Shameless Self-Promotion: My Book is Out and a Gift of Poetry

As mentioned in my last Shameless Self-Promotion post, today August 15th, 2026, marks the release of my first collection of poetry The Prismatic Menagerie.

You can buy the book at the link above. But I thought I’d share the gift of some cinematic observations in poetic form I’m calling…

Films Theories

1.

Is this comedy tongue-in-cheek
or does it just not open its
mouth when it speaks?

2.

How much non-diegetic content
must I consume before I am
ready to digest this film?

3.

Why do some executives
think we want screen-life movies,
so lacking in cinema and vitality?

4.

And why do YouTubers bring
us films that make even cynics
believe in the art-from again?

5.

He only watches Christopher Nolan’s
movies microscopically and believes
he understands all movies can and should be.

6.

When I see a movie
I hope someone else watches it
I don’t want A.I. to ingest and vomit
it back out onto my TV.

7.

Mae West said “I only like two kinds
of men: domestic and imported.”
I feel the same way about movies…
and men.

8.

Why are you so obsessed with
what is and isn’t canon
in a Cannonball Run reboot?

9.

The camera in a German
Expressionist film is a dog’s head
it tilts when things are unsettled.

Shameless Self-Promotion: The Prismatic Menagerie

Four years ago, I posted implying that I’d no longer have Shameless Self-Promotion posts for individual story or poetry publications owing to the fact that I’d created a LinkTree. While subscribing to a LinkTree is a possibility I’m not sure how many people do that and this post isn’t about a single work. Therefore, I’ll share here that my first poetry collection, The Prismatic Menagerie will be published on August 15th by The Ravens Quoth Press. You can pre-order a digital copy here, physical editions will be announced soon.

For more information you can read the publisher’s blurb and my bio below.

The Prismatic Menagerie is a dazzling collection of speculative fiction that invites readers into a world where imagination refracts into countless colors. Drawing together an array of distinctive perspectives, the collection explores the many shades of fantasy, science fiction, surrealism, and the uncanny. Each poem presents a new facet of possibility: strange creatures and shifting realities, quiet moments of magic, unsettling encounters with the unknown, and luminous glimpses of hope amid darkness.

The collection’s title reflects its central vision—a literary menagerie where every poem is a prism through which reality bends and transforms. Some poems lean toward mythic fantasy and folklore, others toward futuristic speculation or psychological unease. Yet all share a fascination with transformation: of identity, of world, and of the boundaries between the ordinary and the extraordinary.

From haunting atmospheres to bursts of wonder, The Prismatic Menagerie celebrates the boundless creativity of contemporary speculative writing. Readers who enjoy genre-blending fiction, imaginative world-building, and poems that challenge the limits of perception will find themselves captivated by this kaleidoscopic journey.

BERNARDO VILLELA lives in Wilmington, Delaware. He’s had short fiction included in periodicals such as LatineLit, Penumbra Online and Horror Tree and in anthologies such as We Deserve to Exist, Dismember the Coop and There’s More of Us Than You Know.

He’s published original poetry with the likes of Phantom Kangaroo, StraylightStar*Line and Ravens Quoth Press and has had translations published by Mantis, AzonaL, Red Fern Review and others.

BAM Award Nominations…Tomorrow

Through 2019 my posts on this site have been sparse, but I have been tracking my viewing and will present my annual BAM Awards I plan to have the full list up tomorrow.

Viewing and posting has been more sparse than 2018 in part due to other writing pursuits. One short story I published can be read here another can be ordered in a magazine here.

The nominations again are from a smaller pool, and from mainly big studio films, but I am putting the same amount or care into selecting nominees as when I’ve had more than twice as many eligible titles. Watch this space as I hope to be a little more active and diversified here this year.

Shameless Self-Promotion: #finalpoem published!

At the Enclave section over at Entropy ever since this call for submissions came out…

If the world were to end next week, what is the final poem you write, the final poem you give away generously, treacherously, genuinely, fearfully, necessarily, beautifully?

I’ve been pondering my submission. After many attempts, in many different forms, I finally came up with my own take, in a non-traditional format. You can find it here.

Shameless Self-Promotion – Teenage Death Songs: Volume 2 is now available on ebook!

My latest ebook Teenage Death Songs: Volume 2, which features three short stories (description below) is available on Kindle, Kobo, iBooks, and Nook today.

For more information on my fiction please go to my Author page.

Teenage Death Songs: Volume 2

Rhiannon of Russet

A woman’s journey from moderate conservative to political zealotry sees her run afoul of the hidden powers that govern her adopted hometown and threatens those closest to her.

Sea of Blood

Mahtantu is named after the the Lenape god of death. As Thanksgiving 2016 approaches he plots to upstage his hometown’s fictitious holiday pageant.

Rimmon

Rimmon was born half-human and half-demon, a self-proclaimed demidemon, he struggles with the duality of his nature, his birth, distance from his biological parents and finding acceptance in the demonic hierarchy. The only friends he’s known in the short span of his life challenge his loyalties when they ask for a dangerous favor.