The 2020 Dwarf Stars Anthology: The Best Science Fiction, Fantasy and
Horror Short Poetry of 2019
Editor: Robin Mayhall was also the editor of the 2017 Dwarf Stars. She is a writer, editor and PR professional with a lifelong yen for science fiction and fantasy stories and poetry. Disabled by rheumatoid arthritis, she still works full-time and loves reading and getting lost on the internet. She is interested in history, especially World War I, as well as journalism and media, healthcare issues and politics. She lives in Louisiana with her cat, Banichi.
Cover Art: A Peaceful Dream by Michal Kváč
digital © 2020
artstation.com/kvacm/store
Layout: F. J. Bergmann
Publisher: Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association
2020 Award Winners
Winner:
“Standing Up” • John C. Mannone • Nadwah: Poetry in Translation, December 2019.
2nd Place:
[There are fossils] • Mark A. Fisher • Silver Blade 44.
3rd Place:
2015 Zinfandella • Denise Dumars • Dismal Oaks Winery Broadside, Spring 2019.
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John C. Mannone is a Horror Writers Association Scholarship winner (2017) and has work appearing in North Dakota Quarterly, Foreign Literary Review, Pedestal, and many speculative journals like Space & Time, Eye to the Telescope, and Altered Reality Magazine. He won the Carol Oen Memorial Fiction Prize (2020) and was awarded a Jean Ritchie Fellowship (2017) in Appalachian literature. He served as the celebrity judge for the National Federation of State Poetry Societies (2018). He edits poetry for Abyss & Apex, Silver Blade, Liquid Imagination, and American Diversity Report. A retired university physics professor, John lives between Knoxville and Chattanooga, Tennessee. jcmannone.wordpress.com |
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Mark A. Fisher is a writer, poet, and playwright living in Tehachapi, CA. His poetry has appeared in: Angel City Review, Mojave River Review, Altadena Poetry Review, Penumbra, Unlikely Stories Mark V, and many other places. His first chapbook, drifter, is available from Amazon. His second, hour of lead, won the 2017 San Gabriel Valley Poetry Chapbook Contest. His plays have appeared on California stages in Pine Mountain Club, Tehachapi, Bakersfield, and Hayward. He has also won cooking ribbons at the Kern County Fair. | |
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Denise Dumars says that this poem and the Dismal Oaks Winery broadside it was published in would not have existed without s. c. virtes and the crazy wine country poems Denise and Scott decided to write after touring Temecula wine country with the best wine-tasting buddies ever: Deborah Kolodji, Naia, and Richard Potthoff. |
96 members voted. Voting is now closed.
(72 poems)
| 2015 Zinfandella • Denise Dumars • Dismal Oaks Winery Broadside, Spring 2019 |
| Aeolus • Brian Gene Olson • Star*Line 42.2 |
| [baby born healthy] • Ngo Binh Anh Khoa • Scifaikuest, November 2019 print |
| Balancing Act • Deborah L. Davitt with D. A. Xiaolin Spires & Gretchen Tessmer • Star*Line 42.1 |
| [beyond its two eyes] • Juan Perez • Haikuniverse, June 8, 2019 |
| [bioluminescence] • Debbie Strange • Seashores 2 |
| [black widow spider …] • Valentina Ranaldi-Adams • Bleached Butterfly 1:1 |
| [clear winter night] • Frank Coffman • The Coven's Hornbook & Other Poems (Bold Venture Press, 2019) |
| Cold Weather Accessories for Imaginary Creatures • Lorraine Schein • Star*Line 42.2 |
| [dancing] • Deborah P Kolodji • Altered Reality Magazine, December 2019 |
| Death Spiral, Korolev Crater • Ann K. Schwader • Eye to the Telescope 32: Sports and Games |
| [dystopic future] • Carolyn M. Hinderliter • Scifaikuest, August 2019 online |
| Epitaph for John Carter • Herb Kauderer • Scifaikuest, November 2019 print |
| Erwin Schrodinger • Jean-Paul L. Garnier • Cholla Needles 29 |
| [Feast of St. George—] • C.R. Harper • Dreams and Nightmares 111 |
| [For her who laid and hatched my egg] • Ronald A. Busse • Star*Line 42.1 |
| [gentlest quiver] • Christina Sng • Scifaikuest, August 2019 print |
| [gestating through space …] • Terrie Leigh Relf • Scifaikuest, May 2019 print |
| [the ghost wife] • Gloundan Smorpian • Dreams and Nightmares 112 |
| [a glimpse] • Hazel Hall • Stardust Haiku 35 |
| [glow-in-the-dark fruit] • Robert Borski • Scifaikuest, August 2019 print |
| [H3N2] • LeRoy Gorman • Scifaikuest, February 2019 online |
| [harvest moon] • Barbara Tate • Autumn Moon Haiku Journal 2:2 |
| The Haunting • Lucy Whitehead • Otata 38 |
| [her gentle kisses] • ayaz daryl nielsen • Star*Line 42.1 |
| [hoping for the best] • Johannes S. H. Bjerg • Sonic Boom 15 |
| How to Notice a Dark Nebula • Mary Soon Lee • Triangulation: Dark Skies, eds. Diane Turnshek & Chloe Nightingale (Parsec Ink, 2019) |
| How to Time Travel • Mary Soon Lee • Analog, May/June 2019 |
| [human flesh transformed] • Brian Gene Olson • Star*Line 42.3 |
| [I read the future] • Geoffrey A. Landis • Spectral Realms 11 |
| Infection • Roger Dutcher • Alba 32 |
| [iron in the dunes] • Greer Woodward • Random Planets, ed. t. santitoro (Alban Lake Publishing, 2019) |
| [The knife blade flutters] • Colleen Anderson • Quatrain.fish, March 2019 |
| [leaving Saturn] • LeRoy Gorman • Scifaikuest, February 2019 print |
| loose change • Allan Rozinski • Star*Line 42.1 |
| [mass into photons] • Kimberly Nugent • Scifaikuest, August 2019 online |
| [memorial day visit] • C. William Hinderliter • Scifaikuest, August 2019 online |
| [moonlight] • Duro Jaiye • Akitsu Quarterly, Winter 2019 |
| the music of Luna's pull • Herb Kauderer • Influence of the Moon, September 2019 |
| Mystery Multiplied • Bruce Boston • Star*Line 42.2 |
| [New Earth’s many moons] • Lauren McBride • Dreams and Nightmares 111 |
| [night sieved] • Joseph Salvatore Aversano • is/let, September 7, 2019 |
| Notes for the Next Letter Home • Herb Kauderer • Dreams and Nightmares 113 |
| The Old Ones: A Ghazal • Joshua Gage • Spectral Realms 10 |
| [ordinary flashlight] • Tom Sacramona • Scifaikuest, August 2019 print |
| [peeling night] • Alegria Imperial • Colorado Boulevard, June 12, 2019 |
| [pi day] • Deborah P Kolodji • Modern Haiku 50.3 |
| [placoderms sizzling] • David C. Kopaska-Merkel • Poetry Nook, February 19, 2019 |
| ragtime gal • Brittany Hause • Scifaikuest, May 2019 print |
| Recent Federal Postings • Greer Woodward • Illumen, Winter 2019 |
| red shirts • David C. Kopaska-Merkel • Illumen, Summer 2019 |
| [reeking of time] • Robert Borski • Scifaikuest, August 2019 print |
| [ritual at dawn—] • Carmen Duvalma • Autumn Moon Haiku Journal, June 2019 |
| [seeing stars] • Christina Sng • Scifaikuest, August 2019 online |
| [she had broken] • Susan Burch • Bleached Butterfly 1:3 |
| A simpler time • F. J. Bergmann • Star*Line 42.4 |
| [space station yoga] • John J. Dunphy • Scifaikuest, August 2019 online |
| [stale morning smog …] • Nick Hoffman • Star*Line 42.4 |
| Standing Up • John C. Mannone • Nadwah: Poetry in Translation, December 2019 |
| [stargazing on Olympus Mons] • Greer Woodward • Random Planets, ed. t. santitoro (Alban Lake Publishing, 2019) |
| [starless night …] • Greg Schwartz • Star*Line 42.3 |
| [still can't decide] • Christina Sng • Scifaikuest, August 2019 online |
| [stream of consciousness] • William Shaw • Scifaikuest, May 2019 print |
| [There are fossils] • Mark A. Fisher • Silver Blade 44 |
| [through the portal] • Julie Bloss Kelsey • Bleached Butterfly 1:2 |
| Tikbalang • Vince Gotera • Altered Reality Magazine, February 13, 2019 |
| Tree in Drought • Beth Cato • Frozen Wavelets, November 2019 |
| The Trophy Room • Andrew J. Wilson • Eye to the Telescope 32: Sports and Games |
| [Voyager outbound] • Ann K. Schwader • Dreams and Nightmares 111 |
| what she knows for sure • Cathy Tenzo • Dreams & Nightmares 113 |
| When Death Comes Back • Cindy O’Quinn • Sorrow: A Horror Anthology, ed. James Ward Kirk (James Ward Kirk Publishing, 2019) |
| [within sight] • Christina Sng • Scifaikuest, May 2019 online |
| [zen garden] • Helga Anton-Beitz • Scifaikuest, February 2019 print |
Nominations per publication: (32 venues)
| 1 | Akitsu Quarterly | |
| 1 | Alba | |
| 2 | Altered Reality Magazine | |
| 1 | Analog | |
| 2 | Autumn Moon Haiku Journal | |
| 2 | Bleached Butterfly | |
| 1 | Cholla Needles | |
| 1 | Colorado Boulevard | |
| 1 | The Coven's Hornbook & Other Poems (Bold Venture Press, 2019) | |
| 1 | Dismal Oaks Winery Broadside, Spring 2019 | |
| 6 | Dreams and Nightmares | |
| 2 | Eye to the Telescope | |
| 1 | Frozen Wavelets | |
| 1 | Haikuniverse | |
| 1 | Illumen | |
| 1 | Influence of the Moon | |
| 1 | is/let | |
| 1 | Modern Haiku | |
| 1 | Nadwah: Poetry in Translation | |
| 1 | Otata | |
| 1 | Poetry Nook | |
| 1 | Quatrain.fish | |
| 2 | Random Planets, ed. t. santitoro (Alban Lake Publishing, 2019) | |
| 19 | Scifaikuest | |
| 1 | Seashores | |
| 1 | Silver Blade | |
| 1 | Sonic Boom | |
| 1 | Sorrow: A Horror Anthology, ed. James Ward Kirk (James Ward Kirk Publishing, 2019) | |
| 2 | Spectral Realms | |
| 11 | Star*Line | |
| 1 | Stardust Haiku | |
| 1 | Triangulation: Dark Skies, eds. Diane Turnshek & Chloe Nightingale (Parsec Ink, 2019) |
