Category Archives: Poetry

My 2024 publications/award eligibility round-up post

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I usually wait until the last couple of days of December or even January to do this, just in case a publication pops up in the last few days of the year. But that seems a little less likely this year, and this year some of my publications can be purchased as gifts, so, without further ado – or, at least, not much further ado – here’s the summary of what I published in 2024.

Short Fiction:

Just two this year:

“A Mountain of Glass,” in 99 Fleeting Fantasies, edited by Jennifer Brozek. As you might guess from the title, this is a flash piece released back in February that got almost no attention from anyone, including me. The anthology is available in various online bookstores, and includes flash pieces from multiple writers, including Charlie Stross and Seanan McGuire.

Further Examination and Capture of Candle Skulls Associated with the Baba Yaga, another flash piece also released back in February, in Lightspeed. Dark comedy about a few academics seeking some funding for some questionable research. Seems to have been the hands down readers favorite of my 2024 work: it’s popped up on the 2024 Nebula Recommended List and a few other lists out there. Eligible in the short fiction categories for the Hugo, Nebula and other words.

And now, for the next category: Poetry!

The Lost Dead World Thing, Kaleidotrope, April 2024. This was an unexpected piece to write. It incorporates various words – “lost,” “dead,” “world,” and “thing,” that appeared in a word cloud of words generated from previous works in Kaleidotrope, but while I was writing it, it turned from a playful literary exercise to something more. I suppose the worlds “lost” and “dead” should have given me a clue that this was about to go off into a serious and potentially dark direction – but I didn’t know that when I started. Eligible for the Hugo and Rhysling (short form) awards.

Ever Noir, Haven Spec, July 2024. This poem cracked me up while writing it. I’m going to guess that it’s just a touch too unserious to be nominated for anything this year, but, hey, I liked it, and it’s a short read. Eligible for the Hugo and Rhysling (short form) Awards.

Descent, Kaleidotrope, October 2024. The fun part of this poem was shaping it, to give the general idea of an actual descent. Eligible for the Hugo and Rhysling (short form) Awards.

And now for the tricky poetry category: Chapbooks!

Let me tell you of that garden, a micro-chapbook published by Sword & Kettle Press in February 2024. Yes, it’s a micro-book, subtitled “songs of Lilith and Eve,” making it sound lie a collection – but it’s a single poem. Which means it’s eligible for both the book and individual poem awards, or, in other words, eligible for the Hugo, Stoker, Rhysling (long form) and Elgin Awards.

A Few Mythic Paths, a chapbook published by Porkbelly Press in October 2024. This is both a single poem and a collection. That is, A Few Mythic Paths is a single poem that contains several individual, embedded poems. As a individual poem, it’s eligible for the Hugo and Rhysling (long form) Awards, and most of the embedded poems are also eligible for the Hugo and Rhysling (short form) Awards, with the exception of one reprint that slipped in there. The full chapbook, A Few Mythic Paths, is eligible for the Stoker and Elgin Awards.

Whispers from the Moon, a chapbook published by Bottlecap Press just a couple of days before the November election – not EXACTLY the best timing. This is a collection of half reprints, half originals. The originals are eligible for the Hugo and Rhysling (short form) Awards; the full chapbook is eligible for the Stoker and Elgin Awards.

Non-genre

[Edited to add, December 17th] A few people have pointed out that my essay on this blog, Glasgow 2024: A Worldcon for our Futures – but perhaps not Disabled Futures – is eligible for the Hugo for Best Related Work, and fits in with the recent tradition of nominating essays critical of Worldcon and/or the Hugo Awards for the Hugo for Best Related Work. And who knows – maybe more focus on this and other related essays might lead to improved wheelchair accessibility at genre events. I’m not confident, but maybe.

And last but not least, my poem “Afterwards, Again,” will be appearing in Fumptruck, an anthology releasing worldwide on December 17th (paperback) and December 24th (ebook). This poem is not eligible for any genre awards, but I do recommend checking out the anthology; it has some amazing stuff in it, some genre, some not.

A Few Mythic Paths

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Happy to announce that my second chapbook of the year – A Few Mythic Paths – is now out in print!

As per the publisher:

“Ness’ chapbook of poems balances between the real and unreal, myth and place, in an ecological weaving of stories of caution and survival.”

This isn’t the first time I’ve tried to blend the real and the unreal in fiction or poetry, or the first time I’ve tried to write a story in poetry – partly because virtually all of my poems tell, or try to tell, some sort of story. But this still feels like a bit of a departure for me – poems about the very real Oakland Nature Preserve and the construction happening right around it, interspersed with mythic poems about transformation.

You can purchase a copy here:

https://porkbellypress.com/poetry/mythic

Descent

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October has already, as they say, been a month – and it’s only October 9th. And in the midst of watching major Hurricane Milton making a steady, ominous approach right to my house, breaking various records along the way, I suddenly realized – WAIT! I forgot to blog about my poem, Descent, that appeared in Kaleidotrope earlier this month!

So taking a moment during this pre-hurricane hot coffee to let you know about this poem – a poem about talking in the afterwards, of briefly touching in the cold and darkness. Quite fitting for hurricanes and October.

Enjoy!

2023 Publications post

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Hey, look! For once I can do this in mid-December.

In 2023, I wrote nothing, but I did publish five stories and one poem, almost all available to read for free online.

The stories:

Carnival Ever After

Building a life – and finding a family – after the fairy tale. It’s on the Nebula Recommended Reading List, along with a couple of other best of lists put together by readers.

The Seventh Battle of the Queen of the Ruby Mists, in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, January 2023.

A story of the final battle of that Queen – told in footnotes.

Identifying the Tripoda: A Preliminary Report, in Tree and Stone, March 2023

A second story told in footnotes – but one that seemed to fly under everyone’s radar, including mine! I barely mentioned it at the time, but….better late than never, I guess?

Enchanted mirrors are making a comeback. That’s not necessarily a good thing, in Fantasy, March 2023.

People greatly underestimate the issues facing enchanted mirrors today. It’s also on the Nebula Recommended Reading List.

Misericorde, in Kaleidotrope, Summer 2023

A cold hillside. Pain. And awakening.

The poem:

“A Chat with Grandma,” in Worlds of Possibility, August 2023

This was a fun little thing to write.

Enjoy – and if you can, perhaps consider buying a few issues of these zines, or better yet, subscribe!

New publications: Carnival Ever After, Notes on the Seventh Battle of the Queen of the Ruby Mists, and Green Leaves Against the Wind

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So 2023 has started out with a bit of a publishing bang, with not one but two new stories, plus a poem:

Carnival Ever After, in Apex, is a fairy tale about what happened after the end of Charles Perrault’s “Diamonds and Toads,” both to the beautiful sister who married a prince, and the ugly sister who did not.

Notes on the Seventh Battle of the Queen of the Ruby Mists, in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, collects the footnotes of a detailed research study on this fabulous battle. Still kinda sad that the footnote citing an article from First in Fae had to be eliminated, but sacrifices must be made in the name of scholarship.

This story is closely related to my earlier story in Reckoning, Footnotes on Phosphates, Nitrates and the Lake A Incident: a Review.

And speaking of Reckoning, I also have a new poem there this month: Green Leaves Against the Wind.

Enjoy!

Good People

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What fascinates me about fairy tales is what’s left out. Often, this includes the thoughts of the servants and the courtiers, the ones who observed what was happening, but did not speak up, who appear in the corners of the tales, but silent.

My latest poem, Good People, loosely based on the fairy tale, “The Six Swans,” explores just a little of this. It can be read for free now at Fireside Fiction.

(And as always, if you enjoy this or any of my other stories/poems, consider purchasing an issue of the zine, or subscribing to a Patreon, or subscribing to the zine. Every bit helps these zines shine on for just a little while longer.)

The Chambermaid

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Some fairy tales leave me cheering for the wrong side. Particularly “The Goose Girl.” I mean, think about it. We’re supposed to be totally on the side of the princess, and totally against the maid. But who in this fairy tale, exactly, is walking around talking to drops of blood? The princess. Who in this fairy tale, exactly, is constantly calling up a wind to blow away the hat of her mostly innocent coworker? The princess. Who in this fairy tale, exactly, is talking to the head of a dead horse? Again, the princess.

And who, exactly, ends up dead in the end?

Not the princess.

My little poem about it, The Chambermaid, just went up on Kaleidotrope today.

Enjoy!

 

2019 Publication Round-up

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It’s mid-December, which seems a decent time for participating in this annual ritual:

Short fiction:

The Girl and the House, in Nightmare, April 2019, a story of, well, a girl, a house, and Gothic tropes. It received a number of very kind reviews and appeared on some recommended reading lists.

Gorilla in the Streets, in Diabolical Plots, Year Five. This also made its first appearance in April, but so far, hasn’t received as much attention – quite possibly because it’s only been in the anthology so far, not online. It will be available online starting in January. Update: Now available to read online!

Flash fiction:

Feather Ties, in Daily Science Fiction, March 2019. A little look at what happened after the events of the fairy tale of the golden goose.

Breaking the Enchantment, Daily Science Fiction, July 2019. Probably my most popular flash fiction story of the year, a little gender bent story about – what else – breaking an enchantment.

The Wolf, Daily Science Fiction, August 2019. A tale of Little Red Riding Hood. The overtones – disturbing, sexual and otherwise – are deliberate.

Sunflowers and Blood, in Automata Review, August 2019. This had the misfortune to be published while I was in Ireland this summer, in the middle of all of the excitement with my broken wheelchair, Aer Lingus and Worldcon, and thus, ended up getting overlooked by pretty much everyone, including me, alas.

Transformation, Afterwards, in Daily Science Fiction, November 2019. A little look at what happened after the princess kissed the frog.

Poetry:

Just one poem this year, the late entry Gretel’s Bones, out in Strange Horizons, December 2019.

Nonfiction:

On Fairy Tales, the other most popular thing I did this year: finishing up a two year essay series Tor.com, which covered everything from the surprisingly incestuous history of well-known fairy tales like Jack and the Beanstalk to the less well known, elaborate, intricate tales penned by the French salon fairy tale writers to occasional detours into the history of animation and the Technicolor process. And some poetry.

Dragonriders of Pern reread for Tor.com. A look back at the first three Pern books by Anne McCaffrey.

So, less than in previous years – which happens after a year spent largely sick. But next year sees some new stuff in Uncanny, Lightspeed, Syntax and Salt, Kaleidotrope, Mithila Review, Wizards in Space, The Baum Bugle and possibly more, as well as poetry and (hopefully) snippets of works in progress on my Patreon.  Stay tuned!

Gretel’s Bones and Transformation, Afterwards

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I love the happy endings of fairy tales. But they always leave me wondering: what happened after this? Oh, sure, the story says they lived happily ever after, but is that true? Were they really able to forget everything – and laugh? Or did that laughter – that joy – that happiness – have a bitter edge?

Coincidentally, two of my small works inspired by those endings just went up over the last couple of days:  Gretel’s Bones, about – wait for it – Gretel and bones, and Transformation, Afterwards, about what happens after the princess kisses the frog.

Enjoy!