G. O. Clark - poet & writer of the fantastic
Photo above by Ian Clark
Rocket art piece = Larry Woelfel.
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MY BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE FROM HIRAETH PUBLISHING - https://www.hiraethsffh.com/search-results?q=g.o.+clark - and, AMAZON.COM.
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My poem "Dark Forest", from latest collection, Tombstone: Selected Horror Poems, is read on YouTube at --
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai84_CLDfJs&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR3aixuys-dFuzcDE7BnpqtIpuKFbP0ykdmDck5gtZ2AjY2fceVqrZRJyhc
"Tales For The Camp Fire: A Charity Anthology Benefiting Wildfire Relief", ed. Loren Rhoads. Proceeds from this anthology go to victims of the horrific Camp Fire, (Nov. 8, 2018, Paradise CA), distributed by the North Valley Community Foundation. A reprint of my story "The Twins" is included. Every penny helps. Now available in trade pb and ebook.
https://www.amazon.com/Tales-Camp-Fire-Anthology-Benefitting/dp/0997195193/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=tales+for+the+campfire&qid=1556994398&s=books&sr=1-1
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COPIES OF MOST OF MY BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE FROM ME. FREE SHIPPING IN USA. EMAIL ME AT [email protected] TO ORDER.
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Recent Published Work, Interviews and awards news:
"Selfies", Star*Line, Vol. 43:1, 2020.
"Miles To Go Before We Rest", Analog Magazine, May/June 2020.
"Working Cats", ss, Shelter Of Daylight, July 2020.
"The Return", Analog Magazine, Nov./Dec. 2020.
"The Servants Of Reality", Cosmic Horror, #12, 2021.
"Diva", Utopia Science Fiction, June/July 2021.
"Oblivians Realm", ParAbnormal, Vol. 3:2, 2021.
"Weeds", Not One Of Us, Issue #67, 2021.
"What Once Was Pitch Black", Analog Magazine, Jan/Feb. 2022.
"Two Oceans" & "Crop Circles Explained", Illumen, Winter 2022.
"A Crime Of Passion", Spectral Realms Magazine, #17, 2022.
"She's Walking Home", Penumbra Magazine, #3, 2022.
"Einstein's Eyes", Dreams & Nightmares, #123, 1/23.
"A Week In The Life Of", Journ-E, #3, 2023.
"Three Hearts As One", Asimov's Science Fiction, My/June 2023.
"I Am Providence", Lovecraftiana (GB), Vol. 8, No. 1, 2023.
"The Old Poet On YouTube", Dreams & Nightmares, #126, 2024.
"The Strange Remains", Star*Line, Vol. 47:1, 2024.
"Home Schooled", ss, Dark As Life 2, ed. Tyree Campbell, July 2024.
2011 Bram Stoker Finalist, superior achievement in poetry, "Shroud Of Night", Dark Regions Press, (awarded 2012).
2001 Rhysling Award, 2nd Place, short poem, "Of Dance Steps And Distances", (originally published in Icarus Ascending, #1, 2000).
2012 Rhysling Award, 2nd Place, Long Poem, "The 25-Cent Rocket: One-Quarter of the Way to the Stars", a collaboration with Kendall Evans, (originally published in Dreams & Nightmares Magazine, #89, 2011).
"The 25-Cent Rocket: One-Quarter of the Way to the Stars" by myself and Kendall Evans, is part of the 2012 Rhysling Award winners podcast at StarShipSofa, #246, 9/19/12 - http://www.starshipsofa.com/ It begins about 53 minutes into the podcast as part of the Poetry Planet segment.
2012 Dwarf Stars Award, SFPA, 3rd place for poem "Snowflake Galaxies".
"Snowflake galaxies", is included in the Dwarf Stars Award winners podcast at StarShipSofa, #269, http://www.starshipsofa.com/
It begins about 120 minutes into the broadcast as part of the Poetry Planet segment.
Creature Features, www.countgore.com. Judy Comeau included "Scenes Along the Zombie Highway" in her top 10 books list for 2013.
5/21/14: Diane Severson Mori reviews "Scenes Along the Zombie Highway" at Amazing Stories online. Included are readings by her of 4 poems from the collection. http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2014/05/poetry-review-scenes-zombie-highway-clark/
Creature Features, www.countgore.com. Judy Comeau included "Gravediggers' Dance" in her top 10 books list for 2014.
4/25/15: Terrie Leigh Relf interviews me for her "A Day In the Life" writers series, https://tlrelf.wordpress.com/a-day-in-the-life-interview-series/a-day-in-the-life-welcomes-poet-and-fiction-author-g-o-clark/
7/17/18: question/answer interview, Analog Magazine blog, https://theastoundinganalogcompanion.com/
Analab Award, 2017, poetry, "Black Hole Blues", 2nd place, Analog Magazine.
4/5/19: poem "Room With A View"included in Asimov's national poetry month podcast, https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/asimovs/episodes/2019-04-05T08_08_43-07_00
5/8/19: poem "Distracted While Gardening" essay posted on Asimov's Science Fiction website,
part of From the Earth to the Stars file.
https://fromearthtothestars.com
Asimov's Readers Award, 2019, poetry, "Room With A View", 4th place.
5/29/19: question/answer interview by David Cowen, Horror Writers Association website, http://horror.org.
Old interview with E. Sherman, Davis Enterprise, 2005. http://www.dcn.davis.ca.us/~gizmo/2005/clark.html
Book Signing, Dark Carnival Bookstore, Berkeley, CA, 2-5, 6/29/19, with other contributors to "Tales For The Camp Fire" Paradise fire relief anthology; E. M. Markuff, L. S. Johnson, Ben Monroe, me, Loren Rhoads, Gene O'Neill, Anthony DeRouen. (photographer ?)
Elgin Award, 2019, poetry chapbook "Built To Serve", 2nd place, presented by the SFPA.
Analab Award, 2020, poetry, "Continuum", 2nd place. Analog Magazine.
Elgin Award, 2020, poetry collection, "The Comfort Of Screams", 3rd place tie with Marge Simon/Bryan Deitrich's The Demeter Diaries, presented by the SFPA.
Analab Award, 2021, "Miles To Go Before We Rest", 2nd place, Analog Magazine, May/June 2020.
Asimov's Reader's Award, 2024, "Three Hearts As One", WINNER, May/June 2023.
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BIOGRAPHY
I was born in mid-November, 1945 -- Gary Osgood Clark etched upon my birth certificate -- in the small rural town of Norfolk, MA. There and in the adjoining town of Millis I spent the next twelve or so years learning about nature, cheering on the Red Sox, and experiencing science fiction for the first time via Jules Verne, Tom Swift, and Godzilla. In 1959, both my sisters grown and on their own, my parents suddenly decided to move to California. Packing most of our belongings into a '57 Ford Fairlane, my dear aunt coming along for the ride, we all squeezed inside and trekked across country picking up Rt. 66 near Chicago and eventually ending up in San Jose, CA. I've lived in California ever since, for 25 years in the San Francisco bay area, and finally here in Davis, where my son Ian grew up, and where I worked for the last twenty five years as a library assistant at the University Of California before retiring.
It was during my college years that I first tried my hand at writing, taking fiction writing classes at San Jose State Univ., and then on my own, attempting poetry. It was a survey course in contemporary American poetry taught by Rob Swigart, (who later went on to write a number of novels) that helped spur my interest. Many rejection slips later, a short nature poem of mine was published in the Big Sur Gazette in 1979. More rejection slips followed, but so did acceptances. Eventually two chapbooks of my poems saw print, Letting the Eye to Wonder and 7 Degrees of Something, in 1990 and 1991 respectively. These were pretty much mainstream poems, though as one reviewer recently discovered, a few seeds of speculative poetry can be found among them. My first speculative poem was actually published in 1988, in the Magazine of Speculative Poetry, but there was a gap of four years before the next one appeared in Star*Line - a publication of the Science Fiction Poetry Association - http://www.sfpoetry.com/. Since then many publications have printed my more out there work, (see bibliography), 16 poetry collections and 3 short story collections have seen print, and I've received some positive criticism and award recognition along the way; Asimov's Readers Award 2001, 2nd place Rhysling Award 2001,2012, Stoker Award final ballot 2012, Analog Readers Award, 2017, 2nd place/poetry, and Elgin Award, SFPA, 2nd place chapbook.
Contact - [email protected].
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/gary.o.clark
Poets & Writers - https://www.pw.org/content/go_clark
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SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
POETRY CHAPBOOKS/BOOKS:
Range & Section, [s.n.]. Davis, CA, 1985. (op)
[with Noel Peattie, Sabra Basler, Bill Ludington, & Jim Silva (photography)]. (op)
Letting the Eye to Wonder, 1990, MFA Press, NY. (op)
7 Degrees of Something, 1991, Mulberry Press, KS. (op)
A Box Full of Alien Skies, 2001, Dark Regions Press, CA. (op)
The Other Side of the Lens, 2003, Dark Regions Press, CA.(op)
Bone Sprockets, 2004, Dark Regions Press, CA.(op)
25 Cent Rocket to the Stars, 2007, Dark Regions Press, CA.(op)
Mortician's Tea, 2009, Sam's Dot Publishing, Iowa. (op)
Strange Vegetables, 2009, Dark Regions Press, CA.
Shroud Of Night, 2011, Dark Regions Press, CA.(op)
White Shift, 2012, Sam's Dot Publishing, Iowa.
Scenes Along the Zombie Highway, 2013, Dark Regions Press, OR.
Gravedigger's Dance, July 2014, Dark Renaissance Press, CA.
Built to Serve: Robot Poems, 2017, Alban Lake Publishing, Iowa.
The Comfort Of Screams, 2018, Alban Lake Publishing, Iowa.
Easy Travel To The Stars, 2020, Alban Lake Publishing, Iowa.
Tombstones: Selected Horror Poems., 2022, Weird House Books, OR.
Mindscapes, Hiraeth Publishing, 2024.
FICTION COLLECTIONS:
The Saucer Under My Bed & Other Stories, 2011, Sam's Dot Publishing, Iowa.
Twists & Turns, Alban Lake Publishing, 2016.
Aliens & Others, 2021, Hiraeth Publishing.
[A few books available from publisher and Amazon, and also from me - [email protected]]
POEMS/STORIES ANTHOLOGIZED IN:
Anti-War Poems II, Vesta Publ., Ontario, Canada, 1986,
edited by Stephen Gill.
Dan River Anthology, 1986, edited Richard Danbury III.
Crossings: Beyond The Parallel Lines,1993 (published by Gaslight Magazine editor)
Star Trek -- The Poems, Iron Press, England, 2000, edited by Valerie Laws.
The Largness the Small Is Capable Of, Summer 2001, (special issue Score #16).
2001: A Science Fiction Poetry Anthology, Anamnesis Press, 2001, edited by Keith Allen Daniels.
The Sacramento Anthology: One Hundred Poems, Sacramento Metropolitan
Arts Commission, 2001, edited by Dennis Schmitz & Viola Weinberg.
Snow Birds In Cloud Hands, Cerulean Press, 2003, edited by Blair H. Allen.
Sporty Spec, 2007, Raven Electric Ink, ed. by Karen Romanko.
Dwarf Stars Anthology, 2007, ed. by Deborah Kolodji.
Cinema Spec, 2009, Raven Electric Ink, ed. by Karen Romanko.
Retro Spec, 2010, Raven Electric Ink, ed. by Karen Romanko
A Sea of Alone: Poems For Alfred Hitchcock, 2011, Dark Scribe Press, ed. by Christopher Conlon.
Entering: the Davis Poetry Anthology, 2011, ed. by Allegra Silberstein.
A Feast of Frights From the Horror Zine, 2012, ed. Jeani Rector.
Rhysling Anthology, by year: 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2024.
Dwarf Stars Anthology, 2012, ed. Joshua Gage, SFPA
Halloween Haiku II, Oct. 2014.
Ardency for Animosity, 2016.
The Best of The Horror Zine: The Early Years, 2016, ed. Jeani Rector.
HWA Poetry Showcase III, 2016, ed. David E. Cowen.
HWA Poetry Showcase IV, 2017, ed. David E. Cowen.
StokerCon 2018 Souvenir Book, Michael Bailey, ed., 2018. "Her Apparition Walked Right Through Him", [reprint from D&N #104]
HWA Poetry Showcase V, 2018, ed. by Stephanie M. Wytovich.
Tales For The Camp Fire, 2019, "The Twins", ss, ed. Loren Rhoads, Tomes & Coffee Press. (Camp Fire survivors benefit antho.)
HWA Poetry Showcase VI, 2019, ed. by Stephanie M. Wytovich.
Midnight Under The Big Top, 2020, poetry, ed. by Brian James Freeman Cemetery Dance Publications.
Speculations II, poems, "Small Circle Of Friends" & "Symphonic Hell", ed. Frank Coffman, 2020.
HWA Poetry Showcase VII, 2020, ed. by Stephanie M. Wytovich.
Speculations III, "Leisureville" & "Post-Obit Cautionary Tale", ed. Frank Coffma
The Best Of Lovecraftiana (GB), "I Am Providence", ed. Gavin Chappell.
The Heartbeat of the Universe: Poems from Asimov's Science Fiction and Analog Science Fiction and Fact 2012-2022, "Continuum" & "Miles To Go Before We Rest", ed. Emily Hockaday, Intersteller Flight Press, 4/2024.
Giant Robot Poems, Vol. !, "Goin' Through Them Changes", ed. Randy Brown, Middle West Press, 2024.
Fumptruck, "Armageddon Smiles" ed. Anonymous (Michael Bailey), Written Backwards Press, 2024.
FICTION PUBLISHED IN:
Worlds of Wonder, Tales of the Talisman, Flash Fantastic, Anotherealm, Cracked Lens,
Coven Of Shadows, Static Movement, La Lune Bleue Planete, Dark Valentine Magazine, Dark Eclipse,
Tales of the Zombie War, Daily SF, Jupiter (GB), Spaceports & Spidesilk, Fifth Di, Martian Wave, and Shelter Of Daylight.
POETRY PUBLISHED IN:
Asimov's Science Fiction, Analog Magazine, Talebones, Space & Time, Not One Of Us, Mythic Delirium,
Bare Bone, Star*Line, Midnight Zoo, Dark Regions Magazine, Magazine of Speculative Poetry,
Dreams & Nightmares, Tales of the Unanticipated, Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, Pirate Writings,
Wormwood Review, Sacramento News & Review, Manhattan Poetry Review, Z-Miscellaneous, Strong Verse,
Penumbra, OG, Illumen, Jupiter (GB), Bette Noir, Speculatief Magazine (BE), and other publications - 1979 to the present.
BOOK & MAGAZINE REVIEWS IN:
Star*Line, 1997 - 2013.
Small Press Review, 2000 - 2002
INDEXED IN: Locus Online, ISFDB Online, American Humanities Index
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A Few Sample Poems (spanning 20+ years (C)
Three Hearts As One
The rancher gazes
out the bedroom window
at their backyard,
autumn lingering
in the trees, patio chairs
rusting in place,
dried up bird bath
abandoned long ago by her
favorite songbirds.
Behind the rose bush,
decades old roots nourished
by her alien ashes,
the salvaged piece
of silver fuselage fashioned
into a headstone;
Her Two Hearts
Beat As One For
Too Brief A Time,
the simple epitaph,
their secret secure within
his single heart.
2023
Ghosts Of Christmas Past
The Christmas tree lights,
hanging from the cross beam,
are covered in dust and cobwebs,
Mrs. Havisham’s ghost reclining
upon the couch below.
What is she doing here,
this fictional escapee from
my Victorian/Edwardian lit class,
professor of which, a fervent
Steampunk aficionado.
There’s thousands of books
on my many bookshelves, full
of ghosts both real and fictional,
silently waiting for a good dusting
and cracking of spines.
Who needs Scrooge to
remind me about Christmas spirit,
or Mrs. Havisham about empty chairs,
the follies of love, and the
silence of tears.
I gaze into the mirror,
and see my own ghost trapped
in reflections of uncertainty, victim
of a dark deed as yet to be discovered;
greeting card discarded.
My existence is caught in limbo,
past stored out of sight and mind,
future stalled between multiple realms.
A ghost without a clue, final chapter
hanging by a comma.
2022
The Return
Everything
depends upon the
old silver rocket
buffeted
about by the harsh
Martian winds,
so distant
from the warmth
of the Sun.
2020
When Robots Dance
The band plays on
while the robots dance,
mechanically jerking around
the ballroom floor, this ship
of glass warping dead-on
into oblivion.
Still packed in ice,
the human crew dream away
distances too vast for temporal
blood and bone, unconsciously
awaiting their faithful
servants duty call.
The unforeseen dwells
in the vacuum of space. Ghostly
phenomena play havoc with servos
and electronics. Programs go haywire.
Our laws of physics break down.
The music skips a beat.
Bathed in red light,
the robots twirl beneath the
view-ports, whirl about like dervishes
before their god, gravity and
the dance intensifying.
1995
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Zombie On A Leash
Like a stiff legged dog
on a leash
she's yanked this way
and that,
a post-mortem slave of
circumstance
bound to her master, her
pimp,
a decaying pleasure doll
sold into the
cold embrace of some
faceless necrophiliac.
2009
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Ghosts Of Dead Children
The ghosts of dead children
haunt school playgrounds, sand lot
ball fields, and amusement
park rides.
The ghosts of dead children
linger at Thanksgiving dinner card tables,
family picnics at the lake shore, and
on lunchroom benches.
The ghosts of dead children
hide the toys of the living, shiny metal
trucks and rosy cheeked dolls,
come Christmas eve.
The ghosts of dead children
tap out spelling bee answers in the wee
hours of the night, their siblings stone
deaf to their coaching.
The ghosts of dead children
hover above their sleeping parents,
shielding them from recurring nightmares
and quicksand traps of sadness.
The ghosts of dead children
cling close to their Earthly homes,
tethered to their short-changed memories
and the warmth of the living.
2011
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What They Came For
What they came for
was the crest of an ocean wave,
a patch of summer sky
with billowy, white cumulus clouds,
a glorious sunrise
over snow capped mountain peaks,
a spring field
of rainbow colored wildflowers,
and the innocent smile
of a young alien child at first light.
What they came for is all
that they'd forsaken back home.
2012
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PARTING SHOTS
She mailed
a massive funnel cloud to her
abusive ex-husband.
He had a very stormy personality.
She FedExed the
vengeful ghost of a prostitute
to her former boss.
He'd treated her like one for years.
She shipped by UPS
a Lovecraftian god-monster to her
Catholic school Alma Mata.
The sadistic nuns had it coming.
She wasn't a vengeful person.
Nor was she born evil, Satan's little
mistress, or, delusional.
She’d been baptized, and psychoanalyzed.
She was just taking a few parting shots
before retiring to the cloistered woods,
and the bylaws of the coven.
It was her turn to bring snacks.
2017
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Globes
I've replaced
my old world globe,
a gift from many years ago,
with a recently updated,
illuminated one,
one that represents
the world of today, our
timeline of history having
passed the old one by.
The Union of the Soviet
Socialist Republics messily
breaking apart like so many
bad marriages.
The countries of Africa
redrawing borders with blood-
filled pens; old Imperial monikers
out, Africanized ones in.
Looking forward,
if I live long enough, another
updated globe will surely have
to replace my current one,
a globe that reflects
the effects of global warming,
islands that once flourished now
under ocean blue; a lot more blue
as coastlines shrink.
For the present, I'll just give
my new globe a spin, point at a spot
upon its surface, and randomly pick
a mystery destination.
As for the old globe?
In my mind I launched it into
deep space, to a quadrant where
old worlds go to be archived,
while in reality,
I unceremoniously popped it
into my car trunk, and dropped
it off at the Goodwill.
2014
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PHOTOS OF WRITER/ARTIST FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES
Geoffrey Landis, Mary Turzillo, Marge Simon, Bruce Boston, WHC 2013 NOLA.
Me, Linda Addison, Bruce Boston after her reading at WHC 2013 NOLA.
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Terrie Leigh Relf & Marge Simon 4/27/17, Stokercon on QM.
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Tom Fante my place 2011.
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Patrick Swenson and Brian Herbert, Borderlands Bookstore SF, 8/30/14.
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Michael Arnzen at WHC 2015
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Worldcon 76 poetry reading participants. L-R, Me, Sue Burke, John Phillip Johnson, Mary Soon Lee, Denise Clemons, Andrea Blythe, 8/19/18 San Jose, CA.
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Tales For The Camp Fire anthology Dark Carnival Bookstore, Berkeley, CA 8/29/19 -- LtoR - E. M. Markuff, L. S. Johnson, Ben Monroe, me, Loren Rhoads, Gene O'Neill, Anthony DeRouen. (photographer ?)
Me and Emily Hockaday at Worldcon 76, Asimov's/Analog party. [photo, Trevor Quachri]
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Gavin, Strand, Morey, Osche
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