--- title: This Way Lies Madness Author Blog Tour: Sumiko Saulson description: "Sumiko Saulson: Some voices feel like earlier forms of myself. That’s why I used the metaphor of ghosts for this poem, with my body as a haunted house in which they reside" image: https://blog.flametreepublishing.com/hubfs/Blog%20Featured%20Images-9.png --- - [Home](https://info.flametreepublishing.com/blog) | - [ Contact & About Us](https://blog.flametreepublishing.com/contact-us) T H E   F L A M E   T R E E   B L O G ![Beautiful books, Timeless storytelling-1](https://blog.flametreepublishing.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Beautiful%20books%2c%20Timeless%20storytelling-1.png?width=3036&height=620&name=Beautiful%20books%2c%20Timeless%20storytelling-1.png)   # Flame Tree Fiction # This Way Lies Madness Author Blog Tour: Sumiko Saulson Posted by [Olivia Jackson](https://blog.flametreepublishing.com/fantasy-gothic/author/olivia-jackson) - [Tweet](https://twitter.com/share) # Welcoming Sumiko Saulson Flame Tree Press welcomes Bram Stoker Award-nominated poet Sumiko Saulson to the blog to talk about their poem “My Ghosts Have Dreams”, which appears alongside a stellar line-up in the groundbreaking anthology *This Way Lies Madness*, releasing in September from Flame Tree Press in our Beyond & Within series. In the introduction to the work, the book’s co-editors, Dave Jeffery and Lee Murray, say the anthology “defies convention by bringing together authentic, sensitive portrayals of mental illness in a genre that has notoriously lacked such tenets.” Comprising 23 stories and poems, the book also includes accompanying vignettes offering insight into the authors’ motivation for their work. [![](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcFeIRwHf2FlWBdWasVJuKH0ql-bPewFvEfxvVRaiI5ufk6YmnSn24v_njfQoGy5Qou34ppWyjOLUcyf2x6gqpVUwvr9Q-Obwfe0LhEohKvaszzzE2oS_N6hU-CWwMcKrDi6fx3_8OnIOqvQUr4MA?key=HOOSt7CdZR-rCqkuAQ8MDg)](https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/this-way-lies-madness-lee-murray/7850033) Today, Sumiko Saulson shares an excerpt from their poem along with a short glimpse into their inspiration. Excerpt: *I am haunting myself tonight* *Distended voices bickering* *Geists populating the edge of sleep* *Stretched thin through a taffy machine* *Of emotions in endless motion* *Caught up in my racing thoughts* *Creatures are wearing my face*   Saulson writes:* * “I have experienced the deaths of several people close to me – such as both of my parents (who died of cancer), a former fiancé, and a best friend, over the last decade or so – and often the racing thoughts and the voices are in the form of loved ones who have passed away. Some voices feel like earlier forms of myself from the past or other defined separate personalities. That’s why I used the metaphor of ghosts for this poem, with my body as a haunted house in which they reside.” As well as Saulson’s poem, Murray and Jeffery invite readers of *This Way Lies Madness* to discover “tales of trauma, dissociation, body dysmorphia, psychosis, depression, anxiety, and more, captured in all forms of horror from the extreme to the nuanced. There is jaw-dropping violence, skin-crawling body horror, and quirky dark humour, alongside the quiet, heartbreaking introspections of people spiralling into madness. Yet all the stories and poems in this volume are framed so that the insensitive, stereotypical presentations of mental illness commonly found in horror are resoundingly and appropriately absent.”   *"A mesmerizing and remarkably ambitious mosaic of delicate minds possessed, of spoiled and haunted hearts, of gaping wounds both seen and unseen. This Way Lies Madness weaves a beguiling and profoundly revealing tapestry of psychological terror with such nuance and depth in each collected story." *– Eric LaRocca, author of *Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke*   ![](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXc3lNcVvRTHe6LVyF-pG0x8VeEGiIVNWYeW_dilXxwKD2rg8WynHiGpcR0KsF5QPE7sCcLeOXz8nXl3JsMTiFdqh8H9V11OhteOnlfbCJ1_Xq4FLWv4XUCZmuPZxiNiDJrwGwxLTBgFHqT89qEbRL0?key=Bv5R9PawH5BT4PxKdQ42Ng) **Sumiko Saulson** is a two-time Bram Stoker Award® Finalist for Poetry for [*The Rat King*](https://dookyzines.com/2022/06/09/the-rat-king/)* *(2022, Dooky Zines)* *and [*Melancholia *](https://www.amazon.com/Melancholia-Book-Poetry-Sumiko-Saulson/dp/B0D55KTMZQ)(2024, Bludgeoned Girls Press). Elgin Award Nominee (2022). 2018 Afrosurrealist Writers Award, and 2021 Ladies of Horror Readers' Choice Award winner. Their novel *Somnalia*:* The Metamorphoses of Flynn Keahi* is available on [Mocha Memoirs Press](https://mochamemoirspress.com/)           [This Way Lies Madness is out September 9th 2025: Pre-Order Now](https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/this-way-lies-madness-lee-murray/7850033)   Topics: [Gothic Dreams](https://blog.flametreepublishing.com/fantasy-gothic/topic/gothic-dreams), [Author Interview](https://blog.flametreepublishing.com/fantasy-gothic/topic/author-interview), [Beyond & Within](https://blog.flametreepublishing.com/fantasy-gothic/topic/beyond-within), [This Way Lies Madness](https://blog.flametreepublishing.com/fantasy-gothic/topic/this-way-lies-madness) ### Subscribe for email updates ### About Flame Tree Independent, inclusive and diverse, Flame Tree publishes beautiful books with timeless storytelling for the modern reader. 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