Oh, you thought I was being politically incorrect with that subject line above, didn't you?  Wrong!

I just sent in my vote for the second annual 'Dwarf Star' Awards-- which is a neat new contest run by (and voted by) active members of the Science Fiction Poetry Association.  The award is given to 'the top science fiction, fantasy, or horror poem first published in 2007 of ten lines or less.'

Yes:  ten lines or less!  Thus the name, 'Dwarf Star.'

Members of the SFPA get a free 'Dwarf Stars' anthology for their membership that collects these short-short poems nominated by members of the SFPA.  It's a great book in its own right, and I had a great time reading all the little weird gems it gathered together -- works I probably wouldn't have seen on my own, from diverse literary magazines and small press venues. 

For a quick sampler, here are links to two out of the three poems that got my vote (which luckily also appeared online elsewhere):

'Version 9: Breakfast' by Kristine Ong Muslim

&

'An October Day' by M. Kei

[My third vote went to Ann K. Schwader's "Still Falling" -- which first appeared in the esteemed sf poetry magazine Dreams & Nightmares (and which I also highly recommend!), but is not available online... though it is excerpted here in The Fix magazine]

Those of you who have read my 'Gorelets' poetry collection and poems in The Goreletter already know that I'm an aficianado of these imaginable little thought experiments (my own 'Gorelets' typically hit 11 lines for some inane reason, so they haven't qualified).  If you want to buy the Dwarf Star Anthology for this or any of the past three years, it is available for sale at the SFPA website (sfpoetry.com).  I think it's very high quality, packed with a ton of imagination in so many easily-digestible chunks that its imminently readable.

And if you're a horror poet, you shouldn't let the SF or Fantasy elements of the SFPA throw you off, and should consider joining the organization or buying it as a holiday gift for the poet in your life. Membership is very affordable ($21), and you get a subscription to a great poetry journal for your money.  They also run the longstanding 'Rhysling Awards' for genre poetry, and the winners of it and the Dwarf Star are usually reprinted in the annual Nebula Awards Anthology.  There are a lot of recognizable horror poets in this organization and I recommend it especially to writers who are looking to find new markets and to learn more about the poetry side of the genre.

More info is available at the Science Fiction Poetry Association (sfpoetry.com).  Even if you don't have interest, drop by their 'Online Halloween Readings' to hear a podcast of me reading some horror poetry at a live event this past October. 

I have been a member since...let me look it up...oh no...seriously?...1989!  Holy moly... that's twenty years!

I recommend you drop on by the myspace blog of Mr. Scott Emerson, who just completed "365 Days of the Dead":  a review of a zombie film every day over the past year:  http://www.myspace.com/scott_emerson  

That's quite an accomplishment, folks.  Imagine what something like that does to the brain: 

This is your brain.  This is your brain on 365 zombie films.  This is your brain in the mouth of a zombie on 365 zombie films.

Congratulations Scott!

-- Mike Arnzen

Happy Halloween everyone.  I've posted a new audio file to my myspace profile page:  "How to Grow a Man Eating Plant" -- a live recording from my reading at the Penn Highlands Community College earlier this week, where I grossed everyone out by reading horror stories at an open mic event.

Of course, this story isn't the grossest I read that night -- in fact, it's probably the tamest -- but it went over well.  Hope you like.  Happy Halloween.

-- Mike Arnzen

p.s. There's another clip from this event over at the SFPA Halloween Readings page at:  http://www.sfpoetry.com/halloween.html  !

ZOMBIE MALL is running a contest; sign up for an account at zombiemall.com BEFORE OCT 15th 2008 and you could win a free copy of my CD, Audiovile! There shop is a hoot, brimming with zombie goodness. And check out my interview with Zombiemall about the CD while you're there -- it's on their blog here: http://zombiemall.com/zblog/?p=5

Look for the "Writer's Talk" series on WCBE (Ohio's NPR station), which will be airing interviews with Michael Arnzen, Gary Braunbeck, Lucy Snyder, and Lawrence Connolly each Wednesday all month.

The topic is "The Business & Life of Writing Horror" and all of us had a blast together answering questions about this crazy genre of dread and terror. The Arnzen session airs tonight on WCBE (10/8/08) at 8pm, and I think it turned out really well. If you miss it, don't worry:  you should be able to hear the podcast online, provided by Doug Dangler and the Ohio Center for the Study and Teaching of Writing. In fact, you can stream a copy of it on your computer right now here:

 Writer's Talk with Michael Arnzen

The full interview will all four horror writers will soon be available on OSU's CSTW website (http://cstw.osu.edu/podcasts) -- which you can also subscribe to on iTunes .

-- Mike Arnzen, http://gorelets.com

For those who like incriminating evidence and tiresome reportage, I've posted a con report for HorrorFind 2008 and the Raw Dog Screaming Press Fifth Anniversary Celebration over at gorelets.com.

Back to it,  -- Mike Arnzen

• fantasy vs. realism
• teaching horror in the post-Virginia Tech world
• literary vs. cinematic horror
• death and the draw of horror in a sanitized world
• the cautionary tale -- then and now
• optimism, humor, laughter and impalement in horror fiction