2019 Rhysling Award Nominees

The Science Fiction Poetry Association has finalized its 2018 Rhysling Award candidates, reports David C. Kopaska-Merkel. Eighty-nine members voted.

The Rhysling Award is given in two categories. “Best Long Poem” is for poems of 50+ lines, or for prose poems, of 500+ words. “Best Short Poem” is limited to poems of no more than 49 lines, or prose poems of no more than 499 words.

SFPA members have until June 15 to vote on the winners.

Short Poems (86 poems)
3D-Printed Brother • Millie Ho • Strange Horizons 9/25/18
Acceptable Documentation • Sonya Taaffe • Sycorax Journal 1
After Her Brother Ripped the Heads from Her Paper Dolls • Beth Cato • Mythic Delirium 4.3
Alien Interview Questions • Mary Soon Lee • Dreams and Nightmares 109
An Alien Visits an Earth Psychiatrist • John Grey • The Pedestal Magazine 82
“as if …” • LeRoy Gorman • Atlas Poetica: 25 Science Fiction Tanka & Kyoka, eds. Julie Bloss Kelsey & Susan Burch
beseeching the kitchen gods • M. C. Childs • Grievous Angel 5/20/18
Cardiad • Virginia M. Mohlere • Mythic Delirium 4.4
A City Built on Bones • Ann K. Schwader • Abyss & Apex, March
Colorless Reflexion • Cindy O’Quinn • Poppy Road Review 8/29/18
Concerning President Carter and the UFO Sighting • August Huerta • Strange Horizons 3/19/18
Consumption •  Jennifer Ruth Jackson • Eye to the Telescope 29
The Crimson Witch • K. A. Opperman • Eye to the Telescope 30
Curse of Waccasassa Lagoon • John Reinhart • Dreams and Nightmares 109
Data Value • Patricia Gomes • Star*Line 41.2
Dead-Eye Girl • Holly Lyn Walrath • Liminality 17
Dear Creator • Mary Soon Lee • Fantasy & Science Fiction, January/February
The Dissolution of Icarus • Michelle Muenzler • Liminality 18
Divinatory • Rose Lemberg • Sycorax Journal 1
Down in Windy Hollow • Jenny Blackford • The School Magazine, June
Dream Catchers • Steve DeFrance • The Poet’s Haven poetry gallery
drop some amens • Brandon O’Brien • Uncanny 21
Echoes of Light from Orbit • Megan Engelhardt • Asimov’s SF, November/December
Engineered •  Bruce McAllister • Analog Science Fiction and Fact, March/April
Entanglement • David C. Kopaska-Merkel & Kendall Evans • Entanglement (diminuendo press)
Esprit d’Escalier • May Chong • Apparition Lit 1
Excalibur’s Lament • P.S. Cottier • Eye to the Telescope 27
Flat Dyson • Francis W. Alexander • Spaceports & Spidersilk, July
Forest Mother • Christina Sng • The Ladies of Horror Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge
Fortune Favors the Cold • Katherine Inskip • Abyss & Apex 68
From Her Tower, the Lady of Shalott Sees the Ice Age Come • R. Mac Jones • Eye to the Telescope 27
Galahad Returns from the Holy Wars • David E. Cowen • Bleeding Saffron (Weasel Press)
Generation Ship • David Barber • Kaleidotrope, Summer
The Girl and Her Wolf Dog • Christina Sng • Spectral Realms 8
Golgothan (Shit Demon’s Sonnet) • David F Shultz • Deadman’s Tome Shit Fest, ed. Jesse Dedman (?)
Heart’s Desire • Lynn White • The Sirens Call 41
Hey Man, Nice Shot • Gretchen Tessmer • Strange Horizons 2/26/18
Intruders • Cindy O’Quinn • Star*Line 41.2
The Ladies of Lancashire • Clay F. Johnson • Eye to the Telescope 30
Laika • Holly Day • Dreams and Nightmares 109
Lament of the Four Moons • Kendall Evans & John Philip Johnson • Asimov’s SF, ?
Lost Memories • Bruce Boston • The Literary Hatchet 19
The Maenad to Her Artist Friend • Amal El-Mohtar • Strange Horizons 2/12/18
Mars Must Remember • Denise Dumars • The Pedestal Magazine 82
Mining Time • P.S. Cottier • Not Very Quiet 2
Monster, Creature, Human • Herb Kauderer • Dreams and Nightmares 109
My Little Vampire • Adele Gardner • Dreams and Nightmares 110
The Mysterious Hermit • Krystal Volney • krystalvolneyfanssite
Neuroweb • Logan Thrasher Collins • Abyss & Apex 67
The Nightmare Thing • Sandra Kasturi • Eye to the Telescope 29
O Siren • Ashley Dioses • Liquid Imagination 38
Ode to the Gorgon • K. A. Opperman • Eternal Haunted Summer, Summer Solstice
Okuri Inu, or the sending-off dog demon • Betsy Aoki • Uncanny 22
Our Lady of the Winter Squash • Jenny Blackford • Polu Texni 10/29/18
Pan’s Descent • Bruce Boston • Artifacts (Independent Legions Publishing)
Past Is Present • Deborah L. Davitt • Modern Poetry Review 8
The Patron Saint of Alien Abductees • Noel Sloboda • Evansville Review XXVIII
Pinocchio Plays the Cotton Club • Alan Ira Gordon • Star*Line 41.3
Planck Length • David F. Shultz • Dreams and Nightmares 108
Planetary Lensing • Herb Kauderer • Dreams & Nightmares 109
Planktivorous Fish and the Structure of Pelagic Plankton • David Clink • Juniper 2:2
Pouring the Pennyroyal • Andrea Blythe & Laura Madeline Wiseman • Priestess & Hierophant 5
Quetzalcoatlus roboti Heads Home • Vince Gotera • Multiverse, ed. Russell Jones (Shoreline of Infinity)
Relic • Kari Flickinger • Riddled with Arrows 2.3
The Sea Horse Isles • Michael H. Hanson • Untimely Frost: Poetry Unthawed, eds. Suzie & Bruce Lockhart (Lycan Valley Press)
The Sea Never Says It Loves You • Fran Wilde • Uncanny 21
Seraphima • Hal Y. Zhang • Liminality 15
Son of Aswang • Vince Gotera • The Philippines Graphic, October
The Southern Lady • Marge Simon • War (Crystal Lake Publishing)
Spatial Arrangement • David F. Shultz • Abyss & Apex 65
“Stand and Wait” • Herb Kauderer • Scifaikuest print, August
Station Rain • Erik Burdett • Apparition Lit 4
Stephen Hawking • Greer Woodward • Haikuniverse 3/24/18
That’s one small step for (a) man … • Russell Jones • Dark Matters (Tapsalteerie Press)
Things That Go Bump and Smile in the Night • Kathleen A. Lawrence • Altered Reality Magazine ?
This Sacred Earth • Deborah L. Davitt • Abyss & Apex 67
Thunderstorm in Glasgow, July 25 2013 • Amal El-Mohtar • Fireside Fiction broadside
Trips to Impossible Cities • Sandra Kasturi • Amazing Stories Magazine 2
Try the Veal • Robert Beveridge • Vastarien 1
Universal Immigrants • Ann K. Schwader • Star*Line 41.1
Unstole It • Jim Davies • Altered Reality Magazine ?
Venusian Arachnoids • David F. Shultz • Star*Line 41.1
Waterworld • Terry Persun • Space & Time Magazine 131
What Is Dead • Kristin Garth • Luna Luna Magazine 4/13/18
What Loves You • Jeff Crandall • Fantasy & Science Fiction September/October
Wraiths • Wade German • Vastarien 1:1
Long Poems (54 poems)
3-Minute Future • F. J. Bergmann • Unlikely Stories V
After the Wolf • Jeff Crandall • Fantasy & Science Fiction March/April
Alima among the Trees • T. D. Walker • Projector Magazine 1
Atomic Numbers • D. A. Xaolin Spires • Analog Science Fiction and Fact, January/February
Cassini’s Mini-Packets Home • Jessy Randall • Strange Horizons 7/2/18
Cataclysm Days: Arizona Conservatives Revert to Old Forms of Worship • Chuck Von Nordheim • Liquid Imagination 37
The Cat’s Daughters • Nitoo Das • Uncanny 20
Cinderella’s Pumpkin • Colleen Anderson • Polu Texni 5/28/18
The Collaborator • Cassandra Rose Clarke • Illumen, Spring
Commemoration of the Divine Passion • William Cook • Eye to the Telescope 30
Conditions of the Curse • Herb Kauderer • Exploits in the Adirondacks, eds. (pub518)
Dragon Mountain • Mary Soon Lee • Heroic Fantasy Quarterly 35
Drug Wars • Marge Simon • War (Crystal Lake Publishing)
The Fairies in the Crawlspace • Beth Cato • Uncanny 21
Finding Hecate • Clay F. Johnson • Eternal Haunted Summer, Summer Solstice
five sigils • David F. Shultz • Eye to the Telescope 27
Getting to Mars • Roger Dutcher • The Pedestal Magazine 82
If you would seek a Seeress • Rebecca Buchanan • Star*Line 41.1
In the Vaults • Adele Gardner • The Pedestal Magazine 82
It Took Some Time • David C. Kopaska-Merkel • Devilfish Review 20
The Kind Thing to Do • Kurt Newton • Polu Texni 4/23/18
The Last Transport • Frank Coffman • Abyss & Apex 65
Lorelei • Ali Trotta • Uncanny 22
Lost Girls • Rachel Verkade • Liminality 15
Misstep • David C. Kopaska-Merkel • Star*Line 41.4
Mother • Deborah L. Davitt • Eternal Haunted Summer, Summer Solstice
Mother Giant • Peri Fae Blomquist • Mythic Delirium 4.4
nakajiru • D. A. Xiaolin Spires • Mithila Review 10
The Nightmares • Wade German • Spectral Realms ?
Nixon’s Planet • Peter Ullian • Secret Histories and Exobiologies (Poet’s Haven)
Om Economics • Sandra J. Lindow • 2018 SFPA Poetry Contest
Our Minds Are Jewels of Uncertainty • Terrie Leigh Relf & Kendall Evans • Star*Line 41.3
Past Far Gone • Toby Macnutt • Arsenika 3
The Poisoning •  Jessica Drake-Thom • Eye to the Telescope 29
The Prophet’s Vision • W. C. Roberts • Polu Texni 10/15/18
The Protest: Ant Work Ethic • Michael H. Payne • Civilized Beasts III, ed. Vincent Corbeau (Weasel Press)
Ragnarök: A Prism • Alexandra Seidel • Sycorax Journal 1
Rapunzel • Christina Sng • Dreams and Nightmares 109
Rex Arthurs • Deborah L. Davitt • Eye to the Telescope 27
The Sea-Wolf of Brittany • Deborah L. Davitt • Liminality 17
The Search • Deborah L. Davitt • Zetetic, May
Seven Witches • Alexandra Seidel • Eye to the Telescope 30
Skathi’s Spite • Deborah L. Davitt • Eternal Haunted Summer, Winter Solstice
Snow: White; White: Snow • Erin Robinson • Liminality 18
The Space of One Paragraph • Mark McCutcheon • Riddled with Arrows 2.2
The Stars Are Not Eternal • Kendall Evans & David C. Kopaska-Merkel • Entanglement (diminuendo press)
Third-Floor Bookstore • Herb Kauderer • Altered Reality Magazine 12
Thirteen Ways Of Looking At A Monster • Bruce Boston • Birthing Monsters: Frankenstein’s Cabinet of Curiosities and Cruelties (Firbolg Publishing)
Two Dozen Restaurant Concepts for a Gentrified Mixed-Use Vacancy • James Ebersole • The Cockroach Conservatory Vol 1: The Working Zealot’s Guide to Gaining Capital in Pre-Apocalyptic America
Ursula LeGuin in the Underworld • Sarah Tolmie • On Spec: The Canadian Magazine of the Fantastic, April
Verdant • F. J. Bergmann • Dreams and Nightmares 110
The Visionary • Ian Futter • Spectral Realms 9
White Siege • Alessandro Manzetti & Marge Simon • War (Crystal Lake Publishing)
The Witch’s House • Jeana Jorgenson • Liminality 15

David C. Kopaska-Merkel is the 2019 Rhysling Chair. He edited Star*Line in the late ’90s and later served as SFPA President. His 29th book, the speculative-poetry collection Metastable Systems, was nominated for the Elgin award. He edits and publishes Dreams and Nightmares, a genre poetry zine in its 33rd year of publication. In 2017 he was named an SFPA Grandmaster.