Short Fiction and Poetry by Phil Slattery

I have had an interest in writing fiction much longer than I have had an interest in painting or producing digital art and my interest in writing poetry predates my interest in fiction.

Here are my published works of both genres to date (and some unpublished poems) along with the magazines that first published them and the year of publication.

Please quote from them as much as you like, but please give credit where credit is due. If you would like to publish one or more, please contact me first. All these stories were published so far back, that the copyright has returned to me.

Please consider all works as copyrighted and treat them as such.

Fiction

The Scent - "Futures Mysterious Anthology Magazine", 2001

Sudan - "Ascent", 2002

The Last Sane Man - "Ascent", 2002

The Gator and the Drunk - "Medicinal Purposes Literary Review", 2003

Shapeshifter - "Ascent", 2003

The Creature at the Foot of the Bed - "Dream Fantasy International", 2004

Journey of the Dead Man - "Wilmington Blues", 2004

The View from the Apex of Civilization - "Möbius Magazine", 2004

Decision - "Spoiled Ink", 2004

Prison without Bars - "Dream Fantasy International", 2004

Spirals of Color - "Dream Fantasy International", 2004

Wolfsheim - "Midnight Times", 2005 Jay Manning, Editor of "Midnight Times" commented in its Spring, 2006 issue: ""Wolfsheim" is basically a traditional horror story that tells the tale of a small European village confronted by the threat of werewolves. If you like stories about lycans, you definitely need to check this one out. Great stuff."

A Tale of Hell - "Midnight Times", 2006

Warehouses and All - "Six Sentences" September 22, 2009 This is a very short version of my short story "Sudan" and my poem "The Expatriate", both of which were based on the same incident, which was told to me while in Egypt in 1989. This link leads not to another page on this website, but to the "Six Sentences" website. This short piece has been well received. Publisher Robert McEvily of "Six Sentences" stated: "Terrific piece, Phil. I'm giving it Express Service!". Comments so far received on the "Six Sentences" website are:

"An epic six. Reads like excellent journalism. It says so much and on so many levels. Outstanding."

and

"Yes, astounding how much pathos and frustration you can pack into these facts...how horrible"

Please visit "Six Sentences" and read the story for yourself.

Poetry

Here are my most recently published poems, though these were all written in the early to mid nineties:

There is Silence in the Desert Published in "Cafe del Soul" in November, 2009.

An Unfamiliar Sensuality Published in "Nefarious Ballerina" in January, 2010.

The Twilight of the Gods, The Trap, and Touching Published in Apollo's Lyre in February, 2010.

These were published several years ago when I was seriously studying and writing poetry:

Faust - "The Hollins Critic" , Volume XXIX, No. 1, February, 1992

The Women of Cairo - Unfortunately, at the moment I do not have a record of where this poem was first published. I will cite it later, when I find out. As best I recall, it was published sometime between 1988 and 1991, when I was living in Alexandria, VA. Nonetheless, this link leads to where I found, accidentally, the poem cited in the blog "Rays and Shadows" around fifteen years after it was first published. I have always felt it a great honor to have a work quoted years after it was published. That means it, and I, made an impact on someone. This link tells the serendipitous story of the poem. Thank you, Khaled of Cairo, Egypt, for remembering me.

Following are several poems that I have in my records on hands only as "published". I cannot recall exactly where and when each was published originally, but they were all published in the early nineties. Several are about Egypt, where I was stationed at the US embassy in Cairo from August to September of 1989. Some were written from 1986-1988 when I lived in Oak Harbor on Whidbey Island in Puget Sound northwest of Seattle. As I find out more about each, I will add it.

Apology

Cairo at Sunset

Drifting

Empty

En Passant "En Passant" is a move in chess, wherein a pawn takes another pawn.

Gap

Insomnia

Love's First Light

Sharm El Sheikh Sharm El Sheikh is a resort in the Sinai Peninsula on the Red Sea.

Still

Taste

Lovers' Dreams

The Desert Wind "Potpourri", March, 1993

Here, however, is a partial list of publication credits dating from December, 1996 that shows where many of these were first published, though I cannot match publisher with poem at this time.

Green's Magazine, Autumn, 1989
Doors Into and Out of Dorset, January, 1990
Green's Magazine, Spring, 1990
Bitterroot, Summer, 1990
Green's Magazine, Autumn, 1990
Orphic Lute, Summer, 1991
Green's Magazine, Winter, 1991
Sassafras Tea, Honorable Mention, Third Winter Annual Poetry Competition, 1991
Metro Singles Lifestyles, approximately 10 poems, various dates

Here are some unpublished poems from the same time:

An Evening Stroll through Chinatown and North Beach, San Francisco, 1993 This poem comprises a haphazard assortment of scenes, characters, and vignettes I encountered during a walk through the darker side of the night life of downtown San Francisco in 1993. This is an unfinished work that was never published. Still, it is one of my favorites and I have always had a strange, indescribable feeling that it really is complete, but I have never come to recognize that it is.

Prelude

Taking the Evening Ferry Inspired by a ferry trip through the San Juan Islands in Puget Sound northwest of Seattle.

Headlights Inspired by a nighttime drive near Seattle.

Jeanne Inspired by a woman I knew in Denver in 1985. Written in the early 90s.

Motel Night

Sorrow's Night

The Expatriate This is a different version of the story told in my short story "Sudan"

The Boat