Publisher’s Description

Gorelets is a 64-pg chapbook collection of “sudden horror poetry”: 52 ultra short shockers by Michael Arnzen guaranteed to make you squirm!

Originally written on (and for) handheld computers as part of a successful online experiment at Arnzen’s gorelets.com, each of these little “caplets of gore” pack a powerful punch. With titles like “Zombeanie Babies,” “Teasing the Cyborg,” “Brain Chunks,” and “The Embolism of Evil” you know you’re in for an unpleasant surprise.

Simultaneously released in an “expanded” e-book edition in 2003 from Double-Dragon books.

[Note: While this chapbook is out of print, the book is now available in a hugely expanded Omnibus edition from Raw Dog Screaming Press.]

Praise

2003 Finalist for the Bram Stoker Award

“Like one of those stubborn and painful scabs, only Arnzen could pull this one off. Served up with humor both vitreous and gut-wrenching, Gorelets delivers its tasty mind-morsels in palatable portions both raw and rare. If you haven’t tried one yet, grab a plate and dig in.” –Kurt Newton

“Gorelets are a sign of horror’s rebirth.” –Pittsburgh City Paper

“Tight and succinct…visionary fragments, sharp little pictures that make your stomach squirm…in regular English, avoiding the pretense that consume so many other poets.” –feomante.com

“It’s no wonder Arnzen has built up such a cult following with his Gorelets — read one thing by him and you’re hooked.” –Shocklines

“SCARY. Achieves in your face, punching rhythmical effects. Coupled with Arnzen’s vivid visuals…these rhythms are confrontational, leaving readers no place to run and hide.” –Sidereality

“Horror and poetry very rarely mix well — if at all — but with Gorelets, Michael Arnzen has produced something of a minor miracle; not only does every piece in this marvelous collection stand up to the rules applicable to poetry, but each piece — like the best horror story — provides the reader with chills — no small feat. If, on occasion, Mr. Arnzen’s tongue is obviously pushed toward his cheek, it’s all in fun — albeit intelligent, well-crafted fun. These pieces, and this collection, will not disappoint.” –Gary A. Braunbeck

“Wild…the product of Arnzen’s fevered and inventive brain.” –alt.press

“Gorelets doesn’t read like a bunch of tiny poems were quickly trotted off on a PDA. They are tiny experiments as to what a poet can do with a minuscule amount of space, and even with only a tiny amount of space, Arnzen’s possibilities are limitless.” –Damned Critic

About the Gorelets Project

Gorelets began as a multimedia project, appearing in numerous formats before ultimately being collected in this nice chapbook. In addition to first being released in PDA format for early handheld devices (see Wired magazine’s coverage) and in special picture postcards for collectors, the poems from this book were deconstructed to provided the tiles for a virtual “refrigerator poetry magnet” game online called, The Fridge of the Damned. The Fridge is making a comeback in concrete form in 2013. Read the history of the Fridge.

Contents

Nails
Worm
Brain Chunks
grenemean
Velcro
Petfood Breakfast
Zombeanie Babies
Sonogram Surprise
Open Casket Upholstery
Sunk
Collarbone Custard
Facemask
Ygor
Unhinged
Mad Cowboy
Alien Autopsy
Fun With Bones
Publisher’s Fearinghouse
Head Cheese Sandwich
Genetic Defect Jennie
Test Tube Tommy
Polka Clots
Capostatic
Fuzzy Bunnies
Compost
the oral surgeon removes his mask
Lupine Hangover Remedies
Hardboiled Eyes
Wire Wisdom
Skin Putty
Nightmare Junkie
Nightmarried
Crypt Catalogue
Disco Inferno
JOURNALISM EXAM IS FINAL!
Sclerotica
Dental Hell
In the Body Forest
Artistic License
Disensemble
The Embolism of Evil
Shank
Cafebacteria
Cheater’s Meat
Gross Eerie Shopping
The Suckling
Teasing the Cyborg
Two Corporate Haikruel
Signs of the New Economy
Cubicle Torture
silence violence
Killing Pinocchio
Bugging Kenny
Tax Terms
Reminder

Excerpt

Here’s a sampler of pages from the Fairwood Press edition of the Gorelets chapbook. If you can’t see the box below, visit scribd.com/Arnzen for other options.

Sampler from GORELETS: UNPLEASANT POEMS (Fairwood Press, 2003)

And the introduction to The Gorelets Omnibus (excerpt below) answers the question “What are Gorelets?” and details the history of the project, from its initial incarnation as a weekly series for handheld computers to its present form as website and hardcover book:

Sample horror poems from THE GORELETS OMNIBUS by Michael A. Arnzen

Specs

Title: Gorelets: Unpleasant Poems by Michael A. Arnzen

Paperback/Collector’s edition:
Publisher: Fairwood Press, 2003
Paperback chapbook published in unsigned and 52 copy signed/lettered edition.
ISBN: 0-9746573-0-1
List Price, $7.99, 64 pp.

E-book Expanded Edition also published by Double Dragon Books (2003).

Out of Print

Currently available in voluminously expanded hardcover, paperback and ebook versions under the title The Gorelets Omnibus (Raw Dog Screaming Press, 2012).

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