The Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA) has bestowed to honors on F.J. Bergmann, the SFPA Grandmaster Award and the President’s Lifetime Service Award.

The SFPA Grand Master Award recognizes the contributions in poetry that a person has made in their lifetime. Their superior skill and a body of work are testaments to talent and a resource for inspiring other poets and furthering knowledge of the genre.
 
The President’s Lifetime Service Award is given to an individual who has furthered the knowledge, appreciation, and acceptance of the speculative poetry genre, and who has served the SFPA in a significant volunteer capacity.  
 
Members vote on nominees for the Grand Master Award; and upon the President’s recommendation, the executive committee votes on the Lifetime Service Award candidate. F. J. Bergmann is the recipient of both awards for 2024.

She has served the SFPA behind the scenes for many years. She has been on the board, has been Elgin Chair, Rhysling editor, and does the layout and graphic design for the SFPA publications. She was webmaster for many years, and continues to be a pillar for the SFPA. Her ongoing, selfless volunteerism will inspire others to contribute to the genre and the SFPA. She has contributed to discussions and frequently posts about other poems and poets, spreading the love and knowledge of speculative poetry. She works as editor on other publications, and her body of work speaks for itself. She has won most of the SFPA awards as well as the contest and continues to write and contribute to the speculative poetry genre in many ways.

F. J. Bergmann is the poetry editor of Mobius: The Journal of Social Change (mobiusmagazine.com), past editor of Star*Line, managing editor of MadHat Press (madhat-press.com), poetry editor for Weird House Press (weirdhousepress.com), and freelances as a copy editor and book designer. She lives in Wisconsin with a husband, intermittent daughters, cats and a horse, and imagines tragedies on or near exoplanets. Her writing awards include SFPA Rhysling Awards for both long and short poems and SFPA Elgin Awards for two chapbooks: Out of the Black Forest (Centennial Press, 2012), a collection of conflated fairy tales, and A Catalogue of the Further Suns, first-contact reports from interstellar expeditions, winner of the 2017 Gold Line Press manuscript competition. She was a Writers of the Future winner. Venues where her poems have appeared include Abyss & Apex, Analog, Asimov’s SF, and elsewhere in the alphabet. She has competed at National Poetry Slam with the Madison Urban Spoken Word slam team. While lacking academic literary qualifications, she is kind to those so encumbered. She thinks imagination can compensate for anything.

To date, the SFPA has conferred twelve Grand Master Awards. The previous eleven are:

• Akua Lezli Hope (2022)
• Mary Soon Lee (2022)
• Linda D. Addison (2020)
• Ann K. Schwader (2018)
• David C. Kopaska-Merkel (2017)
• Marge Simon (2015)
• Steve Sneyd (2015)
• Jane Yolen (2010)
• Ray Bradbury (2008)
• Robert Frazier (2005)
• Bruce Boston (1999)

[Based on a press release.]