The Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association announced the winners of its 2018 Speculative Poetry Contest on October 25.

This year’s contest offered prizes in three divisions:

• Dwarf (poems 1-10 lines [prose poems 0-100 words])
• Short (11-49 lines [prose poems 101-499 words])
• Long (50 lines and more [prose poems 500+ words])

The winners were chosen by Judge Laurel Winter, past recipient of SFPA’s Rhysling Award, Asimov’s Reader’s Poll Awards, and a World Fantasy Award. Her Growing Wings was a finalist for the Mythopoeic Award.

Speculative poets from around the world sent contest chair Holly Lyn Walrath 335 entries — 80 dwarf-length, 191 short, and 64 long poems.

DWARF CATEGORY

• Winner: “Walkers 1” by Jerri Hardesty
• Second Place: “At Last” by Sandra J. Lindow
• Third Place: “in-laws at the door” by Julie Bloss Kelsey

SHORT FORM CATEGORY

• Winner: “tick more slowly” by Meg Freer
• Second Place: “Tin-Head Soliloquy” by M. C. Childs
• Third Place: “Seeking Exemption Status?” by Claire Bateman

LONG FORM CATEGORY

• Winner: “Magic Lessons” by Shannon Connor Winward
• Second Place: “Om Economics by Sandra J. Lindow
• Third Place: “Ars Timore (a Wreath of Sonnets)” by Frank Coffman

The 2018 winners are residents of North America.

• Jerri Hardesty lives in the woods of Alabama with husband, Kirk, also a poet. They run the nonprofit poetry organization, New Dawn Unlimited, Inc. (NewDawnUnlimited.com) Jerri has had over 400 poems published and has won more than 1300 awards and titles in both written and spoken word poetry.
• Meg Freer grew up in Montana and now lives in Kingston, Ontario. She has worked as an editor and teaches piano and music history. She enjoys being outdoors year-round, playing the piano and running. Her award-winning poems and photos have been published in various North American journals and anthologies.
• Shannon Connor Winward is the author of the Elgin-award winning chapbook Undoing Winter and winner of a 2018 Delaware Division of the Arts Fellowship. She is also the founding editor of Riddled with Arrows. Her first full-length collection, The Year of the Witch, was released from Sycorax Press in September 2018.

The poets will receive $100, $50, and $25 cash prizes for first, second, and third place respectively.

All placing poems have been published on the SFPA website along with the judge’s comments.