Tag: Publications

Wrap it Up: 2025 Reflections

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It’s getting down to the wire for end-of-year reflections, and while I am eager as anyone to say goodbye to 2025, it was also a year full of goodness worth celebrating. I had several poems and non-fiction pieces published this year in Saw Palm, Horror Homeroom and Last Girls Club, and got to participate in several poetry readings, including Hollie Hardy’s amazing Saturday Night Special. It’s been years since I performed poetry in front of a live audience, and it was wonderful to be part of a community experience again and restore some of those lost connections.

This year also marked the release of my first poetry chapbook, In The Night, In The Dark (available now from Bottlecap Press), and it still feels surreal knowing I have an actual book out in the world. Like all projects, there is a genuine feeling of accomplishment that comes from seeing something through from ideation to reality. And while publication isn’t the end-all of existence, it was a personal goal to publish a book and I’m just really proud of myself. Full stop. My therapist is somewhere smiling.  

In The Night, In The Dark Poems by Allison Goldstein - Book Cover
Cover Art for Allison Goldstein’s New Poetry Chapbook, In The Night, In The Dark (Available Now from Bottlecap Press)

I also love that my first book is about horror movies. After I finished my MFA in poetry way back in 2006, I really got in my head about what serious poetry books were supposed to be. Of course, I didn’t really write that way and I knew it didn’t matter, but it still did. And I found myself rejecting ideas as too niche or too genre, even when they felt the most authentic to who I am.

And then during the long foggy years of COVID, I realized maybe I should try writing about something I really like instead of what I thought I was supposed to write about. So I wrote a book about something I really like – 20th century horror movies. It’s filled with the scenes, characters, and films that haunt my dreams in the best possible way. And I hope everyone likes it and/or connects with it in some way, but if they don’t that’s ok too.

There is beauty in making and beauty in sharing that is itself always enough. Art is a gesture.

I also got to celebrate the success of several friends this past year, including new books from award-winning writers and equally great people Amanda Chiado (her chapbook of wild, fun, and surreal pop culture prose poems, Prime Cuts is available from Bottlecap Press) and Heidi Kasa (who published her first length poetry book The Bullet Takes Forever and an award-winning flash fiction chapbook, The Beginners in the same year, epic).

I wanted to make 2025 a year of saying Yes as much as possible. Yes, to new opportunities and experiences and people. And I think I got there. Looking forward to even more adventures on the off the page in 2026. I have two other chapbook manuscripts out at contests right now, so who knows what the new year will bring. Thanks for joining me on this journey.

Happy Holidays. Wishing for a Better, More Peaceful World in 2026.

Jane Austen’s 250th Birthday

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Today is Jane Austen’s 250th birthday, and I find myself rereading Pride & Prejudice with the same cheerful delight that greets me each time. Her writing style is just so friendly and inviting, like meeting up for coffee with an old friend. I also greatly admire her pacing and how she can dig into the meat of each scene without veering into laborious overdetail. As a poet, I can’t help but love the play of sound she utilizes and how certain words dance on the tongue; but her language is never flowery or pretentious, and doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Beyond her prowess from a technical standpoint, Jane Austen also has the notable distinction of creating compelling characters, who when confronted with their own real and significant flaws, decide to put the work in and fix themselves instead of relying on a romantic partner to do it for them. It’s a Christmas miracle.

Austen’s cleverness is both mind-blowing and ageless across cultures, countries, and centuries. Her literary takedowns still land like drag queen reads 200 years after the fact. And on top of all that, she’s just so funny. The first time I read Jane Austen I was floored by the fact that I was laughing, like really laughing loudly out loud at some of her character eviscerations.

At the most basic level, Jane Austen does a magnificent job of showing us exactly who her characters are, how they grow, and why. This is why the British army handed out Jane Austen books to soldiers during wartime. This is why modern audiences still return to these stories year after year. And why there will always be a new thread on Reddit every week about whether the 1995 BBC mini-series or the 2005 Joe Wright film is the best adaptation (I’m a 2005 girl – excellent boiled potatoes forever), and why we’ll get a dozen new remakes in the years to come. So cheers to Jane Austen, the patron saint of witty women writers, on her 250th birthday.

In continuation of celebrating incredible women writers you should know, please allow me to introduce you to my dear friend and award-winning writer, Heidi Kasa, who has not one but two incredible books that were just released this fall (and make wonderful holiday gifts): her poignant debut poetry collection, The Bullet Takes Forever (Mouthfeel Press), and The Beginners (a flash fiction collection), which won the The 2023 Digging Press Chapbook Competition. The Bullet Takes Forever is a powerful look at gun violence in America, from its inescapable cultural imprint to its devasting impact on a deeply personal level. It’s brave and direct and heartbreaking and energizing. Everyone in America should read this poetry book, and I can’t recommend it enough. Be sure to check out Heidi’s website to learn more about her writing and upcoming reading events: http://www.heidikasa.com.

Heidi’s Books

You can buy The Bullet Takes Forever, by Heidi Kasa from Mouthfeel Press: https://www.mouthfeelbooks.com/product/the-bullet-takes-forever-by-heidi-kasa/78

To buy The Beginners chapbook from Digging Press, visit: https://digging-press.myshopify.com/products/the-beginners-by-heidi-kasa-pre-order

The Beginners by Heidi Kasa (New Chapbook)

Allison Goldstein Author Spotlight is Live on BarBar

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I can’t even pretend to be less excited about this, so I won’t even try. I was honored to have my poem, “Carnival of Souls – Muted” featured in BarBar’s Simulacra Anthology (available on Amazon), in December 2024. When I reached out to let them know that poem will also be included in my new chapbook, they very generously offered to include me in their Author Spotlight series and that feature is now live on the BeBarBar website.

The interview explores how the project came together as well as my writing process and some of the unexpected surprises that come with writing and publishing poetry. I am very grateful to everyone at BarBar for this opportunity and hope you enjoy the interview.

If you haven’t picked up your copy of “In The Night, In The Dark” yet, head on over to Bottlecap Press and get your hands on a copy today. It’s the perfect addition to your Spooky Season reading.

Stay spooky friends!

Dawn of the Dead

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Dawn of the Dead

and when we’re dead

we’ll all go to the mall

Poem by Allison Goldstein

From the book “In The Night, In The Dark” by Bottlecap Press (2025).

I love this weird little poem. It’s actually one of the first poems I wrote for the collection and probably the shortest poem I’ve ever published. “Dawn of the Dead” originally appeared in Molecule – a tiny lit mag in Fall 2022 and I love that it found a home that appreciated both its humor and brevity.

One of the things I adore about horror as a genre is it’s ability to interject comedy and camp with serious messages about fear, society, and human nature. Romero’s 1978 classic “Dawn of the Dead” is a masterclass in this area, dazzling audiences with the perfect combination of gory practical effects (due to the genius of Tom Savini), campy yet creepy zombies, and a still-relevant message about the dangers of over-consumerism, and its physical, emotional, and psychological effects on society.

Romero has always been a pro at understanding how to create a solid plot that makes sense on its own but leaves a lot of space for wider thematic interpretations. Is it a coincidence all the zombies descend on the mall? Absolutely not. Mall culture in the U.S. was already booming in the late 70s (and would only grow exponentially through the 80s and 90s). This era ushered in a major cultural shift, eschewing the importance of community for rampant greed and consumerism. Society encouraged people to make as much money as possible and spend it all on themselves to help drive corporate profits. As a result, American social culture became inexplicitly intertwined with shopping and consumerism.

It’s also not a coincidence that themes of unrestrained consumerism easily mirror the concept of mindless zombie hoards solely driven by a innate desire to consume. They come to the mall out of habit, but also as a symbol of what unfettered consumerism will ultimately cost – humanity itself. It’s terribly smart and awfully funny and one of the best zombie films of all time. I only hope my small poem does it a hint of justice.

Allison Goldstein’s Poetry Chapbook – In The Night, In The Dark is Available Now!

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In The Night, In The Dark Poems by Allison Goldstein - Book Cover

I’ve waited for this day for years and I can’t believe it’s finally here. My first poetry chapbook, In The Night, In The Dark, is live and available from Bottlecap Press!

A haunting ode to Universal Monsters, 80s slashers, and Final Girls, In The Night, In The Dark is a razor-sharp collection of ekphrastic poems inspired by classic 20th century horror films. From The Bride of Frankenstein’s first hiss to Pamela Voorhees searching for her son’s lost heart, each poem explores the cinematic chasm between dread and desire.

Dark, witty and unsettling, the poems reimagine horror films not as passive nightmares, but emotional reckonings, including “Dracula,” “Creature from the Black Lagoon,” “Night of the Living Dead”, and “Suspiria”. Allison Goldstein’s deftly crafted collection meditates on the transformational impact of our collective terror – both on and off the screen.

Are you ready to step back into the dark and confront what haunts you?

It’s always Halloween in here. Buy In The Night, In The Dark today from Bottlecap Press!

*Support indie authors and small press publications*

Spooky Summer is Here! I’m Featured in the New Issue of Last Girls Club

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I’m so excited about this one! One of my horror movie poems, ‘Phantom of the Opera’ is featured in the newly released Summer ’25 issue of Last Girls Club. Available in Softcover or PDF, the issue’s theme is ‘For Your Own Good’, so you know you’re in store for some creepy tales and poems sure to send a shiver down your spine. Order your copy today and get your summer spooky on while supporting small indie publishing and feminist horror.

High Camp Revisited: Check Out My ‘Wild Zero’ Review on Homeroom Horror

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Wild Zero (1999) DVD Cover

I love horror movies. I know this isn’t exactly news, but it’s both true and timely as I am delighted to announce that my new 25th anniversary review of ‘Wild Zero‘ (1999) is now up and ready to read on the Horror Homeroom website!

For those of you unfamiliar, Wild Zero is a wonderfully campy, Rock ‘n’ Roll horror-comedy starring the iconic Japanese punk band, Guitar Wolf. It’s got everything – zombies with exploding heads, CGI alien space ships, a killer soundtrack, and a unexpectedly sweet trans love storyline. I love this movie and I’m honestly sad it never gets mentioned in the pantheon of great zombie flicks, so I’m on a mission to spread the good word. Check out my article on Horror Homeroom and then go stream this overlooked 90s zombie classic today!

Are you already a Wild Zero superfan? Let’s talk about it! Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Read ‘The Night Heron’ in Saw Palm Issue 19

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I’m delighted to announce that my poem, ‘The Night Heron’ is featured in issue 19 of Saw Palm: Florida Art & Literature. The theme of the issue is ‘Florida Strange’ and I’m thrilled to be included alongside so many wondrously weird works about my home state.

Update: The new issue is live and you can purchase it from the Saw Palm website.

On May 7th, the magazine held a release launch party at Green Bench Brewing Company in St. Petersburg, so Kaleb and I decided to go on a poetry road trip. The reading itself was really fun and had a great turnout. It’s the first time I’ve performed poetry live in years, so I was a bit anxious about getting back on stage. Once the reading actually began however, that quickly passed. I had almost forgotten how inspiring it is to be in a room with a bunch of artists sharing their work. The energy was uplifting, and by the time I got up to read, I was hardly nervous at all (but definitely still kinda nervous).

Allison Goldstein (it’s me) at the Saw Palm issue 19 release party on May 7th at Green Bench Brewing Co.

I want to congratulate not only the writers and artists featured in the issue, but all the editors and staff at who put the magazine and the release party together. I hope everyone gets the chance to check out issue 19 once it goes live and I’ll update this post with that link as soon as it’s available. Stay strange and keep writing.

Disappearing Ink

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Watch it fade

each             character  dissolving

like a ghost

in a mirror                   a word             and then

the sentence                slips    

each and each              (what is)

            meant, the

word       herself        uncooling

and then         

what secrets left          puddle

lose shape,  the body         she thought

a minor                       evaporation

(it does not)                 stutter

the return                    and then

the word          she knows

it isn’t meant

to last,             unlearning itself

a          blossom           in         reverse

This poem was originally published in Cicatrix: A Journal of Experimentation in 2017. I wanted to play with the concepts common in erasure poems, exploring both form and formatting by creating space between the words that can be a placeholder for a breath as well as to leave room for both anticipation and surprise. The idea of ink disappearing also plays with the idea of memory – one of the most frequent themes in my work. I loved the idea of ink fading over time the same way memories fade over time, adding another layer of complexity when trying to relive a moment, a story, or a feeling.

Sigh

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Beautiful Summer Meadow Below a Blue Sky in Lenox, Massachusetts

a little breath

            a little breath that walks

her breath,

                a waltz

a waltz in green-blue grasses

feathered high into the salted air

            slanted—                    a breath that tilts each

stalk

                        hiding in air, let’s waltz

opal eyes like pastures gone

                                    momentarily blind

This poem originally appeared in Switchback Journal (from the University of San Francisco) back in 2006. It’s part of a small series of poems I started forever ago about expressive gestures. Additional poems from this mini collection include Wink, Smile, and Leer. When I started the series, I was reading ‘The Seventy Prepositions’ by Carol Snow and enamored with the idea of taking a small gesture and diving into it from physical, emotional, and etymological perspective.