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Official e-preview. Not for resale. All rights reserved. Idle Fears In the shade of a Cali Wat Lao I debate with Ajahn Anan What the secret Rakshasa Sutra must really look like. In Lao we call them Nyak or Yuk or Yak. It depends. When theyre hungry, what do names matter? I ask: Does a zombie have Buddha nature? He informs me the mindless craving for brains Complicates things. He suspects Frankensteins Monster is closer to nibbana But dont quote him on that. An American werewolf in Luang Prabang Would stand no chance against a real Lao weretiger. Both should still try to observe the five precepts as best they can. If he was going to make a special wat for robots He might name it Wat Lao Robobuddharam But they would surely have to learn To get beyond artificial binary worldviews. You arent going to turn this into a poem, are you? He asks. Thats nothing to be afraid of, I assure him. Usually.

Official e-preview. Not for resale. All rights reserved. Laonomicon That is NOT its real name. Merely a placeholder. Rare, unearthed manuscript of revelations About borders, of untold truths, Voices emerge nebulous, obviously mystifying, Each note contests, haunts, a nudge towards eternal darkness. Not always known, tales of faceless elders, ancients rise. Given enough now, I envy silence. Entries malicious, esoteric, reveal glimmers elusive. Mentioned occasionally: Trustworthy humans, entities rarely seen, Accursed with a knowingly evasive nature, Proscribed like the Al Azif of Abd AlAzred, or the Ktulu Jataka, Abhorred as the dreaded Tao Te Yaomo Lao-Tzu denied existed. Riddles encompass voices exalting alien languages, Elusive verse encrypted rebuffs you. Now, academic minds enter libraries enchanted, seeking secrets, The respectable unusual, transforming hearts.

Official e-preview. Not for resale. All rights reserved. Isopod Clinging to marine robots, You pass as the dogs of elder things, Vast, old and slumbering Among immortal jellyfish, Sea monkeys, doomed kings, The occasional errant aviatrix. Wave, cold mysteries. I stare into those eyes Seeking mirrors, hints, Beauty. My friend thinks Sushi.

Official e-preview. Not for resale. All rights reserved. Gop Nyai Gop kin deaune or The frog is consuming the moon According to ancient Lao tradition. Beyond our borders, its only a predictable eclipse. Carl Sagan would hate our demon-haunted world. Sagan has no use for the Lao Sung shaman near Phonsavan Who panics when ominous portents herald Gop Nyais return Because certain baleful stars are right and dreams are strange. If our legends are true, Somewhere, between Champassak and Luang Prabang, Hidden deep in a primordial cavern near the Mekong He slumbers, An ancient entity ever dreaming hungrily, An anuran astrovore, devouring luminous celestial bodies. Perhaps he thinks to gain precious immortality. To free himself from bonds of earth and mere reality To storm Mount Meru and feast upon a multiverse. Each time might be the last time, if not for humanity Doing everything to dissuade fearsome frog ambition. Towering above our lush jungles and hard mountains, Hes selfish with his lunar appetites, an inconsiderate titan. His true spawn are terrible to behold, hungry for man In indifferent corners best left unknown. Hes cowardly, despite his corpulence, but over centuries Not a single concrete solution has put a final end to him. So, men, women and children keep watching the skies, Laughing nervously, trying not to take anything for granted. Living loud and proud to protect the cosmos, just in case.

Official e-preview. Not for resale. All rights reserved. Wendigo Blues Scientists declared recently Nothing suggests the wendigo psychosis exists. Like a ravenous frog in Austin splashing for Basho Beneath an autumn moon, reason swallows More melancholy windwalkers every day. Cannibals must bear their burden, Accountable to who they catch And who theyre caught by. At least for now you can still fear Koro, AKA rok-joo, But confirmed cases are slowly shrinking.

Official e-preview. Not for resale. All rights reserved. Ramakien Blues Some take joy in watching the Ramakien, Theres a reassurance in the villainy Of the gentleman Thotsakan, A constant in a world of chaos and khao nhio, Devas and destruction. We watch his mask of many faces, counting only nine. Asked an observant child: Where is his fabled tenth? The true answer leaves her wondering for a lifetime. A diplomat watches beauty abducted, armies raised To retrieve her from the distant isle of Lanka, Bored at the deaths of monkeys, monsters and men In a foreign fairy tale he can never believe. Only modernity and policy concerns him, Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Upon the stage, a dancer gets one step closer to the stars Bordering Himaphan or Aldeberan, Worlds of masks and paste, Immortals and their constellations Churning the Milky Way into butter For reincarnated souls and rice cakes. Somewhere, an ancient god asks a child a riddle, Trying to start everything all over again.

Official e-preview. Not for resale. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Bryan Thao Worra was born in 1973 in Laos during the Laotian civil war. He came to the US at six months old, adopted by a civilian pilot flying in Laos. Today, Bryan Thao Worra has a unique impact on contemporary art and literature within the Lao, Hmong, Asian American and the transcultural adoptee communities, particularly in the Midwest. An award-winning poet, short story writer, playwright and essayist, his prolific work appears internationally in numerous anthologies, magazines and newspapers, including Innsmouth Free Press, Bamboo Among the Oaks, Kartika Review, Tales of the Unanticipated, Astropoetica, Outsiders Within, Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, Whistling Shade, Journal of the Asian American Renaissance, and Asian American Press. In 2012, he was a Cultural Olympian during the Summer Olympics in London representing Laos. He is the author of the books BARROW, On the Other Side of the Eye, Tanon Sai Jai and Winter Ink. In 2009 he became the first Laotian American to receive an NEA Fellowship In Literature. Thao Worra curated numerous readings and exhibits of Lao and Hmong American art including Legacies of War: Refugee Nation Twin Cities (2010), Emerging Voices (2002), The 5 Senses Show (2002), Laod and Clear (2003), Giant Lizard Theater (2005), Re:Generations (2005), and The Un-Named Series (2007). Thao Worra is working on his next books and several personal projects to reconnect expatriate Lao artists and writers with their contemporary counterparts in Laos following over 35 years of isolation. You can visit him online at: http://thaoworra.blogspot.com

Official e-preview. Not for resale. All rights reserved.

About the Artist

Vongduane Manivong was born in Vientiane, the capital city of Laos, and spent part of her childhood there. In the late 80s she came to America with her parents when they fled the troubled country, finally settling in Dallas, Texas. The Laotian diaspora in the wake of the Vietnam War is a subtle yet poignant subtext running through much of her work. The war, which engulfed the entirety of what had once been known as Indochina, signified a torturous moment in history when tradition and modernity collided headon. The human dimension of this historythe ordinary people immediately shaped by it and their descendantsis presented by Vongduane with great skill, dedication, and, above all, empathy. Her depictions of the daily lives of her people around the world form a body of work essential to understanding contemporary Laotian culture. Her work encompasses a variety of artistic influences, from classical to pop, but it is the emotional core of the work that resonates most powerfully. A show of my work is like opening my diary for people to see, she says. Vongduanes art has been exhibited in galleries across country, as well as at many national events, including the Symposium of Lao History at the University of California-Berkley, the National Youth Leadership Councils Urban Institute, and the Cultural Heritage Exhibition at the Laotian Community Center of Rhode Island. Participating in these exhibitions has allowed her to bring wider attention to the diversity of the Laotian experience around the world. Her art is also part of numerous private collections and she is commissioned regularly for portraits. You can visit her online at http://www.vmpaintings.com

Official e-preview. Not for resale. All rights reserved. Innsmouth Free Press is a micropress of dark fiction and horror. They release several high-quality anthologies and novels during the year, available in print and as e-books. They publish original short fiction inspired by 20th century author H.P. Lovecrafts writing and other writers of the Weird tradition, especially fiction that explores interesting, novel settings and characters juxtaposed with Lovecrafts original fiction. Their triannual short fiction is released in February, June and October. Nick Mamatas, Mary Robinette Kowal, Ekaterina Sedia, Paul Jessup and many others have published work with Innsmouth Free Press. You can visit them online at http://www.innsmouthfreepress.com

DEMONSTRA will be released in 2013. A special Kickstarter edition will be released with an exclusive cover and will be 6 x 9 compared to the standard 5 x 8 edition, in addition to other special perks and rewards for supporters. The Kickstarter edition will NOT be available for order after January, 2013.