Scan barcode
A review by mary_soon_lee
Dwarf Stars 2017 by Robin Mayhall
3.0
This brief anthology contains the contenders for this year's Dwarf Stars award for best short-short speculative poem (10 lines or fewer). There are seventeen pages of tiny poems of many flavors: horror, humor, science, science fiction, though almost none that I would classify as fantasy (other than dark fantasy pieces from the borderlands of horror). Inevitably, not all the poems were to my taste, but the anthology is packed with interesting ideas compressed into a scant few lines.
A few of my favorites: I liked the evocative way that Robert Borski's "Cenotaph Moon" suggested a larger story. I liked the succinct humor of Herb Kauderer's "epitaph for an ogre" and John Reinhart's "knitting for nieces." Of the science-flavored poems, I especially liked Ann K. Schwader's "no shore" and Shelly Bryant's "Pluto." Christina Sng's "pandemonium" had a bright playfulness that appealed to me. Weighing in at a comparatively hefty eight lines, I thought Shannon Connor Winward's "Craving" had a lovely haunting quality that matched its subject matter.
A few of my favorites: I liked the evocative way that Robert Borski's "Cenotaph Moon" suggested a larger story. I liked the succinct humor of Herb Kauderer's "epitaph for an ogre" and John Reinhart's "knitting for nieces." Of the science-flavored poems, I especially liked Ann K. Schwader's "no shore" and Shelly Bryant's "Pluto." Christina Sng's "pandemonium" had a bright playfulness that appealed to me. Weighing in at a comparatively hefty eight lines, I thought Shannon Connor Winward's "Craving" had a lovely haunting quality that matched its subject matter.