Spectral Realms No. 25: Summer 2026

The twenty-fifth issue of Spectral Realms opens strikingly with a grim poem by leading weird writer Nicole Cushing. It is followed by innovative work by such poets as John Shirley, Adam Bolivar, Ann K. Schwader, Frank Coffman, Geoffrey Reiter, Lori R. Lopez, Carl E. Reed, Wade German, Adam Amberden, and others.

David Barker continues his reimaginings of Lovecraft's Fungi from Yuggoth sonnets; Charles Lovecraft contributes a sonnet series inspired by Lovecraft's story "The Unnamable"; Adele Gardner renders a Poe story in verse in "The Lady Ligeia." Prose poems by Liam Garriock, Maxwell I. Gold, Yucheng Tao, and Jay Sturner grace the issue, and the magazine's international scope is highlighted by poems by Luče, Alper Ghuchlu, Arukoya Tomais, Stefan von Blon, and other writers from Europe and Asia.

Classic reprints from H. W. Ellsworth and Richard Hughes exemplify the tradition of the weird in nineteenth and early twentieth century verse. The issue concludes with Steven Withrow's interview of Ann K. Schwader-part of a volume of interviews of contemporary weird poets that Withrow has now completed.