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Rhysling winners!

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association has announced the winners of the 42nd annual Rhysling Awards for best speculative poems of the year. The winners were selected in two categories, Long Form and Short Form Poems, which were nominated by the members of the organization. From 67 publications. 77 poems in the Short Form category and 49 poems in the Long Form category were reviewed for almost 16 weeks by the membership, which includes award-winning educators, scholars, and poets from a diverse range of literary traditions and specializations. This year, the membership selected the following winners:

SHORT

First Place
“Taking, Keeping” • Jessica J. Horowitz • Apparition Lit 5

Second Place
“when my father reprograms my mother {” • Caroline Mao • Strange Horizons, Fund Drive

Third Place (tie)
“Creation: Dark Matter Dating App” • Sandra Lindow • Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine July/Aug, and 
“The Day the Animals Turned to Sand” • Tyler Hagemann • Amazing Stories, Spring 2019

LONG

First Place
“Heliobacterium daphnephilum” • Rebecca Buchanan • Star*Line 42.3

Second Place
“The Cinder Girl Burns Brightly” • Theodora Goss • Uncanny 28

Third Place
“Ode to the Artistic Temperament” • Michael H. Payne • Silver Blade 42
and 
“The Macabre Modern” • Kyla Lee Ward • The Macabre Modern and Other Morbidities (P'rea Press)

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Rhysling voting going on right now. https://sfpoetry.com/rhysling.html

Bragging rights for best speculative poetry of the year are on the line. If you are a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association, please read the anthology and vote. It matters to the poets whose work was nominated, but it matters to all of us, because this award represents our field to the rest of the world. I hope for the best turnout ever!

Please vote.

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Rhysling voting

To SFPA members:   everyone should have the 2020 anthology. Please read it and vote for your favorites. This award is important, especially to the poets whose beautiful work was nominated. I'm sure that all of you will find poems you think are worthy of this award.                                                                                              

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The Elgin award is given annually to speculative poetry chapbooks and books. Right now, SFPA members are nominating publications for this award. This is the only book award in the speculative poetry field that I know of. So far, five books have been nominated, but I know that many more eligible books have been written in the past two years (the eligible time period). One of the great things about this award is that most of the nominees are made freely available in digital form to all members of the organization. Not only do you get to make an informed choice about which books and chapbooks are the best, but you get to read all the others. What's not to like, eh?


https://sfpoetry.com/elgin.html

012620c

Dreams and Nightmares update. I think I mentioned that I was sick. I did get the corrected master of 114, the January issue, sent to the printer and to pdf subscribers. I should be able to mail copies within a week. Meanwhile, I'm reading for 115. Email jopnquog@gmail.com.

Rhysling update. Not really started, cos I was sick. Please send your nominations. I should be caught up in a week. Questions: email jopnquog@gmail.com.

Ambassador update. Now available, print and pdf. Reviewers, and anyone else, email jopnquog@gmail.com.

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The Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association has chosen me to be this year's Rhysling chair. If you are a member, you have the opportunity to nominate the best speculative poems first published in 2019. We are starting late, so please do this as soon as you can. Go to sfpoetry.com for info.

091819

If it's not one thing it's another. The hose for the ice maker broke, and we had a miniature flood. Now I need to call the plumber, and hope he doesn't send one of his incompetent assistants (the only kind he has), but comes himself.

Subscriber copies of Dreams and Nightmares 113 start to go in the mail today. I am reading for the next issue, and it is wide open.

Autumn is settling in, here in Alabama, with daytime temperatures only in the double digits. I'm joking. Well, I'm not joking, but it is supposed to cool down to the 60s at night by the end of the week, at least for a few days.

A poem of mine won an honorable mention in the Poetry Nook's  weekly contest. the prize was the exact same amount I earned for it a few years ago in a well known online poetry journal. I'm guessing the plumber's fee will be no more than 10 times that amount. Plumbers work harder than poets do, and I am glad they get paid more. I am not quitting my day job!

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My poem, "The Laws of Robotics with Benefits," is an editor's choice poem in the latest issue of Star*line. You can read my poem, and the other editors choice poems, here:

http://sfpoetry.com/sl/issues/starline42.2.html

if I recall correctly, this is the first poem of mine to be an editor's choice: anywhere. Although I had one that was chosen as the best of the issue in Prelude to Fantasy, back in the previous millennium.

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3 poems by me in Feb. Scifaikuest online, including Editor's Choice https://www.albanlakepublishing.com/scifaikuest-online

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This is the last day of the Rhysling nomination period. Nominations have been flooding in, and I am falling behind on responding to nominators and contacting poets. I should be able to catch up on everything this weekend. So many really great poems!

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It looks like I will be editing the Rhysling anthology of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association. Apparently some plans fell through at the last minute, so I am taking over  about a month behind schedule. I hope that people will cut me some slack because of this, but I should soon get up to speed. This is a unique award in literature: members of the organization nominate poems, published in the previous year, which are then published in an anthology that is distributed to every member. Thus every member can read  all of the nominated poems and every poet gets a fair shot at winning the award. Watch this space for more information,  but if you want to get involved and are not a member of the Association, join now: http://sfpoetry.com/rhysling.html

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These are my poems that are eligible this year for nomination for the Rhysling award of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association. The first group also are eligible for the Dwarf Stars award. Some other poems are eligible, but I like these best. If you are a member of the Association, and you would like to see the poems for nomination purposes, let me know.

Very Short Poems

“always intended,” Scifaikuest Nov. print

“changeling,” Star*Line 41.1

“at the expat school,” Scifaikuest, Feb. print

“condensation,” Scifaikuest, May print

“crystals of nitrogen,” Scifaikuest Nov. print

“freezer bags bulging,” Scifaikuest Feb. online

“fresh footprints,” Scifaikuest Aug. online

“half-elven girl,” Scifaikuest Nov. online

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways!, Dreams and Nightmares blog, Dec. 6

“Jack’s 7 league boots,” Scifaikuest Feb. print

“on each lunar peak,” Star*line 41.3

“red dust,” Scifaikuest Feb. print

“red dust dunes,” Scifaikuest Nov. print

“taut red sails,” Scifaikuest Aug. print

“the cocoon whispers,” Scifaikuest May print

“the last woman,” Scifaikuest Feb. print

“we must have been blind,” Star*Line 41.3

“young dawgs,” Scifaikuest Feb. online

Short Poems

Animatronic Aliens, Star*Line 41.1

Après le Deluge, Illumen, summer

“death from space,” Scifaikuest Aug. 18 print

Dispersal, Star*Line 41.3

“e for effort,” Star*Line 41.3

Entanglement (with Kendall Evans), Entanglement (chapbook)

“just out of sight,” (with Ann K. Schwader), Scifaikuest May print

Keep On Til Morning, Star*Line 41.1

New Stars, Star*Line 4141

On Mercury, Not One of Us 60

Perimeter, Outposts of Beyond January

Pick Up the Phone, Outposts of Beyond Oct.

Polar Thaw, Cyaegha 20

Reflections of You, Silver Blade 39

Sacraments of an Old World, Scifaikuest Nov. print

Some God Had to Be the Real McCoy, The Fib Review 29

The Once and Future Colony, The Martian Wave 2018

The Steadfast Heart, The Fib Review 30

The Unforgotten Shore, Scifaikuest Feb. print

The Werewolf Books a Trip to Mars, Bloodbond Nov.

Velocities (with Kendall Evans), The Martian Wave 2018

Word, Chrome Baby 70

Long Poems

“it took some time,” (with Ann K. Schwader), Devilfish Review #20

Memories of the Minotaur (with Kendall Evans), Entanglement (chapbook)

The Sisterhood of the Iron Wing (with W. Gregory Stewart), Eldritch Science fall

The Stars Are Not Eternal (with Kendall Evans), Entanglement (chapbook)

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Rhysling Award

http://sfpoetry.com/rhysling.html

For the best speculative poetry of 2018

All poems in Dreams and Nightmares 108-110 are eligible


https://dreamsandnightmaresmagazine.blogspot.com/2018/01/dn-108-contents.html

https://dreamsandnightmaresmagazine.blogspot.com/2018/05/053118d.html

https://dreamsandnightmaresmagazine.blogspot.com/2018/10/102118.html


If you want to nominate, and are missing any of these issues, let me know. I'll send you a pdf.

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This week: 2 sales to Scifaikuest, wrote a few poems, Metastable Systems nominated for the Elgin, sales of that book picking up, new library floor at home. Now I get to put everything back!

Lifetime Dreams & Nightmares subscriptions ($39 pdf; $99 print) include all available back issues, and all proceeds go to Doctors Without Borders.  Paypal to jopnquog at gmail dot com.

Looking ahead, SFPA members can get pdfs of Dreams & Nightmares 105-107 and a file of my own eligible poems, free, for Rhysling-nomination purposes. And, cancer treatment starts Monday.

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It is time to make your nominations for the Rhysling award of the Sscience Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association (if you are a member). If you don't belong, and want to get involved,  joining is inexpensive  and their website is easy to find. If you are an SFPA member, I will send you PDF versions of the three issues of dreams and nightmares whose contents are eligible: issues 105 through 107.I will also send you, upon request, copies of my eligible poems from last year. Regardless of whether you take advantage of either of these offers, time is short; vote for something.

Science Fiction Poetry Association Grand Master

I did NOT expect to win. But I am now the 7th Grand Master named by the SFPA. The first-named is Bruce Boston, elevated, if that's the word, in 1999. The award is voted on by the members of the SFPA, and is awarded on the basis of a sort of speculative-poetry gestalt: skill, accomplishment, and service. Here's a link for more info: http://sfpoetry.com/grandmasters.html

I am honored. Basking in the glow.

Thank you!

Read this Rhysling nominee

Quack

It walks like a duck

but that's only because

it's loaded down

with sashes and ribbons

and medals of honor

and symbols of patriotism

and religious iconisms.

The thing about these things

from starsystem Squawk

is that they're immortals,

or at least they claim they are

or believe they are

and some around here

really believe it too

and want to get in line.

It's too soon to tell,

but one reason for skepticism

is that, as presently understood,

our universe will continue

to expand forever

and eventually anyone left

on Earth (or anywhere else)

will be totally alone

with nary a star to shine

in the dark, dark sky.

You can call that immortality

but you might as well be dead.

Neal Wilgus

Reprinted w permission from DN 104

Press Release about Rhysling Anthology

I sent it to my local paper. Based on the template Robin Mayhall created.

Local Writer Edits Volume of Poems

Nominated for International Poetry Award

A local geologist and part-time science-fiction writer is the editor of this year’s Rhysling Anthology, the annual collection of poems nominated for a prize awarded by the Science Fiction Poetry Association to honor the best science fiction, fantasy or horror poems from the previous year.

Kopaska-Merkel has been writing science fiction and fantasy short stories and poems for more than four decades. He has edited and published the speculative poetry magazine Dreams and Nightmares since 1986. The Rhysling Award honors poetry in two categories: short poems of 1 to 49 lines and long poems of 50 lines or longer. Kopaska-Merkel won the long-poem award in 2006 for “The Tin Men,” a collaboration with Kendall Evans.

Only dues-paying members of the Science Fiction Poetry Association can nominate a poem for the Rhysling Award, which was established in 1978. All of the nominated poems are published in a printed anthology, which is distributed to the membership for use as a voting tool. SFPA members vote on their favorites in each category, and the winners are announced in the summer. The Rhysling Anthology also is sold by the SFPA to offset the cost of printing and to raise funds for association programs.

The winning works are regularly reprinted in the Nebula Awards Anthology from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc., and are considered in the speculative fiction field to be the equivalent in poetry of the awards given for “prose” work: achievement awards given to poets by the writing peers of their own field of literature. Past winners have included such science fiction and fantasy notables as Ursula K. Le Guin, Bruce Boston, Joe Haldeman and Jane Yolen.

Kopaska-Merkel was born and raised in Charlottesville, Virginia, but has lived in Tuscaloosa for almost 30 years. He works for the Geological Survey of Alabama. His publications include 25 books of poetry and short fiction, more than 100 scientific books and articles, and poems in such publications as Asimov’s Science Fiction, Strange Horizons, and Night Cry. He is past president of the Science Fiction Poetry Association, and a former editor of its journal Star*line.

The Science Fiction Poetry Association was founded in 1978 to bring together poets and readers interested in science fiction poetry. In addition to the Rhysling Anthology, the SFPA publishes Star*Line, its quarterly official newsletter featuring market news, interviews, articles, reviews, member news and letters, association business, and poetry by members and nonmembers. For more information, visit the association’s website at http://www.sfpoetry.com.

Call for Dwarf Stars nominations

Call for Dwarf Stars nominations

The nomination period does not open for two weeks, but now is a good time to start looking for speculative poetry (science fiction, fantasy, horror) of no more than 10 lines. You can nominate any number of poems, including ones you wrote yourself. They must have been first published in 2016. In formal publication venues, such as blogs, do count. For specifics, see the guidelines:

http://sfpoetry.com/ds/dsguide.html

Rhysling update

The deadline for submitting nominations for the Rhysling award has passed. If you have sent a postal nomination or have had problems getting through, talk to me as soon as possible. We will work with you and want your nomination to be included.

Give me a couple of days to work through all the recent nominations and get permission from the authors to reprint the poems in the anthology. We are having trouble getting in touch with a few people, and I will send out a request for help with that as soon as I can make up an up-to-date list. Give me a couple of days for that.

As always, if you have any question or problem, email me or any of the SFPA officers.

I think you'll be impressed with the length and breadth of the anthology this year. Most of you will be sorry you can't vote for more poems, they are that good.