The 2017 Rhysling Anthology and Awards

The 2017 Rhysling Awards

Short Poem Category

First Place
“George Tecumseh Sherman’s Ghosts”
Marge Simon • Silver Blade 32

Second Place
“Build a Rocketship Contest: Alternative
Class A Instructions and Suggestions”
Wendy Rathbone • Asimov’s SF January

Third Place (tie)
“Godzilla vs. King Kong”
James S. Dorr • Dreams and Nightmares 103

“Richard Feynman’s Commute”
Jon Wesick • The Were-Traveler Dec. 21

“The Box of Dust and Monsters”
Beth Cato • Devilfish Review 17

spacer Long Poem Category

First Place
“Rose Child”
Theodora Goss • Uncanny 13

Second Place
“The Rime of the Eldritch Mariner”
Adam Bolivar • Spectral Realms 5

Third Place
“Not Like This”
Mary Soon Lee • Apex Magazine Aug. 4

110 members voted
Winner Biographies and Photos

The 2017 Rhysling Anthology:
The Best Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Poetry of 2016

2017 Rhysling Anthology cover spacer

Editor and Rhysling Chair: David C. Kopaska-Merkel
Book Design: F.J. Bergmann
Cover Image: Liu Junwei, aka Shark (Shayudan 鲨鱼丹), sharksden.deviantart.com
Publisher: Science Fiction Poetry Association

$15.95 + $4 U.S. shipping; $11 Canada; $17 international). E-mail the treasurer for postage costs on multiple copies. $4 .pdf.

Payable by PayPal to SFPATreasurer@gmail.com

 


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Short Poems (99 poems)
“3D printer” • Francis Wesley Alexander • Scifaikuest November
“Absentation” • Lesley Wheeler • Thrush Poetry Journal, November
“Adolescence” • Ken Poyner • Star*Line 39.4
“After” • Herb Kauderer • Asimov's SF November/December
“Always the Black and White Keys” • Corrine De Winter • Horror Writers Association Poetry Showcase Vol. III, ed. David E. Cowen
“Antagonist” • F.J. Bergmann • Spectral Realms 5
“appendage sale” • Susan Burch • Star*Line 39.2
“The Architect of Bonfires” • Tonya Liburd •  Space & Time 127
“The Ash Manifesto” • Rose Lemberg • Strange Horizons 10 October
“At the Robot National Convention” • Alan Ira Gordon • Star*Line 39.3
“The Bird Prince” • John W. Sexton • Faerie Magazine Summer
“The birds forget to sing” •  Carl Mayfield • Abbey 147
“Black Bull of Norroway” • Jane Yolen • Goblin Fruit Winter
“Bones Knock in the House” • Mary McMyne • Rose Red Review 18
“Bottle Cast Upon A Dry Sea” • G.O. Clark • Asimov’s Science Fiction February
“The Box of Dust and Monsters” • Beth Cato • Devilfish Review 17
“A Bug in the System” • Anton Cancre • Quick Shivers about Bugs (Cosmonomic Multimedia)
“Build a Rocketship Contest: Alternative Class A Instructions and Suggestions” • Wendy Rathbone • Asimov's SF January
“Christmas on Mars” • Carolyn M. Hinderliter •  Scifaikuest Vol. XIII, No. 4
“Classification of Folktales” • Margaret Wack • Strange Horizons
“The Dark between the Stars” • G.O. Clark • Star*Line 39.4
“Death Rides USAir At Night” • Jane Yolen • Parody 5:1
“Descent of the Composer” • Airea D. Matthews • Poem-a-Day October 24, Academy of American Poets
“The Doppelgänger and the Ghost” • Lev Mirov • Eye to the Telescope 22
“Dorothy Delivered” • Kathleen A. Lawrence • Altered Reality Magazine 1
“Exotic Heads Trimmed Neatly” • John Reinhart • Eye to the Telescope 21
“Falling (A Part)” • Alexandra Erin •  medium.com June 8
“The Fantasy of Hans Christian Andersen” • KH van Berkum • Strange Horizons February 8
Feles Alieni Vere Sunt • Neile Graham • Devilfish Review 17
“*For Quick Sale*” • Greer Woodward • Lupine Lunes, ed. Lester Smith (Popcorn Press)
“Foreign Policy” • David Barber • Star*Line 39.3
“The Frog” • K. Cassandra O’Malley • The Well of Changes (Bag Person Press) [reprint permission unavailable]
“George Tecumseh Sherman’s Ghosts” • Marge Simon • Silver Blade 32
“The Genius” • Sara Backer • Mithila Review 3
“The Giantess’s Dream” • Ada Hoffman • Twisted Moon 1
“Glastonbury, 1994” • P.S. Cottier • Project 365 + 1 June 29
“Godzilla vs. King Kong” • James S. Dorr • Dreams and Nightmares 103
“History Teacher” • Gary Every • Star*Line 39.4
“How far does night have to fall?” • F.J. Bergmann • The Future Fire 38
“I Left My Heart in San Francisco. I Left Yours Somewhere in Colorado …” • Matt Betts • Underwater Fistfight (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
“Ink” • Akua Lezli Hope • Yellow Chair Review, Horror Issue, October
“Invocation of Diana” • K.A. Opperman • Eternal Haunted Summer Summer
“The Last Woman on Earth” • Mary Stone • Amethyst Arsenic 6:1
“Learning the History of War” J.J. Steinfeld • Star*Line 39.3
“Less than Human” • Marge Simon • You, Human (Dark Regions Press)
“The Long Run” • Neil Gaiman • Uncanny November/December
“Loose String” E. Kristin Anderson • Coe Review 47.1
“Love in the Time of Apocalypse” • Ann Thornfield-Long • Silver Blade 31
“Machine Testimonial 2” • Margaret Rhee • Mission at Tenth
“Marginalia on Eiruvin 45b” • Bogi Takács • Bracken Magazine 2
“Martian Garden” • John Philip Johnson • The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction July/August 2016
“Memorial” • Tim Jones • New Sea Land (Makaro Press)
“The Memory Machines” • Jane Williams • The Pedestal Magazine 79
“My Corpse, My Groom” • Ashley Dioses • The Audient Void: A Journal of Weird Fiction and Dark Fantasy 1
“My Pet Alien” • Dennis Caswell• Rattle Fall
“A Natural History of Snow” • David Clink • The Role of Lightning in Evolution (Kelp Queen Press, CZP)
“Nothing Goes Away” • A.J. Odasso • The New England Review of Books
“Of My Wounds, There Are Many” • Stephanie M. Wytovich • Sanitarium Magazine 48
“The Old Ones Gather” • Terrie Leigh Relf • Scifaikuest May
“One Canoe” • Shari Caplan • Nonbinary Review 11: Anne of Green Gables
“Orpheus” • Ace G. Pilkington • The Horror Zine June
“Past Imperfect” • Deborah L. Davitt • Poetry Quarterly Summer
“The Persecution of Witches” • Ali Trotta • Uncanny 11
“The Phosphorescent Fungi” • D. L. Myers • Spectral Realms 4
“Portrait of the Captain with Small Waiting Objects” • T.D. Walker • Recompose 2
“Propagation” • Layla Al-Bedawi • Strange Horizons 18 April
“Quack” • Neal Wilgus • Dreams and Nightmares 104
“Quasar” • Triin Paja • Cleaver 14
“Returning” • Mary Soon Lee •  The Open Mouse May 6
“Richard Feynman’s Commute” • Jon Wesick • The Were-Traveler December 21
“Riding the Dark” B.J. Lee • Frostfire Worlds February
“Rusalka” • Jane Yolen • Mythic Delirium 3.1
“Salome’s New King” • Terry Miller • Devolution Z: The Horror Magazine 10
“Sappho and the Woman of Starlight” • John W. Sexton • Eternal Haunted Summer Winter
“Selkie” • E. Kristin Anderson • Faerie Magazine Summer
“Skin” • Alice Fanchiang • Liminality 10
“Song of the Encantado” • Jeremy Paden • Apex Magazine 83
“Space Opera” • Vince Gotera • Altered Reality Magazine 1
“The Sparrows in Her Hair” • Hester J. Rook • Strange Horizons 18 July
“Spoiler Alert” • Matt Betts • Underwater Fistfight (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
“The Spook Tree” • Cindy O’Quinn • Blood Moon Rising Magazine 66
“Star Dust” • Josh Brown • Illumen 25
“Stellar Quake” • John C. Mannone • The New England Journal of Medicine 375:1305
“Supercomputer Spends the Night” • Danielle Zaccagnino • Weirderary 4
“Sutekh From The Throne” • Denise Dumars • Horror Writers Association Poetry Showcase Vol. III, ed. David E. Cowen
“Terran Mythology” Shannon Connor Winward • Analog Science Fiction and Fact October
“This Rat” • Anne Carly Abad • Chrome Baby 48
“To Live In The Zombie Apocalypse” • Burlee Vang • Poem-A-Day December 20
“To the Girl Who Ran Through Crop Circles” • Karen J. Weyant • Strange Horizons 18 August
“Until Dawn” • Michael H. Hanson • Poetic Hustles 2 (Black Freighter Productions)
La Villa de Sirenia” • Jack Ralls • Star*Line 39.4
“Well, Water, Stars” • Adele Gardner • Silver Blade 32
“What Wants Us” • Karolina Fedyk • Star*Line 39.2
“Why Elephants No Longer Communicate in Greek” • Timons Esaias • Why Elephants No Longer Communicate in Greek (Concrete Wolf)
“Widening Gyre” • A.J. Odasso • Not A Drop anthology (Beautiful Dragons Press)
“Witch Lord of the Hunt” • Ashley Dioses • Eternal Haunted Summer, Spring
“The woman on the bus encounters time dilation” • Daniel R. Jones • Altered Reality Magazine
“World's Tiniest Human” • Muriel Leung • The Adroit Journal 16

Long Poems (55 poems)
“Adam’s Rendezvous with Dante” • John C. Mannone • Last Darn Rites Anthology (Whitesboro Writers, 2016)
“Alice-Ecila” • Steph Post • Nonbinary Review 10: Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
“At Issue, the Miramo” • Ken Poyner • Dreams and Nightmares 103
“Best of” • Sarah Ann Winn •  Found Poetry Review: Bowietry
“The Blind Elephants of Io” • Karen Bovenmyer • Shortest Day, Longest Night (Arachne Press)
“The Butterflies of Traxl IV” • John Reinhart • The Pedestal Magazine 79
“The Chinese Pirate Ching Shih Plays Go With a Hooded Opponent” • Kendall Evans • Abyss & Apex 59
“Cobblestone Dragon” • Herb Kauderer • Polu Texni July 11
“Dame Evergreen” • Rebecca Buchanan • Faerie Magazine Winter
“The Dark Lord’s Diary” • Lee S. Hawke • Star*Line 39.1
“Data Mine” • Alexandra Erin • medium.com October 24
“The Death of the Horse” •  Beth Cato • Remixt Magazine 1:8
“Defender Prime” • A.C. Spahn • Outposts of Beyond July
“Elegy for Iain Banks” • Vince Gotera • Star*Line 39.3
“Exploratory Colony 454—15th May, 2052” • Lore Bernier • Eye to the Telescope 20
“First Lesson” • Mary Soon Lee • Silver Blade 30
“For Lonnie” • Holly Walrath • Liminality 9
“Further” • F.J. Bergmann • Lovecraft eZine 38
“Getting Winterized: A Guide To Rural Living” • Elizabeth R. McClellan • Angels of the Meanwhile April
“god-date” • Brandon O'Brien • Uncanny 9
“The Great Unknown” • Bruce Boston and Alessandro Manzetti • Illumen Spring
“Houses of the Living, Houses of the Dead” • Jenny Blackford • Ipswich Poetry Feast International Poetry Competition, Highly Commended
“I Will Be Your Grave” • Tlotlo Tsamaase • Strange Horizons 7 November
Im Wald • Sandi Leibowitz • Mythic Delirium 3.2
“In Defence of Science” • David Clink • The Role of Lightning in Evolution (Kelp Queen Press, CZP)
“The Inconceivable Shape” • Simon Smith • Chrome Baby 45
“Interview with a 22nd-Century Sex Worker” • Darren Lipman • Strange Horizons 4 July
“The Journeymaker to Keddar (II)” • Rose Lemberg • Marginalia to Stone Bird (Aqueduct Press)
“Legend of the Albino Pythons and the Bloody Child” • Bruce Boston & Alessandro Manzetti • Polu Texni 18 April
“The Leviathans of Europa” • Christina Sng • Polu Texni 10 October
“The Lies You Learned” • S. Qiouyi Lu • Liminality 7
“little stomach” • Charlotte Geater • Strange Horizons 26 September
“Luminous Decay” • Robert Frazier • Dreams and Nightmares 103
“Morning During Migration Season” • Beth Cato • Star*Line 39.4
“Not Like This” • Mary Soon Lee • Apex Magazine August 4
Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas Lost at Sea, 1527” • Lisa M. Bradley • Strange Horizons 3 October [reprint permission declined]
“Phoenix Fire, Tabula Rasa” • Kim Eun-byeol • Stone Telling 13
“The Poem Gardens of the Ascari” • Rohinton Daruwala • Strange Horizons 13 June
“Revolution (1764–1783)” • Holly Lyn Walrath • Abyss & Apex 58
“The Rime of the Eldritch Mariner” • Adam Bolivar • Spectral Realms 5
“The Robot by the Fireplace” • Ken Poyner • Eye to the Telescope 20
“Rose Child” • Theodora Goss • Uncanny 13
“Sargasso Sea” • A.J. Odasso • Remixt Magazine 1:1
“The Starlet Who Married A Monster” • Robert Borski • Lupine Lunes, ed. Lester Smith (Popcorn Press)
“Storm Miners” • Deborah L. Davitt • Blue Monday Review August
“Surviving a Canadian Poem” • David Clink • The Role of Lightning in Evolution (Kelp Queen Press, CZP)
“Talk to the Machines” • Johan Jönsson • Dreams and Nightmares 104
“Thirteen Ways to See a Ghost” • Shannon Connor Winward • 2016 SFPA Poetry Contest
“To the weaver, from the woman who slew Bakunawa” • M. Sereno • Stone Telling 13
“Väinämöinen Sings” • Jennifer Lawrence • Eternal Haunted Summer Winter
“We Shall Meet in the Star-Spackled Ruins” • Wendy Rathbone • 2016 SFPA Poetry Contest
“Were-” • Naru Dames Sundar • Liminality Summer
“Werewolf” • K.A. Opperman • Spectral Realms 4
“When Coyote Called Down the Stars” • Aaron Vlek • The Were-Traveler December 21
“When the Gunman Comes” • Edith Hope Bishop • Mythic Delirium 2.3

Nominations per publication (80 publications):

1 spacer Abbey
2   Abyss & Apex
1   The Adroit Journal
3   Altered Reality Magazine
1   Amethyst Arsenic
1   Analog
1   Angels of the Meanwhile
2   Apex Magazine
3   Asimov’s Science Fiction
1   The Audient Void
1   Blood Moon Rising Magazine
1   Blue Monday Review
1   Bracken Magazine
2   Chrome Baby
1   Cleaver
1   Coe Review
2   Devilfish Review
1   Devolution Z: The Horror Magazine
5   Dreams and Nightmares
4   Eternal Haunted Summer
4   Eye to the Telescope
3   Faerie Magazine
1   Found Poetry Review
1   Frostfire Worlds
1   The Future Fire
1   Goblin Fruit
2   Horror Writers Association Poetry Showcase Vol. III
1   The Horror Zine
2   Illumen
1   Ipswich Poetry Feast International Poetry Competition
1   Last Darn Rites Anthology (Whitesboro Writers)
4   Liminality
1   Lovecraft eZine
2   Lupine Lunes (Popcorn Press)
1   The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
1   Marginalia to Stone Bird (Aqueduct Press)
2   medium.com
1   Mission at Tenth
1   The Mithila Review
3   Mythic Delirium
1   The New England Journal of Medicine
1   The New England Review of Books
1   New Sea Land (Makaro Press)
2   Nonbinary Review
1   Parody
2   The Pedestal Magazine
1   Project 365 + 1
1   The Open Mouse
1   Outposts of Beyond
1   Parody
2   Poem-A-Day
1   Poetic Hustles
1   Poetry Quarterly
3   Polu Texni
1   Quick Shivers about Bugs (Cosmonomic Multimedia)
1   Rattle
1   Recompose
2   Remixt Magazine
3   The Role of Lightning in Evolution (CZP)
1   Rose Red Review
1   Sanitarium Magazine
3   Scifaikuest
2   SFPA Poetry Contest
1   Shortest Day, Longest Night (Arachne Press)
4   Silver Blade
1   Space & Time
3   Spectral Realms
11   Star*Line
2   Stone Telling
11   Strange Horizons
1   Thrush Poetry Journal
1   Twisted Moon
4   Uncanny
2   Underwater Fistfight (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
1   Weirderary
1   The Well of Changes (Bag Person Press)
2   The Were-Traveler
1   Why Elephants No Longer Communicate in Greek (Concrete Wolf)
1   Yellow Chair Review
1   You, Human (Dark Regions Press)

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