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SFPA Announces Call for 2009 Rhysling Award Nominations
Check out full nomination procedures or learn more about the Rhysling Award. An archive of past winning poems is also available here on our site.
Speculative Poet Receives Prestigious Fellowship
Literature Fellowships are the Arts Endowment's most direct investment in American creativity, encouraging the production of new work and allowing writers the time and means to write. The fellowships alternate annually between poetry and prose. For 2009, 42 poets will receive fellowships of $25,000 each. This year there were more than 1,000 applications from across the US.
Thao Worra will use the fellowship to complete his next book and travel across the U.S. observing Laotian-American refugee communities.
Thao Worra currently lives in Minnesota and in August 2007 released his first full-length collection of speculative poetry, On the Other Side of the Eye.
One of the most widely published Laotian writers, Thao Worra has seen his work in many anthologies and journals, including Bamboo Among the Oaks, Paj Ntaub Voice, Whistling Shade, Urban Pioneer, Tales of the Unanticipated, Unarmed, the Asian Pacific Journal and the Journal of the Asian American Renaissance.
He will release a new book, Barrow, in April 2009. You can visit his blog at http://thaoworra.blogspot.com.
SFPA President to Present at Haiku North America 2009
"This acceptance, to me, signifies a definite shift in the perception of scifaiku/speculative haiku by the mainstream haiku community," Debbie says. "My presentation is slotted for a 30 minute time slot. I would welcome any speculative poets near Ottawa in the audience." Visit our Poetry Events page or the Haiku North America 2009 website for more information on the event.
Debbie reports that she has also proposed to give a modified version of the presentation at the 2009 WorldCon in Toronto, but as of this writing, she has not yet heard back from that committee.
Debbie also posted on the SFPANet group that she has noticed several other recent events that seem to signify greater mainstream acceptance of or interest in speculative poetry — at least haiku poetry:
2008 Grandmaster Award Presented to Bradbury
On Saturday, August 23, officers of the Science Fiction Poetry
Association presented Ray Bradbury with the 2008 Grand Master Poet
Award at his Moby Dick-themed 88th birthday party, held at the Mystery and Imagination
Bookstore in Glendale, Calif. President Deborah P Kolodji,
Treasurer Samantha Henderson and Rhysling Awards Chair Drew Morse
were on hand to present the Grand Master plaque to Mr. Bradbury. George Clayton
Johnson also said a few words about the filming of Moby Dick.
Learn more about the 2008 Rhysling Awards or
get details about Mr. Bradbury's selection as SFPA 2008 Grandmaster.
Photo caption: SFPA Treasurer Samantha Henderson,
President Deborah
P Kolodji and
Rhysling Awards Chair Drew Morse present Ray Bradbury with his Grandmaster Award plaque.
Rhysling Winners and 2008 Grandmaster Announced
Speculative Poetry Workshop at the California Science Center
Photo caption: W. Gregory Stewart, Deborah
P Kolodji, Denise Dumars,
Nancy Taylor, Lois P. Jones, and Kath Abela Wilson
Apollo Command Module for Apollo-Soyuz Test Project
Launched July 15, 1975
Returned to Earth July 24, 1975
On Saturday, June 7th, six members of the Southland Poets of the Fantastic had a speculative poetry adventure at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. After admiring space photographs, playing games of virtual soccer and Gravball, and wandering through exhibits on light, molecular biology, and transportation, poets lunched and talked poetry.
Next were the Sketch Foundation Gallery Air and Space Exhibits where poets viewed vintage spacecraft such as the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz Test Project Apollo Command Module, the 1966 Gemini 11 Space Capsule, and the 1961 Mercury MR-2 Capsule. This was followed by an hour of writing poems to the prompts inspired by the museum exhibits. The afternoon ended with a sharing of poems written that day.
Poetry Panel at Oasis, Sunday, May 25
The
SFPA was well represented at the poetry panel at the Oasis convention
in Orlando. SFPA members Malcolm Deeley, Bruce Boston, Chris
Ambrose (moderator), Marge Simon, and John Tumlin shared the panel with
artist Guest of Honor (GOH) Paul Vincenti.
The panel was
entitled "Brave New Worlds of SF Poetry" (in honor of writer GOH David
Gerrold). In addition to the traditional reading of poetry, the
panel explored the relationships between poetry and the visual
arts. Several examples were given where themes from one media
crossed boundaries to provide inspiration in another.
Although
the panel was sparsely attended (at no time was the panel outnumbered),
the discussion and exchange of ideas was quite enjoyable for all
present.
2008 WisCon Poetry Reading
Jeannie Bergmann is second from left. Sandra Lindow is third from left.
Sandra Lindow coordinated the 2008 WisCon poetry reading which featured the following poets: Jeannie Bergmann, Elissa Malcohn and Sandra Lindow. The reading took place at Michaelangelo's Cafe in downtown Madison, Wisconsin.
SFPA Official Archives Transfered
Eaton Conference SFPA poetry reading
May 17, 2008
Top (Left to Right): Gwido Zlatkes, Dana Stamps II, Deborah P Kolodji,
Stephen M. Wilson, Geoffrey A. Landis, Denise Dumars, W. Gregory
Stewart, g.o. clark, Jeff Green, Ann Frenkel
Bottom (Left to Right): Chrystine Julian, Samantha Henderson, Richard Gombert, Kendall Evans, Mary Turzillo, Howard Hendrix
On
Saturday, May 17, 2008, the Science Fiction Poetry Association official
archives were transferred to the J. Lloyd Eaton Collection of Science
Fiction, Fantasty, Horror, and Utopian Literature at the University of
California, Riverside. Dr. Melissa Conway was on hand to
ceremoniously accept the archives from SFPA publication archivist
Richard Gombert, who was accompanied onstage by SFPA president Deborah
P Kolodji, and SFPA treasurer Samantha Henderson.
The transfer was also celebrated by a poetry reading and open mike, followed by a SFPA dinner celebration at Tios Tacos. Poets participating in the reading and open mike were Deborah P. Kolodji, W. Gregory Stewart, Geoffrey A. Landis, Mary Turzillo, Samantha Henderson, Kendall Evans, Denise Dumars, Howard Hendrix, g.o. clark, Chrystine Julian, Stephen M. Wilson, Jeff Green, Dana Stamps II, Dan Wu, Rachel Neff, Gwido Zlatkes, Ann Frenkel, and Scott Denning.
Grand
Master Nominations Announced
Five
poets have been nominated for the 2008 Grand Master of Speculative
Poetry Award and have accepted their nominations. The
nominatees are Ray Bradbury, Joe Haldeman, David C. Kopaska-Merkel,
Marge Simon, and Steve Sneyd. A Grand Master of Speculative
Poetry must be a living poet who has been actively publishing within
the target genres of Science Fiction and Fantasy for a period of no
less than twenty years, and whose poetry has been noted to be
exceptional in merit, scope, vision and innovation. A poet need not be
a member of the Science Fiction Poetry Association to be awarded this
honor. Members of the Science Fiction Poetry Association will be
voting for the Grand Master Award on the Rhysling Award ballot next
month.
Winners of Balticon 42 Poetry Contest Announced
The winners of the Balticon 42 Poetry Contest have been announced. First Place was awarded to Patricia Budd, of Portland ME for "Wind Up," dedicated to Kepler, Newton, Carl "Oisk" Erskine, and Jim Bouton. Second Place went to Diana Chien of Holmdel, NJ for "I Love You for Your Brains, Not Your Looks" (Zombie Love Song). Third Place was given to Christa A. Bergerson of Lombard, IL for "Sekhmet Upon the Horizon."
SFPAns win 2008 RTA "Moving Minds" Poetry Contest
The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (RTA), in cooperation with The Lit and the Cleveland chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), recently sponsored the third round of its well-received "Moving Minds: The Verse and Vision Project." "Moving Minds" pairs the work of local poets with the work of graphic artists based in the region to produce placards that are displayed on RTA buses and trains.
The following SFPA poets are winners of this year's "Moving Minds" contest:
SFPAn Bruce Boston Wins Asimov's Readers' Award
Bruce Boston's poem "The Dimensional Rush of Relative Primes" has won the 2008 Asimov's Readers' Award. The poem appeared in Asimov's SF, April-May, 2007, and in Boston's collection Shades Fantastic (Gromagon Press). You can find it online at the Gromagon Press site. http://www.gromagonpress.com /librarytwentyfive.html
SFPA Poets Win Stoker Awards
From the Left: Charlee Jacob, Marge Simon Linda Addison (WHC 2000, Denver, CO)
Superior Achievement in Poetry: BEING FULL OF LIGHT, INSUBSTANTIAL by Linda Addison (Space and Time)
Superior Achievement in Poetry: VECTORS: A WEEK IN THE DEATH OF A PLANET by Charlee Jacob & Marge Simon (Dark Regions Press)
Superior Achievement in a Collection: PROVERBS FOR MONSTERS by Michael A. Arnzen (Dark Regions Press)
Bryan Thao Worra Receives $6,000 Artist's Grant
Bryan Thao Worra of Saint Paul receieved $6,000 as part of the Artist Initiative Grant program — to promote and build new audiences for his first book of poetry and his recent work, especially among historically underserved audiences, and to complete his second book of Laotian American speculative poetry. His first book of speculative poetry, On The Other Side Of The Eye, was released in August, 2007 by Sam's Dot Publishing.
For more information:
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