2017 Elgin Award Winners

Suzette Haden Elgin

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA) has announced the winners of the 2017 Elgin Awards for best collections of speculative poetry published in the previous two years. Named after SFPA founder Suzette Haden Elgin, awards are given in two categories: best chapbook and best full-length book.

2017 Elgin Award Results:

Full-Length Book Category

  • First: Field Guide to the End of the World • Jeannine Hall Gailey (Moon City Press, 2016)
  • Second (tie): A History of the Cetacean American Diaspora • Jenna Le (Anchor & Plume, 2016)
  • Second (tie): Small Spirits: Dark Dolls • Marge Simon (Midnight Town Media, 2016)
  • Third: Dead Starships • Wendy Rathbone (Eye Scry Publications, 2016)

Chapbook Category

  • First Place: Leviathan • Neil Aitken (Hyacinth Girl Press, 2016)
  • Second Place: Radio Heart, or; How Robots Fall Out of Love • Margaret Rhee (Finishing Line Press, 2016)
  • Third Place: Apocalypse • John C. Mannone (Alban Lake, 2015)

This year’s Elgin Awards had 21 nominees in the chapbook category and 31 nominees in the full-length category, one of the largest years since the awards were first established in 2013.

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association was established in 1978 and has an international membership representing over 19 nations and cultures including United States, Italy, Canada, Brazil, United Kingdom, Ireland, Romania, Poland, Denmark, Germany, France, Spain, Israel, South Africa, Singapore, Thailand, Laos, the Hmong, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand.

Josh Brown

Elgin Award chair Josh Brown is a writer of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. A graduate of the University of Minnesota–Duluth with a degree in English Literature, he has spent the past fifteen years in the publishing industry working for and with award-winning publishers and best-selling authors. An active member of SFPA, his work can be found in numerous anthologies as well as in Star*Line, Scifaikuest, Mithila Review, Fantasy Scroll Magazine, and more. His essay, “Poems and Songs of The Hobbit” was recently featured in Critical Insights: The Hobbit (Salem Press, 2016). He served as editor for issue 20 of Eye to the Telescope, the official online journal of the SFPA. He currently lives in Minneapolis with his wife and two sons.     

[Thanks to award chair Josh Brown for the story.]