The Exorcised Lyric

THE EXORCISED LYRIC is a collaboration of speculative poetry by Steven Withrow and Frank Coffman. It includes two collaborative sonnet sequences: "The Exorcised Lyric" and "Toward Solstice Station." The reader will also find 20 new individual poems by each of these formalist poets and both a cover and amazing interior illustrations by Paul "Mutartis" Boswell. This tome follows publications of individual collections by these established poets of the speculative: THE SUN SHIPS & OTHER POEMS, and THE BEDLAM PHILHARMONIC by Withrow; and THE COVEN'S HORNBOOK & OTHER POEMS and BLACK FLAMES & GLEAMING SHADOWS by Coffman. STEVEN WITHROW'S poems have appeared in Spectral Realms, Asimov's Science Fiction, Dreams & Nightmares, and Epitaphs: The Journal of the New England Horror Writers. His short poem, "The Sun Ships," from a collection of the same title, was nominated for a 2016 Rhysling Award from the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association. His most recent solo collection is THE BEDLAM PHILHARMONIC. He lives in Falmouth, Massachusetts. The two collaborations focus upon a haunted-perhaps possessed!-minister and poet whose piously intended lines are somehow altered into blasphemies in the former sequence, and upon an time-and-space shifting trip by train that present the reader with, seemingly, the same father, mother, and daughter but traveling through different eras and places in a journey across America-East to West.

FRANK COFFMAN is a retired pro-fessor of college English, Creative Writing, and Journalism. His two collections of verse: THE COVEN'S HORNBOOK & OTHER POEMS and BLACK FLAMES & GLEAMING SHADOWS have each received consideration for the Stoker Award from The Horror Writer's Association, is a member of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association, and founded the WEIRD POETS SOCIETY Facebook group. He has published both speculative verse and short fiction in a variety of journals, magazines, and anthologies. He lives in Elgin, Illinois. Illustrator Paul "Mutartis" Boswell is a UK-based artist whose work capturing the essence of literary works in the speculative genres has been widely acclaimed. The book's cover and eight amazing interior illustrations greatly enhance this book.