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Jan 16, 2025 | 
reactormag.com | Holly Smith
We talk often about spring and autumn as seasons of turbulence; the times of year when changes happen, in nature and in our lives. But January—the month that plunges us, quite suddenly, from the comfortable malaise of the winter holidays into a bright sharp commitment to Be a Better Version of Ourselves—that’s when we are most personally in flux. We shed our skins in the New Year. We change, because the changing over of our calendars feels poignant, promising. It feels like The Right Time.
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Oct 24, 2024 | 
reactormag.com | Holly Smith
October has come back around, and with it the opportunity to indulge in all things spooky: horror movies; ghost stories; and—yes—poetry. I compiled my first list of Halloween poems in 2020; my second in 2023. The cauldron has yet to run dry, so this year I bring yet another collection of poems celebrating the macabre, the eerie, the weird and otherworldly…I stood frozenbefore the mirror;a living statue,heart palpitating.
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Aug 2, 2024 | 
reactormag.com | Holly Smith
For as long as humans have existed, we have told each other stories. And today, some of our oldest surviving stories are fairy tales. Passed from the mouths of our ancestors, we continue to rework these tales into all manner of shapes, using them to express the innumerable facets of our lived experience. They connect us. They help us understand each other. And they make our world a little more magical.
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Jun 24, 2024 | 
reactormag.com | Holly Smith
We’re in the midst of Pride Month, and with it comes an opportunity to celebrate the creativity of the LGBTQ+ community’s many, many poets. Being part of the queer community can mean facing numerous challenges—especially in parts of the world where there are no legal protections (yet)—but it is also an honour: one that connects you to a large and powerful legacy of art, expression, passion, and love.
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May 17, 2024 | 
reactormag.com | Holly Smith
It’s May, which means that all across the internet, artists of all kinds are participating in MerMay—a contest and celebration of all things mermaid-related, hosted by Whitney Pollett and Lauren Barger.
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Apr 10, 2024 | 
reactormag.com | Holly Smith
For as long as we’ve been observing the night sky and the movement of planets and stars, humans have been curious about the other worlds that might be out there. We’re adventurous creatures: we like to explore, and we like to make friends, too. This month, I’ve selected twelve poems to carry you on a journey through space. Three… two… one… liftoff!The dunes were litlike ancient silk, like clandestine pearl. In the constant lunar night this luminescencewas all we hoped for.
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Jan 23, 2024 | 
reactormag.com | Holly Smith
It’s January: for those of us in the northern hemisphere, the nights are long and the days are bitterly cold. For many, now is a season of new beginnings; of setting goals and fighting to achieve them. But thriving in January can feel—sometimes—an awful lot like trying to rise from the depths of a pond whose surface has frozen over. If you’re struggling to break through the hard shell of January into the new year, these twelve poems might be just the thing you need.
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Jan 17, 2024 | 
tor.com | Holly Smith
It’s January: for those of us in the northern hemisphere, the nights are long and the days are bitterly cold. For many, now is a season of new beginnings; of setting goals and fighting to achieve them. But thriving in January can feel—sometimes—an awful lot like trying to rise from the depths of a pond whose surface has frozen over. If you’re struggling to break through the hard shell of January into the new year, these twelve poems might be just the thing you need.
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Oct 25, 2023 | 
tor.com | Holly Smith
Back in 2020, I created a list of thirteen spooky poems perfect for reading in October. This article was republished the following year, and the comment sections of both articles yielded many exciting poems worthy of their own list. As Halloween draws near once again, I thought I would create a follow-up list of thirteen more sinister poems for the reader seeking to set the mood.
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Aug 25, 2023 | 
tor.com | Holly Smith
Gothic horror is not like other horror. Most people tend to think of it as the quieter genre—the subtler horror that creeps in like mould in your walls—and they’re not wrong. Subtlety has long been a key hallmark of the genre, which wends its way through domestic settings and unsettles them, not by crashing through with a battering ram but by picking things up and putting them back in slightly the wrong place.
