This issue of Spectral Realms is dedicated to the late Richard L. Tierney (1936-2022), one of the pioneering weird poets of our time. Included is an unpublished poem by Tierney and poetic tributes to him by Leigh Blackmore and Charles Lovecraft. As always, the issue contains scintillating work by some of the leading weird versifiers of the present day, including Wade German, Frank Coffman, Ian Futter, and Scott J. Couturier.


John Shirley, Darrell Schweitzer, Don Webb, and Geoffrey Reiter demonstrate that they are masters of terror in poetry as well as in prose fiction. Lori I. Lopez explores the strangeness of cats in "La Gata, " while LindaAnn LoSchiavo tells of the grim fate of Dante Gabriel Rossetti's wife. David Barker and Ngo Binh Anh Khoa write evocative poetry in the Lovecraftian mode, and Josh Maybrook contributes an acrostic sonnet on Poe. Adam Bolivar continues his work in Anglo-Saxon meter, while Carl E. Reed sends in a "ghoulish tale" in verse. Prose poems by Maxwell I. Gold and Manuel Arenas also enliven the issue.


Among the classic reprints is a poem, "Vampire, " by Bertrande Harry Snell, from a 1929 issue of Weird Tales, as well as a poem by veteran fantasy poet Lilith Lorraine. Marcos Legaria contributes an essay on R. H. Barlow's early poetry.