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A review by mary_soon_lee
The 2020 Rhysling Anthology by David C. Kopaska-Merkel
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).