Synopsis
SCOTT J. COUTURIER has distinguished himself with poems of uncanny beauty and dread, appearing in the pages of Spectral Realms, The Audient Void, Eternal Haunted Summer, and other journals of the Weird. His poems are singularly sensitive to the darker aspects of nature. Jackanapes Press is pleased to offer I Awaken in October—Couturier’s first volume of poetry—which collects a cornucopia of seasonal horrors and autumnal delights.
In I Awaken In October, rites of autumnal adulation are performed alongside offerings to every phase of the Year’s Wheel, seasons sequentially explored through lenses of veneration, dread, and supernatural awe. All wending back to that most bittersweet of moments, when once more we awaken—just as the dead do—to October’s majesty. Follow the path to Summer’s end, where the last gold-litten days malinger into cobweb; where gleaming trails of jack-o -lanterns light the way; where Queen Mab and Cernunnos reign.
“Let me reveal something about I Awaken In October. It’s not just a book of dark, uncanny folk poems—it’s a portal. And through it we perceive again, we course-correct the psyche. A brilliant, haunting collection that bridges the gap.” —Jay Sturner, naturalist and author of The Hunchback’s Captive and Others
“Scott J. Couturier’s poems are spirited paeans to the Season of the Pumpkin. With roots delving down into the fertile black earth, these agricultural incantations draw up the very primal sap whence autumn swells in all her fecund abundance. In these pages, as in nature, life fades into decay, and decay, a noxious bubbling cauldron, gives fungal fruit to new life—and so the Wheel turns. With all the sorcerous insight of a druid under nature’s trance, this rare bard of grain and gourd takes us on a journey from spring’s beginning to summer’s end, and to the hibernal realm of dreams beyond. But when you awaken from that winter sleep, it may be that you will not awaken in the gladness of spring; it may be that you will awaken—once again—in October.” —K. A. Opperman, author of Past the Glad and Sunlit Season: Poems for Halloween
“I Awaken in October is a striking testimonial to the continued fascination of the season of autumn in our culture. In poems ranging from sonnets to free verse, Scott J. Couturier evokes the power of Nature and the weight of the past especially the primitive festivals of Samhain, Halloween, and the Yuletide as elements of terror that continue to resonate today. Dan Sauer’s vivid illustrations are the perfect complement to the brooding dread that we find in every one of Scott’s poetic vignettes.” —S. T. Joshi, editor of Spectral Realms
“Scott J. Couturier’s I Awaken in October is a sublime poetic celebration of the shadow side of the year. Beginning with picturesque paeans to the season and its pagan observances, one is then grasped by the hair, joining Couturier in a nightmarish hayride through a haunted realm of infernal rites and yawning graveyards teeming with benighted spirits and fiendish beings. This book is a perfect read for those long autumnal nights, under a blanket by the hearth, with a mulled libation to ward off the eventide chill. Just remember to retain a burning candle as well, to keep the dark and its attendant entities at bay.” —Manuel Arenas, author of Book of Shadows: Grim Tales and Gothic Fancies
À propos des auteurs
SCOTT J. COUTURIER is a poet and prose writer of the Weird, liminal, & darkly fantastic. His work has appeared in numerous venues, including The Audient Void, S. T. Joshi's Spectral Realms, Eye To The Telescope, The Dark Corner Zine, Space and Time Magazine, and Weirdbook. Currently, he works as a copy and content editor for Mission Point Press, living an obscure reverie in the wilds of northern Michigan with his partner/live-in editor & two cats. His short story collection, The Box, was published in 2022 by Hybrid Sequence Media. His second collection of poetry, which focuses on cosmic horror, is forthcoming from Jackanapes Press.
REBECCA BUCHANAN is the editor of the Pagan literary ezine, Eternal Haunted Summer, and is a regular contributor to ev0ke: witchcraft*paganism*lifestyle. Her work has appeared in a variety of venues, and her poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Dwarf Star Award. Her poem "Heliobacterium daphnephilum" won the Rhysling Award in 2020. She has released four short story collections and two poetry collections: A Witch Among Wolves, and Other Pagan Tales (Asphodel Press); The Serpent in the Throat, and Other Pagan Tales (Asphodel Press); The Fox and the Rose, and Other Pagan Faerie Tales (Asphodel Press); Asphalt Gods, and Other Pagan Urban Fantasy Tales (Asphodel Press); Dame Evergreen, and Other Poems of Myth, Magic, and Madness (Sycorax Press); and Not a Princess, But (Yes) There Was a Pea, and Other Fairy Tales to Foment Revolution (Jackanapes Press). Her occult adventure novella, The Secret of the Sunken Temple, and her short story collection, North of Sun, South of Moon, and Other Pagan Myths and Faerie Tales, are forthcoming from Sigil House Productions.
DAN SAUER is a graphic designer and artist living in Oregon. In 2016, he co-founded (with editor/publisher Obadiah Baird) The Audient Void: A Journal of Weird Fiction and Dark Fantasy, which features his design and illustration work. Since 2017, he has worked extensively on book covers and interior art for Hippocampus Press and other publishers. His art often takes the form of surreal collage and photomontage, as pioneered by artists such as Max Ernst, Wilfried Sätty, Harry O. Morris and J. K. Potter.
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