The 2024 Dwarf Stars Anthology: The Best Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Short Poetry of 2023
Brittany Hause is a writer and translator of very short speculative poetry. The first SFF piece of Brittany's to ever see publication was a dark scifaiku that debuted in Grievous Angel in 2017. Since then, more of Brittany's scifaiku as well as their genre takes on tanka, sijo, and other length-constrained forms of poetry have appeared in Eye to the Telescope, Scifaikuest, Kaleidotrope, and elsewhere. From 2021 onward, their translations of brief speculative verse by Hispanophone writers have also surfaced in Star*Line and Lothlorien Poetry Journal, among other venues.
Cover Art: Adapted from Les mystères de L'Infini by Jean Ignace Isidore Gérard Grandville, 1844
Layout: F. J. Bergmann
Publisher: Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association
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2024 Award Winners
Winner:
关于树的无数可能/"the infinite possibilities of trees" • Xiao Xi, translated from the Chinese by Yilin Wang from 《风不止》 (The Ceaseless Wind) • Prism International 61:3
2nd Place:
“All-Kinds-of-Fears” • Amelia Gorman • Dreams and Nightmares 125
3rd Place:
"Nikola Tesla" • F.J. Bergmann • Star*Line 46.2
Honorable Mentions:
"Beyondness" • Lorraine Schein • Penumbric 6:6
[for the always was] • Patrick Sweeney • Five Fleas 8/5
"Souvenir from the Center of the Universe" • Peter Payack • limited edition coin (Zoland Editions)
Yilin Wang 王艺霖 (she/they) is a writer, a poet, and Chinese-English translator. Her debut collection of translated poetry and essays on translation, The Lantern and the Night Moths (Invisible Publishing, 2024), has been described by reviewers as “exceptional” (Quill & Quire, starred review), “stunning” (Book Riot), a “gift” and “labor of love” (The Miramichi Reader), and “careful work and keen commentary” (Exchanges: Journal of Literary Translation). Her work has appeared in Clarkesworld, Fantasy Magazine, The Tyee, Words Without Borders, Samovar, and elsewhere. She has won the Foster Poetry Prize, received an Honorable Mention in the poetry category of Canada’s National Magazine Award, been longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize, and been a finalist for an Aurora Award. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from UBC and is a graduate of the 2021 Clarion West Writers Workshop. www.yilinwang.com. |
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Xiao Xi 小西 is a poet based in Qingdao in Shandong, China. Her poems have appeared in dozens of Chinese literary journals such as People’s Literature, Poetry Journal, October, and elsewhere, as well as been featured in numerous anthologies. She is the author of two poetry books in Chinese, titled Blue Salt 《蓝色的盐》and The Wind Would Not Cease 《风不止》 respectively. Her work has won various awards in China, including the Red Sorghum Poetry Prize. |
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Amelia Gorman lives in Eureka where she spends her free time exploring tidepools and redwoods with her dogs and foster dogs. Her fiction has appeared in Nightscript 6 and Cellar Door from Dark Peninsula Press. You can read some of her poetry in Vastarien, Utopia Science Fiction, and Strange Horizons. Her first chapbook, the Elgin-winning Field Guide to Invasive Species of Minnesota, is available from Interstellar Flight Press. Her microchapbook, The Worm Sonnets, is available from The Quarter Press. | ||
F.J. Bergmann is the poetry editor of Mobius: The Journal of Social Change, past editor of Star*Line, managing editor of MadHat Press, poetry editor for Weird House Press, 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. |
85 members voted. Voting is now closed.
Anthology Table of Contents
(120 poems)
- All-Kinds-of-Fears • Amelia Gorman • Dreams and Nightmares 125
- [All Saints Day] • David C. Kopaska-Merkel • Scifaikuest, November online
- [alone in deepest space] • Gabriel Smithwilson • Scifaikuest February online
- [among the fallen …] • Thomas Zimmerman • horror senryu journal 10/3
- [and the sun goes round] • Scott Metz • Heliosparrow Poetry journal 7/19
- Annual Report • Michael H. Payne • Star*Line 46.1
- [ants up and down] • Maurizio Brancaleoni • Scarlet Dragonfly journal Halloween
- apocalypse diet • Herb Kauderer • Scifaikuest August print
- [autumn equinox …] • Joshua Gage • The Starlight SciFaiku Review 3
- Awakening • Jay Sturner • Aphelion 287
- [a barge] • Susan Burch • Tanka Hangout 2023
- [bedtime story] • Greg Schwartz • Space & Time Magazine 145
- Bela Lugosi • Jean Jones • Aphelion 283
- Beyondness • Lorraine Schein • Penumbric 6:6
- [black ice] • Roberta Beary • tsuri-dōrō 14
- [Black Moon] • Joshua St. Claire • Scifaikuest November print
- [blue moonlight] • Hifsa Ashraf • horror senryu journal 8/7
- [boiling over] • Barrie Levine • horror senryu journal 11/10
- [bomb shelter] • Jay Friedenberg • H. Gene Murtha Memorial Senryu Contest 2023 Edition, 2nd place
- By Its Cover • F. J. Bergmann • Shelf Life (Space Cowboy Books)
- [by the fridge] • Richard Magahiz • Five Fleas, 11/10
- caress • ayaz daryl nielsen • Aphelion 280
- [chalk flowers bloom] • David C. Kopaska-Merkel • Scifaikuest November print
- the chosen one • Herb Kauderer • The Book of Sleep (Written Image)
- [cities blinking out] • Ed Brickell • The Starlight SciFaiku Review 3
- [corn maze] • Ron Scully • Scarlet Dragonfly Journal , Halloween
- Cornucopia • Ian Willey • Star*Line 46.3
- [crawlspace …] • Greg Schwartz • horror senryu journal 6/7
- [crows filing …] • Cherie Hunter Day • Heliosparrow Poetry journal 12/22
- [death watch] • Francis W. Alexander • horror senryu journal 4/12
- [deep autumn …] • Joshua Gage • The Starlight SciFaiku Review 3
- [deep in ghostweather …] • John Pappas • Heliosparrow Poetry journal 12/22
- Disrespectfully • Beatrice Winifred Iker • The Deadlands 23
- Doppelgänger • Anna Cates • Star*Line 46.3
- Downlift • Mary Soon Lee • Radon Journal 5
- [draped] • Thomas Tilton • Paper Houses
- [earthlight] • Tyler McIntosh • Scifaikuest November online
- [egoless] • Richard Magahiz • Five Fleas, 4/3
- Einstein joins the magic circle • Diana Webb • Heliosparrow Poetry journal 12/7
- Elsie Maud Wakefield (1886–1972) • Jessy Randall • Escape Into Life, 5/17
- enchanted • Crystal Sidell • Frozen Wavelets 8
- fading echoes • Herb Kauderer • Scifaikuest May print
- [finding] • Joshua St. Claire • horror senryu journal 10/5
- [first blizzard] • petro c. k. • The Flying Saucer Review 2
- [for the always was] • Patrick Sweeney • Five Fleas, 8/5
- [galactic wind …] • Debbie Strange • Yuki Teikei Haiku Society Members’ Haiga Slideshow Celebration, July
- [gondoliers strum strings] • Akua Lezli Hope • Star*Line 46.1
- [grief] • Thomas Tilton • Paper Houses
- [a handful of stars] • Lesley Anne Swanson • tinywords 23:2
- [hard rain tonight] • Thomas Zimmerman • horror senryu journal 7/17
- [harvest moon—] • Hla Yin Mon • Scarlet Dragonfly Journal
- Halloween Healing by Good Intention • Egbiameje Omole • Eye to the Telescope 49
- [home alone] • Ngo Binh Anh Khoa • Scifaikuest August print
- [I swallow] • H. V. Patterson • Otoroshi Journal 3:1
- Ice and Fire • Roger Dutcher • Star*Line 46.4
- [in a dark bazaar] • Barun Saha • Star*Line 46.4
- 关于树的无数可能/the infinite possibilities of trees • Xiao Xi, translated from the Chinese by Yilin Wang from 《风不止》 (The Ceaseless Wind) • Prism International 61:3
- In Dreams of Fossils • Meg Smith • Aphelion 285
- Joan of Arc • Jean Jones • Aphelion 284
- [last page] • Ann K. Schwader • Scifaikuest May online
- Lesser Realities • Brian U. Garrison • The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, November/December
- [long forgotten dream] • Hifsa Ashraf • Viewing Stone Association of North America, March
- Maxikins Surfs Space • Adele Gardner • Star*Line 46.3
- microcosm • Russell Nichols • Star*Line 46.4
- [moons rising] • Shelli Jankowski-Smith • Scifaikuest August online
- [my new friend and I] • John J. Dunphy • Haikuniverse, 4/16
- Nikola Tesla • F. J. Bergmann • Star*Line 46.2
- The Observer • Bruce Boston • Analog Science Fiction and Fact, March/April
- [peat fire] • Debbie Strange • Frogpond 46:3
- Persephone Takes Up the Garnets • Ursula Whitcher • The Deadlands 27
- [petrichor] • LeRoy Gorman • Eye to Eye: The Tanka Society of America 2023 Members’ Anthology
- The Philadelphia Experiment • John C. Mannone • Abyss & Apex 85
- Positronic Effigy • Marie Vibbert • Abyss & Apex 88
- Oración para los antiguos viajeros de la Tierra/Prayer for the Old
- Voyagers of Earth • Angela Acosta • Star*Line 46.2
- Pulsar • James Arthur Anderson • Asimov’s Science Fiction, January/February
- [quantum fluctuations] • Joshua St. Claire • The Starlight SciFaiku Review 3
- [red leaves …] • Rich Schilling • horror senryu journal 3/8
- [red sun rising …] • Chad Lee Robinson • horror senryu journal 11/1
- [redshift] • Julie Schwerin • Presence 75
- Requiem • Shelly Jones • Lothlorien Poetry journal 6/10
- Returning to Dark Skies • Herb Kauderer • Scifaikuest February print
- Secret Keeper • Mark J. Mitchell • Carmina Magazine, September
- Sijo • Mariel Herbert • Lothlorien Poetry journal 2/27
- [sitting in the dark] • Jill Trade • The Starlight Scifaiku Review 3
- The Sky Was Falling • Eugen Bacon • Texture of Silence, December
- Sleeping Beauty’s Lament • Rebecca Buchanan • Dreams and
- Nightmares 124
- [snake eyes] • Gloundan Smorpian • Dreams and Nightmares 124
- [solar flare aftermath] • Stephen C. Curro • Scifaikuest August online
- Souvenir from the Center of the Universe • Peter Payack • limited edition coin (Zoland Editions)
- [space debris …] • Pravat Kumar Padhy • the high lonesome: The Haiku Foundation Volunteer Anthology
- Space Problem • David C. Kopaska-Merkel • Five Fleas, 10/18
- [spangled stars] • Colleen Anderson • Scifaikuest May print
- [spiderwebs] • Joshua St. Claire • The Starlight Scifaiku Review 3
- Standardized Education • Mahaila Smith • Star*Line 46.3
- Starbarque • Harris Coverley • View From Atlantis 78
- Stargames • John Reinhart • Star*Line 46.3
- Stasis • Jessica Lucci • Graveyard Shift
- Storm God • Carma Lynn Park • Star*Line 46.2
- [sweeping up] • Eavonka Ettinger • horror senryu journal 1/1
- Tapping on the Void • Marsheila Rockwell • Frozen Wavelets 8
- [tick] • Richard Magahiz • Five Fleas, 9/12
- Travelogue • Jean-Marie Romana • Star*Line 46.1
- two glottal stops • D. A. Xiaolin Spires • Star*Line 46.1
- UAP • Wendy Van Camp • Star*Line 46.4
- [under] • Richard Magahiz • Five Fleas, 8/9
- [unsure of how to hold myself] • Royal Baysinger • Dreams and Nightmares 125
- Up in the Air • Ian Willey • Star*Line 46.2
- Valley of Ashes • Diem Okoye • Dreams and Nightmares 125
- [w ing] • Victor Ortiz • Heliosparrow Poetry journal 5/18
- [waking yet not waking …] • Chen-ou Liu • tinywords 23:2
- We Both Loved You • Lauren McBride • Star*Line 46.1
- [We’ve seen him now …] • Susan Burch • haikuKATHA 23
- What We’ve Left • Holly Day • Dreams and Nightmares 124
- What Ghosts Didn’t Do • Mary Soon Lee • SFPA 2023 Speculative Poetry Contest, Dwarf 2nd Place
- [winter chill] • Ngo Binh Anh Khoa • Scifaikuest August online
- [winter night—] • Debarati Sen • horror senryu journal 4/19
- Wish • Emily Jiang • Uncanny 54
- [witching hour] • Rich Schilling • horror senryu journal 9/12