2020 Elgin Awards
For books published in 2018 and 2019

2020 Elgin Chair: Colleen Anderson
Colleen Anderson is a Canadian author writing fiction and poetry and has had over 170 poems published in such venues as Grievous Angel, Polu Texni, The Future Fire, HWA Poetry Showcase and many others. She is a member of HWA and SFPA and a Canada Council grant recipient for writing. She has performed her work before audiences in the US, UK and Canada and has placed in the Balticon, Rannu, Crucible and Wax poetry competitions. Colleen also enjoys editing and co-edited Canadian anthologies Playground of Lost Toys (Aurora nominated) and Tesseracts 17, and her solo anthology Alice Unbound: Beyond Wonderland was published by Exile Books. She has served on both Stoker Award and British Fantasy Award juries, and guest-edited Eye to the Telescope. Her short-story collection, A Body of Work was published by Black Shuck Books, UK. Living in Vancouver, Colleen keeps an eye out for mold monsters and mermaids, and will be guest of honor in 2020 at the Creative Ink Festival. colleenanderson.wordpress.com

Book Award Winners spacer Chapbook Award Winners
Soft Science coverWinner: Soft Science • Franny Choi (Alice James Books, 2019)   The Book of Fly coverWinner:The Book of Fly • John Philip Johnson (Graphic Poetry Press, 2019)
Elemental Haiku cover2nd Place: Elemental Haiku • Mary Soon Lee (Ten Speed Press, 2019)   The Last Mastodon cover2nd Place: The Last Mastodon • Christina Olson (Rattle, 2019)
The Comfort of Screams cover3rd Place (tie): The Comfort of Screams •  G. O. Clark (Alban Lake Publishing, 2018)   Fragments from the Book of the After-Dead  cover3rd Place: Fragments from the Book of the After-Dead • Herb Kauderer (The Poet’s Haven, 2019)
The Demeter Diaries cover3rd Place (tie): The Demeter Diaries • Marge Simon & Bryan D. Dietrich (Independent Legions, 2019)    

52 members voted

Full-Length Book Award Winners:
Franny Choi photo
Franny Choi is the author of two poetry collections, Soft Science (Alice James Books) and Floating, Brilliant, Gone (Write Bloody Publishing), as well as a chapbook, Death by Sex Machine (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2017). A Kundiman Fellow and graduate of the University of Michigan's Helen Zell Writers Program, she co-hosts the podcast VS alongside fellow Dark Noise Collective member Danez Smith. She teaches at Williams College as a Gaius Charles Bolin Fellow and lives in Northampton, MA. Photo by Jasmine Durhal.

Christina Sng photo
Mary Soon Lee was born and raised in London, but has lived in Pittsburgh for over twenty years. Her two latest books are from opposite ends of the poetry spectrum: Elemental Haiku, containing haiku for each element of the periodic table (Ten Speed Press, 2019) and The Sign of the Dragon, an epic fantasy with Chinese and Mongolian elements (JABberwocky Literary Agency, 2020). She has a website at marysoonlee.com and tweets at @MarySoonLee.

Christina Sng photo
G. O. Clark’s writing has been published in Asimov's, Analog, Space & Time, Midnight Under The Big Top, Daily SF, HWA Poetry Showcase VII and many other publications over the last 30 years. He's the author of 15 poetry collections; the most recent, Easy Travel To The Stars, 2020. His second fiction collection, Twist & Turns, came out in 2016. He won the Asimov's Readers Award for poetry in 2001 and was Stoker Award finalist in 2011. He's retired and lives in Davis, CA. goclarkpoet.weebly.com


Marge Simon lives in Ocala, FL. She edits a column for the HWA Newsletter, "Blood & Spades: Poets of the Dark Side," and serves on Board of Trustees.  She is the second woman to be acknowledged by the SFPA with a Grand Master Award. She is a Bram Stoker Award recipient and multiple finalist. Other awards: Dwarf Stars and Strange Horizons Readers’ Award. Winner (with Bryan Dietrich) of the Lord Ruthven Assembly award for Best Vampire collection, 2020. She attends the ICFA annually as a guest poet/writer and is among the founders of the Speculative Literary Foundation. margesimon.com

Bryan D. Dietrich photo
Bryan D. Dietrich is a former president of the SFPA and the author of nine books of poems and co-editor of an anthology of superhero poetry. He has published poems in Asimov's, Weird Tales, Strange Horizons, The New YorkerPoetry, and many other journals. Finalist for the Bram Stoker Awards (along with Marge Simon), he has won the Paris Review Prize, a Nation Award, the Lord Ruthven Award, and has been nominated for both the Pushcart and the Pulitzer. Bryan is Professor of English at Newman University in Wichita, Kansas.

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Chapbook Award Winners:
Neil Aitken photo
John Philip Johnson is a Pushcart-prize winning poet who writes science fiction and fantasy. He has had work in Asimov’s, F&SF, Strange Horizons, Rattle, and elsewhere, including Ted Kooser’s newspaper column, "American Life in Poetry." He has two comic books of graphic poetry, Stairs Appear in a Hole Outside of Town, and The Book of Fly, with poems like little Twilight Zone episodes. Both books are available at his website, johnphilipjohnson.com.


Christina Olson is the author of Terminal Human Velocity. Her chapbook The Last Mastodon won the Rattle 2019 Chapbook Contest. Other work appears in The Atlantic, The Normal School, Virginia Quarterly Review, and The Best Creative Nonfiction. She is an associate professor at Georgia Southern University and tweets about coneys and mastodons as @olsonquest.

Laura Madeline Wiseman photo
Herb Kauderer is an English Professor at Hilbert College, and holds a PhD, an MFA in Creative Writing, and five other degrees.  Fragments from the Book of the After-Dead was his seventeenth poetry collection, and was followed by the mainstream chapbook Frozen at the Edges. His writing has won the Asimov’s Readers’ Award, been a finalist for the Analog AnLab Readers’ Award, and received Honorable Mention in The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror. He has also been nominated for the Pushcart, Rhysling, and Dwarf Star awards. He is an assistant poetry editor at Amazing Stories, and co-edits (with Sandra J. Lindow) “SpecPo Reviews” on the SpecPo Blog. More about Herb and his writing can be found at HerbKauderer.com.

Chapbooks (13 chapbooks nominated)
The Book of Fly • John Philip Johnson (Graphic Poetry Press, 2019)
Coronations • Catherine Kyle (Ghost City Press, 2019)
Dark Matters • Russell Jones (Tapsalteerie Press, 2018)
Fragments from the Book of the After-Dead • Herb Kauderer (The Poet’s Haven, 2019)
Havoc in Silence • Tiffany Morris (Molten Molecular Minutiae, 2018)
Inverted Night • John W. Sexton (SurVision Books, 2019)
Kola Superdeep Borehole • Joe Fletcher (Bateau Press, 2019)
The Last Mastodon • Christina Olson (Rattle, 2019)
Odes to Scientists / Us, Clone (audio) • Jean-Paul Garnier (Space Cowboy Books, 2019)
Origami Lilies • Joshua Gage (The Poet’s Haven, 2018)
Says the Forest to the Girl • Sally Rosen Kindred (Porkbelly Press, 2018)
Tales from the House of Vasquez • Raquel Vasquez Gilliland (Rattle Poetry, 2019)
Titania in Yellow • Dayna Patterson (Porkbelly Press, 2019)

Full-length Books (42 books nominated)
Absolute Zero • David Lunde (Mayapple Press, 2018)
Age of Glass • Anna Marie Hong (CSU Poetry Center, 2018)
Algorithmic Shapeshifting • Bogi Takács (Aqueduct Press, 2019)
The Ambassador Takes One for the Team • David C. Kopaska-Merkel (Diminuendo Press, 2019)
The Apocalyptic Mannequin • Stephanie M. Wytovich (Raw Dog Screaming Press, 2019)
As The Seas Turn Red • Morgan Sylvia (2019)
Bear, Coyote, Raven • Jason Grundstrom-Whitney (Resolute Bear Press, 2019)
Cacophony • Josh Medsker (Alien Buddha Press, 2019)
Candles & Pins • Jacqueline West (Alban Lake, 2018)
The Ceremonial Armor of the Impostor • Gregory Kimbrell (Weasel Press, 2019)
Choking Back the Devil • Donna Lynch (Raw Dog Screaming Press, 2019)
The Comfort of Screams •  G. O. Clark (Alban Lake Publishing, 2018)
Dame Evergreen: And Other Poems of Myth, Magic & Madness • Rebecca Buchanan (Sycorax Press, 2018)
Dead Girls • Francesca Lia Block (A Midsummer Night's Press, 2019)
Deaf Republic • Ilya Kaminsky (Graywolf Press, 2019)
The Demeter Diaries • Marge Simon & Bryan D. Dietrich (Independent Legions, 2019)
Dragonfly and Other Songs of Mourning • Michelle Scalise (Lycan Valley Press, 2019)
Elemental Haiku • Mary Soon Lee (Ten Speed Press, 2019)
The Endless Frontier: Poetry for Space Explorers • irving (2018)
The Gates of Never • Deborah L. Davitt (Finishing Line Press)
goodwill galaxy hunting • LeRoy Gorman (Urban Farmhouse Press, 2019)
Invocabulary • Gemma Files (Aqueduct Press, 2018)
The Ladies of the Everlasting Lichen and Other Relics • Wade German (Mount Abraxas Press, 2019)
Noisesome Ghosts • Clay Thistleton (Blart Books, 2018)
The Octopus Museum • Brenda Shaughnessey (Knopf, 2019)
Our Otherworld • Juleigh Howard-Hobson (The Red Salon, 2018)
Palaces of the Ages: Poetry of the Fantastic and the Strange • irving (2018)
The Pastime Machine • Lester Smith (Popcorn Press, 2018)
Planet Hunter • Alan Ira Gordon (Alban Lake, 2018)
The Planets • Wendy Van Camp (2019)
Poetry for the Neon Apocalypse • Jake Tringali (Transcendent Zero Press, 2018)
Queen to His King • David M. Hoenig (Oscillate Wildly Press, 2018)
A Route Obscure and Lonely • LindaAnn LoSchiavo (The Wapshott Press, 2019)
Small Waiting Objects • T. D. Walker (CW Books, 2019)
Soft Science • Franny Choi (Alice James Books, 2019)
Such Luck • Sara Backer (Flowstone Press, 2019)
The Sun Ships & Other Poems • Steven Withrow (2019)
There Will Be a Reckoning: Poems of Magic and Dread • irving (2018)
Thirteen Nocturnes • Oliver Sheppard (Ikonograph Press, 2018)
The Year of the Witch • Shannon Connor Winward (Sycorax Press, 2018)
Your Strange Fortune • Chloe N. Clark (Vegetarian Alcoholic Press, 2019)
Zen Amen: A Collection of Abecedarians • Michael Kriesel (Pebblebrook Press, 2019)

Nominations per press: (41 presses)
3   Alban Lake
1   Alice James Books
1   Alien Buddha Press
2   Aqueduct Press
1   Bateau Press
1   Blart Books
1   CSU Poetry Center
1   CW Books
1   Diminuendo Press
1   Finishing Line Press
1   Flowstone Press
1   Ghost City Press
1   Graphic Poetry Press
1   Graywolf Press
1   Ikonograph Press
1   Independent Legions
1   Knopf
1   Lycan Valley Press
1   Mayapple Press
1  

A Midsummer Night's Press

1   Molten Molecular Minutiae
1   Mount Abraxas Press
1   Oscillate Wildly Press
1   Pebblebrook Press
2   The Poet’s Haven
2   Porkbelly Press
1   Popcorn Press
2   Rattle Poetry
2   Raw Dog Screaming Press
1   The Red Salon
1   Resolute Bear Press
1   Space Cowboy Books
1   Survision Books
2   Sycorax Press
1   Tapsalteerie Press
1   Ten Speed Press
1   Transcendent Zero Press
1   Urban Farmhouse Press
1   Vegetarian Alcoholic Press
1   The Wapshott Press
2   Weasel Press

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