Allen Ashley will be hosting a poetry event at this year’s FantasyCon, which takes place at the Royal Albion Hotel in Brighton from 27 – 30 September 2012. Allen reports:

“I am pleased to let everyone know that I am once again hosting a Poetry Event at Fantasycon. This year we are in the Russell Room from 8.00pm till 9.30pm on the evening of Friday 28 September. I will be running the event in a similar fashion to last year, which is: we will read ’round robin’ style. This means that every participating poet will read two poems (up to about 40 lines each) in the first round. Then, if we have time, we will go round again and people can read a couple more poems. I am advising everyone to prepare up to 6 poems. Last year’s event was fun and friendly with an appreciative group of poets and audience and I anticipate that this year will be much the same. If you want to put your name down, please email me on allenashley-writer [at] hotmail [dot] co [dot] uk or else just turn up on the night to read or listen”.

Sein und Werden is a quarterly magazine of horror and magic realist fiction and poetry normally published in both print and web formats with different content in each. This year, the web issues are on hold and each print issue is themed and guest-edited.

The first issue this year was edited by Marc Lowe (Surreal-noir). The next editor will be Mark Howard Jones (Pulp punks) and the last editor this year will be Rhys Hughes (theme tbc).

The editor of the current issue is Allen Ashley, with the theme of The Unnatural World. This issue includes poetry and fiction by J. J. Steinfeld, Zachary Scott Hamilton, A. J. Kirby, Emma Lee, Ian Hunter, Richard Gessner, Marion Pitman and many others.

For ordering information please visit the website HERE

The debut issue of new magazine, Fur-Lined Ghettos, co-edited by BFS member Andrew Hook with his partner Sophie Essex has just been published and is available for purchase HERE

The first issue features poetry/fiction from Valentina Cano, Angharad Davies, Matt Hemmerich, Ian Hunter, Travis McCullers, David Spicer, Kate Tattersfield, Douglas Thompson, Harry Wilson and Paul Woodward. With cover art from Jordan Pundik of pop punk band New Found Glory.

Fur-Lined Ghettos is also currently open for submissions for the next issue. Guidelines are on the website, but buying a copy will give writers a better idea of what they are looking for.

BFS Members should now be receiving their copy of the Spring BFS Journal. Edited by Lou Morgan, Guy Adams and Ian Hunter, the latest edition features a brand new look.

The contents include:

FICTION:
Don’t You Like The Bird Man? – Jonathan Oliver
The Call of Chavthulu – Neil Fulwood
Jenny Khan – Rhys Hughes
Mother’s Boy – Grant Quimper
Listen – Marie O’Regan
Faerie Mails – Allen Ashley
The Fabulous Beast – Garry Kilworth

NON-FICTION:
Why YA? – Tom Pollock
Worlds Which Never Were – Sarah Pinborough & Will Hill in conversation
A Glow Born of a Different Process – a cover artist spotlight on Chris Roberts
Laying the Foundations – Simon Bestwick
A History of THE SERVANTS – Michael Marshall Smith
BFS Masterclass #2: Writing for Children – F E Higgins
Enterprising Minds – Andrew Reid
Progressive + Inclusive = Popular? – Amanda Rutter
Anne McCaffrey: A Tribute

POETRY:
Morningmares – Zoe Elizabeth Barrett
Shadow Whisper at Black Hole Hotel – Kelda Crich
Doorways – David Glen Larson
The Wheel of Whumpus – John DesPlaines

Plus regular columns from Ramsey Campbell, Mark Morris, Sophia McDougall, and a special feature from Jared Shurin, interviewing Jane Rogers.

We would love to hear what you think of the edition. You can leave feedback at our Facebook page and at the forum.

For the first time, members will also be able to download the journal as an ePub, mobi or PDF file. Members should watch their email inboxes to find out how to access their digital editions.

The winners of the inaugural Poetry Box Horror & Dark Poetry Silver Cup Trophy Award have been announced as follows:

WINNER:  Mark Mikkelsen  – ‘Ode To Night’
2nd PLACE: Riff Poynton – ‘The Dark In The Heart’
3rd PLACE: Lynn Walton – ‘Awakening’
4th PLACE: Joe Hobbs – ‘Torso In The Gutter’
5th PLACE: Lorna Hunter – ‘Anxiety Attacks’

JUDGE’S SPECIAL COMMENDATION AWARD:
Cathy Bryant – ‘Petrified’
Tracey Clark – ‘Last Supper’
Pamela Johnson – ‘The Hanging Man’
Jerry Prince – ‘The Almost’
Daniel Mills – ‘Serpents (A Ballad)’
Annie Williams – ‘The Game’

HIGHLY COMMENDED AWARD:
Jim Stewart-Evans – ‘Nightfall on All Hallows Eve’
Lucienne Kim Flavell – ‘Afterword’
B.M. Laverty – ‘Fatal Attraction’
Tom Cunliffe – ‘Blank’

All winners’ poems will be featured in the first issue of The Poetry Box Horror & Dark Poetry Magazine. For full details and how to order please see the website HERE

Inkspill Magazine are currently inviting genre submissions (throughout February 2012).

They state: “We are looking for short stories, poetry, articles and art relating to fantasy, science fiction, horror… and anything in between. We want to read fresh, original ideas, or classic ideas reinvented. Be part of a special issue and celebrate the diversity and imagination of genre.”

Submission information HERE

A competiton has been set up to celebrate the launch of a new UK-based horror, gothic horror and dark poetry monthly magazine, The Poetry Box Horror & Dark Poetry ScrapBook, which will be edited, compiled and published by the founder of The Poetry Box Studio in Hampshire, L.K. Barley Robinson. The competition is The Poetry Box International Horror, Gothic-Horror & Dark Poetry Silver Trophy Cup Competition 2012. It represents a new competition in these unusual poetry genres and the winners and finalist entries, and a number of commended entries, will be published in the inaugural issue of The ScrapBook – Publication date: 1 April 2012.

The entries will be judged by the editor L.K. Barley Robinson who is an award-winning, much-published and radio-broadcast horror, gothic horror and dark poet and a former magazine columnist with The Observer series of newspapers. The first prize winner will receive The Poetry Box Horror & Dark Poetry Silver Trophy Cup and Award-Winning Certificate. The 2nd and 3rd placed finalists will receive Award-Winning Certificates and prize cheques of £25.00 each.  The 4th and 5th placed finalists will receive Award-Winning Certificates and prize cheques of £20.00 each, and highly commended entries will receive Highly Commended Certificates.

The deadline for poetry entries is 1 March 2012.  Length of poem: 60 lines maximum per poem.  Entry fee is £5.00 per poem, up to a maximum of 4 poems per entrant.  All entrants agree that their poems may be selected for inclusion in The Horror & Dark Poetry ScrapBook Magazine for up to one year after the competition deadline (1 March 2013).

The Poetry Box Studio is open to the public every Wednesday between 9.00am to 6.30pm with live poetry readings performed by a programme of visiting poets between 10.30am-11.15am in the garden of the Studio.  On display within The Poetry Box are poetry prints, poetry posters, new and secondhand poetry books and gothic horror and horror props, postcards and miscellanea.

Full details of the competition can be found HERE and information on the new magazine can be found HERE

Illustration: ‘The Death of Boadicea” (c) L.K. Barley Robinson

Unspoken Water 2 is out now, edited by BFS member and Journal poetry editor, Ian Hunter, and featuring stories and poems as follows:

Little Dead Girl by C. M. Saunders
A Breath of Air by Rebekah Brown
Crossing by Karen Ellery
Heartless by Thomas Williams
Sea Monkeys by Steve Lockley
The Crossroads by Stephen Palmer
Valkenswaard by Jan Edwards
The Magic Circle by Sarah Doyle

Cover illustrations by Denny Marshall

Full details and how to purchase HERE. There will be a couple of freebies for buyers while stocks last, including the latest spoof progress report for the 2071 Fantasycon (the 100th event).

Submissions for issue 3 open on 1 January 2012 for a special music-themed issue.

 A SACK OF MIDNIGHT: LEAVES FROM THE MABINOGION by Cardinal Cox. Hilltop Press  p/b £2.50

Reviewed by Ian Hunter

First of all, what a great little poetry pamphlet, except……I hate the cover, just don’t like it at all, and accept that I may well be in a minority of one, but given that artist, Ian Brown’s work is dotted throughout Cox’s poetry – there are some good A to B illustrations of a fish and a dolman, combined with more simplistic, almost tapestry-like drawings which have layers of depth (you can imagine them hanging in a castle or stately home), and some absolute crackers involving dragons – I give you the dragon drawing below the introduction or the full-length one on page five of two dragons fighting which is simply stunning, which I suggest would have made a great cover.

Anyways, on to the poems. Cox has been inspired by the “Mabinogion” – the collection of 11 Medieval Welsh folk tales that were translated by Lady Charlotte Guest and were first put into written form in the 11^th Century, but go back a lot further than that. We get a hint of Lady Charlotte’s unconventional life in Cox’s introduction, and each poem is accompanied by a footnote relating its place within the Mabinogian.

As someone who writes poems and occasionally draws inspiration from the work of PJ Harvey (a couple of them have graced the pages of “Dark Horizons”) and the Pop Art movement to write a variety of “themed” poems. Cox is to be admired for his ability to be creative within the confines of the original tales. Some of these poems have been seen elsewhere, some may have been written especially for the collection, but I particularly liked the three plague poems, “From the Land in the Lakes Reflection”, “Birds of Rhiannon”, “Pryderi Returns to Dyved”, “Quest of Maxen”, “Arthur in Hell”, and “Lailoken Closes the Book”.

Great poems, great art, great pamphlet. Recommended.

Mslexia, the magazine for women writers, is inviting submissions of unpublished stories (up to 2,200 words) and poems (up to 40 lines) on the theme ‘In the year 2212…’.

Two hundred years hence, will we be teleporting or living in caves? In peaceful eco-cities or war-scarred refugee colonies on a distant planet? Cast your imaginative spotlight into the future and tell us what you see.

Closing date: 28 November 2011.

See www.mslexia.co.uk/submit for more information and full contributors’ guidelines, or call 0191 233 3860.