sigma3, 9 to the power of four)
Robots are like Mars: they need
girls.
Boys won’t do;
the memesoup is all wrong. They stomp
when they should kiss
and they’re none too keen
on having things shoved inside them.
You can’t convince them
there’s nothing kinky going on:
you can’t move the machine without IV interface
fourteen intra-optical displays
a codedump wafer like a rose petal
under the tongue,
silver tubes
wrapped around your bones.
It’s just a job.
Why do boys have to make everything
sound weird? It’s not a robot
until you put a girl inside. Sometimes
I feel like that.
A junkyard
the Company forgot to put a girl in.
I mean yeah.
My crystal fingers are laser-enabled
light comes out of me
like dawn. Bright orangecream
killpink
sizzling tangerine deathglitter. But what
does it mean? Is this really
a retirement plan?
All of us Company Girls
sitting in the Company Home
in our giant angular titanium suits
knitting tiny versions of our robot selves
playing poker with xray eyes
crushing the tea kettle with hotlilac chromium fists
every day at 3?
I get a break
every spring.
Big me
powers down
transparent highly conductive golden eyeball
by transparent highly-conductive golden eyeball.
Little me steps out
and the plum blossoms quiver
like a frothy fuchsia baseline.
My body is
full of holes
where the junkbody metalgirl tinkid used to be
inside me inside it
and I try to go out for tea and noodles
but they only taste like crystallized cobalt-4
and faithlessness.
I feel my suit
all around me. It wants. I want. Cold scrapcode
drifts like snow behind my eyes.
I can’t understand
why no one sees the dinosaur bones
of my exo-self
dwarfing the ramen-slingers
and their steamscalded cheeks.
Maybe I go dancing
Maybe I light incense.
Maybe I fuck, maybe I get fucked.
Nothing is as big inside me
as I am
when I am inside me.
When I am big
I can run so fast
out of my skin
my feet are mighty,
flamecushioned and undeniable.
I salute with my sadgirl/hardgirl/crunchgirl
purplebolt tungsten hands
the size of cars
and Saturn tips a ring.
It hurts to be big
but everyone sees me.
When I am little
when I am just a pretty thing
and they think I am bandaged
to fit the damagedgirl fashionpop manifesto
instead of to hide my nickelplate entrance nodes
well
I can’t get out of that suit either
but it doesn’t know how to vibrate
a building under her audioglass palm
until it shatters.
I guess what I mean to say is
I’ll never have kids. Chances for promotion
are minimal and my pension
sucks. That’s ok.
After all, there is so much work
to do. Enough for forever.
And I’m so good at it.
All my sitreps shine
like so many platinum dolls.
I’m due for a morphomod soon—
I’ll be able to double over at the waist
like I’ve had something cut out of me
and fold up into a magentanosed Centauri-capable spaceship.
So I’ve got that going for me.
At least fatigue isn’t a factor. I have a steady
decalescent greengolden stream
of sourshimmer stimulants
available at the balling of my toes.
On balance, to pay for the rest
well
you’ve never felt anything
like a pearlypink ball of plasmid clingflame
releasing from your mouth
like a burst of song.
And Y Prefecture
is just so close by.
The girls and I talk.
We say:
start a dream journal.
take up ikebana.
make your own jam.
We say:
Next spring
let’s go to Australia together
look at the kangaroos.
We say:
turn up that sweet vibevox happygirl music
tap the communal PA
we’ve got a long walk ahead of us today
and at the end of it
a fire like six perfect flowers
arranged in an iron vase.
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From Mythic Delirium, Issue 24, Winter/Spring 2011. The true poemSerena Fusek
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Read by Kate Baker |
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The true poem though spoken in human tongue is pronounced with the lisp of a fox growling over a dead rabbit. The true poem, even when typed on a computer, is inscribed in the rabbit’s blood by a quill from a crow’s wing. Its letters are read not by the eyes but by the ends of the nerves, as Braille is read by fingertips. The Lady and Her lover trail through the poem, their footprints fading in drying dew. They pass the crossroads under the beam of the Hanging Tree. The white doe watches from hedges of wild roses. The true poem may seem slight but the must of wild mushrooms and leaf mold worm through the lines. As if Grandmother Spider crawled over his nape, the reader shivers.
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 “The Melancholy of Mechagirl” first appeared in Mythic Delirium, Issue 25, Summer/Fall 2011. “The Melancholy of Mechagirl” copyright © 2011 by Catherynne M. Valente. Voice recording by the author, © 2011; all rights reserved. “The true poem” first appeared in Mythic Delirium, Issue 24, Winter/Spring 2011. “The true poem” copyright © 2011 by Serena Fusek. Accompanying illustrations by Paula Friedlander, copyright © 2011. Voice recording by Kate Baker, © 2011; all rights reserved. These poems and illustrations may not be reproduced in any form without the authors’ and artists’ express written permission.
Previous classic and featured poems by:Caitlyn PaxsonKendall Evans and Samantha Henderson Susan Slaviero, Shweta Narayan, Amal El-Mohtar and Oussama El-Mohtar Jessica Paige Wick, Constance Cooper and Ann K. Schwader Amal El-Mohtar & Jessica Paige Wick, Lindsey Nair and F.J. Bergmann Holly Dworken Cooley and Ian Watson Amal El-Mohtar and Jessica Paige Wick David C. Kopaska-Merkel and Gene van Troyer Jeannine Hall Gailey and Charlee Jacob Theodora Goss and Sonya Taaffe Samantha Henderson and Ann K. Schwader Catherynne M. Valente and Anna Tambour |
| Send checks in U.S. funds to Mike Allen, 3514 Signal Hill Ave. NW, Roanoke VA 24017, USA, or order via PayPal or credit card using the buttons below. |
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Purchase a sample copy! Domestic: $5.00 Canada/United Kingdom: $6.00 World: $8.00 |
One Year Subscription (2 issues) Domestic: $9.00 Canada/United Kingdom: $11.00 World: $15.00 |
Two Year Subscription (4 issues) Domestic: $16.00 Canada/United Kingdom: $20.00 World: $28.00 |
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| Issue 23
(contents) Read the Stone Telling essay. |
Issue 24
(contents) Read the Fantastique Unfettered review. Read the Sabotage review. |
Issue 25
(contents) IT'S HERE! |
 "Mythic Delirium Twenty") |
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| Issue Twenty
10th Anniversary Issue (contents) IT'S HERE! |
Issue 21
The Trickster Issue (contents) |
Issue 22
The Goblin Delirium Issue (contents) |
All cover art by Tim Mullins, Copyright © 2006, 2007, 2008.
All site logos by Tim Mullins.
Mythic Delirium proudly announces the release of In Deepspace Shadows: A Dramatic Poem in Two Acts, a ground-breaking work from Rhysling Award-winning poet Kendall Evans — a two-act science fiction play in verse, fully illustrated. Nebula Award-winning author Sheila Finch dubs Evans’ unique creation "rich and strange, as Christopher Marlowe might have written about Deep Space if he’d only known." With a color cover, 36 pages, fully illustrated by Mythic Delirium regulars Don Eaves, Terrence Mollendor and Tim Mullins.
"Why journey to a place of nothingness? For the language that takes you there. Kendall Evans’ In Deepspace Shadows: A Dramatic Poem in Two Acts is the future scripted by Cyril Tourneur after Isaac Asimov, an eerie and elegant creation within which conspiracies, mutinies, and madness unfold in electromagnetic pulses and static recharge — stage directions, set design, iambic pentameter and all. Gather four friends; read this mechanical fantasia aloud. Like the light of dead stars, its images will haunt your sky long after their words have been put away." — Sonya Taaffe In Deepspace Shadows is available directly from this website via PayPal or credit card for $6, shipping included; via postal mail, checks or money orders for $6 in U.S. Funds should be sent to Mike Allen, 3514 Signal Hill Ave NW, Roanoke VA 24017.
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| We at Mythic Delirium proudly congratulate Kendall Evans and Samantha Henderson, whose collaborative poem "In the Astronaut Asylum" from Mythic Delirium 20 (now featured on our site, with the accompanying illustration and an audio reading by the authors) won the 2010 Rhysling Award for long poem. Sam and Kendall both live in California near Los Angeles. Kendall is a previous Rhysling Award winner, for 2006's "The Tin Men," written in collaboration with David C. Kopaska-Merkel. His poems have appeared all over the place, and he's been a frequent contributor to Mythic Delirium over the years — as well as the author of our only standalone chapbook, In Deepspace Shadows. Sam, author of the novel Heaven's Bones, has had both stories and poems pop up places ranging from Strange Horizons and Fantasy Magazine to the anthologies Running with the Pack and Steampunk Reloaded. (And her poem "King's Man" is in our featured poem archive.) We also want to congratute the other poets who had poems up for the Rhysling Award this year. Those were: "Conjunctions," Neil Gaiman; "Millennial Mass," G.O. Clark; and "Apple Jack Tangles the Maidy Lac with a Red, Red Ribbon," Amal El-Mohtar and Jessica Paige Wick, all from Issue 20. We note as well that Sam and Kendall's win, marks the third Rhysling Award in a row and the fourth within seven years for a poem first published in Mythic Delirium. The previous winners: "Octavia Is Lost in the Hall of Masks" by Theodora Goss, 2004, long poem; "Eating Light" by F.J. Bergmann, 2008, short poem; "Song for an Ancient City" by Amal El-Mohtar, 2009, short poem. (An encore presentation of Amal's poem translated into Arabic can be found here.) |
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We’re trying a number of things this year we’ve never done, perhaps none of them more radical than opening up the zine to guest editors. But we’re going to do exactly that. From Oct. 9 to Nov. 9, we will reopen to submissions for Issue 22, which will be a special issue guest-edited by Amal El-Mohtar and Jessica P. Wick, co-editors of the dynamic Internet poetry journal Goblin Fruit. (For this issue only, we’ll have a specially designated e-mail submissions address; more details about that forthcoming once it exists.) This, by the way, was in the works well before Amal won a Rhysling Award for a poem published in Mythic Delirium (see below).
In case you’re wondering, Issue 21, The Trickster Issue, a specially-themed issue that continues our year-long anniversary celebration, is coming together nicely, with new poetry from Danny Adams, Jennifer Crow, Kendall Evans and David. C. Kopaska-Merkel, Theodora Goss, Ann K. Schwader, Sonya Taaffe, Catherynne M. Valente, JoSelle Vanderhooft, Jessica Wick and others still to come. But Mythic Delirium doesn’t open to new submissions until Jess and Amal step in Oct. 9. Amal and Jess also contributed to Issue 20, the oversized 10th Anniversary Issue, which features a uniquely illustrated poem by Neil Gaiman. Featured last year, their poem "Apple Jack Tangles the Maidy Lac with a Red, Red Ribbon" was written in alternating voices. You can listen to recordings in which Jess and Amal trade parts. We propose a little contest giveaway. Take a guess which poet (and future Mythic Delirium guest editor) wrote which part of this poem. Send your guess to mythicdelirium@gmail.com with the word "CONTEST" in the subject line (and your postal address would be helpful too) before Aug. 31 and, whether or not you’re right (we’ll let you know at the end) you’ll become eligible to receive one of five free copies of our 20th issue, with it’s specially hand-stamped artwork to go with Neil’s poem. (We note, we made 350 of these, and we’ve only got about 100 left now.) |
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| We at Mythic Delirium are proud to offer our heartfelt congratulations to Amal El-Mohtar, whose poem "Song for an Ancient City" from Mythic Delirium 19 (and featured on our site, with an audio reading) won the 2009 Rhysling Award for short poem. We were thrilled to be present at ReaderCon in Burlington, MA, on July 11, when the Science Fiction Poetry Association’s Rhysling Awards were announced and Amal learned in person that her poem won in its category in a landslide vote. An Ottawa resident, Amal found the inspiration for her poem during a recent visit to Damascus. With her friend and fellow poet Jessica P. Wick, she founded the critically acclaimed online poetry journal Goblin Fruit, now in its fourth year of publication. Aside from in our pages, her poetry has appeared in Ideomancer, Lone Star Stories, Abyss & Apex, Chiaroscuro, Sybil’s Garage and Star*Line, and her fiction has appeared and is forthcoming in Shimmer, Cabinet des Fées, and Strange Horizons. She’s currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Cornwall, England. We also want to congratute the other poets who had poems up for the Rhysling Award this year. Those were: "Mrs. Margery Lovett, Her Book," Gemma Files (Issue 18); "Awaré for the Woman who Disappears in Silence," Jeannine Hall Gailey (Issue 18); "Tammuz to Ishtar," Delbert R. Gardner (Issue 19); "The Devourer," Sonya Taaffe (Issue 19); "To the River," Jessica Paige Wick (Issue 19). We’re also proud to note that Amal’s win marks the third Rhysling Award within six years for a poem first published in Mythic Delirium, following Theodora Goss’s "Octavia Is Lost in the Hall of Masks" in 2004 and F.J. Bergmann’s "Eating Light" in 2008. We’re certainly grateful for the continuing affirmation of the quality of the poetry we publish. |
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We at Mythic Delirium were proud to get the news that F.J. Bergmann claimed the 2008 Rhysling Award in the short poem category from the Science Fiction Poetry Association for her whimsical and satirical poem "Eating Light" in Issue 17. Bergmann’s poems and stories have appeared in numerous other venues, both genre-oriented and literary; we’re certainly glad that we could be the venue for her winning poem. Congratulations, Jeannie! |
In total, ten poems we first published in 2007 were nominated:
In DeepSpace Shadows, Kendall Evans
From Mythic Delirium 17: "Eating Light," F.J. Bergmann; "After Appomattox," Holly Cooley; "How to Hide in a Japanese Print," Lila Garrott; "Weightless," K.S. Hardy; "Nine Days Out—," Jaime Lee Moyer; "Brothers in Arms," Marsheila Rockwell; "Gleipnir Diaries," JoSelle Vanderhooft.
From Mythic Delirium 16: "Next Time Write It Down," Charles Saplak; "Eating the Breadcrumbs," Erzebet YellowBoy.
In addition, several writers published in Mythic Delirium in 2007 received Honorable Mentions in the 2008 volume of The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, edited by Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link and Gavin Grant.
From Mythic Delirium 17: Leah Bobet, "Fitcher’s Third Wife"; Holly Cooley, "After Appomattox"; M. Frost, "The Witch’s Daughter"; JoSelle Vanderhooft, "Gleipnir Diaries."
From Mythic Delirium 16: Rob Cook, "Weathermen"; Samantha Henderson, "King’s Man"; Jessica Paige Wick, "After the Voice Was Taken."
We want to heartily congratulate all these authors for their fine work.
In total, eleven poems we first published in 2006 were nominated:
From MYTHIC: "Sakhmet the Destroyer" by Gary Every; "god is dead short live god" by Joe Haldeman; "Kristallnacht" by Lawrence Schimel; "The Eight Legs of Grandmother Spider" by Catherynne M. Valente.
From MYTHIC 2: "Siren’s Call" by Deborah P. Kolodji; "Homecoming" by Sonya Taaffe.
From Mythic Delirium 14: "Africa Screams" by Mikal Trimm; "The Descent of the Corn-Queen of the Midwest" by Catherynne M. Valente; "The Minotaur’s Last Letter to His Mother" by JoSelle Vanderhooft; "Cobwebs in Heaven" by Ian Watson.
From Mythic Delirium 15: "To a Lover Dying Old" by Lida Broadhurst.
In addition, several writers published in Mythic Delirium and the MYTHIC anthologies in 2006 have received Honorable Mentions in the 2007 volume of The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, edited by Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link and Gavin Grant.
From MYTHIC: "Beauty to the Beast" by Theodora Goss; "Cemetery Seven" by Charles Saplak; "Exorcisms" by Sonya Taaffe; "The Eight Legs of Grandmother Spider" by Catherynne M. Valente.
From MYTHIC 2: "Bluebeard’s Second Wife" by Helena Bell; "The Immigrant" by Cherie Priest; "Simargl and the Rowan Tree" by Ekaterina Sedia; "Homecoming" by Sonya Taaffe; "The Tale of the Desert that Vanished Inside Her" by JoSelle Vanderhooft; "Moonstone" by Erzebet Yellowboy.
From Mythic Delirium 14: "The Descent of the Corn-Queen of the Midwest" by Catherynne M. Valente.
From Mythic Delirium 15: "Tarahamura Chiles" by Gary Every; "Bal Macabre" by Theodora Goss; "Transformation" by Julie Shiel; "Two Rivers" by JoSelle Vanderhooft.
We want to heartily congratulate all these authors for their fine work.
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Mythic Delirium editor and publisher Mike Allen’s newest collection, Strange Wisdoms of the Dead, was reviewed by The Philadelphia Inquirer book review editor Frank Wilson in his Editor’s Choice column. Wilson wrote that Mike’s poems "do a fine job of making the human scary and the scary human." |
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We’re proud to announce that six poems published in Mythic Delirium in 2005 received Honorable Mentions
from the 2006 volume of The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, edited by Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link and Gavin Grant.
From Issue 13: Constance Cooper, "How the Sea People Mourn"; "Les Berceaux" by Jaida Jones; "Arise" by Aurelio Rico Lopez III; "Crow Eats Carrion" by Carma Lynn Park; "The Queen of Hearts" by Catherynne M. Valente. From Issue 12: "Tarot in the Dungeon" by Sonya Taaffe. Seven poems we published in 2005 were also nominated for the Rhysling Award, given each year by the Science Fiction Poetry Association: From Issue 13: "Utnapishtim on Friday After Dessert" by Danny Adams; "How the Sea People Mourn" by Constance Cooper; "Lost Over East Texas" by Ann K. Schwader; "Ibis, Scribe" by Sonya Taaffe. From Issue 12: "Rapunzel, Rapunzella" by Kendall Evans; "Genetics" by Charles Saplak; "Tarot in the Dungeon" by Sonya Taaffe. We want to congratulate all these authors for their fine work. Editor Mike Allen also received honors from these venues. His poem "The Strip Search" won the 2006 Rhysling Award for Short Poem. Five others were nominated: "Chagall’s Lamp," "Picasso’s Rapture," "Rattlebox" (with David C. Kopaska-Merkel), "TimeFlood" (with Ian Watson, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Feb. ) and "Thanomorphosis" (with W. Gregory Stewart, The Magazine of Speculative Poetry, Dec. ). Mike also received ten Honorable Mentions from The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror for poems published in 2005. They were: "The Disturbing Muses," "The Golden Helmet (Casque d’Or)," "Picasso’s Rapture," "Pollock’s Knives" (all from his collection Disturbing Muses); "The Elders," "The Night Gardeners" and "Asunder" (with Christina Sng), from Star*Line; "The Captive Pleads with the Memory Carver" (Tales of the Unanticipated 26); "The Clairvoyant, Between Dark and Dream" (Jabberwocky 1); "The Unseelie Tree" (Space & Time 99). |
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2005 was a landmark year for books with Mythic Delirium associations.
Sonya Taaffe, whose poems first appeared in our pages, and who has appeared in every issue since Issue 5, produced the poetry collection Postcards from the Province of Hyphens, gathering nearly every poem of hers we’ve published. In addition, her critically-lauded short story collection, Singing Innocence and Experience contains her poems "Tarot in the Dungeon" and "Eelgress and Blue," first published in Mythic Delirium 12. Kendall Evans and David C. Kopaska-Merkel, both frequent contributors to Mythic Delirium, produced a chapbook of surreal collaborations, Separate Destinations, holding three mind-bending poems that first appeared in our pages (among them a piece titled "Mythic Delirium"). Mythic Delirium editor Mike Allen wrote the books introduction. Editor Mike Allen had books of his own come out, including the chapbook Disturbing Muses collection a series of dark fantasy poems inspired by the paintings of 19th and 20th century masters. His 10-year-retrospective, Strange Wisdoms of the Dead, coming in January from Wildside Press, is now available for pre-order on his website. |
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We’re proud to announce that nine poems published in Mythic Delirium in 2004 received Honorable Mentions
from the 2005 volume of The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, edited by Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link and Gavin Grant.
From Issue 10: "Necropolis" by Constance Cooper; "Apocalypso" and "Lilim, After Dark" by Sonya Taaffe; "September" by Bud Webster; "Musings About Seth" by Jane Yolen. From Issue 11: "Azurite Mine" by Gary Every; "The Prairie Whales Are All Extinct" by Nicholas Ozment; "The Laying-Out" and "Tzaddik" by Sonya Taaffe. |
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We at Mythic Delirium were proud to learn that Theodora Goss has won the 2004 Rhysling Award in the long poem category from the Science Fiction Poetry Association for "Octavia Is Lost in the Hall of Masks," her dark-fantastic prose poem from Issue 8. Goss, a graduate student working on her Ph.D. at Boston University, has been nominated for the Nebula Award for her short fiction, and has appeared in two volumes of The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. We want to congratulate Dora on adding the Rhysling Award to her list of accomplishments! |
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We’re proud to announce that seven poems published in Mythic Delirium in 2003 received Honorable Mentions
from the 2004 volume of The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, edited by Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link and Gavin Grant.
From Issue 8: "After You Die #12: Dark City" by David Bain; "Octavia Is Lost in the Hall of Masks" by Theodora Goss From Issue 9: "Seeing Aphrodite" by Jennifer Finstrom; "Shadow Tales" by Serena Fusek; "While Considering the Possibility of Using the Columbia River Gorge as the Setting for an Epic Fantasy" by Mario Milosevic; "Hadrian" by Darrell Schweitzer; "Kaddish for a Dybbuk" by Sonya Taaffe. In her introduction, Datlow also gave recognition to Mythic Delirium illustration duo Don Eaves and Terrence Mollendor and cover artist Tim Mullins. |
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Over the next year, we at Mythic Delirium will share with our readers three hard-to-find poetic gems from Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Grand Master Ursula K. Le Guin. Best known for such classics as The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed and the Earthsea novels, Le Guin is also quite an accomplished poet. We at Mythic Delirium are honored to be able to include fantasy-themed poems from her 1981 collection, Hard Words, in upcoming issues 11 and 12. If you can’t wait, some of Le Guin’s recent non-fantasy themed poems are readily available on her website. |
When we reopen, we will no longer accept postal mail submissions.
In an effort to be a little more "green,"
we will be accepting electronic submissions only.
Mythic Delirium is a biannual journal that publishes science fiction, fantasy, horror, surreal and cross-genre poetry. We do not publish fiction. While any style of poem is fair game, Mythic Delirium is unusual in that we are not adverse to well-done rhyme and meter. When considering sending a rhyming poem to us, keep in mind that the best rhyme does not call attention to itself and that properly done traditional poems possess consistent rhythm; lines don’t just end in words that sound similar.
We are interested in work that demonstrates ambition, that casts new light on genre tropes, that introduces readers to the legends of other cultures, that re-evaluates the myths of old from a modern perspective, that twists reality in unexpected ways.
Reading periods: March 1-May 1 for the Summer/Fall issue and Aug. 1-Oct. 1 for the Winter/Spring issue.
Payment for all unsolicited work: $5 on publication. No reprints.
Sample copies/Subscriptions: Send $5 for a sample copy to Mike Allen, 3514 Signal Hill Ave NW, Roanoke, VA 24017-5148. (Rate applies to U.S. residents only. If you live outside the U.S., and wish to purchase a sample copy, contact the publisher at mythicdelirium[at]gmail[dot]com.)
Mythic Delirium prefers electronic submissions. Most formats acceptable, text format or RTF files preferred. There is no limit on the number of submissions to send, but keep it reasonable (6, for example, is reasonable; 60 is not). Such submissions may be sent to mythicdelirium[at]gmail[dot]com.
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