Volume 39, Issue 1
Winter 2016

Star*Line 39.1 cover
Cover: Idyll
digital image
Ron Sanders
ronsandersatwork.deviantart.com

Wyrms & Wormholes
What Is Speculative Poetry?

Nearly a million pages come up in reply on Google (without quotes, anyway; with quotes, it’s about 300—and 42K for just “speculative poetry”). Whatever it is, it’s popular—although most of the posts appear to be explaining, rather than asking, the question. And many who provide thoroughly thought-out answers are not and never have been involved with SFPA (to my delight, I encountered not only Susan Slaviero, author of Cyborgia, but the word “teledildonics”). A host of new definitions arise, second by second. We are the visible tip of an iceberg that is growing larger, not melting.

Speculative poetry expands what is considered “adequately serious” material for poetic expression.

—Tracy McClusker, “Towards Speculative Poetry,” Playtime Magazine, issue 18

* * * * *

Yes, we are becoming strange to ourselves. […] But there’s renewed freedom to move in such a way, to write in such a mode. It might be the purest poetry I know.

—Sueyeun Juliette Lee, “On Speculative Poetry: a future ((tense)) // yet // else,” Evening Will Come, issue 27

Thanks to one of our contest winners, who has anonymously donated their prize toward the Star*Line color covers!

In a spirit of perennial inquiry,

— F .J. Bergmann
Star*Line Editor


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Star*Line Staff:

Editor: F.J. Bergmann
Layout: F.J. Bergmann
Production Manager: F.J. Bergmann
Mailing: Brian Garrison

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Table of Contents

Features

  • Wyrms & Wormholes • F.J. Bergmann
  • SFPA Announcements
  • From the Small Press • Denise Dumars, Joshua Gage, David C. Kopaska-Merkel, Sandra J. Lindow, Alex Plummer, Diane Severson Full reviews
  • Xenopoetry • El superhéroe se ha ahorcado ~ Campos Ricardo Burgos Lopez, translated by Fred W. Bergmann

Poetry

  • “*/you are no longer the smoke …” ~ Simon Perchik
  • “hard times” ~ Ross Balcom
  • A Close Look at Heaven ~ David C. Kopaska-Merkel
  • “alighting” ~ C.R. Harper
  • “attempting to align” ~ Terrie Leigh Relf
  • For Your Own Safety ~ Michael Janairo
  • “thunder planet” ~ Deborah P Kolodji
  • “emerging” ~ David C. Kopaska-Merkel
  • The Devil’s Wife ~ Raven Jakubowski
  • “self-cleaning carpet” ~ David C. Kopaska-Merkel
  • “house dust” ~ Dietmar Tauchner
  • Window View ~ Beth Cato
  • “time traveling” ~ LeRoy Gorman
  • “time-traveller gridlock ~ Ian Hunter
  • Gravity Matters ~ Lauren McBride
  • Another One ~ Marc Dorpema
  • “family reunion” ~ LeRoy Gorman
  • “first contact” ~ Deborah P Kolodji
  • New Planet Landscape 15 ~ Ken Poyner
  • We’re Home ~ Lauren McBride
  • Between Dog and Wolf ~ Jennifer Crow
  • “birthday surprise” ~ C. William Hinderliter
  • Something Like a Body ~ Evelyn Deshane
  • “moonlight confession” ~ C. William Hinderliter
  • Space Travel ~ Lauren McBride
  • Test Case ~ Ian Hunter
  • After the Radiation Leak ~ Christina Sng
  • “meaty walnuts” ~ Diane Severson
  • ’Scuse Me While I Taste This Guy ~ David C. Kopaska-Merkel
  • Waiting for the Mad Scientists ~ Richard Chwedyk
  • “waiting” ~ Lauren McBride
  • “death from below” ~ James Dorr
  • Tremble, Quivering Mortals … ~ Simon Petrie
  • White-Knuckled ~ Lauren McBride
  • Our Timeline Is Not for You ~ Alan Ira Gordon
  • Looking, Glass ~ Mary Cresswell
  • “yellow eyes aglow” ~ Rich Magahiz
  • “glass slippers slip mid-tango” ~ Michelle Muenzler
  • “counting sheep …” ~ Joshua Gage
  • Least Useful Wine Reviews ~ Jerome Van Epps
  • “3d printing …” ~ Christina Sng
  • How to Fix a Flat on a Mantis EXO9 ~ Robert Frazier
  • “relinquishing …” ~ Thomas Tilton
  • “reached the new world” ~ Lauren McBride
  • Knowledge ~ David C. Kopaska-Merkel & Kendall Evans
  • “Danger: High voltage” ~ Matthew Wilson
  • The library of butterflies ~ Sandra J. Lindow
  • odd little bookshop ~ David C. Kopaska-Merkel
  • “Brain capacity 97%” ~ Matthew Wilson
  • To Protect and Serve ~ David Barber
  • Exorcism ~ Alex Harwood
  • Anti-Vampire App ~ Robert Borski
  • “amber alert” ~ Joshua Gage
  • The Giant’s Song ~ Anna Zumbro
  • Apology Letter from the Aliens ~ Beth Cato
  • Man of Steel ~ David C. Kopaska-Merkel
  • The Unnameable Clears Its Throat ~ David C. Kopaska-Merkel & Wade German
  • “a beach on Titan” ~ Robin Mayhall
  • “heat lightning” ~ Joshua Gage
  • The Advent of Machines ~ David Clink
  • 451° ~ Alex Harwood
  • ‘Authoritative Guide to Linux …’ ~ Robert Dawson
  • Ancestors ~ Glenn A. Meisenheimer
  • “stars beyond stars” ~ Dietmar Tauchner
  • Exile ~ Deborah Davitt
  • “big bang’s edge” ~ Francis W. Alexander
  • The Waiter ~ Ken Poyner
  • “we all sampled” ~ Lauren McBride
  • To-Do List ~ David C. Kopaska-Merkel
  • “what is the sound” ~ Josh Brown
  • Portents ~ Matthew Chamberlin
  • “first hour on Ceres” ~ Christina Sng
  • Now Returning from the Sea
    ~ David C. Kopaska-Merkel
  • Elegy ~ David C. Kopaska-Merkel
  • The Werewolf Returns ~ William John Watkins
  • Tidings ~ Alex Harwood
  • The Dark Lord’s Diary ~ Lee S. Hawke
  • No More Broomsticks for Me ~ Beth Cato
  • “Garden statues for sale” ~ Matthew Wilson
  • “Midas smiled” ~ David C. Kopaska-Merkel
  • Still Life ~ Albert W. Grohmann
  • “Alpha Centauri toyshop” ~ LeRoy Gorman
  • Book of the Dead ~ Alex Harwood
  • “by this time …” ~ Alex Harwood
  • Option Package ~ Herb Kauderer
  • Vanity Zoo Excuse ~ Robert Borski
  • de-evolution ~ Herb Kauderer
  • Messenger ~ Jim Fisher
  • Needs Repairs ~ John Reinhart

Illustrations

  • Drops from Above ~ Denny E. Marshall

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