Alessandro Manzetti's Blog, page 20

WHITECHAPEL RHAPSODY Reviewed by Stephanie Ellis

My new dark poetry collection WHITECHAPEL RHAPSODY Reviewed by Stephanie Ellis:

"Whitechapel Rhapsody is a collection of dark poems by one of my favourite dark poets, Alessandro Manzetti. This particular collection sets itself in the crimes of Jack the Ripper and the atmospheric ‘personality’ of London’s East End.
As I read these poems, I thought about my own ancestors, from great-grandparents and back, who lived in this area. Whitechapel, Bethnal Green, Spitalfields, they lived in the most poverty-stricken streets of this time and would have experienced much described in these poems. The atmosphere of the East End leaching from Manzetti’s verse is a perfect marriage with the known history.
The East End was grim, a morass of the forgotten, of migrant communities, of people who lived in the “rhapsody of shadows, rats and refugee”. Manzetti turns Whitechapel into a predator personified in ‘I’m the Lair’. It is the trap into which all fall, “the prophet of misery”, the “nest of dust, shillings and sweat”. Reptilian, it is everything that beats at the dark heart of the East End.
Through his repeated refrain of “Deep Red, Deep East End,” (‘Bloody Rhapsody’, ‘Sick Rhapsody’, ‘Entangled Rhapsody’, ‘Madhouse Rhapsody’ and ‘Whitechapel Rhapsody’), he colours the shades of misery in the language of blood – the “Deep Red, Deep East End/the ghost with the razor, Death”.
‘Sick Rhapsody’ is the song for the syphilitic, the sufferers of tuberculosis and fever and their medicine “the liquour of melancholy”. In ‘Entangled Rhapsody’, with its mass of intertwined lives on intertwined streets, Manzetti gives Whitechapel a body, a place no one can escape. He delves into its dark mind in ‘Madhouse Rhapsody’ with “stories of asylums, green ghosts and white brains attached”. He wraps it all up in the embrace of Whitechapel Rhapsody, the song of the people, “‘who meet by chance, to live or die”.
These rhapsodies fix you in time and place as Manzetti leads you into the story of Jack the Ripper and his victims. Weaving in historical fact, he sings the songs of Annie Chapman, Mary Ann Nichols, Mary Jane Kelly, Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes. He also reminds us of Alice Mackenzie, murdered by a possible copycat. Their stories are broken by other tales of the street such as The Butcher’s Shop and the infamous Ten Bells, of the world going on around these deaths. A nice touch are the almost Dickensian names given to everyday people such as Dr. Openshow, Mr. Neardead, Mrs. Askmore, Mrs Lovelone and Mr. Hackfate, which adds even more to the sense of time.
Manzetti finishes with ‘The Dark King’, the bringer of all that is horror, “the mud that takes a thousand forms and which can become, at will” so much: chainsaw, gasoline, obscenity and requiem.
With its truly lyrical quality, this felt like a dark love song to the East End of London. I think it’s my favourite collection yet from Alessandro Manzetti. I loved it. 5/5 Stars."
—Stephanie Ellis

Buy the book at Amazon

WHITECHAPEL RHAPSODY Reviewed by Steve Stread

My new dark poetry collection WHITECHAPEL RHAPSODY reviewed by Steve Stread.
Excerpt from the review: (...) Manzetti goes from two line rhyming to three or four line spurts of prose with the ease of a painter laying down color on a canvass. It creates a sense of reading a story that is interspersed with song lyrics. (...) Manzetti is a stunning writer and the visual scope he created here is truly phenomenal. Each poem is layered with single poem story and over-arcing story, creating a thematic connection that really forces the reader to gallop along. ​

Read the whole review here
Buy the book at Amazon

"Whitechapel Rhapsody is an assault on the five senses, transporting readers back in time to London’s seedy East End. Alessandro Manzetti creates horrific images drenched in blood using masterfully crafted prose and perfect timing. You can feel the dampness of the night, smell the sweat, decay, and death, and hear the footsteps of the legendary Jack the Ripper on the cobblestone streets behind you. This book will have you sleeping with the lights on. A must for every lover of dark poetry."  
‒ Owl Goingback, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of 'Crota' and 'Coyote Rage'

“A brutal ripper of a collection from multi-award-winning poet Alessandro Manzetti, a ‘master of bones and knives’, whose poems are ‘pustules of morbid memories’ both as ‘fast as razors and slow as cancer’. Whitechapel Rhapsody will eviscerate you.” ‒ Lee Murray, three-time Bram Stoker Award®-nominee, and author of 'Grotesque: Monster Stories'

Released the new poetry collection WHITECHAPEL RHAPSODY

Released my new dark poetry collection WHITECHAPEL RHAPSODY (Independent Legions), including 26 new poems telling in a new way the story of Jack the Ripper, between the alleys and shadows of Whitechapel district in East London during the Victorian Era. Did the Ripper consider himself an artist? Maybe his victims were still life sculptures? Discover the dark vision of the best know serial killer through this modern rhapsody playing the bloody melody of the canonical five victims and the life in Whitechapel slums. Jack is Back! Cover art by Wendy Saber Core, interior illustrations by Stefano Cardoselli, 98 pages.
Buy your copy (Kindle and/or Trade Paperback) at Amazon
"Whitechapel Rhapsody is an assault on the five senses, transporting readers back in time to London’s seedy East End. Alessandro Manzetti creates horrific images drenched in blood using masterfully crafted prose and perfect timing. You can feel the dampness of the night, smell the sweat, decay, and death, and hear the footsteps of the legendary Jack the Ripper on the cobblestone streets behind you. This book will have you sleeping with the lights on. A must for every lover of dark poetry."  
--Owl Goingback, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of 'Crota' and 'Coyote Rage'

Released the new poetry collection WHITCHAPEL RHAPSODY

Released my new dark poetry collection WHITECHAPEL RHAPSODY (Independent Legions), including 26 new poems telling in a new way the story of Jack the Ripper, between the alleys and shadows of Whitechapel district in East London during the Victorian Era. Did the Ripper consider himself an artist? Maybe his victims were still life sculptures? Discover the dark vision of the best know serial killer through this modern rhapsody playing the bloody melody of the canonical five victims and the life in Whitechapel slums. Jack is Back! Cover art by Wendy Saber Core, interior illustrations by Stefano Cardoselli, 98 pages.
Buy your copy (Kindle and/or Trade Paperback) at Amazon
"Whitechapel Rhapsody is an assault on the five senses, transporting readers back in time to London’s seedy East End. Alessandro Manzetti creates horrific images drenched in blood using masterfully crafted prose and perfect timing. You can feel the dampness of the night, smell the sweat, decay, and death, and hear the footsteps of the legendary Jack the Ripper on the cobblestone streets behind you. This book will have you sleeping with the lights on. A must for every lover of dark poetry."  
--Owl Goingback, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of 'Crota' and 'Coyote Rage'

Aperte da oggi le domande di ammissione alla mia Creative Writing Academy

Aperte oggi le domande di ammissione alla mia nuova Creative Writing Academy, tutte le info le trovate sul sito web: www.alessandromanzettiacademy.com
Come già anticipato, sono molto felice di poter portare avanti il progetto 'Giovani Talenti Under 26', che prevede corsi gratuiti della durata di sei mesi per i giovani di età compresa tra 18 e 26 anni (che supereranno il test di ammissione), anche grazie agli sponsor Independent Legions, Cut Up Publishing, Molotov Magazine e Space and Time Magazine.
L'Accademia è aperta a tutti, giovani autori e meno giovani, niente chiacchiere e manuali d'addestramento, ma solo lavoro di training on job, personalizzato per ogni singolo corsista, con coaching e mentoring a mia diretta cura. Obiettivi concreti, as usual. Questa settimana organizzerò una diretta per parlarvi di questa iniziativa, e per rispondere a vostri quesiti.
Presto saranno disponibili anche corsi in lingua inglese, a cura della Finalista al Bram Stoker Award ed Editor in chief di Space and Time Magazine Angela Yuriko Smith.

Travel Anthology to the Most (Fictional) Haunted Buildings in the Weird, Wild Word

My new tiny story 'The House of Strawberries' will be included in the anthology 'Professor Charlatan Bardot's Travel Anthology to the Most (Fictional) Haunted Buildings in the Weird, Wild Word' edited by Bram Stoker Award Winner Eric J. Guignard, coming in 2021 from Bad Moon Books.

One of Us Anthology: Final TOC Announced

Final TOC announced of 'One of Us: A Tribute to Frank Michaels Errington' Anthology, edited by Kenneth W. Cain, coming in November 15 (from Bloodshot Books) including my story 'The Garden of Delight', together with works by Stephen King, J.F. Gonzalez, Lee Murray, Alan Baxter, Todd Keisling, Kenneth W. Cain, Christopher Golden, Catherine Cavendish, T. Fox Dunham, Anthony Rapino, Jason Parent and Kevin Rego, Jonathan Maberry, Jeremy Hepler, doungjai gam, John McNee, Rob Smales, Josh Malerman, P.D. Cacek, Wesley Southard, Mark Allan Gunnells, Matt Bechtel, Jeff Strand, Michelle Garza and Melissa Lason, John Boden, Paul F. Olson, Kealan Patrick Burke, Terry M. West, Paul Tremblay, Kelli Owen, Shane Douglas Keene, Joshua Viola, Robert Ford, Mercedes M. Yardley, Tim Meyer, Greg Chapman, Chad Lutzke, Geoff Brown, Tom Deady, Somer Canon, Douglas Wynne, Tony Tremblay, Alessandro Manzetti, Tim Waggoner, Sara Tantlinger, John McIveen, Nicholas Kaufmann, Pete Kahle, Curtis M. Lawson, Christa Carmen, Brett J. Talley, John Palisano, Richard Chizmar, Stephanie Wytovich, Hunter Shea, Richard Thomas, Evans Light, David Price and John R. Little.

Midnight Under the Big Top Anthology

Received today my  contributor copy of the Special Signed Edition (hardcover, limited to 750 copies) of MIDNIGHT UNDER THE BIG TOP Anthology, edited by Brian James Freeman (for Cemetery Dance), including my new poem 'The Cage', together with stories and poems by Stephen King, Joe Hill, Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson, Neil Gaiman,  Robert McCammon, Lisa Morton, Richard Chizmar, Josh Malerman, Marge Simon, Bruce Boston, Christina Sng, G.O. Clark, David Cowen, Robert Payne Cabeen and many others. Cover art by Vincent Chong interior illustrations by Glenn Chadbourne.

HWA Newsletter: Poetry Roundtable Interviews

I'm happy to be part, in the HWA October Newsletter, of 'Delightful Selections from the Darkest Minds: Poetry Roundtable Interviews' together with Linda D. Addison, Marge Simon, Stephanie M. Wytovich, Christina Sng and Michael H. Hanson.
Read the interview on HWA Newsletter (only for HWA Members)

A novembre in libreria Il Corvo e Tutte le Poesie di Edgar Allan Poe

In uscita a Novembre in tutte le librerie, per Cut Up Publishing, l'edizione cartonata de IL CORVO E TUTTE LE POESIE di Edgar Allan Poe, tradotto da me. Il libro contiene anche quattro libere interpretazioni di poesie di Poe scritte da me e dal Premio Bram Stoker Award alla carriera Linda D. Addison, e illustrazioni tematiche di Stefano Cardoselli.