Rhyslings Eligibility Post

I’m very late to the party, but since the nominations for the poetry Rhyslings awards end tomorrow, here are my eligible poems:

“Worlds Apart” appeared in Star*Line.

“First rule of time travel”, about losing yourself in wormholes, in Star*Line.

“Petrichor”, on the fragmentation of the self and the distributed consciousness in Utopia Science Fiction.

“Helianthus”, an anarchist poem about changing the meaning of work, in Solarpunk Magazine.

“An ode to the stone cold gaze”, about Medusa, in Daughter of Sarpedon: Tempered Tales, from Brigids Gate.

If you haven’t voted yet, it would mean the world to me if you considered my poems.

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Short stories I enjoyed in January

A very late post considering, but my notes are frowning at me and I have to oblige. January was a great month reading wise and I read a lot and very good short stories. As always, here you’ll find both old and new pieces in no particular order. Just the way I put them down on my notes. (You can also see that when I like a magazine or an author I kind of … don’t let go.)

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Stories and Poems I liked in March

In March, I finally managed to go back to reading short stories, which has helped change my mood to the better. I didn’t have a plan in the way I chose what I read. In the following list there older stories and newer stories, same venues and same authors. Most of them are flash stories, because it was easier for me to focus for a shorter amount of time. But they are all unique and interesting.

So, there you go!

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A poetry anthology dedicated to Ursula K. Le Guin

I am lucky enough to have two of my poems be part of a wonderful poetry anthology dedicated to Ursula K. Le Guin. It’s called Climbing Lightly through Forests: A Poetry Anthology Honoring Ursula K. Le Guin and includes poems and essays inspired by Le Guin’s work from great artists all around the world. Working with the editors Lisa M. Bradley and R.B. Lemberg was a great experience.

The first poem “We dream the future in our songs” has been inspired by my favourite book of hers “The Word for World is Forest” and the second one “Time is being and being time” is an answer to her poem “Hymn to Time”

While I didn’t discover Le Guin as an author until a decade ago, her words have created a little nest in my heart I visit frequently and add to it as I read more of her work – which I do slowly, as I’m afraid of the emptiness once I won’t have another book of hers to open, like a last step on staircase that doesn’t really exist.

I believe this book covers this emptiness, approaches her work with love and care and all the ways her words have touched her readers.

 

Time is being and being

time, it is all one thing,

the shining, the seeing,

the dark abounding.

 

from Hymn to Time, by Ursula K. Le Guin

 

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My poem “Νόστιμον Ήμαρ” is up in Uncanny Magazine

I have a new poem up in Uncanny Magazine. “Νόστιμον Ήμαρ” is a poem about leaving and missing home and the taste of it.

Νόστιμον Ήμαρ means “the day of return” in Greek and it’s an expression one can find in Odyssey. The word νόστιμος (tasty) has the same root as νoσταλγία (nostalgia) which is νόστος and means coming back to your home country. It’s an interesting thing if you think about it, how tastes and food can mean home to people.

I hope you enjoy it!

 

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Stories and Poems I liked in January

Last year, reading ended up being quite the struggle. I found it very difficult to keep my concentration when reading long or short form, and I hunted my interest in the stories I read with a harpoon.

So, this year, in an effort to bring my mojo back and keep myself accountable for reading more on the front of short fiction and poetry, I’m going to make one post per month of my favorite reads. While I didn’t read as many short stories as I had planned, I’m quite satisfied with the progress I made. Without further ado, here is a small list of the short stories and the poems that I liked during January.

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Stories:

“Green Tunnels” by Taimur Ahmad, in Fireside Fiction

“The Dead, In their Uncontrollable Power” by Karen Osborne, in Uncanny

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Poems:

“recursion” by M. Darush Whem, in Liminality

Mojo Lost by Allyson Shaw, in Liminality

“You and Your Tulpa by Jen Julian, in Liminality

“For Mrs. Q” by C.S.E. Cooney. in Fireside

“The city that changed hands by Maya Chhabra, in Strange Horizons

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