About the Elgin Award
The Elgin Awards, named for SFPA founder Suzette Haden Elgin, are presented annually by SFPA for books published in the preceding two years in two categories, Chapbook and Book. Chapbooks must contain 10-39 pages of poetry and books must contain 40 or more pages of poetry. E-books are eligible, as well as print. Books that won first–third place in the previous year's Elgin Awards are ineligible. Single-author and collaborative books are eligible; anthologies are not. Books containing fiction as well as poetry are not eligible. Books must be in English, but translations are eligible. In the case of translations that also contain the poems in the original language, those pages will not count toward the total page count. Nominated books must be made available to the Chair upon request to remain eligible.
The award was created in 2013 by David C. Kopaska-Merkel to celebrate books and chapbooks of published poetry. Since 2015, all works published in the preceding 2 years are eligible for the Elgin, except those works which have already won first through third place in the preceding year.
Only SFPA members can nominate books. They may not nominate their own books, but they may nominate multiple books, and the books need not be by members in order to be nominated or to win. A list of nominated books is posted each year on the SFPA website, including the title, author, page count, press name, and URL or postal address.
Current Year's Judge
2025 Elgin Chair: Juleigh Howard-Hobson
Juleigh Howard-Hobson’s poetry has appeared in Amazing Stories, The Dead Lands, Star*Line, Eye to the Telescope, Siren’s Call, Midnight Echo, The Audient Void, Dreams and Nightmares, Under Her Skin (Black Spot) Vastarien: Women’s Horror (Grimscribe), and many other places. Nominations include the Pushcart, Elgin, Best of the Net and Rhysling. Her latest book is Curses, Black Spells and Hexes (Alien Buddha). An active member of both the SFPA and the HWA, she lives in a suitably haunted house on the edge of the known world. There are UFOs and werewolves.
Winners for 2025
Winners for the 2025 Elgin Award for books published in 2023 and 2024 can be found on the 2025 Elgin Candidates page.
Previous Award Winners
To see previous winners, please visit the Elgin Archives.
Elgin Nomination Guidelines
Nominations open each year on March 15, with a nomination deadline of May 31. Nominations or questions should be e-mailed to elgin@sfpoetry.org.
- Only current members of SFPA may nominate; however, the author of the nominated book or chapbook need not be an SFPA member.
- Only books of speculative poetry first published during the preceding two years, and which did not place first through third in the preceding year's award, are eligible. Books containing fiction as well as poetry are not eligible. More than half of the poems in the book must be unequivocally speculative as determined by Chair. Translations into English are eligible.
- You may not nominate your own books.
- You may nominate multiple chapbooks and/or full-length books. Chapbooks must contain 10–39 pages of poetry (or a minimum 300 lines or 2000 words, whichever is less); full-length books must contain 40 pages of poetry or more. For translations, pages of poems in the original language do not count toward the total.
- E-books and self-published books are eligible, as well as print. Books that won first–third place in the previous year's Elgin Awards are ineligible, but an eligible title may be nominated two years in a row. Nominations are not automatically carried over from year to year.
- To nominate, the book’s title, author, and press name and address (URL or postal) are required. Please also include poetry page count. If available, a link to the press and/or a page where the book can be purchased or downloaded should be provided.
Authors or publishers may provide a .pdf of the book to facilitate reading for voting consideration. Nominated books must be made available to the Chair upon request to remain eligible. - E-mail nominations to elgin@sfpoetry.org are preferred.
Voting for the Winners
A link to vote on the Elgin awards is distributed to all SFPA members each year, and digital copies of each nominated work are provided.
Voting opens July 1, and the voting deadline is September 15.
Voting is currently closed.