The Very Best of Dreams & Nightmares

number won
Welcome to The Very Best of Dreams and Nightmares #1, the first in a fantastically popular series of netzines reprinting work from one of the most venerable magazines of fantastic poetry. Your cards and letters are pouring in, and I find this quite gratifying, but I have to ask myself one question: where is the duck? In gratitude for your fabulous (anticipated) response to this first issue of this netzine, I am pleased to make the following offer. Just tear out the coupon at the back of this magazine and send it in for a wonderful free prize. And now, read and enjoy.

Colophonia

Dreams and Nightmares is edited and published by David C. Kopaska-Merkel, 1300 Kicker Rd., Tuscaloosa AL 35404 (205) 553-2284. Subs $10/6 issues; lifetime sub. $100. Pmt $3 on acceptance & 2 contributor's copies. Contributors from outside N. Am. may instead receive a 2-issue subscription + 2 copies. Sample copy for $2. Submissions should be accompanied by SASE with US postage or SAE with IRC. Guidelines for SASE. Internet address DAVIDKM@OGB.GSA.TUSCALOOSA.AL.US. Contents copyright by contributors. Uno kumquat stupor. Many thanks to Keith Allen Daniels of Anamnesis Press, without whose kind help this netzine would never have existed.

Contents

W. Gregory Stewart, workshop
David C. Kopaska-Merkel, barefoot
Janet Fox, nocturnal . . . elisions
John Grey, Meanwhile, Back in the Forest
from Dreams & Nightmares #34, May, 1991:

workshop

W. Gregory Stewart

weekends, and after work
with a few spare parts —
yeah, i'm a self-made man.

Critical Comments

Todd Earl Rhodes declared: "D&N has earned such widespread honest praise that my added voice would be lost in the vast chorus."

In a recent review, Richard L. Levesque said of Dreams and Nightmares: "Unless you've been in a coma for the past nine years, then you already know that Dreams and Nightmares has established itself as the premier zine for genre poetry."

Billy Wolfenbarger said: "One of the very best poetry magazines of fantasy/horror...."

t. Winter-Damon agrees: "fIn wIn of th mUs hEr..."

Bob Frazier, long-time editor of Star*Line, says of D&N: "Never ceases to step out to the edge....D&N deserves a Grammy."

Tipton Snavely: "Never read it."

from Dreams & Nightmares #38, June 1992:

barefoot

David C. Kopaska-Merkel

She always wrote in the 1st person:
a kaleidoscope of dirty laundry
and unopened mail.
At last I've followed her too far;
        I write 1st person now
and regurgitate at night
        a mad cacophony of stars.

Other Publications Available

(order from David Kopaska-Merkel, 1300 Kicker Rd., Tuscaloosa AL 35404.)

from Dreams & Nightmares # 22, February, 1988:

Nocturnal . . . Elisions

Janet Fox

perilous visions
read between the... lines,
nocturnal omissions,
sins of commission
interesting... times?
Diurnal decisions
deadly revisions
unreasonings and...

Origins

I started Dreams and Nightmares in January of 1986, because I was then aware of only one other science fiction and fantasy poetry magazine, The Magazine of Speculative Poetry, edited by Roger Dutcher and Mark Rich. I felt that the field could use more such magazines. History has borne me out: since then, Dreams and Nightmares has grown, and other excellent magazines have come and gone, not because they couldn't get enough superb material, but for monetary reasons. Of these short-lived publications to my mind the greatest is Xenophilia, edited and published by Joy Oestreicher, who somehow managed to acquire tremendous amounts of the best new poetry out there for every one of her 8 issues (a 9th, the last, was published in January 1996).
from Dreams & Nightmares # 28, October, 1989:

Meanwhile, Back in the Forest

John Grey

he imagines trees
growing out of his forehead
grass sprouting through his eyes
tiny brush animals skittering
back and forth between his ears
kissing his brain

sometimes a tree falls
frost browns the grass
an animal is shot
by an unruly bullet

and he smashes his head
against the mirror

bleeds new life into
the roots of his madness

Science Fiction Poetry Association

Anyone interested in science fiction, fantasy, or horror poetry will want to join the Science Fiction Poetry Association. Founded by Suzette Haden Elgin, the SFPA is the only organization specifically devoted to genre poetry. The Association's newsletter, Star*Line, is published 6 times per year. Star*Line is the oldest genre poetry magazine that is still being published, and each issue contains poetry, letters, reviews, market news, and other items. Membership in the SFPA is $15 per year; for further information, please contact John Nichols, SFPA Secretary Treasurer. The SFPA sponsors the Rhysling Award for the year's best long and short genre poetry. In recent years the Rhysling winners have been included in the Nebula Awards Anthology, and this practice is expected to continue. The Rhysling Award is nominated and voted on by the entire membership of the SFPA, each of whom receives an anthology containing all nominated poems, so all members can read every nominated poem.
Check out this web site again soon for future volumes of The Very Best of Dreams & Nightmares, as well as other cool stuff pertaining to science fiction, fantasy, and horror.

David C. Kopaska-Merkel
1300 Kicker Road
Tuscaloosa, AL 35404

This page is brought to you by the good folks at Anamnesis Press, specialty publishers of poetry and literary non-fiction.
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