Journeying: a short poem by Adrienne J. Odasso, who knows what a journey is, lavishly illustrated by Paige C. Zaferiou.

At first glance, it reads like a simple poem, and looks like a simple book…

A blue, embroidered paper cover, a ribbon to keep it closed, one lone sewn signature. Endpapers glued to a hard cover. And then you open it…

And you read it, and realize there is nothing simple inside.

About the author: Adrienne’s debut collection of poetry, Lost Books (Flipped Eye Publishing, 2010), was nominated for the 2010 LNPA Best New Poet Award and for the 2011 Forward Prize, and was also a finalist for the 2011 People’s Book Prize. Her work has appeared in a wide variety of strange and wonderful publications, including Sybil’s Garage, Mythic Delirium, Jabberwocky, Cabinet des Fées, Midnight Echo, Not One of Us, Dreams & Nightmares, Goblin Fruit, Strange Horizons, and anthologies (just to name a few). Her short fiction has also appeared both online and in print. Her two chapbooks, Devil’s Road Down and Wanderlust, are available from Maverick Duck Press. You can find her online at ajodasso.livejournal.com.

About the Artist: Paige C. Zaferiou is a writer, cartoonist, and teaist [sic] living and creating in San Francisco. Come and play at www.paigezee.com.

Journeying first appeared in Mythic Delirium, Issue 20.

28 days there are in the month of February, a cold month in our part of the world, a month in which the summer seems an endless dream one had once, long ago. We should not be tricked by the frost, for it was during the dreaming month of February that Amal El-Mohtar composed The Honey Month, a book that tastes and smells of sun. Each day she uncapped a vial of honey, letting the brew inspire the words that became this book. Amal offers us much more than poetry and prose, however. Her words wrap around us like spiderwebs, gently pulling us into the web she weaves, where honey girls tempt and tease us, where things lost return and sorrow paints the leaves. This is a colourful book, but it is by no means a frivolous one. Remember, not all honey is sweet.

This book was first published in a paperback edition in 2010. The interior of this numbered, limited edition remains the same, but has been bound into a tri-fold cover and includes a vial of honey for you to taste. It also comes with a cd of Amal reading the poems inside.

Amal El-Mohtar
is a first-generation Lebanese-Canadian, currently pursuing a PhD in English literature at the Cornwall campus of the University of Exeter. Her short fiction and poetry have appeared in a range of publications both online and in print, including Strange Horizons, Shimmer, Cabinet des Fées, Sybil’s Garage, Mythic Delirium, and Ideomancer; her short fiction has also been broadcast on Podcastle. She won the 2009 Rhysling Award with her poem “Song for an Ancient City,” and co-edits Goblin Fruit, an online quarterly dedicated to fantastical poetry, with Jessica P. Wick.

Two Coins is a short story about words, rivers and coins and girls left behind. It is a story you’ll carry with you long after the words are gone.

Saturated with the blues of water and sky, the cloth used for the covers was found in a Turkish market; the endpapers are Nepalese Lokta. I wanted to make this book look like something you’d find in your travels, in a dusty corner of a market stall, or on a shelf in a glass-fronted cabinet.

Because of the nature of these books, no two are identical. Each book comes with two coins from around the world.

“Where is my anemone?”

What would the Sophia say if she sent out texts? This delightful poem reveals the private messages between Stella Maris and Pythia as they discuss fortune, what it is to be a woman, and love.

Printed on archival, satin paper, library bound with a hard spine and silver and black endpapers. Black cloth and decorative, silver and antique laid paper adorn the cover. The book has been bound to resemble the clamshell style of cell/mobile phone, with the spine at the top. Flip to open and read.

“A tick of clock, a click, a drop of pin.
The subtle hiss of gramophone begins.
The green glass lamp flicks on. Doors softly shut.
Death shuffles cards and nods for me to cut.”

A ferocious cantos by the esteemed Hal Duncan, best known for his Vellum: The Book of All Hours 1 and Ink: The Book of All Hours 2 and for the writing he does on his fascinating blog, Notes from the Geek Show. In this long poem, Hal’s wit and anger combine in a fiery telling of what happens when Death and the Devil cut and deal the cards.

In Chanteys for the Fisherangels four poets give voice to the inspiration found in Lal Waterson’s song “Midnight Feast” and in turn, inspire me. J.C. Runolfson gives us “The sky is the floor of an ocean”, followed by Sonya Taaffe’s “The Coast Guard”. Then comes in Francesca Forrest with “Invitation Refused” and finally, “Feather, Halo, Hook and Line” by Erik Amundsen. Their words are introduced by Greer Gilman, who writes as eloquently as ever of Lal and the feast. The poems are interspersed with four full colour photographs spread across the pages, images captured by Sonya Taaffe at the edge of the sea.