Award Information
The 2023 Elgin Awards were given for books and chapbooks published in 2021 and 2022.
78 SFPA members voted on 16 total chapbooks and 61 total full-length books of poetry to determine the winners.
2023 Chair
Morgan L. Ventura is a speculative fiction writer, poet, and anthropologist based in Ireland. Ventura's poetry and translations have appeared or are forthcoming in Strange Horizons, Crow and Cross Keys, Augur, and Eye to the Telescope, while their fiction and essays appear in Lackington's, Geist, and Best Canadian Essays 2021.
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All Award Winners
Book Category
First Place: Some Disassembly Required • David C. Kopaska-Merkel (Diminuendo Press, 2022)
Second Place: The Saint of Witches • Avra Margariti (Weasel Press, 2022)
Third Place (TIE): Elegies of Rotted Stars • Tiffany Morris (Nictitating Books, 2022)
Third Place (TIE): Not a Princess, But (Yes) There Was a Pea & Other Tales to Foment Revolution • Rebecca Buchanan (Jackanapes Press, 2022)
Chapbook Category
First Place: The Last Robot and Other Science Fiction Poems • Jane Yolen (Shoreline of Infinity, 2021)
Second Place: Spacers Snarled in the Hair of Comets • Bruce Boston (Mind's Eye Publishing, 2022)
Third Place: Cajuns in Space • Denise Dumars (self-published, 2022)
Winner Biographies
David C. Kopaska-Merkel won the 2006 Rhysling award for best long poem (for a collaboration with Kendall Evans), and edits Dreams & Nightmares magazine (since 1986). He has edited Star*line and several Rhysling anthologies, co-edited the 2023 Dwarf Stars anthology, and is an SFPA Grandmaster. His poems have been published in Asimov’s, Analog, Strange Horizons, and elsewhere. His latest collection, Some Disassembly Required, winner of the 2023 Elgin award, was published by Diminuendo Press in 2022. Blog: https://dreamsandnightmaresmagazine.blogspot.com/
Avra Margariti is a queer author and Pushcart-nominated poet with a fondness for the dark and the darling. Avra’s work haunts publications such as Vastarien, Asimov's, Liminality, Arsenika, The Future Fire, and Reckoning. Avra lives and studies in Athens, Greece. You can find Avra on twitter (@avramargariti).
Tiffany Morris is an L'nu'skw (Mi'kmaw) writer from Nova Scotia. She is the author of the swampcore horror novella Green Fuse Burning (Stelliform Books, 2023) and the Elgin Award-winning horror poetry collection Elegies of Rotting Stars (Nictitating Books, 2022). Her work has appeared in the Indigenous horror anthology Never Whistle At Night, as well as in Nightmare Magazine, Uncanny Magazine, and Apex Magazine, among others. She has an MA in English with a focus on Indigenous Futurisms and apocalyptic literature. She can be found at https://www.tiffmorris.com or on twitter/bluesky @tiffmorris.
Amelia Gorman lives in Eureka where she spends her free time exploring tidepools and redwoods with her dogs and foster dogs. Her fiction has appeared in Nightscript 6 and Cellar Door from Dark Peninsula Press. You can read some of her poetry in Vastarien, Utopia Science Fiction, and Strange Horizons. Her first chapbook, the Elgin-winning Field Guide to Invasive Species of Minnesota, is available from Interstellar Flight Press. Her microchapbook, The Worm Sonnets, is available from The Quarter Press.
Rebecca Buchanan is the editor of the Pagan literary ezine Eternal Haunted Summer and is a regular contributor to ev0ke: witchcraft*paganism*lifestyle. She has published short stories, novelettes, and poems in a wide variety of venues, most speculative in nature. When she is not writing, she is baking chocolate chip cookies and avoiding yard work. A complete list of her publications can be found at Eternal Haunted Summer.
Jane Yolen's 439th book has just come out ("Eyes on the prize," she says, meaning 500. She has already sold 30 more.) The Elgin is not her first poetry prize but is very special to her for two reasons. One is that it was published in Scotland--her second home--and the second is that her editor--Russell Jones--gave her a box of baklava in celebration at the Edinburgh Book Fair this fall. A past president of SFWA and a past winner of two Nebulas and many other awards, Jane Yolen at 84 is not slowing down. Her website is at www.janeyolen.com. Her web designer is horror and fantasy writer Adam Stemple, who is also her son.
Bruce Boston is the author of sixty books and chapbooks, including the psychedelic coming-of-age novel Stained Glass Rain and the dystopian sf novel The Guardener’s Tale. His poetry and fiction have appeared in hundreds of publications, most visibly in Amazing, Analog, Asimov’s SF, Daily SF, Strange Horizons, Weird Tales, The Nebula Awars Anthology (St. Martins), Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror (St. Martin’s) and Year’s Best Horror (DAW), and have received numerous awards, most notably, a Pushcart Prize, the Bram Stoker Award, the Asimov’s Readers’ Award, and the Rhysling and Grand Master Awards of the SFPA.
Denise Dumars is a widely published author of short stories, poetry, occult nonfiction, essays, articles, and reviews. She has been nominated for numerous awards for her poetry including the Rhysling Award, the Dwarf Stars Award, the Elgin Award, and the Pushcart Prize. She has garnered the 2020 Dwarf Stars Third Place, the 1997 Rhysling third place for short poem, and the 1996 Rhysling Honorable Mention for short poem. Her book Paranormal Romance: Poems Romancing the Paranormal was twice nominated for the Elgin Award for Full-Length book of poetry. After many years of caring for elderly relatives while working fulltime, she is now retired and can devote time to her writing, something she hasn't had time to do in a very long time. She lives in L.A.'s beautiful South Bay area, but her heart is in New Orleans. Find her at DeniseDDumars.com and DyanaAset.com
All Nominated Works
Chapbooks Nominated
- body in motion • Gretchen Rockwell • (Perhappened Press, 2021)
- The Book of Haibun: 26 Modern Interpretations of the Ancient Story/Verse Form • Herb Kauderer • (Written Image Press, 2022)
- Cajuns in Space • Denise Dumars (self-published, 2022)
- Charm for Catching a Train • Milena Williamson • (Green Bottle Press, 2022)
- Creature Features • Noel Sloboda (Main Street Rag, 2022)
- Horrific Punctuation • John Reinhart (Arson Press, 2021)
- Curses and Recurses: Poems of Writing and Damnation • Herb Kauderer • (Written Image Press, 2021)
- Ghosts, Trolls, and Other Things on the Internet • C. E. Hoffman • (Bottlecap Press, 2022)
- hortus animarum • Sienna Tristen • (Frog Hollow Press, 2022)
- In the Dead of Night • James Bryant • (self-published, 2021)
- The Last Robot and Other Science Fiction Poems • Jane Yolen • (Shoreline of Infinity, 2021)
- Lexicon of Future Selves • Gretchen Rockwell (Vegetarian Alcoholic Press, 2021)
- Messengers of the Macabre • LindaAnn LoSchiavo & David Davies • (Audience Askew, 2022)
- space neon neon space • Luna Rey Hall • (Variant Lit, 2022)
- Spacers Snarled in the Hair of Comets • Bruce Boston (Mind's Eye Publishing, 2022)
- Terror of the Zombie Zonnets: Season Three of Planet of the Zombie Zonnets • Juan Manuel Pérez • (House of the Fighting Chupacabras, 2022)
- Time's Arrow • Jean-Paul L. Garnier • (Space Cowboy Books, 2022)
- Utopian Problems • Jean-Paul L. Garnier • (Space Cowboy Books, 2021)
Full-Length Books Nominated
- [...] • Ava Hoffman (Astrophil Press, 2021)
- Amnita: The Legend of Amnita of the Amazon • Eleanor Arnason • (Crumb Fairy Press, 2022)
- Black Widow • Louise Worthington • (Red Escape Publishing, 2022)
- Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head • Warsan Shire • (Penguin Random House, 2022)
- Bounded by Eternity • Deborah L. Davitt • (Edda Earth, 2022)
- Call Me Spes • Sara Cahill Marron • (MadHat Press, 2022)
- The Cat Star and Other Poems • Terry A. Garey • (Crumbfairy Press, 2022)
- Chasing Wild Grief • Sandra J. Lindow • (Kelsay Books, 2021)
- Clock Star Rose Spine • Fran Wilde • (Lanternfish Press, 2021)
- Crime Scene • Cynthia Pelayo • (Raw Dog Screaming Press, 2022)
- Crushed Velvet • Mark McLaughlin • (self-published, 2022)
- The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows • John Koenig (Simon & Schuster, 2021)
- Eclipse of the Moon • Frank Coffman (Mind's Eye Publications, 2021)
- Elegies of Rotting Stars • Tiffany Morris • (Nictitating Books, 2022)
- Escaping the Body • Chloe N. Clark (Interstellar Flight Press, 2022)
- Flare, Corona • Jeannine Hall Gailey • (BOA Editions, 2022)
- Flux Lines • John C. Mannone • (Linnet’s Wings Press, 2022)
- Foundlings • Cindy O’Quinn & Stephanie Ellis • (2022)
- The Ghettobirds • Bryant O'Hara (Frayed Edge Press, 2021)
- Girls from the County • Donna Lynch • (Raw Dog Screaming Press, 2022)
- Glitter and Ghosts • Amy Zoellers • (Yuriko Publishing, 2022)
- The Gravity of Existence • Christina Sng • (Interstellar Flight Press, 2022)
- Halloween Hearts • Adele Gardner (Jackanapes Press, 2022)
- The Hand that Wounds • David E. Cowen • (Weasel Press, 2022)
- I Awaken in October: Poems of Folk Horror and Halloween • Scott J. Couturier • (Jackanapes Press, 2022)
- I Dreamed a World • Colleen Anderson • (Lycan Valley Press, 2022)
- Instrumentals: Book One • Jonel Abellanosa • (Lemures Digital Collection, 2022)
- Mathematics for Ladies • Jessy Randall • (Penguin Random House, 2022)
- Mobius Lyrics • Maxwell I. Gold & Angela Yuriko Smith • (Independent Legions, 2022)
- Naming the Ghost • Emily Hockaday • (Cornerstone Press, 2022)
- No Farther Than the End of the Street • Benjamin Niespodziany • (Okay Donkey, 2022)
- No Quarter: A Novella in Verse • Amanda Worthington • (self-published, 2022)
- Not a Lot of Reasons to Sing but Enough • Kyle Tran Myhre • (Button Poetry, 2022)
- Not a Princess, But (Yes) There Was a Pea & Other Tales to Foment Revolution • Rebecca Buchanan • (Jackanapes Press, 2022)
- Oblivion in Flux: A Collection of Cyber Prose • Maxwell I. Gold (Crystal Lake Publishing, 2021)
- Odyssey • John Urbancik (Dark Fluidity, 2021)
- The Odyssey of Star Wars • Jack Mitchell (Abrams Image, 2021)
- Para-Social Butterfly • Šari Dale • (Metatron Press, 2022)
- Psalms and Sorceries • Wade German • (Hippocampus Press, 2022)
- The Rat King • Sumiko Saulson • (Dooky Zines, 2022)
- The Saint of Witches • Avra Margariti (Weasel Press, 2022)
- The Saints of Capitalism • Benjamin Schmitt (New Meridian Arts Literary Press, 2021)
- Saving Shadows • Eugen Bacon (NewCon Press, 2021)
- The Sibyl • Hamant Singh • (Partridge Publishing, 2022)
- Sifting the Ashes • Michael Bailey & Marge Simon (Crystal Lake Publishing, 2022)
- The Silence Inside the World • Earl Livings • (Peggy Bright Books, 2021)
- Some Disassembly Required • David C. Kopaska-Merkel • (Diminuendo Press, 2022)
- Songs of the Underland • Kurt Newton • (The Ravens Quoth Press, 2022)
- Stone the Monsters, or Dance • Ken Poyner (Barking Moose Press, 2021)
- Summoning Space Travelers • Angela Acosta • (Hiraeth Publishing, 2022)
- The Sunflower Cast a Spell to Save Us from the Void • Jackie Wang • (Nightboat Books, 2021)
- Superheroes Take Over the World • Wendy Rathbone • (self-pub, 2022)
- Tombstones • G. O. Clark • (Weird House Press, 2022)
- Victims • Marge Simon & Mary Turzillo • (Weasel Press, 2022)
- The Voice of the Burning House • John Shirley • (Jackanapes Press, 2021)
- We’ve Been Here Before • Anne Carly Abad • (Aqueduct Press, 2022)
- What appears in the dark • Pete Kelly • (Yuriko Publishing, 2022)
- Where the Wolf • Sally Rosen Kindred • (Diode Editions, 2021)
Nominations per Press
| 1 | Abrams Image |
| 1 | Aqueduct Press |
| 1 | Arson Press |
| 1 | Astrophil Press |
| 1 | Audience Askew |
| 1 | Barking Moose Press |
| 1 | BOA Editions |
| 1 | Bottlecap Press |
| 1 | Button Poetry |
| 1 | Cornerstone Press |
| 2 | Crumb Fairy Press |
| 2 | Crystal Lake Publishing |
| 1 | Dark Fluidity |
| 1 | Diminuendo Press |
| 1 | Diode Editions |
| 1 | Dooky Zines |
| 1 | Edda Earth |
| 1 | Frayed Edge Press |
| 1 | Frog Hollow Press |
| 1 | Green Bottle Press |
| 1 | Hippocampus Press |
| 1 | Hiraeth Publishing |
| 1 | House of the Fighting Chupacabras |
| 1 | Independent Legions |
| 2 | Interstellar Flight Press |
| 4 | Jackanapes Press |
| 1 | Kelsay Books |
| 1 | Lanternfish Press |
| 1 | Lemures Digital Collection |
| 1 | Linnet’s Wings Press Press |
| 1 | Lycan Valley Press |
| 1 | Main Street Rag Press |
| 1 | MadHat Press |
| 1 | Metatron Press |
| 2 | Mind's Eye Publications |
| 1 | New Meridian Arts Literary Press |
| 1 | NewCon Press |
| 1 | Nightboat Books |
| 1 | Nictitating Books |
| 1 | Okay Donkey |
| 1 | Partridge Publishing |
| 1 | Peggy Bright Books |
| 2 | Penguin Random House |
| 1 | Perhappened Press |
| 1 | The Ravens Quoth Press |
| 3 | Raw Dog Screaming Press |
| 1 | Red Escape Publishing |
| 1 | Shoreline of Infinity |
| 1 | Simon & Schuster |
| 2 | Space Cowboy Books |
| 1 | Variant Lit |
| 1 | Vegetarian Alcoholic Press |
| 3 | Weasel Press |
| 1 | Weird House Press |
| 2 | Written Image |
| 2 | Yuriko Publishing |