Stephanie M. Wytovich is an American poet, novelist, and essayist. Her work has been showcased in numerous magazines and anthologies such as Weird Tales, Nightmare Magazine, Southwest Review, Year’s Best Hardcore Horror: Volume 2, The Best Horror of the Year: Volume 8, as well as many others. Wytovich is the Poetry Editor for Raw Dog Screaming Press, an adjunct at Western Connecticut State University, Southern New Hampshire University, and Point Park University, and a mentor with Crystal Lake Publishing. Her newest poetry collection is On the Subject of Blackberries.

On the Subject of Blackberries is a collection of poems that the author describes as “meditations on female rage, postpartum depression, compulsion, and intrusive thoughts. They pull from periods of sleep deprivation, soul exhaustion, and nightmarish delusions, and each is left untitled, a nod to the stream-of-conscious mind of a new mother.” This is a collection of horror poetry, therefore, grounded in the reality of a new mother, but through a lens of myth. Using found poetry techniques and bibliomancy, Wytovich created a collection layered in images. The poems here read as spells, incantations almost, but dark and surreal.

Into an air of change, I lay
like fog refusing the clouds
underneath my boots, my hand
held against the thin things
with splintered hair,
their watchful gaze
a sliced shadow on creeping walls,
a crooked ocean waving
to a doll with your face.

These are nightmares illustrated, dreams that one begs to wake from. The confusion and grief is palpable in these lines, found in the shadows that Wytovich explores with her language.

As if Wytovich’s poetry weren’t worth the price of admission itself, the presentation of this book is really quite something to behold. It’s a hardcover text with Victorian illustrations, but filled with poems of magic and rage, steeped in darkness. The whole aesthetic of the book makes for an experience for the reader, almost like they were prying into the grimoire of some haunted witch.

Stephanie M. Wytovich is a name that every horror reader should be familiar with. They are an outstanding author and editor with too many accomplishments and awards to list. It should be no surprise that On the Subject of Blackberries is a solid collection of poetry because Wytovich is a solid poet. However, this book is so different than previous collections, in ways both intimately personal and deeply magical, that it’s almost like discovering a completely new poet. If you know Wytovich’s work, then you are in for a dark surprise that is gripping and haunting and elegiacally beautiful.

If you have not read a book by Stephanie M. Wytovich, this is the book to correct that mistake with, because this book needs to be on the shelf of every horror reader.

This wasn't what I expected and didn't remind me of We Have Always Lived in the Castle unfortunately! The cover is pretty intriguing though.

This was a major disappointment for me, unfortunately. I was expecting much more based on the description but it felt uninspired and dry. Poetry isn't usually my thing, but when I do choose to pick it up I expect something profound and thought provoking and this just did not fit the bill.

Beautiful, darkly enjoyable and showing impressive craft. I wasn't sure what to expect, but thos was a wonderful book of poetry, full of gothic horror and emotional healing. A feral and cathartic collection.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this collection of poems.

I am just now trying to get into modern poetry, so my rating is more indicative of my exposure to poetry vs the quality of the poems. The author does an excellent job creating an immersive, dark, and gothic-inspired collection of poems. I am not familiar with the inspiration work (so that's on me) but most of the poems were hit or miss for me and went right over my head. Here are a few of the quotes I liked:

"I am the ghost responsible for all that fell apart, a blank page, the smashed table, scattered splintered"

"I laugh in red, the first symptom of violence."

"There are worse things than burning alive, our generation trama-soaked, blind eager to thank the match."

My first poetry collection for 2024 didn’t leave me feeling moved. I picked this collection because of the title (and blackberries are delicious) but the content wasn’t great. Too many of the pieces were literal – showing and not telling. This was a personal collection but I couldn’t find any pieces to connect with. The style was off and I couldn’t find a steady flow.

The lyrical nature of this was beautiful, but it's not a subject I really care for. Still a great writer though.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC for review.

Unfortunately, another poetry flop for me within the last month.
Like with the last collection, I was really excited for this and the premise was extremely intriguing, but, unfortunately, it ended up being a massive letdown for me. What I didn't know when I was getting into this collection was just how focused it was on the storyline of "we have always lived in the castle".

This summary, pulled from goodreads, is what had initially intrigued me:

"Welcome to the garden. Here we poison our fruits, pierce ourselves with thorns, and transform under the light of the full moon. Mad and unhinged, we fall through rabbit holes, walk willingly into fairy rings, and dance in the song of witchcraft, two snakes around our ankles, the juice of berries on our tongues.

Inspired by Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle, these poems are meditations on female rage, postpartum depression, compulsion, and intrusive thoughts. They pull from periods of sleep deprivation, soul exhaustion, and nightmarish delusions, and each is left untitled, a nod to the stream-of-conscious mind of a new mother."

However, the collection felt less like it was inspired by and more like the author was just trying to expand the story and slightly re-imagine it in a poetic prose. I have not read shirley jackson's story, though it is on my tbr, so maybe that contributed to me not enjoying it as much as I could. I had loved the introduction by the author and was excited to get into this collection, but it just didn't work. I found myself skimming poems just so I could get to the end and finish it before the arc expired.

I have recently become very fond of poetry (even if I don't always rate it the highest) and have read easily readable and hard to read collections and rarely have problems, but there was just something with this collection where I just felt like I didn't retain anything and couldn't tell you what poems I had just read. There were some poems that shone for me, but overall I just couldn't get into it or care about the disjointed, rushed poems that only sometimes made sense (even if they were highly over-analyzed).

This collection of poetry was very much not for me. The description is what initially drew me in, and I enjoy modern poetry in general. But I could not connect with these pieces. I do think the author succeeded in creating the atmosphere/mood she was aiming for--and having dealt with both new motherhood and depression myself, I could relate to that general vibe--but the poems themselves left me feeling confused and frustrated more often than not. Sometimes a line or two would be wonderful, but I generally felt like the author was speaking a language I didn't understand. I want to be drawn in by poetry, not boxed out.

i was not pulled to the story that Stephanie was trying to convey through her poems. i found it difficult to pick it up again

“Do you tend to the funeral of moons?
Visit the lost sisters, the demons
Dancing in the woods? They say
There are doors to our graves,
Small openings smiling
On the wrong side of death (...)”

Sometimes a book just finds you at the right time, and that’s exactly what happened here. On the Subject of Blackberries is filled with themes and prose I’ve been a bit obsessed with lately – trauma, horror vibes, plants and nature, and, of course, the moon. It was beautifully written and everything just came together in a way that leaves you with such a clear, and maybe a bit uncomfortable, feeling at the end.

This is modern poetry, and that’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but if you’ve ever wanted to pick up a witchy female-focused collection of beautiful prose, this might be the book to start off with.

Thank you to NetGalley and Raw Dog Screaming Press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Gorgeous set of poems. One part based on Shirley Jackson, one part more a meditation on depression, rage, and what it means to be a woman in public perception of that. Thanks for the arcZ

This book explodes into your psyche. Wytovich takes her readers by storm, pulling them into a maelstrom of emotion and language and sensation. "My name is werewolf, death-cup, noise," she screams charging through hordes of grinning demons.
Ghost girls watch from garden shadows as you daintily sip poisoned tea; we dine with witches on thornapple, mushrooms, wild strawberries, and boiled spiders. "Three times I came to tea," the mystical triad, three wishes, click your heels three times, and you too can read the omens. Wytovich illustrates with words, creating fantastical paintings: "She stood inside the four corners / securely in sunlight--smiling / a fairy princess against / my unwelcoming face / precious, with a quiet respect."
Wytovich's writing brings to mind the work of Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Mary Oliver, but her voice is uniquely, angrily, her own. She questions suffering and disturbance and gives us an illusion of genteel femininity shielding ferocious womanhood. Yet there is beauty glowing behind her ferocity: "Awakened, a trailing mist / hugs my morning tea / an early love, shining."
in "On the Subject of Blackberries" Stephanie Wytovich has created a universe of thought. You cannot read her writing and be unaffected. It forces you to consider what is real and what we are told is false, though only the reader knows for sure.

In Stephanie M. Wytovich's poetry collection, "On the Subject of Blackberries," the author delves into the unsettling terrain of female experience, drawing inspiration from Shirley Jackson's "We Have Always Lived in the Castle," while navigating the realms of female rage, postpartum depression, and intrusive thoughts, reflecting the raw and often disquieting emotions that accompany new motherhood. Wytovich employs found poetry, snippets of nightmare, and occult imagery, creating a narrative that mirrors the vulnerabilities of the human psyche. And while I didn't find it groundbreaking or even particularly enjoyable, it resonates with a certain honesty and is a commendable exploration of the often unspoken struggles.

I don’t know much about nor do I read lots of modern poetry, but this book is something special. I won’t make an ass of myself by trying to explain what it means, but I will tell you, I haven’t had such a visceral, punch in the gut feeling in aa long time. This book makes you feel. The fear of a world we thought we knew only to have it rattled by a little human.

Another great read from Stephanie Wytovich. I don't always read poetry, but Stephanie's poetry is enjoyable. Will be looking for her next release, and planning now to read her novel. #OntheSubjectofBlackberries #NetGalley

I'm not usually good at being able to tell you what poems mean, but a lot of this seemed pretty literal. I love Shirley Jackson, and in the intro the writer says this isn't about We have always lived in the castle, but it really felt like it was. But in a good way.
I felt dread, and complicated relationships, and anxiety. I know it's supposed to be about being a new mother. There was also a yearning, although no regret.
This little collection is a whole mood. Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this

i have mixed feelings about this one, because while i do love the gothic and what this collection promised, some of the extended metaphors were SO heavy handed. the writing was beautiful and i could see where it linked to jackson as a source text, but there was just so much telling and not a lot of space for the reader to fill in the blanks themselves. the organization and pacing were a bit weird, but the language was pretty.

Eesh. I'm not normally a contemporary poetry person but I love [book:We Have Always Lived in the Castle|89724] (an inspiration for these poems) so I thought, why not give it a try?

Well, Wytovich lost me in her introduction where she acts like she's the only woman on earth who ever had a baby before and goes on about how <i>Castle's</i> Merricat is basically an inspiring girlboss and I was like, girl, I love that book too but Merricat <spoiler>literally poisoned her whole family so, maybe not?</spoiler>

Then honestly the poems made no sense to me - again, I don't really like contemporary poetry that doesn't have any clear logic or meaning, so maybe I just wasn't the audience for this. I personally find this type of writing to be a weird way of using language to make meaning more obscure/unknowable which is kind of missing the entire point of language imo.

Basically just read or re-read Shirley Jackson's book, these poems don't add anything to her masterpiece.

"We were but a closed door,
a subdued fawn, the woods hungry,
starving for bodies of small,
wicked girls."

Stephanie M. Wytovich is an American poet, novelist, and essayist. Her
work has been showcased in numerous magazines and anthologies
such as Weird Tales, Nightmare Magazine, Southwest Review, Year’s Best
Hardcore Horror: Volume 2, The Best Horror of the Year: Volume 8 & 15, as
well as many others.

This is collection of about ten poems written by her when she was suffering from PPD. Few of the poems I could relate so much being a recent new mom. It is hard for mothers because of what we go through physically but society always judges mom for being a mom. Even though everyone will praise motherhood in general, a mom is always frowned upon for other thing or the other. that's how the society goes. What hypocrisy!!!

Anyways there are poems which touches few topics that goes hush hush. And I admire the boldness of the poetess.

"The two of us, against the world.
Blackberries and sugar.
With only the memory of poison. "

I found them very dark, they have a haunting vibes about them. A viscerity. A bluntness that can cut you raw. But I found them more gloomy than for my liking.

Thank you Netgalley and RDS publishing for the ARC in exchange of an honest review.