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mary_soon_lee's review
4.0
Each year's Rhysling anthology contains the speculative poems nominated for the Rhysling award by members of SFPA, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association. The poems are divided into short (under 50 lines) and long (the others), corresponding to the two award categories. The anthology is invaluable for SFPA members deciding how to cast their votes, but also provides an excellent overview of the current state of speculative poetry. As such, I highly recommend it to anyone curious about science fiction, fantasy, and horror poetry.
My memory of past volumes is a little fuzzier than I'd like, but I think this is one of the stronger collections. Even when the tone or topic of a poem didn't particularly appeal to me, their skill was often clear. And many of the poems did appeal. On my first pass through, I marked thirty-one short poems for voting consideration, then pared that down to ten poems, and then to a final three. (As per my policy, I didn't consider voting for my own poems.) With the long poems, I marked seven as standing out on the first pass. I note that there were quite a few poems that were hard for me to categorize as science fiction versus fantasy, even when it was clear that something strange was afoot. There were also a few poems that, for me, crossed the line away from the speculative and into the mainstream, but every reader will draw that line differently. Plus a broad interpretation of speculative poetry will include mainstream horror.
I considered stopping here, without specifying the poems I liked best, partly not to upset anyone, and partly because the voting deadline is still ahead. But in the end, I decided to name names. Please insert all the usual caveats. There were many other poems I liked, if not quite as much. And in another mood, I might have picked a different set. Onward.
Here are the ten short poems I liked best on first reading, in the order they occur in the book not my personal ranking:
"Ten-Card Tarot, Pentacles Wild" by F. J. Bergmann
"Fallen But Not Down by Sarah Cannavo
"Steampunk Christmas" by David Clink
"The Journey" by Deborah L. Davitt
"A Rose Waits" by Adele Gardner
"The Book of Fly" by John Philip Johnson
"Mothsong" by John Philip Johnson
"Creation: Dark Matter Dating App" by Sandra J. Lindow
"Eldritch Horror" by Katie Manning
"The Ghosts of Those" by Ron Riekki
And likewise my favorite seven long poems:
"The Scarecrow’s Lover" by Alexandria Baisden
"Heliobacterium daphnephilum" by Rebecca Buchanan
"The Scroll of Thoth" by Frank Coffman
"The Woman Who Talks to Her Dog at the Beach" by Geoff Inverarity
"Nan-e" by Lee Mackenzie
"Driven" by Marcie Lynn Tentchoff
"The Mining Town" by Holly Lyn Walrath
About my reviews: I try to review every book I read, including those that I don't end up enjoying. The reviews are not scholarly, but just indicate my reaction as a reader, reading being my addiction. I am miserly with 5-star reviews; 4 stars means I liked a book very much; 3 stars means I liked it; 2 stars means I didn't like it (though often the 2-star books are very popular with other readers and/or are by authors whose other work I've loved).
My memory of past volumes is a little fuzzier than I'd like, but I think this is one of the stronger collections. Even when the tone or topic of a poem didn't particularly appeal to me, their skill was often clear. And many of the poems did appeal. On my first pass through, I marked thirty-one short poems for voting consideration, then pared that down to ten poems, and then to a final three. (As per my policy, I didn't consider voting for my own poems.) With the long poems, I marked seven as standing out on the first pass. I note that there were quite a few poems that were hard for me to categorize as science fiction versus fantasy, even when it was clear that something strange was afoot. There were also a few poems that, for me, crossed the line away from the speculative and into the mainstream, but every reader will draw that line differently. Plus a broad interpretation of speculative poetry will include mainstream horror.
I considered stopping here, without specifying the poems I liked best, partly not to upset anyone, and partly because the voting deadline is still ahead. But in the end, I decided to name names. Please insert all the usual caveats. There were many other poems I liked, if not quite as much. And in another mood, I might have picked a different set. Onward.
Here are the ten short poems I liked best on first reading, in the order they occur in the book not my personal ranking:
"Ten-Card Tarot, Pentacles Wild" by F. J. Bergmann
"Fallen But Not Down by Sarah Cannavo
"Steampunk Christmas" by David Clink
"The Journey" by Deborah L. Davitt
"A Rose Waits" by Adele Gardner
"The Book of Fly" by John Philip Johnson
"Mothsong" by John Philip Johnson
"Creation: Dark Matter Dating App" by Sandra J. Lindow
"Eldritch Horror" by Katie Manning
"The Ghosts of Those" by Ron Riekki
And likewise my favorite seven long poems:
"The Scarecrow’s Lover" by Alexandria Baisden
"Heliobacterium daphnephilum" by Rebecca Buchanan
"The Scroll of Thoth" by Frank Coffman
"The Woman Who Talks to Her Dog at the Beach" by Geoff Inverarity
"Nan-e" by Lee Mackenzie
"Driven" by Marcie Lynn Tentchoff
"The Mining Town" by Holly Lyn Walrath
About my reviews: I try to review every book I read, including those that I don't end up enjoying. The reviews are not scholarly, but just indicate my reaction as a reader, reading being my addiction. I am miserly with 5-star reviews; 4 stars means I liked a book very much; 3 stars means I liked it; 2 stars means I didn't like it (though often the 2-star books are very popular with other readers and/or are by authors whose other work I've loved).
richardleis's review
4.0
What bliss to read the latest Rhysling Anthology from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA) and edited by David C. Kopaska-Merkel, but what torture to select the best three short and long poems nominated for the 2020 Rhysling Award. Though I won’t reveal who I voted for here, I’d like to list several of my favorite poems below.
First, though, I want to write about one glaring negative about the otherwise wonderful reading experience. I was enjoying the speculative poetry greatly after reading the first third of the anthology when I came to a poem that immediately derailed my joy. The poem felt out of place, vile, entitled, and dismissive to every other poem in the anthology. I’d never heard of the poet before, but my reaction to that poem was so visceral and upsetting that I had to search online for more information. It didn’t take long to find complaints about this poet; Twitter was particularly illuminating.
In a publication sparkling with such fantastic craft, vivid imagery, clever philosophies, ASMR-worthy sounds, and soaring speculation, this one poem stands out truly grotesque and ugly in its hatefulness. My experience with the SFPA and its editors and officers has been nothing but positive, so I make no assumptions about and direct no aspersions toward the organization. I think this poem must have accidentally slipped through the procedural or vetting processes. To the other poets with nominated work in this anthology who might have felt slighted by the inclusion of this one nasty poem, know that this reader appreciates you and your poetry, the borders you are pushing, and the diversity you bring to the SFPA and speculative poetry.
You are the poets who inspire me and keep me in awe and wonder.
Beth Cato is one of several favorite poets in this year’s anthology, and her poetry has been nominated in both the short and long poem categories. I love her attention to vivid details and the surprising situations she sets up in her poems. “My Ghost Will Know The Way” and “Childhood Memory from the Old Victorian House on Warner” offer poignant and unique childhood terrors and adult protagonists looking back on them with sadness but hope.
“Reparation”, “Styx”, and “In The End, Only The Gods” by Christina Sng are mythic, dark, and heroic all at the same time, per usual. I love how Sng’s poetry reaches back into myth and fairy tale and drags them into the brilliant light of the present, even when there are no specific mentions of the modern.
I'm always delighted by Mary Soon Lee's poems, too, and she's well represented with "How to Colonize Ganymede", "How to Dance with Dark Matter", "To Skeptics", and "Witch".
“The Book of Fly” and “Moth Song” by John Philip Johnson are clever, poignant, and surprising immersions into the insect world. These are poems of the other that resonate with the human as well.
“The Day the Animals Turned to Sand” by Tyler Hagemann remains in the human world, but, oh, what a world it becomes on that day and the days that follow. The ending line is a punch in the gut. Ouch.
The binomen bites of “Heliobacterium daphnephilum” and “Sycophantam astrum” by Rebecca Buchanan offer up an apocalypse for hope and unexpected companionship as humans press into space, respectively.
If it’s not yet obvious, I particularly love poems that find hope in the darkest, most painful and traumatic of places. “Fallen But Not Down” by Sarah Cannavo is a fantastic example of this poetic impulse. I want something better for the Scarecrow and “The Scarecrow’s Lover” by Alexandria Baisden, but I choose to cling to their spring hopes. “Eldritch Horror” by Katie Manning comes down to a roll of the dice, and I’m right there with the protagonist willing the dice to fall the right way.
I have a particular fondness for poets who craft new myths out of old myths or future scenarios. As noted earlier, Christina Sng does this especially well, but I think “Green Sky” and “Making of Dragons” by Herb Kauderer are two more great examples of this alchemy. Perhaps it’s more subtle, but the reworking of fairy tales, myth, and tropes often seems to result in a similar effect of making the old new again, and I think “Obsidian” by Fungisayi Sasa, “tetrahedral edifices of a sticky rice realm” by D. A. Xiaolin Spires, and “The Cinder Girl Burns Brightly” by Theodora Goss, among others in the anthology, are all great examples.
“Consumption” by Emma J. Gibbon is gross and I love it! I’d love to see more poets take this kind of chance in poetry. This is followed by Gibbon’s fantastic “Fune-RL” with its blunt young protagonist, their bitter relationship with their mom, and dogs. Not surprisingly, poems with dogs, RL or not, are generally some of my favorite poems (sorry cat poems!)
Speaking of cats, a new word I learned because it appearing a couple of times in different poems in this anthology: “leonine”.
There are many other poems I would love to point to, including “The Ruined Library” Bruce Boston, “Hasted IV” by Jeff Crandall, “Seven Reasons to Have Hope for a Better Future. Number Five Will Really Get You!” By Catherine Kyle, “when my father reprograms my mother {“ by Caroline Mao, “Prayer on a Friday Morning” by L. R. Harvey, “Envoy” and “Maculation” by F. J. Bergmann, “The Woman Who Talks to Her Dog at the Beach” by Geoff Inverarity, “Keep My Course True” by Gerri Leen, “Stormbound” by Marsheila Rockwell, “Treason” by Shana Ross, and “If Love is Real, So Are Fairies” by Cynthia So. All of these are award-worthy poems in my opinion, which made it really difficult to vote for just three poems in each Rhysling Award category.
These poets (minus the one) deserve nothing but praise for the myriad directions they are pushing the speculativeness of speculative poetry today.
First, though, I want to write about one glaring negative about the otherwise wonderful reading experience. I was enjoying the speculative poetry greatly after reading the first third of the anthology when I came to a poem that immediately derailed my joy. The poem felt out of place, vile, entitled, and dismissive to every other poem in the anthology. I’d never heard of the poet before, but my reaction to that poem was so visceral and upsetting that I had to search online for more information. It didn’t take long to find complaints about this poet; Twitter was particularly illuminating.
In a publication sparkling with such fantastic craft, vivid imagery, clever philosophies, ASMR-worthy sounds, and soaring speculation, this one poem stands out truly grotesque and ugly in its hatefulness. My experience with the SFPA and its editors and officers has been nothing but positive, so I make no assumptions about and direct no aspersions toward the organization. I think this poem must have accidentally slipped through the procedural or vetting processes. To the other poets with nominated work in this anthology who might have felt slighted by the inclusion of this one nasty poem, know that this reader appreciates you and your poetry, the borders you are pushing, and the diversity you bring to the SFPA and speculative poetry.
You are the poets who inspire me and keep me in awe and wonder.
Beth Cato is one of several favorite poets in this year’s anthology, and her poetry has been nominated in both the short and long poem categories. I love her attention to vivid details and the surprising situations she sets up in her poems. “My Ghost Will Know The Way” and “Childhood Memory from the Old Victorian House on Warner” offer poignant and unique childhood terrors and adult protagonists looking back on them with sadness but hope.
“Reparation”, “Styx”, and “In The End, Only The Gods” by Christina Sng are mythic, dark, and heroic all at the same time, per usual. I love how Sng’s poetry reaches back into myth and fairy tale and drags them into the brilliant light of the present, even when there are no specific mentions of the modern.
I'm always delighted by Mary Soon Lee's poems, too, and she's well represented with "How to Colonize Ganymede", "How to Dance with Dark Matter", "To Skeptics", and "Witch".
“The Book of Fly” and “Moth Song” by John Philip Johnson are clever, poignant, and surprising immersions into the insect world. These are poems of the other that resonate with the human as well.
“The Day the Animals Turned to Sand” by Tyler Hagemann remains in the human world, but, oh, what a world it becomes on that day and the days that follow. The ending line is a punch in the gut. Ouch.
The binomen bites of “Heliobacterium daphnephilum” and “Sycophantam astrum” by Rebecca Buchanan offer up an apocalypse for hope and unexpected companionship as humans press into space, respectively.
If it’s not yet obvious, I particularly love poems that find hope in the darkest, most painful and traumatic of places. “Fallen But Not Down” by Sarah Cannavo is a fantastic example of this poetic impulse. I want something better for the Scarecrow and “The Scarecrow’s Lover” by Alexandria Baisden, but I choose to cling to their spring hopes. “Eldritch Horror” by Katie Manning comes down to a roll of the dice, and I’m right there with the protagonist willing the dice to fall the right way.
I have a particular fondness for poets who craft new myths out of old myths or future scenarios. As noted earlier, Christina Sng does this especially well, but I think “Green Sky” and “Making of Dragons” by Herb Kauderer are two more great examples of this alchemy. Perhaps it’s more subtle, but the reworking of fairy tales, myth, and tropes often seems to result in a similar effect of making the old new again, and I think “Obsidian” by Fungisayi Sasa, “tetrahedral edifices of a sticky rice realm” by D. A. Xiaolin Spires, and “The Cinder Girl Burns Brightly” by Theodora Goss, among others in the anthology, are all great examples.
“Consumption” by Emma J. Gibbon is gross and I love it! I’d love to see more poets take this kind of chance in poetry. This is followed by Gibbon’s fantastic “Fune-RL” with its blunt young protagonist, their bitter relationship with their mom, and dogs. Not surprisingly, poems with dogs, RL or not, are generally some of my favorite poems (sorry cat poems!)
Speaking of cats, a new word I learned because it appearing a couple of times in different poems in this anthology: “leonine”.
There are many other poems I would love to point to, including “The Ruined Library” Bruce Boston, “Hasted IV” by Jeff Crandall, “Seven Reasons to Have Hope for a Better Future. Number Five Will Really Get You!” By Catherine Kyle, “when my father reprograms my mother {“ by Caroline Mao, “Prayer on a Friday Morning” by L. R. Harvey, “Envoy” and “Maculation” by F. J. Bergmann, “The Woman Who Talks to Her Dog at the Beach” by Geoff Inverarity, “Keep My Course True” by Gerri Leen, “Stormbound” by Marsheila Rockwell, “Treason” by Shana Ross, and “If Love is Real, So Are Fairies” by Cynthia So. All of these are award-worthy poems in my opinion, which made it really difficult to vote for just three poems in each Rhysling Award category.
These poets (minus the one) deserve nothing but praise for the myriad directions they are pushing the speculativeness of speculative poetry today.
josephvanburen's review
4.0
This is an awesome collection of speculative poetry: verse short and long in the realms of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. As with any anthology this large, there was a wide range of styles and themes as well as some poems that didn't quite do it for me. But the vast majority are at least well-written, and there are some amazing pieces in here that made me stop and think about a specific aspect of the human condition. That is the power of speculative poetry-using fantastic imagery from other worlds to comment on our own-and many of the poets featured here do it well. Maybe one year I'll read the Rhysling Anthology in time to vote, but I am always happy to read work from some poets I already enjoy and discover some wonderful talent new to me, which this collection (at 200+ pages and 95 poets!) was great for :)
divadiane's review
5.0
This was a wonderful collection of very diverse speculative poetry. I think I liked it better as a whole than previous years Anthologies. Maybe because there was less Horror? Not a big fan, except for Lovecraftian cosmic horror.
Anyway, my short list for the Short category is:
•Sphere, by Francis W. Alexander
•A Purring Cat is a Time Machine, Beth Cato
•The Planets? Sweet..., Harris Coverly
•Halsted IV, Jeff Crandall
•Robert Goddard, Alan Ira Gordon
•All-Father, Vince Gotera
•The Book of Fly, John Philip Johnson
•Seven Reason to Have Hope for a Better Future..., Catherine Kyle
•Creation: Dark Matter Dating App, Sandra J. Lindow
•when my father reprograms my mother {, Caroline Mao
•Ójí Íjè [Kola Journey], Uche Ogbuji
•The Root Kong’s Winter, Jessica P. Wick
Long poem Category:
•The Scarecrow’s Lover, Alexandria Baisden
•Maculation, F. J. Bergmann
•heliobacterium daphnephilum, Rebecca Buchanan
•The Scroll of Thoth, Frank Coffman
•The Cinder Girl Burns Brightly, Theodora Goss
•The Making of Dragons, Herb Kauderer
•Why Not?, Gerri Leen
•Nan-e, Lee Mackenzie
•Ode to the Artistic Temperament, Michael H. Payne
•Obsidian, Fungisayi Sasa
•Borrower, Cislyn Smith
•The Mining Town, Holly Lyn Walrath
My first pass through the book garnered 39 short poems and 22 long poems that I felt warranted a closer look. That made this decision so hard!! I liked so many of them. My first pass through the book is really just an assessment of whether I personally like the poem. The subsequent readings are more careful readings with an eye for comparing them towards choosing my ranked top 3.
Another member once described her method and it works well enough for me. After the first pass, I group the poems into groups of 6 and choose the best 2 or 3 and continue in that vein. This time I was left with 4 absolute top contenders in both categories and it was a very hard decision which to eliminate.
I thought I had made my decision, but then I left it for a few more hours and changed my mind in the process of voting!! I’m very interested in the final results.
The winners are:
Short Poem
First Place
“Taking, Keeping” • Jessica J. Horowitz • Apparition Lit 5
Second Place
“when my father reprograms my mother {” • Caroline Mao • Strange Horizons, Fund Drive
Third Place (tie)
Creation: Dark Matter Dating App, Sandra J. Lindow, Asimov's SF, July/August, 2019 and
“The Day the Animals Turned to Sand” • Tyler Hagemann • Amazing Stories, Spring 2019
First Place
“Heliobacterium daphnephilum” • Rebecca Buchanan • Star*Line 42.3
Second Place
“The Cinder Girl Burns Brightly” • Theodora Goss • Uncanny 28
Third Place
“Ode to the Artistic Temperament” • Michael H. Payne • Silver Blade 42
and
“The Macabre Modern” • Kyla Lee Ward • The Macabre Modern and Other Morbidities (P'rea Press)
I voted for 4 of the 8! Not bad!
Anyway, my short list for the Short category is:
•Sphere, by Francis W. Alexander
•A Purring Cat is a Time Machine, Beth Cato
•The Planets? Sweet..., Harris Coverly
•Halsted IV, Jeff Crandall
•Robert Goddard, Alan Ira Gordon
•All-Father, Vince Gotera
•The Book of Fly, John Philip Johnson
•Seven Reason to Have Hope for a Better Future..., Catherine Kyle
•Creation: Dark Matter Dating App, Sandra J. Lindow
•when my father reprograms my mother {, Caroline Mao
•Ójí Íjè [Kola Journey], Uche Ogbuji
•The Root Kong’s Winter, Jessica P. Wick
Long poem Category:
•The Scarecrow’s Lover, Alexandria Baisden
•Maculation, F. J. Bergmann
•heliobacterium daphnephilum, Rebecca Buchanan
•The Scroll of Thoth, Frank Coffman
•The Cinder Girl Burns Brightly, Theodora Goss
•The Making of Dragons, Herb Kauderer
•Why Not?, Gerri Leen
•Nan-e, Lee Mackenzie
•Ode to the Artistic Temperament, Michael H. Payne
•Obsidian, Fungisayi Sasa
•Borrower, Cislyn Smith
•The Mining Town, Holly Lyn Walrath
My first pass through the book garnered 39 short poems and 22 long poems that I felt warranted a closer look. That made this decision so hard!! I liked so many of them. My first pass through the book is really just an assessment of whether I personally like the poem. The subsequent readings are more careful readings with an eye for comparing them towards choosing my ranked top 3.
Another member once described her method and it works well enough for me. After the first pass, I group the poems into groups of 6 and choose the best 2 or 3 and continue in that vein. This time I was left with 4 absolute top contenders in both categories and it was a very hard decision which to eliminate.
I thought I had made my decision, but then I left it for a few more hours and changed my mind in the process of voting!! I’m very interested in the final results.
The winners are:
Short Poem
First Place
“Taking, Keeping” • Jessica J. Horowitz • Apparition Lit 5
Second Place
“when my father reprograms my mother {” • Caroline Mao • Strange Horizons, Fund Drive
Third Place (tie)
Creation: Dark Matter Dating App, Sandra J. Lindow, Asimov's SF, July/August, 2019 and
“The Day the Animals Turned to Sand” • Tyler Hagemann • Amazing Stories, Spring 2019
First Place
“Heliobacterium daphnephilum” • Rebecca Buchanan • Star*Line 42.3
Second Place
“The Cinder Girl Burns Brightly” • Theodora Goss • Uncanny 28
Third Place
“Ode to the Artistic Temperament” • Michael H. Payne • Silver Blade 42
and
“The Macabre Modern” • Kyla Lee Ward • The Macabre Modern and Other Morbidities (P'rea Press)
I voted for 4 of the 8! Not bad!
cathepsut's review
4.0
Another foray into SF poetry, this time as a buddy read. I am going to list my favourites, bundle them in groups of five or six and pick a favourite from those, and so on, until I am left with my three favourites for each short and long poems (inspired by Diane, thank you!).
Update June 2020:
I posted the actual winners of the award at the bottom.
Here is my own selection:
UPDATE, final round of Short Poems, narrowed down from the below longlist:
1. Sphere, page 20
2. All-Father, page 40
3. What You Hear When Your Best Friend Falls for a Supervillain, page 27
Those three could have ended up in any order. I read them several times, shuffled them around, read them again, shuffled again... it‘s impossible. Sphere and All-Father both immediately start my internal movie theater and my imagination spins off into the realm of a full novel...
Runners-Up:
1. The Snow Globe, page 76
2. Witch, page 54
And my final choice for the Long Poems, narrowed down from my longlist:
1. Sycophantam astrum, page 106
2. The City That Changed Hands, page 110
3. Stormbound, page 176
Runners-Up:
1. Heliobacterium daphnephilum, page 105
2. Childhood Memory from the Old Victorian House on Warner, page 109
3. Fune-RL, page 129
————
Short Poems First Published in 2019, liked the most during my first two read-throughs:
2. New Stars, page 22
3. Ten-Card Tarot, Pentacles Wild, page 23
4. The Ruined Library, page 24
5. Fallen But Not Down, page 25
1. My Ghost Will Know The Way, page 25
2. A Purring Cat is a Time Machine, page 26
3. What You Hear When Your Best Friend Falls for a Supervillain, page 27
4. Continuum, page 28
5. Halsted IV, page 31
1. The Journey, page 32
2. Robert Goddard at Roswell, page 37
3. All-Father, page 40
4. How to Colonize Ganymede, page 53
5. To Skeptics, page 54
1. Witch, page 54
2. Creation: Dark Matter Dating App, page 58
3. Abeona, Goddess of Outward Journeys, Pilots the Interstellar Ark, page 58
4. If All the Seas Were Blood, page 64
5. Óòjí Íjè [Kola Journey], page 65
1. Huitzilopochtli, page 75
2. The Snow Globe, page 76
3. The Wolfman and Space Girl, page 78
4. No Fairy Tale World, page 81
5. Three of Swords, King of Cups, page 82
6. The Root King´s Winter, page 85
Long Poems First Published in 2019, liked the most during my first read-through:
2. Maculation, page 99
3. Heliobacterium daphnephilum, page 105
4. Sycophantam astrum, page 106
5. Childhood Memory from the Old Victorian House on Warner, page 109
1. The City That Changed Hands, page 110
2. Fune-RL, page 129
3. The Cinder Girl Burns Brightly, page 132
4. The Woman Who Talks to her Dog on the Beach, page 137
5. The Making of Dragons, page 154
1. Keep My Course True, page 159
2. Why Not?, page 161
3. Stormbound, page 176
4. In The End, Only The Gods, page 189
5. Driven, page 196
6. The Wolf Isn‘t The Only One Who Hides in Human Clothes, page 208
The long poems were more difficult for me. I am not going to read all of them again, instead I will now move onto picking favourites from the above.
————
To be found here: http://sfpoetry.com/ra/pages/20rhysling.html
Detours inspired by this anthology:
- Old Houses by Lizette Woodworth Reese - https://poets.org/poem/old-houses
- Robert Hutchings Goddard - https://roswell-nm.gov/348/Robert-H-Goddard-Dreamer-Tinkerer-Pionee
- The Root Queen’s Winter by Jessica P. Wick - https://enchantedlivingmagazine.com/the-root-queens-winter/
- Good Neighbors by JESSICA P. WICK - https://uncannymagazine.com/article/good-neighbors/
- Jessica Wick and Amal El-Mohtar, poetry webzine, http://www.goblinfruit.net/2016/winter/archives/
————
Winners of the 2020 Rhysling Award:
SHORT
1st:
“Taking, Keeping” • Jessica J. Horowitz - 50 points
2nd:
“when my father reprograms my mother {” • Caroline Mao 36 points
3rd (Tie):
Creation: Dark Matter Dating App, Sandra J. Lindow - 34 points
“The Day the Animals Turned to Sand” • Tyler Hagemann - 34 points
LONG
1st:
“Heliobacterium daphnephilum” • Rebecca Buchanan - 71 points
2nd:
“The Cinder Girl Burns Brightly” • Theodora Goss - 57 points
3rd (Tie):
“Ode to the Artistic Temperament” • Michael H. Payne - 41 points
“The Macabre Modern” • Kyla Lee Ward - 41 points
Publications with most nominations:
Polu Texni - 9
Star*Line - 9
Strange Horizons - 6
Eye to the Telescope - 5
Liminality - 5
New Myths - 5
Dreams and Nightmares - 4
Update June 2020:
I posted the actual winners of the award at the bottom.
Here is my own selection:
UPDATE, final round of Short Poems, narrowed down from the below longlist:
1. Sphere, page 20
2. All-Father, page 40
3. What You Hear When Your Best Friend Falls for a Supervillain, page 27
Those three could have ended up in any order. I read them several times, shuffled them around, read them again, shuffled again... it‘s impossible. Sphere and All-Father both immediately start my internal movie theater and my imagination spins off into the realm of a full novel...
Runners-Up:
1. The Snow Globe, page 76
2. Witch, page 54
And my final choice for the Long Poems, narrowed down from my longlist:
1. Sycophantam astrum, page 106
2. The City That Changed Hands, page 110
3. Stormbound, page 176
Runners-Up:
1. Heliobacterium daphnephilum, page 105
2. Childhood Memory from the Old Victorian House on Warner, page 109
3. Fune-RL, page 129
————
Short Poems First Published in 2019, liked the most during my first two read-throughs:
Spoiler
1. Sphere, page 202. New Stars, page 22
3. Ten-Card Tarot, Pentacles Wild, page 23
4. The Ruined Library, page 24
5. Fallen But Not Down, page 25
1. My Ghost Will Know The Way, page 25
2. A Purring Cat is a Time Machine, page 26
3. What You Hear When Your Best Friend Falls for a Supervillain, page 27
4. Continuum, page 28
5. Halsted IV, page 31
1. The Journey, page 32
2. Robert Goddard at Roswell, page 37
3. All-Father, page 40
4. How to Colonize Ganymede, page 53
5. To Skeptics, page 54
1. Witch, page 54
2. Creation: Dark Matter Dating App, page 58
3. Abeona, Goddess of Outward Journeys, Pilots the Interstellar Ark, page 58
4. If All the Seas Were Blood, page 64
5. Óòjí Íjè [Kola Journey], page 65
1. Huitzilopochtli, page 75
2. The Snow Globe, page 76
3. The Wolfman and Space Girl, page 78
4. No Fairy Tale World, page 81
5. Three of Swords, King of Cups, page 82
6. The Root King´s Winter, page 85
Long Poems First Published in 2019, liked the most during my first read-through:
Spoiler
1. Afterlife, page 962. Maculation, page 99
3. Heliobacterium daphnephilum, page 105
4. Sycophantam astrum, page 106
5. Childhood Memory from the Old Victorian House on Warner, page 109
1. The City That Changed Hands, page 110
2. Fune-RL, page 129
3. The Cinder Girl Burns Brightly, page 132
4. The Woman Who Talks to her Dog on the Beach, page 137
5. The Making of Dragons, page 154
1. Keep My Course True, page 159
2. Why Not?, page 161
3. Stormbound, page 176
4. In The End, Only The Gods, page 189
5. Driven, page 196
6. The Wolf Isn‘t The Only One Who Hides in Human Clothes, page 208
The long poems were more difficult for me. I am not going to read all of them again, instead I will now move onto picking favourites from the above.
————
To be found here: http://sfpoetry.com/ra/pages/20rhysling.html
Detours inspired by this anthology:
- Old Houses by Lizette Woodworth Reese - https://poets.org/poem/old-houses
- Robert Hutchings Goddard - https://roswell-nm.gov/348/Robert-H-Goddard-Dreamer-Tinkerer-Pionee
- The Root Queen’s Winter by Jessica P. Wick - https://enchantedlivingmagazine.com/the-root-queens-winter/
- Good Neighbors by JESSICA P. WICK - https://uncannymagazine.com/article/good-neighbors/
- Jessica Wick and Amal El-Mohtar, poetry webzine, http://www.goblinfruit.net/2016/winter/archives/
Little Miss Muffet
Sat on a tuffet,
Eating her curds and whey;
Along came a spider,
Who sat down beside her,
And frightened Miss Muffet away.
————
Winners of the 2020 Rhysling Award:
SHORT
1st:
“Taking, Keeping” • Jessica J. Horowitz - 50 points
2nd:
“when my father reprograms my mother {” • Caroline Mao 36 points
3rd (Tie):
Creation: Dark Matter Dating App, Sandra J. Lindow - 34 points
“The Day the Animals Turned to Sand” • Tyler Hagemann - 34 points
LONG
1st:
“Heliobacterium daphnephilum” • Rebecca Buchanan - 71 points
2nd:
“The Cinder Girl Burns Brightly” • Theodora Goss - 57 points
3rd (Tie):
“Ode to the Artistic Temperament” • Michael H. Payne - 41 points
“The Macabre Modern” • Kyla Lee Ward - 41 points
Publications with most nominations:
Polu Texni - 9
Star*Line - 9
Strange Horizons - 6
Eye to the Telescope - 5
Liminality - 5
New Myths - 5
Dreams and Nightmares - 4
kevinjfellows's review
challenging
dark
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
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