A Collection of Dreamscapes
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A Collection of Dreamscapes received the 2020 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Poetry
A Collection of Dreamscapes received the 2020 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in PoetryA Collection of Dreamscapes by Christina Sng is an exploration of the darkness inside us, the shadow-self that screams and begs, forever fighting to claw itself out. It’s a siren song of transformation, an uncovered diary that bleeds fairy tales and dystopias, and it reads like a grimoire full of spells and curses that bring monsters and madmen to life.
Between these pages, readers will meet women who hide behind the taste of poison apples, who set themselves on fire, who weep at riverbanks, the taste of freedom too much to swallow, too heavy to bear. They will be whisked away to faraway lands and unimaginable worlds, the drip of fog-soaked dreams a steady flow down their throats while they choke on betrayal and bathe in the waters of tears twice cried.
Sng’s poems are a blend of dark fantasy and science fiction, both a changeling’s whisper and an ogre’s cry. They are both subtle and violent, and they weave themes of empowerment and strength through stars and earthquakes, forcing us to push away the rubble and look at what we’ve had to do to survive. They are the sacrifice in the forest and the haunting in the house, every gasp and ancient fear a reflection of the violence we’ve had to bury deep inside ourselves, all those battle cries and reimagined dreams we desperately try to forget. Here, Sng marries blood and magic, forever walking hand-in-hand with scar and ash, their imprints both a nightmare and a blessing, a dream and the truth.
Swallow them carefully. Once they’re inside you, there’s no getting them out.
Advance Praise
“I loved this collection of poems that flow in a story cycle; tendrils of images from one flavoring the next. New and old myths, reborn in Sng’s brilliant imagination into unique, grownup versions where empowerment rules and old-fashioned revenge is very satisfying.” —Linda D. Addison, award-winning author of How to Recognize a Demon Has Become Your Friend and HWA Lifetime Achievement Award Winner.
“Outrage howls against human cruelty from verse after verse throughout Christina Sng’s sophomore poetry collection from Raw Dog Screaming Press. A Collection of Dreamscapes is the follow-up to her Bram Stoker Award-winning showstopper A Collection of Nightmares — but don’t let the shift in title fool you. This new book overflows with nightmare fodder. Just as importantly, it burns white hot with catharsis. Warriors rage against oppressors, women and girls purge their abusers, and the innocent make necessary transformations into monsters to bring about ‘Wrongs made right for once / In this unjust world.’ Even as you shudder, you’ll smile in empathy and ‘enjoy the bloodbath.’” —Mike Allen, World Fantasy Award-nominated author of Unseaming and Aftermath of an Industrial Accident
“I hadn’t thought it possible for Sng to improve on A Collection of Nightmares. I was wrong. In Dreamscapes, Sng shatters traditional storytelling and showcases her versatility as a master poet. Tackling odysseys, fairy tales, myths, monsters, and unspeakable violence, she wields words like ‘a scythe making graceful strokes’, paring her verse to sinew and bone. Not a word is out of place in this ground-breaking collection.” —Lee Murray, author of Into the Mist
“A Collection of Dreamscapes is another knock-out hit for Christina Sng. Like a lullaby distorted into a scream, Sng’s evocative language sets up beautiful scenes that soon lead the reader deeper and deeper into darkness. Between dreams, myths, fairy tales, and more, readers will find themselves spun into a mystical web of stories that unfold through each finely crafted poem. Sng offers up such a rich world through the different sections, yet the storytelling and vibrancy in each blend seamlessly together. A captivating collection that is not to be missed!” —Sara Tantlinger, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Devil’s Dreamland
“To be escorted by Christine Sng through A Collection of Dreamscapes is to become the warrior queen of a forgotten land, a tech-savvy fairy tale maiden, a girl made of electricity with the power to short-circuit the world. It is a journey of monstrous possibilities, surreal surroundings, and entrancing mythologies, and one that—though we all must wake up eventually—I did not want to end.”
—Christa Carmen, author of Something Borrowed, Something Blood-Soaked
“Don’t be surprised if these works begin to haunt your own dreams. This is poetry at its best.” —David Lee Summers, author of The Astronomer’s Crypt and Owl Dance
A Collection of Nightmares
