Philip LoPresti

Dark, disturbing collection of poetry ruminating on birth, sex, violence, existential horror, and the ideation, or even idealization, of death. Lo Presti's work continues to be in a class of its own, formed of haunting imagery and the bleakest of emotional cores. Recommended to those who can relate strongly to thoughts nihilism and self-effacement. NOT for the sensitive or the weak of heart.

A dark, elegant poetic rumination on disease through the metaphor of crows as carriers and carrion feeders, watching from a gods-eye view as plague-stricken Italy decays from within and the helpless bird-masked plague doctors set themselves in hopeless opposition to death that steals in on black wings.

A haunting a perverse journey into the heart of a twisted cult of inbred witches. This is a deeply disturbed coven of fraternicidal murderers and incestuous sexual deviants. This book has the feel of a classic shock-horror film given literary credibility, the horrifying cannibal family of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the deformed, sexually desperate maniacs of The Hills Have Eyes live on in this cult. An impressive prose debut from poet Philip Lopresti.

Intensely dark series of vignettes exploring the mind of a serial murderer, rapist, and necrophiliac. Not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach, this book, though brief, does get intensely dark and disturbing. LoPresti's prose is sharp and evocative, and his gaze unflinchingly observant, we see, hear, taste, smell, and feel everything his narrator takes in of the world around him. Recommend for readers of crime drama and horror, or anything found at the intersection of the two.