2008 Rhysling Award—Short Poem: F.J. Bergmann
Winning poem: "Eating Light"

F.J. Bergmann joined SFPA recently, but is a widely published poet and has been a voracious SF reader for decades. She lives near Madison, WI, and tries to include specific wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum as a regular part of her diet.

2008 Rhysling Award—Long Poem: Catherynne M. Valente
Winning poem: "The Seven Devils of Central California"

Grand Master Award: Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury has spent a lifetime, if not several by some standards, penning speculative poetry.

Unlike many speculative writers, Bradbury didn’t use poetry as a stepping-stone to fiction and then give it up. At 42, around the same time as Something Wicked This Way Comes first saw publication and a decade after other renowned works of fiction, The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, and Fahrenheit 451, all published in the early '50s, his first poem was published in Pro Football Magazine. His poetry collections were first published in the '70s.

Many editions of Bradbury’s verse have been published since the early 1970s, as well as two best-of collections, The Complete Poems of Ray Bradbury in 1981 and They Have Not Seen the Stars in 2001. His body of speculative poetry spans nearly 50 years.

Erik Amundsen reads his poem "Crow Song & Earworm Ballad" from Goblin Fruit. Photo by Anita Allen.

Richard Chwedyk starts the reading; and managed to keep the crowd entertained with some impromptu clowning while ReaderCon staffers fixed a sound glitch. Photo by Anita Allen.

Joy Marchand reads her poem "Glass" from the anthology Poetry from the Trenches. Photo by Anita Allen.