Book Review: Love Letters to Poe, Volume 1: A Toast to Edgar Allan Poe edited by Sara Crocoll Smith

“A servant of sorrow to the bitter end, and isn’t sorrow one of the most inspiring emotions of all?”

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Love Letters to Poe, Volume 1 collects poetry and short stories inspired by the Master of the Macabre, Edgar Allan Poe. Originally released as a monthly gothic fiction magazine, this award-winning anthology is organized into 12 sections corresponding with the magazine’s original, themed issues: A Toast to Edgar Allan Poe, Blood is Thicker, Disciplines & Darkness, Everlasting Life, Memento Amori, Modern Gothic, Poe Reimagined, Midwestern & Southern Gothic, Your Body Is a Canvas, Weep for Me, Parenthood, and Don’t Look Behind You.

Works are distinct and varied, offering readers a range of styles, storylines, and themes to enjoy — all deliciously dark and deeply haunting — conjuring a fantastic celebration of and tribute to Poe’s inimitable life, work, and spirit, as well as an enduring haven for his fans. Of the 55 inclusions (7 poems and 48 short stories, two of which are award-nominated), this reader’s favorites include:

• “The Rowhouse” by Jeremy Megargee:  An eerie and captivating tour through Poe’s Baltimore home, now The Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum.

• “The Heart of Alderman Kane” by Eleanor Sciolistein: A grisly and chilling confession of vengeance, violence, shadows, and regret steeped in fear and foreboding.

• “The Thief of Eternal Delights” by Renee Cronley: An ominous, sumptuously gothic story of longing, love, risk, and eternity.

• “The Inheritance Thread” by Hailey Piper: A gruesome and mysterious fairy tale surrounding imposed silence, unquenchable curiosity, cryptic stitches, and lethal truths — absolutely gripping from start to (disquieting) finish!

• “Resurrectionist” by Robert Frank: A grim and morbid trip into the realm of Philadelphian corpse thieves and an exhumation gone terribly awry.

• “The Night, Forever, and Us” by Aeryn Rudel: A devastating and beautiful account of illness, mortality, devotion, choice, freedom, and perpetuity.

• “Morning Post” by Liam Hogan: A ghoulish and melancholy chronicle of connection, courtship, passion, and curio where like-minded souls descend into all-consuming mania.

• “The Bird Whisperer” by Richard Zwicker: A compulsively readable, utterly delightful reimagining of “The Raven” that glistens with gratifying Easter eggs and gallows humor.

• “To Have and to Hold” by Sharmon Gazaway: A creepy and creative House of Usher retelling involving a hidden sibling, inherited maladies, and spectral futures.

• “The Fall of the House of Poe” by Evan Baughfman: A nightmarish and riveting Poe-themed fusion of definitive fiction and desolate quasi-reality.

🖤Amanda