It's a Jumble

  "Like the single stroke of a temple-bell, the perfect short poem should set murmuring and undulating, in the mind of the reader, many a ghostly afternote of long duration."  --Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) on Japanese short poetry, from his eccentric collection of essays and stories, In Ghostly Japan

  The Bram Stoker Award and Shirley Jackson Award-winning anthology, Black Cranes: Tale s of Unquiet Women , was one of my favorite reads of 2020, and one of my favorite reads of all time (you can see my full review here ). So when editor Lee Murray reached out to me to ask if I’d like a digital review copy of  T ortured Willows: Bent, Bowed, Unbroken , a book of poems which serves as a thematic companion to Black Cranes , I jumped at the chance.   Black Cranes is an anthology of dark fantasy and horror stories, written by Asian writers and centered on the experiences and voices of Asian women. With inspirations rooted in a variety of mythologies and stories from across East and Southeast Asia, the tales of Black Cranes address themes of otherness, oppression, obligation, diaspora, and rage. Tortured Willows takes up these themes again, but through the form of poetry. Four of the authors featured in Black Cranes return in this new volume to again explore the experiences of Asi