Lakeside Circus: The poetry roundup

Lakeside Circus will be debuting its first issue this month, and as a speculative poet, I'm always interested in who the other poets are who appear in those issues with me. It's a bit of a tradition. Since editor Carrie Cuinn squealed ahead of time, and rightfully so, of the great line-up she's got in store for us, I'm posting this little note for all of us about what we might expect from the poetry angle.

My poem is called “No Such Phi,” which should and shouldn't be obvious about what I may or may not be talking about. If you're just joining us, I'll remind you that phi in Southeast Asia are spirits, but there are literally hundreds of them documented so far, with many new ones created from time to time, of varying levels of benevolence and power.

My one hint for you for this poem is:

But now here comes the point where we get to speculate. Six other poets, with a wide range of styles. Andrew Gilstrap will be presenting “The Fire Dress” while Dan Campbell has “siening for the sea”. Deborah Walker is presenting “The Future Study of Your Life.” For these three, your guess is as good as mine.

C.S.E. Cooney will be presenting “Threnody.” C.S.E., out of Rhode Island, has done a great deal of work literate, macabre and energetic with a quick wit to her. She has a poetry collection How To Flirt in Faerieland and Other Wild Rhymes and a novella-in-stories, Jack o' the Hills.  She and I have both had work appear in Strange Horizons previously. A threnody is a song, hymn or poem of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person. Or an X-men character. While nods to the latter are highly unlikely, with C.S.E. Cooney, I think all bets are off.

Lisa Bradley will be showing“Hello Kitty, Hello Blood.” She's a great Latina poet who has had work in Innsmouth Free Press' Fungi anthology, Strange Horizons, Goblin Fruit and Weird Tales. Her title alone should tell you we can expect something fun and at least a little hella scary. Will it be as badass as Badbatz Maru or Batsu Ichi? Only one way to find out.

Sofia Samatar's “At the School for Literary Alchemy” ought to be a surprising piece. She's the author of the new novel A Stranger in Olondria from Small Beer Press. If she's got Kelly Link's seal of approval, you ought to be paying attention, because it's going to be smart, fun, and progressive. Sofia also edits nonfiction and poetry for Interfictions: A Journal of Interstitial Arts, now on its second issue.

So, there you have it. Three poets...well, seven... whom you're totally going to have to guess about. So goes speculative poetry, I suppose. You only have a few more weeks before it's launched, so stay tuned!