About the Rhysling Awards
In January 1978, Suzette Haden Elgin founded the Science Fiction Poetry Association, along with two of its visible cornerposts: the association's newsletter, Star*Line, and the Rhysling Awards.
The Rhysling Awards are named for the blind poet Rhysling in Robert A. Heinlein’s short story “The Green Hills of Earth.” Rhysling’s skills were said to rival Rudyard Kipling’s. In real life, Apollo 15 astronauts named a crater near their landing site “Rhysling,” which has since become its official name.
Nominees for each year's Rhysling Awards are selected by the membership of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. Each member is allowed to nominate one work in each of two categories: “Best Long Poem” (50–299 lines; for prose poems, 500–1,999 words) and “Best Short Poem” (11–49 lines; for prose poems, 101–499 words).
All nominated works must have been first published during the preceding calendar year of the awards year. Review full guidelines here.
Rhysling Chairs for 2026
AJ Wentz is a poet living in the southern United States. She practices law by day and reads to her cat by night. Most of all, AJ spends her time longing for something just beyond her reach. Her work has appeared in Eye to the Telescope, Fantasy Magazine, Dreams & Nightmares, and elsewhere.She can be found online at www.ajwentz.com.
Jordan Hirsch writes speculative fiction and poetry in Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA, where she lives with her husband. Her work has appeared with Liminality Magazine, Octavos, The Future Fire, and other venues. Find her on Twitter (@jordanrhirsch), and find more of her work on her website: jordanrhirsch.wordpress.com.
Nominated Poems for 2026
You can now review the list of nominated poems first published in 2025. This list will be updated regularly until the February 15th deadline.
Most Recent Anthology
2025 Rhysling Anthology
Cover Art: Last Green Hill of Earth (detail) by Lisa Vasquez
Chair: Pixie Bruner
Layout: F.J. Bergmann
Publisher: Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association
For a list of winners, nominees, and jurors, please visit the 2025 Rhysling Award page.
The Rhysling Anthology
The Rhysling Awards are put to a final vote by the membership of the SFPA selection from all nominated works, presented in the Rhysling Anthology.
The anthology allows the membership to easily review and consider all nominated works without the necessity of obtaining the diverse number of publications in which the nominated works first appeared. The Rhysling Anthology is available to anyone with an interest in this unique compilation of verse from some of the finest poets working in the field of SF/F/Horror poetry.
A copy of the annual Rhysling Anthology is included with SFPA Membership.
Support the Rhysling Anthology
Without the generous donations of many SFPA members, the Anthology could not be published.
Printing and distribution of the Rhysling Anthology are paid for from a special fund, the Rhysling Endowment Fund. If you would like to contribute to this fund, please send a check, made out to SFPA, with a notation that it is for the Rhysling fund to the PO Box listed on the officers page, or by PayPal to SFPATreasurer@gmail.com. Credit card payments are accepted through PayPal.
Rhysling Winners by Year
To view the contents of all the Rhysling Anthologies since 1978, see the Rhysling archive.
Voting for the Winners
A link to vote on the Rhysling 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.