{"id":121124,"date":"2021-10-06T14:49:48","date_gmt":"2021-10-06T13:49:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/?p=121124"},"modified":"2023-01-12T15:12:54","modified_gmt":"2023-01-12T15:12:54","slug":"under-her-skin-cover-and-poetry-reveal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/books\/under-her-skin-cover-and-poetry-reveal\/","title":{"rendered":"Under Her Skin: Cover and poetry reveal"},"content":{"rendered":"
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We think this cover belongs in a frame! Out next year, Under Her Skin<\/strong><\/em> features the best in never-before-published dark verse and lyrical prose from the voices of Women in Horror and we’re revealing its amazing cover by horror artist Lynne Hansen above.<\/p>\n

This book of poems and prose poetry was written by women (cis and trans) and non-binary femmes under the theme of body horror. There are many ways to interpret this area and lucky for us, the work in this book covers a wide range from suggestive to explicit, with each poem\/prose another window under the skin of being\/unbecoming Her.<\/p>\n

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Edited by Lindy Ryan and Toni Miller, Under Her Skin <\/strong><\/em>also features a foreword by award-winning author, HWA Lifetime Achievement Award recipient and SFPA Grand Master Linda D. Addison.<\/p>\n

Not only are we revealing the awesome cover for Under Her Skin,\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>we are also sharing THREE poems from the book, and just in time for Halloween too! So, pop on your spookiest soundtrack and enjoy…<\/p>\n

GROWING PAINS by Aimee Lowenstern<\/h2>\n

Inside every young girl is an older girl,
\nand she is pretty & smart & thin enough
\nto fit between a young girl\u2019s ribs.
\nShe lifts her mouth to the young girl\u2019s ear
\nand says that everything will be so perfect
\nwhen the older girl grows her skin
\nover the young girl, and is on the outside.
\nAnd the young girl is very tired,
\nso she looks forward to sleeping
\ncurled up in her warm red intestines.<\/p>\n

But when new skin comes, it\u2019s the wrong skin.
\nIf the older girl is growing, then her lips are growing
\nfrom every orifice. If the older girl is growing,
\nthen her eyelashes are growing from every pore.
\nHormonal insects lay their eggsacks
\nin her chest. These are not the older girl\u2019s breasts.
\nDid the older girl have breasts? The young girl
\nis now older than the older girl ever was.<\/p>\n

The young girl tries to sleep,
\nbut there\u2019s something rotting in her lungs.
\nIt\u2019s the older girl. She is, still,
\na very beautiful corpse.<\/p>\n

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OUR LADY\u2019S BIRD by Carina Bissett<\/h2>\n

A good girl wears white
\ngloves, pristine, unblemished
\nhands folded, head bowed,
\nlips pressed tight, pink
\nheat hidden, sealed, trapped<\/p>\n

in bleached cotton that covers,
\nsmothers knuckles bruised,
\nnails chewed, cuticles torn,
\nblood spotting, weeping,
\na testament to wickedness within.<\/p>\n

Summer promises no salvation
\nsent to an Anne such as I\u2014
\ntransformation suffered sevenfold,
\nSorrows sanctified,
\nJoys beheaded, annulled.<\/p>\n

So, I stalk alleys, abandoned
\nlots, calling on Ladies for blessings.
\nAnd when I finally shed my skin,
\nreemerge, red-cloaked, elytra armored,
\nI will be Wild, a goddess of storms,<\/p>\n

a supplicant no longer.
\nI will unfold those origami wings,
\nfly far away from penitence,
\nprayer books, accusations,
\npromises of perdition and hellfire.<\/p>\n

And the bounty will be mine
\nto bequeath, to bless
\nluck gracing a good girl in white
\ncounting spots, whispering wishes,
\nseeking to become something more.<\/p>\n

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SHAMEFUL by Lee Murray<\/h2>\n

he comes at me, my husband, her father
\nand I let him, too shackled by centuries
\nof quiet servitude. I am complicit in my demise
\nsuch is the resolve of dutiful daughters
\nmy own leaking shameful down my legs
\nin a yellow sac of aborted hope and histrionics<\/p>\n

bloodied organs on concrete leave a stain<\/em><\/p>\n

I grasp at air for someone. Anyone. Spool
\nsilent supplications into the darkness
\nwith him hissing\u2014you be quiet, woman!
\nI don\u2019t know how I conjure her, the tree-dwelling ghost-girl
\nwith her whip-dark hair and razored nails
\nand the tell-tale spike suppurating at her throat
\nwhen she steals gruesome from the shadows. I know her
\nfrom the waft of sweetly cloying frangipani<\/p>\n

bloodied organs on concrete leave a stain<\/em><\/p>\n

she slits him like a grapefruit with a finger
\nscoops still seething between her bloodied lips
\nstomach and spleen seasoned in their salty sauce, she shreds
\nhis tendons. Wreaks vengeance on the pale afterbirth
\nshe comes at me, my sister, my mother
\nfeckless, she devours me, too.<\/p>\n

bloodied organs on concrete leave a stain<\/em><\/p>\n

Under Her Skin will be published 5 April 2022 by Blackspot Books<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We reveal the cover and THREE poems from the upcoming anthology featuring voices of women in horror with Under Her Skin…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":121125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"MSN_Categories":"Uncategorized","MSN_Publish_Option":false,"MSN_Is_Local_News":false,"MSN_Is_AIAC_Included":"Empty","MSN_Location":"[]","MSN_Add_Feature_Img_On_Top_Of_Post":false,"MSN_Has_Custom_Author":false,"MSN_Custom_Author":"","MSN_Has_Custom_Canonical_Url":false,"MSN_Custom_Canonical_Url":""},"categories":[1624],"tags":[7261],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Under-Her-Skin.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121124"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121124"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":126786,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121124\/revisions\/126786"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}