2015 SFPA Grand Master: Steve Sneyd
a man with a tan jacket and grey hair stands at a lectern

Steve Sneyd may be unfamiliar to many; he lives completely off the grid in Yorkshire, England, with no internet presence. His output of poetry has slowed in recent years. Notwithstanding, he should be better known as an important speculative poet and stalwart proponent, chronicler and historian of SF poetry. Steve has been publishing SF poetry since the late 1970s (at least). His poetry has been nominated multiple times for Rhysling Awards, beginning in 1992. His poetry has appeared in Star*Line and Dreams & Nightmares as recently as 2011), The Magazine of Speculative Poetry and Hadrosaur Tales, as well as many SF and poetry journals, fanzines, and small-press anthologies.

His collections include Gestaltmacher, Gestaltmacher, Make Me a Gestalt: Ninety-Nine Poems from the Nineties (The Four Quarters, 2000) and Mistaking the Nature of the Posthuman (Hilltop Press, 2008). His handwritten (!) SF poetry newsletter, DataDump, in print since 1992, recently celebrated its 200th issue. In it are reviews, news and historical studies of SF poetry. He gives the annual DataDump Award for best SF poem in a British publication. Sneyd has published SF poetry from U.S. and British fanzines and small press, grouped by era (starting with the 1750s!), as well as themed anthologies.

He has written countless essays and forewords, most recently an overview of SF poetry, “Wormholeing into Elsewhere,” in Where Rockets Burn Through, ed. Russell Jones (See the review on Amazing Stories for a brief example of his poetry). The ISFDB site and the SF Encyclopedia have (albeit incomplete) lists of his published poetry as well as more biographical information.  

Update June 14, 2018: Steve Sneyd died at the age of 77 after a short time in hospital.

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