2009 Bram Stoker Award Winners

2009 Bram Stoker Award Winners

Novel:	AUDREY'S DOOR by Sarah Langan This is a personal favorite of mine. Langan is a remarkable writer!
irst Novel:	DAMNABLE by Hank Schwaeble
Long Fiction:	THE LUCID DREAMING by Lisa Morton
Short Fiction:	“In the Porches of My Ears” by Norman Prentiss
Anthology:	HE IS LEGEND edited by Christopher Conlon
Fiction Collection:	A TASTE OF TENDERLOIN by Gene O’Neill
Nonfiction:	WRITERS WORKSHOP OF HORROR by Michael Knost
Poetry Collection:	CHIMERIC MACHINES by Lucy A. Snyder
Lifetime Achievement Award:	Brian Lumley, William F. Nolan
The Silver Hammer Award:	Kathryn Ptacek
Richard Laymon President's Award:	Vince A. Liaguno

LYING WITH THE DEAD

Dysfunction in Abundance

LYING WITH THE DEAD
By Michael Mewshaw
288 pp. Other Press $14.95

Reviewed by Jayne Pupek

All happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. (Leo Tolstoy)

Tolstoy’s words are from his renowned classic, Anna Karenina, but they certainly fit the dysfunctional family that is at the center of Michael Mewshaw’s eleventh novel,Lying with the Dead.

In Lying with the Dead, a manipulative and dying matriarch gathers her three adult children at their Maryland childhood home so she may confess her sins. The narrative rotates among the three voices of the siblings. Maury, the firstborn, who currently lives in California, is afflicted with Asperger’s syndrome and reveals that he spent twelve years in a maximum-security prison for murdering his father with a butcher knife while trying to protect his mother. Candy, who had polio as a child, is the dutiful daughter/martyr who stayed behind to take care of her gravely ill mother, forfeiting her own happiness and the man she loves.

READ THE REST OF MY REVIEW AT THE INTERNET REVIEW OF BOOKS.

New poems at Press1

I am thrilled to have six poems included in the new issue of Press1. These six poems were written in response to the amazing doll photographs provided by Didi Wood (The photo above is titled Back to Work, Didi Wood). It's a delight to be in the company of other poets I admire.

 I'm looking forward to reading the entire issue tonight while the dolls whisper comments in my ear.

zombie 2.0

Cordite's Zombie 2.0 is now online! I am delighted to have three poems included in this issue and to be in the company of such other fine poets!

IsReads--An Awesome Idea

IsReads is an "outdoor journal" founded by Publishing Genius in 2006. In 2008, Keyhole Press came on board to co-edit. Kathryn Regina is the managing editor.

The concept of the outdoor journal is to put short poems in unusual places, like on abandoned buildings and in shopping carts.

No More Nestle or Kit Kat for Me!

Review in THE INTERNET REVIEW OF BOOKS...

Reality, not sympathy

FORMS OF INTERCESSION
By Jayne Pupek
102 pp. Mayapple Press $15.95
Reviewed by Doris E. Pavlichek

There is more hope in a cup of coffee
than a stack of holy books...

At forty-three, I’m too old to wait on a redeemer.
Sometimes you must intercede on your own behalf.
— From the title poem

Jayne Pupek’s first full-length book of poetry examines the life of women from every angle, delving into many aspects—abortion, infidelity, mastectomy, doubt, death—from which a less seasoned or courageous writer might shy away. Pupek, having published two chapbooks and a novel and having had her poems included in anthologies and nominated for The Pushcart Prize, has the fortitude and staying power of her own favorite poet, Sylvia Plath. Read the rest of the review.