Bøger af Frank Coffman

Frank Coffman has rendered 327 quatrains from the traditional "Rubáiyát" of Omar Khayyám into a new version in English verse. Differently phrased in many ways from the famous translation by Edward FitzGerald, Coffman's version is transposed from the great prose translation by Justin Huntly McCarthy. It presents the classic work by the famous Persian astronomer, mathematician, and poet in a new light for a new millennium of readers."Frank Coffman's renderings of Khayyam's 'Rubáiyát' are a poetic triumph: Here the classic Persian quatrains are transformed into clean and radiant stanzas, each of which sparkles like a gemstone neatly cut and polished. Coffman's masterful prosodist's touch acts as a clarifying agent, drawing out the beauty inherent in the poetry as if through some form of lapidary alchemy. More than this technical achievement (and perhaps more importantly), Coffman's 'Rubáiyát' is simply a pleasure to read. The verse pours from the page deliriously, like the ruby red wine to which so many of Khayyam's stanzas refer." Oliver Sheppard, poet and author of "Thirteen Nocturnes""Englishing the 'Rubáiyát' after FitzGerald might be viewed as a light inteliectual game, but Frank Coffman brings to the task the craft and rigor of real work. Fortunately, however, he has not left out the ludic, playful aspects of Khayyam's Persian verses. This is a new translation for a new century." Steven Withrow, poet and author of "The Sun Ships & Other Poems"

Frank Coffman's fourth major collection of speculative verse in the genres of Weird, Horrific Supernatural, Fantasy, and Science Fiction.

This is Frank Coffman's second large collection of speculative poetry. As before, the verses herein cross the spectrum of Weird Horror, Science Fiction, Fantasy and Adventure and include examples from sub-genres of these modes of the high imagination.Following his chapbook, This Ae Nighte, Every Nighte and Alle (2018) and his acclaimed magnum opus, The Coven's Hornbook & Other Poems (2019), this collection of 93 poems (six sequences of poems: sonnet sequences, a "megasonnet" sequence, a sequence in an Old Irish metric, etc) continues in the same tradition.A formalist whose rhymed and metered verses follow in the tradition of the exemplary work of the great early Weird Tales poets such as Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, H. P. Lovecraft, Donald Wandrei, and Leah Bodine Drake, he is also a great experimentor with a broad variety of exotic and cross-cultural forms and an innovative creator of several new ones.His poetry has been published in several magazines, including Spectral Realms, Weirdbook, The Audient Void, Abyss & Apex, Gathering Storm, Phatasmagoria and Lovedraftiana; and in anthologies such as Quoth the Raven, Caravan's Awry, and Sounds of the Night.

Frank Coffman has compiled a substantial collection of 265 poems of verse in his book. The poems cover the gamut of the genres of speculative poetry of the high imagination: Horror, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Adventure, and even Detection. Other sections of the book explore the range of subjects in the Weird, Horrific, and Supernatural. The Coven's Hornbook also contains a section of ekphrastic poems - tributes to works in other art forms; a group of homages to admired fellow poets; and a section of "metapoetry" with poems on the subject of poetry itself and some thoughts on the writing of verse.

THE GARGOYLICON: IMAGININGS AND IMAGES OF THE GARGOYLE IN LITERATURE AND ART is a compendium of visions and unique perspectives on this intriguing and enigmatic figure. Beyond its function as a water spout to send potentially damaging rain water away from walls and foundations of buildings, it has also been seen as both a symbol of Evil forces and, in seeming contradiction, as a protector against the same. Was it meant to also frighten the unbeliever into faith and keeping the "straight and narrow path," or, perhaps, to attract pagans due to its grotesque and monstrous appearance-the stuff of their legends?The poetry, fiction, and art in this tome offer a great variety of perspectives upon and interpretations of these wonders.

ROBERT E. HOWARD: SELECTED POEMS is a large and representative collection of the poetry of Robert Ervin Howard (1906-1936). Well over 400 examples of Howard's 700+ extant poems and fragments are included, along with commentary and an introduction by Frank Coffman, one of the foremost authorities on REH's poetry. Howard was a member of the illustrious triumvirate of WEIRD TALES poets in the age of "The Pulps." Along with Clark Ashton Smith and H. P. Lovecraft he contributed-in that "Unique Magazine" and elsewhere-to the speculative poetry of the early 20th century.Coffman has published seminal essays on Howard with "Texas Talespinner: Robert E. Howard's Ways With Words" in TWO-GUN BOB (2006)-the first stylometric study of Howard's Work-and "Barbarism Ascendant: The Poetic and Epistolary Origins of the Character and His World" in CONAN MEETS THE ACADEMY (MacFarland 2013, ed. Jonas Prida). He has also given presentations on the topics of "Conan as The Bright Barbarian" and the subjective stylometric analysis of the Conan "canon" with "Robert E. Howard's DNA [Distinctive Narrative Attributes]"

ECLIPSE OF THE MOON is Frank Coffman's third major collection of speculative poetry. It follows THE COVEN'S HORNBOOK & OTHER POEMS (2019) and BLACK FLAMES & GLEAMING SHADOWS (2020). This collection features a long narrative, THE DECIPHERMENT (An Epyllion [mini-epic]), a 72-title sonnet sequence featuring 111 sonnets (since some of the titles contain sequences within themselves), and a 57=quatrain Addendum to his 2019-published KHAYYÁM'S RUBÁIYÁT that renders Omar's (and the "Omarian School's" stanzas into English verse. Several genres of the speculative are represented: weird, horror, supernatural, science fiction, and myth, folklore, and legend. As with the previous two collections, the book also includes some traditional verse, some metapoetry (poems about poetry itself and the composition thereof) AND a complete "Glossary" of the many exotic, cross-cultural, and invented forms used therein.Frank Coffman has published speculative poetry and short fiction in a variety of magazines, anthologies, and collections, and his first two poetry books have received recommendations for consideration for the Stoker Award from the Horror Writers Association. He is also a member of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association and is the founder and moderator of the Weird Poets Society Facebook Group."Unlike so many poets, if not most, restricted to the one string on their lyre of horror or the supernatural, Frank Coffman...has many strings to his lyre....THE COVEN'S HORNBOOK & OTHER POEMS, alerted us to a major new voice in imaginative poetry....As anyone who has experienced his work knows for a fact, [he] is a master poet, a wizard of rime, meter, and form. Truly a grand and glorious traditionalist."-Master Bard, Donald Sidney-Fryerin a review in SPECTRAL REALMS #14

This is the first anthology from THE WEIRD POETS SOCIEtY, a Facebook group open only to published poets in the various areas of Speculative and Higly Imaginative Literature. It represents a fine sampling of the range of topics and poetic styles of several of the members. It is hoped that this will become an annual anthology. This one represents poetry published in 2018 or not previously published.