The Science Fiction Poetry Association’s 2016 Rhysling Award candidates have been finalized reports F.J. Bergmann.
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.
Bergmann says this is the highest number of nominated poems the award has ever had (71 short and 44 long), coming from the broadest list of publications as well, 59. Strange Horizons has the most nominees, 11.
| Rhysling Award Candidates |
| Short Poems (71 poems) |
| “Abandonarium” • Stacey Balkun • Devilfish Review 13 |
| “Hard Being A God” • David Barber •Star*Line 38.4 |
| “Tech Support for the Apocalypse” • F. J. Bergmann • Dreams and Nightmares 101 |
| “Time Travel Vocabulary Problems” • Ruth Berman • Dreams and Nightmares 100 |
| “The Astronaut’s Heart” • Robert Borski • Asimov’s SF, September |
| “Forever Tracking” • Bruce Boston • Grievous Angel, May |
| “Aboard the Transport Tesoro” • Lisa M. Bradley • Uncanny 7 |
| ‘hell-bent’ • Susan Burch • Grievous Angel, February |
| “Fried Okra” • Beth Cato • Tales of the Talisman 10.4 |
| “Elegy for WLC” • David Clink • The Dalhousie Review 94:3 |
| “Portrait” • David Clink • OnSpec Magazine, Winter |
| “The Sun Never Rises” • Michael Coolen • Latchkey Tales 2.6 |
| “Secondary Ghosts” • P. S. Cottier • Australian Poetry Journal 5:2 |
| “Pleistocene Park, Mammoth Steppe, Siberia” • Mark Danowsky • Star*Line 38.4 |
| “Worlds in Collision” • Bryan D. Dietrich • Farrago’s Wainscot, 2015 |
| “Ligeia” • Ashley Dioses • Spectral Realms 2 |
| “On The Other Hand” • James Dorr • Grievous Angel, August |
| “Why Have We Not Been Visited?” • Martin Elster • The Asses of Parnassus, 11/30/15 |
| “Institutional Memory” • Alexandra Erin • Star*Line 38.1 |
| “The Argument Box” • JD Fox • Abyss & Apex 55 |
| “The Boats” • Adele Gardner • Abyss and Apex 56 |
| “The More It Changes …” • Delbert R. Gardner • Songs of Eretz Poetry Review |
| “Couples Therapy” • Howie Good • The Los Angeles Review of Los Angeles 10 |
| “Robot Agonistes” • Alan Ira Gordon • The Magazine Of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Jan/Feb |
| “How Eternal Night Was Created” • Vince Gotera • The Syzygy Poetry Journal 1:2 |
| “Gaunt” • Charles Gramlich • The Pedestal Magazine 76 |
| “Mummies” • Richard Hedderman • Rattle 49 |
| “Glinda’s Dilemma” • Gloria Heffernan • Parody 4:1 |
| “Selenites” • John Philip Johnson • The Pedestal Magazine 76 |
| “Kraken” • Tim Jones • Interstellar Award |
| “Moth and Memory” • Sandra Kasturi • Postscripts to Darkness 6 |
| “Venice Letting Go” • Sandra Kasturi • Postscripts to Darkness 6 |
| “hard copy” • Herb Kauderer • Asimov’s Science Fiction, August |
| “luddite’s dream” • Herb Kauderer • Star*Line 38.4 |
| “The Changeling’s Gambit” • Sasha Kim • Strange Horizons, 9/14/15 |
| “re-entry heat” • Deborah Kolodji • Mariposa 32 |
| “The Only Time Machine” • David Kopaska-Merkel • Sub- Saharan Magazine |
| “Rip Van Winkle On Mars” • David C. Kopaska-Merkel • The Martian Wave, 2015 |
| “Post-Apocalyptic Toothbrush” • Betsy Ladyzhets • Strange Horizons, 6/29/15 |
| “Ode to Dorothy Gale” • Jenna Le • Nonbinary Review 4 |
| “Flora and Fauna” • James Frederick Leach • HWA Poetry Showcase Volume II |
| “The Dreaded Dreadnoughtus” • B.J. Lee • Frostfire Worlds, November |
| “The Washerwoman’s Daughter” • Mary Soon Lee • Crowned: The Sign of the Dragon: Book 1 (Dark Renaissance Books) |
| “Postlude” • Nolan Liebert • Zetetic: A Record of Unusual Inquiry, October |
| “B’resheet” • Julia Burns Liberman • Strange Horizons, 10/7/15 |
| “An Introduction to Alternate Universes: Theory and Practice” • Sandra J. Lindow • Gyroscope Review 16:1 |
| “Under the Cancer Tree ” • Sandra Lindow • Tales of the Talisman 10.4 |
| “Four Chambers” • Shira Lipkin • Mythic Delirium, September |
| “Challenger” • Bronwyn Lovell • Strange Horizons, 6/8/15 |
| “It Came to Pass” • Mark Mansfield •Star*Line 38.3 |
| “The Subtle Arts of Chemistry” • Elizabeth R. McClellan • New Myths, March |
| “The Woman Sings Her Marriage Into Being” • Lev Mirov • Through the Gate 7 |
| “Bone-House” • A.J. Odasso • Liminality 4 |
| “Transition Metal” • A.J. Odasso • My Dear Watson: The Very Elements of Poetry (Beautiful Dragons Press) |
| “In Fits of Wildest Dreaming” • K. A. Opperman • Spectral Realms 3 |
| “The Palace of Phantasies” • K. A. Opperman • The Crimson Tome (Hippocampus Press) |
| “Requiem” • Matt Quinn • Eye to the Telescope 16 |
| “Lola” • Gabby Reed • Strange Horizons 7/20/15 |
| “Attack of the Saurus” • John Reinhart • Star*Line 38.4 |
| “Lot’s Wife” • Michelle Scalise-Piccirilli • HWA Poetry Showcase Volume II |
| “He Promised Me The Moon” • Marge Simon • Abyss & Apex 55 |
| “Serving the Blind Girl” • Marge Simon • Silver Blade 28 |
| “Before I Kill You (An Arch-Villainelle)” • David Sklar • Stone Telling 12 |
| “Raven Speaks” • Michael Spring • Absinthe Poetry Review 2 |
| “buried pet turtles” • David Lee Summers • Zen of the Dead, ed. Lester Smith (Popcorn Press) |
| “Origami Crane/Light-Defying Starship” • Naru Dames Sundar • Liminality 5 |
| “Philomela in Seven Movements” • Natalia Theodoridou • Mythic Delirium, June |
| “An Unrequited Love Process Loops” • Marie Vibbert • Asimov’s Science Fiction, February 2015 |
| “The Sun Ships” • Steven Withrow • Eye to the Telescope 16 |
| “Crater Conundrum Pizza” • Greer Woodward • 2015 SFPA Poetry Contest Winners |
| “Passenger Seat” •Stephanie Wytovich • An Exorcism of Angels (Raw Dog Screaming Press) |
| Long Poems (44 poems) |
| “Toujours Il Coute Trop Cher” • Mike Allen & C.S.E. Cooney • Spectral Realms 3 |
| “I Dreamed a World” • Colleen Anderson • Polu Texni, 3/2/15 |
| “Season of the Ginzakura” • Ryu Ando • Strange Horizons, 7/13/15 |
| “Seasons in a Moon Ocean” • Daniel Ausema • Dreams and Nightmares 100 |
| from “Sunspots” • Simon Barraclough • Poetry, December 2015 |
| “Chronopatetic” • F. J. Bergmann • Dreams and Nightmares 100 |
| “Resonance Redux” • Bruce Boston • Resonance Dark and Light (Eldritch Press) |
| “Black Momma-faces” • Angela Brown • Silver Blade 28 |
| “Dali’s Apostles” • David E. Cowen • The Horror Zine, December 2015 |
| “The Comet Elm” • Martin Elster • 2015 SFPA Poetry Contest Winners |
| “Observations from the Black Ball Line Between Deimos and Callisto” • Alexandra Erin • The Martian Wave, 2015 |
| “A Brief History of Human Evolution” • Gary Every • Tales of the Talisman 10.4 |
| “Actaeon” • Alice Fanchiang • Strange Horizons, 11/11/15 |
| “Deliverance” • Adele Gardner • Songs of Eretz Poetry Review, 6/28/15 |
| “The White Planet” • Albert Goldbarth • Boulevard 31:1 |
| “Letter to Zelazny from Olympus Mons” • Vince Gotera • The Syzygy Poetry Journal 1:2 |
| “Artist Signature” • Susan Gray • Lunar Mission One, 10/16/15 |
| “Illusions of Man” • Deborah Guzzi • Silver Blade 26 |
| “Reversed Polarities” • Nin Harris • Strange Horizons, 6/1/15 |
| “Thirteen Ways of Looking at Blackbeard” • Ed Higgins • Parody 4:1 |
| “Drowned City” • Ruth Jenkins • Liminality 3 |
| “Typhon & Echidna: A Love Story” • Sandra Kasturi • Gods, Memes and Monsters: A 21st Century Bestiary, ed. Heather J. Wood (Stone Skin Press) |
| “Dragonslayer” • Mary Soon Lee • Crowned: The Sign of the Dragon: Book 1 (Dark Renaissance Books) |
| “Training: Stances” • Mary Soon Lee • Crowned: The Sign of the Dragon: Book 1 (Dark Renaissance Books) |
| “archival testimony fragments / minersong” • Rose Lemberg • Uncanny 2 |
| “Long Shadow” • Rose Lemberg • Strange Horizons, 9/3/15 |
| “And then the stars …” • Matt W. Mani • The Pedestal Magazine 75 |
| “Interiora II” • Alessandro Manzetti • Eden Underground (Crystal Lake Publishing) |
| “Et je ne pleurais jamais les larmes cicatrisantes magiques; c’est seulement un mensonge joli” • Elizabeth R. McClellan • Niteblade 31 |
| “Changeling” • Lynette Mejia • Liminality 6 |
| “An Unexpected Guest” • Lev Mirov • Liminality 5 |
| “Poetry Set: Red Wire, Monsters, Slipknot” • A.J. Odasso • SWAMP Writing 17 |
| “Halloween” • K. A. Opperman • The Crimson Tome (Hippocampus Press) |
| “It Begins With A Haunting” • Krysada Panusith Phounsiri • Dance Among Elephants (Sahtu Press) |
| “O Dervish of the Restless Heart” • Saba Razvi • Nonbinary Review 6 |
| “The Coming Dark” • Wendy Rathbone • Star*Line 38.2 |
| “ugly bags of mostly water” • Yann Rousselot • Dawn of the Algorithm (Inkshares) |
| “The Noble Torturer” • Sofia Samatar • Bluestockings Magazine, 7/28/15 |
| “Keziah” • Ann K. Schwader • Dark Energies (P’rea Press) |
| “Adarna” • M. Sereno • Strange Horizons, 12/21/15 |
| “Twenty Years” • Christina Sng• New Myths 32 |
| “The Woman in the Coffee Shop” • Christina Sng • Lontar: The Journal of Southeast Asian Speculative Fiction 5 |
| “The Iterative Nature of the Magical Discovery Process” • Bogi Takács • Through the Gate, March |
| “A Love in Twelve Feathers” • Shveta Thakrar • Strange Horizons, 10/19/15 |
Update 02/23/2016: Corrected several entries based on update provided by F. J. Bergmann.
