The Devil's Wine

The Devil's Wine

"Poetry is the devil's wine." -- St. AugustineTHE DEVIL'S WINE features contributions from Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, Peter Straub, Graham Masterton, Charles De Lint, Jack Ketchum, Joe Haldeman, Michael Bishop, Jack Cady, Steve Rasnic Tem, Melanie Tem, Peter Crowther, TM Wright, Brian Hodge, Edward Lee, Elizabeth Massie, Jay Bonansinga, and Tamara Thorne.The Cemetery Dance hardcover is the only edition for this title, and many of the nearly 200 poems have never appeared anywhere else. Stephen King's amazing contributions were originally published in small venues during his college years and these publications now resell for thousands of dollars due to their scarcity. The King poems haven't seen print in over 30 years--this is the only time they have ever been reprinted!The poetry found within THE DEVIL'S WINE is deeply moving, affecting, and deals with the human condition in a way that only those who've danced along the edge of the abyss are capable of understanding. One of the contributors, Jay Bonansinga, calls THE DEVIL'S WINE "a unique compendium of thriller writers moonlighting in the world of dark verse" and that's about the best description we've heard yet.From Publishers WeeklyWithout apologies, 19 masters (and mistresses) of contemporary horror fiction reveal themselves in a poetic mood in this anthology of mostly previously unpublished verse assembled by Stoker-winner Piccirilli (The Night Class, etc.). Known for the nasty violence of much of his fiction, Jack Ketchum shows a gentler side in such poems as "Hoboe" and "Sleeping Woman." Ray Bradbury, whose poetry is by now as familiar to fans as his fantasy, contributes such whimsies as the self-referential "The Other Me," in which he wonders, "Did R.B. write that poem, that line, that speech?" Joe Haldeman brings the same wickedly endearing wit to a poem like "Audience Participation," about an elderly moviegoer's revenge on some annoying teenagers, as he does to his fiction. Other notable contributors include Peter Straub, Charles De Lint, Peter Crowther and Elizabeth Massie. This is a rich feast, fit for a king, and indeed he is here too-Stephen King. Such poems as "The Dark Man" and "Harrison State Park '68," reprinted here for the first time after some 30 or more years, are good enough to make readers hope the Master Spellbinder revisits his muse more frequently.Copyright