science fiction and fantasy poetry association
Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association
2021 Rhysling Anthology and Award

Anthology Information

Editor and Rhysling Chair:
Alessandro Manzetti

Book Design: F.J. Bergmann

Cover Image: The Fountain 2
by Adrian Borda

Publisher: Science Fiction Poetry Association

Menu

All Award Winners

Short Poem Category

First Place: “Summer Time(lessness)” • Linda D. Addison • Star*Line 43.4

Second Place: “Why did white people conquer the world for spices and then never use them?” • R. Thursday • Drunk Monkeys, November 16

Third Place: “Darning” • Sandra J. Lindow • Asimov’s Science Fiction, May/June

Long Poem Category

First Place: “Eleven Exhibits in a Better Natural History Museum, London” • Jenny Blackford • Strange Horizons, 14 September

Second Place: “A Song from Bedlam (with apologies to Christopher Smart)” • Nike Sulway • Liminality 23

Third Place: “Devilish Incarnations” • Bruce Boston • Star*Line 43.1

Chair and Winner Biographies

Alessandro Manzetti (Rome, Italy) is a SFPA Elgin Award and two-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author and editor of horror fiction and dark poetry whose work has been published extensively in Italian and English, including novels, short and long fiction, poetry, essays, graphic novels and collections. English publications include his novels Shanti—The Sadist Heaven (2019) and Naraka—The Ultimate Human Breeding (2018), the novella The Keeper of Chernobyl (2019), the collections The Radioactive Bride (2020), The Garden of Delight (2017) and The Massacre of the Mermaids (2015), the poetry collections Whitechapel Rhapsody (2020), The Place of Broken Things (2019, with Linda D. Addison), War (2018, with Marge Simon), No Mercy (2017),  Sacrificial Nights (2016, with Bruce Boston) Eden Underground (2015), Venus Intervention (2014, with Corrine de Winter), and the graphic novels Calcutta Horror (2019) and Her Life Matters (2020). He edited the anthologies The Beauty of Death (2016), The Beauty of Death Vol. 2—Death by Water (2017, with Jodi Renee Lester) and Monsters of Any Kind (2018, with Daniele Bonfanti). He has been nominated multiple times for the Bram Stoker Award, the Splatterpunk Award, the This Is Horror Award, the SFPA Rhysling and Elgin Awards and the Indie Horror Book Award, and he received the HWA Specialty Press Award for his press Independent Legions. His stories and poems have appeared in Italian, U.S., UK and Polish magazines, such as Dark Moon Digest, Splatterpunk Zine, Disturbed Digest, Space & Time, Weird Tales, The Horror Zine, Illumen, Devolution Z, Hinnom, Recompose, Polu Texni, Nothing's Sacred, Okolica Strachu, and anthologies such as Splatterpunk Forever, Best Hardcore Horror of the Year Vol. 2, 4 and 5, The Big Book of Blasphemy, Midnight Under the Big Top, Bones III, Rhysling Anthology (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020), HWA Poetry Showcase Vols. 3 and 4, The Beauty of Death Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Mar Dulce, I Sogni del Diavolo, Danze Eretiche Vol. 2, Il Buio Dentro, Sorrow, Pandemonium. He is the CEO & Founder of Independent Legions Publishing, editor in chief of Molotov Magazine and Illégale Magazine (in Italian), HWA Active member and a former HWA Board of Trustees member. Website: battiago.com

Linda D. Addison is the award-winning author of five collections, including The Place of Broken Things written with Alessandro Manzetti, & How To Recognize A Demon Has Become Your Friend, and the first African-American recipient of the HWA Bram Stoker Award®. She is a recipient of the HWA Lifetime Achievement Award and SFPA Grand Master. Her site: lindaaddisonwriter.com

Jenny Blackford lives in Newcastle, Australia. Her poetry has appeared in Asimov's, Strange Horizons, Polu Texni and multiple Rhysling anthologies, as well as august Australian and international literary journals such as Going Down Swinging and The Pedestal Magazine. Award-winning Sydney press Pitt Street Poetry published an illustrated chapbook of her cat poems, The Duties of a Cat, in 2013, and her first full-length poetry book, The Loyalty of Chickens, in 2017

R. Thursday is, in no particular order: an educator, writer, cook, gamer, bibliophile, hot mess and all around nerd. When not writing poetry inspired by science, history, science fiction and fantasy, they perform edutainment slam poems full of obscure references and more swear words than their parents would be comfortable with. Their work can be found in previous Eye to the Telescope issues, Vulture Bones, Silverblade, Star*Line, The First Line, Blossomry, The Poet's Haven and as a regular contributor to Royal Rose. They live in South King County, Washington

Nike Sulway is an Australian writer of fantastic fiction. Her previous publications include the novel Rupetta, which won the 2013 Otherwise Award (previously known as the Tiptree Award). She blogs very irregularly at perilousadventures.net

Sandra J. Lindow has served as SFPA's VP and acting president. Presently she co-edits reviews for the new SFPA blog. Her most recent poetry collection is The Island of Amazonned Women. She teaches, writes, edits and shouts at squirrels for digging up and eating her canna lilies. She has more Rhysling nominations and near-wins than anyone ever

Bruce Boston’s poems have appeared in Asimov’s SF, Analog, Weird Tales, Amazing Stories, Daily Science Fiction, Pedestal, Strange Horizons, the Nebula Awards Showcase and Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. His poetry has received the Bram Stoker Award, the Asimov’s Readers Award, and the Rhysling and Grand Master Awards of the SFPA. His 40th poetry collection, Artifacts, is available at Amazon and other online booksellers. His fiction has received a Pushcart Prize and twice been a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award (novel, short story). bruceboston.com

All Nominated Poems

115 members voted on 98 short poems and 65 long poems from 82 different publications.

Short Poems

  • “Summer Time(lessness)” • Linda D. Addison • Star*Line 43.4
  • “Timegeddon” •  Francis W. Alexander • Illumen, Spring
  • “The Void Blends in Your Hands” • Carmen Lucía Alvarado • Utopia Science Fiction, February
  • “The Tree Of Eyes” • Colleen Anderson • Literary Hatchet 26
  • “They Made My Face” • Sara Backer • Silver Blade 47
  • “Sealskin Reclaimed” • Alison Bainbridge • Glitchwords 2
  • “a siren whispered in my ear one night” • Ashley Bao • Arsenika 7
  • “Chrono-Man” • F. J. Bergmann • Polu Texni, May 11
  • “Lesser Eternity” • F. J. Bergmann • Survision Magazine 6
  • “Chronovisor Wanted” • Robert Borski • Star*Line 43.1
  • “The Monster Maker” • Bruce Boston • Silver Blade 45
  • “When Change Comes” • Karen Bovenmyer • Arcana: Story
  • “The Edge of Galaxy NGC 4013” • Warren Brown • Speculative North 3
  • “He Sold What He Had Left” • Diane Callahan • Speculative North 1
  • “Three Triolets” • Anna Cates • Strange Horizons, 7 December
  • “The Luck Eaters” • Beth Cato & Rhonda Parrish • Star*Line 43.3
  • “Post-Obit Cautionary Tale” • G. O. Clark • Tales From the Moonlit Path, July
  • “Zodiac Girl” • Carolyn Clink • Eye to the Telescope 36
  • “Back Story” • David Clink • Strange Horizons, 12 September 2020
  • “The dead couple of Blenheim” • William Clunie • Dreams and Nightmares 116
  • “an alien axiom” • Gerald L. Coleman • Star*Line 43.4
  • “Mouthing off” • PS Cottier • Monstrous (IP, Brisbane, Australia)
  • “The Memory of Summer” • Jennifer Crow • Polu Texni, May 31
  • “The Old God Dies” • Jennifer Crow • Liminality 24
  • “The Man with the Corpse on His Shoulders” • James Cushing • Rattle, October 1, 2020
  • “Isotopical” • d'Ores&Deja • Analog, July/August
  • “A Hand Against My Window” • Deborah L. Davitt • 34 Orchard 1
  • “A Touch of Lightning in the Soul” • Deborah L. Davitt • Abyss & Apex 73
  • “The Witch’s Cat” • Deborah L. Davitt • Eye to the Telescope 38
  • “Beneath the Fullest Moon” • Ashley Dioses • Midnight Under the Big Top, ed. Brian James Freeman (Cemetery Dance Publications)
  • “Dragons Guard Our Family Fortune” • Adele Gardner • Star*Line 43.2
  • “Last Contact” • Jean-Paul L. Garnier • Poetry Super Highway, December 28
  • “The Mollusk God” • Maxwell Ian Gold • Space & Time Magazine 139
  • “Tree Limbs Block the Road” • Patricia Gomes • Wicked Women: An Anthology by New England Horror Writers, ed. Trisha Wooldridge
  • “Lucky & His Dad” • Alan Ira Gordon • Illumen Spring
  • “The Crib” • Vince Gotera • Making the Novel, August
  • “A Soldier Writes His Wife” • Vince Gotera • Ribbons 16:2
  • “First Contact“ • Robin Rose Graves • Simultaneous Times 6
  • “Teddy Bear Diner” • Michael H. Hanson • Android Girl and Other Sentient Speculations (Three Ravens Publishing)
  • “Hungry Ghost” • Millie Ho • Uncanny 33
  • “Ignorance, my prophylactic” • Akua Lezli Hope •  Eye to the Telescope 38
  • “Dolly Waits” • Juleigh Howard-Hobson • Final Cut Zine, October 31
  • “That is not what I meant at all” • Brian Hugenbruch • Abyss & Apex 76
  • “‘Flee’—The Last Dispatch from the Jemison Station” • Maya C. James • Star*Line 43.4
  • “Requiem” • Clay F. Johnson • Nightingale & Sparrow 8
  • “Form Factor” • Tim Jones • Eye To The Telescope 38
  • “Family Historian” • Herb Kauderer • Scifaikuest, August
  • “Cave Painting” • Bran Keane •  Eternal Haunted Summer, Winter Solstice
  • “Posle Nas” • Rosalie Morales Kearns • Apparition Lit 11
  • “Star Trip(tych)”  • M. X. Kelly • Speculative North 2
  • “Witching” • Erin Kirsh • Speculative North 2
  • “Life Goes On” • David C Kopaska-Merkel • Awen 107
  • “We sell skin on sale” • Rachel Lachmansingh • Augur Magazine 3.2
  • “The Forest in the Full of the Moon” • Geoffrey A. Landis • New Myths, December
  • “Snow White and the Seven Deadly Sins” • Geoffrey A. Landis • Space & Time Magazine 137
  • “The Cat's Epilogue” • Mary Soon Lee • The Sign of the Dragon (JABberwocky Literary Agency)
  • “Cavall” • Mary Soon Lee • Asimov's Science Fiction, September/October
  • “What Phoenixes Read” • Mary Soon Lee • Star*Line 43.3
  • “Darning” • Sandra J. Lindow • Asimov’s Science Fiction, May/June
  • “Rapunzel at Seventy” • Sandra J. Lindow • Taj Mahal Review, June
  • “Grass Whisperer” • Lynne M MacLean • Speculative North 1
  • “Lovely Ludwig Van” • Alessandro Manzetti • Space & Time 139
  • “Kings and Queens of Narnia” • Meep Matsushima • Octavos 9/24/2020
  • “Black Water, Black Bones” • Michelle Muenzler • Liminality 23
  • “Libations” • Soonest Nathaniel • FIYAH 15
  • “Cento for Lagahoos” •  Brandon O’Brien • Uncanny 36
  • “Mountain” • Cindy O'Quinn • Shelved: Appalachian Resilience Amid Covid-19 (Mountain Gap Books anthology)
  • “You Were With Me” • Cindy O’Quinn • Space & Time Magazine 136
  • “The Krakeness” • K. A. Opperman • Cosmic Horror Monthly, June
  • “On the Edge of Forever” • Josh Pearce • Star*Line 43.1
  • “Fin” • Terese Mason Pierre • Uncanny 36
  • “Like Clockwork” • Christina M. Rau • Songs of Eretz Poetry Review, March
  • “Bar Scene” • John Reinhart • Star*Line 43.3
  • “It Feels Like Drowning” • Terrie Leigh Relf • HWA Poetry Showcase Vol. VII, ed. Stephanie Wytovich
  • “fear of police, but as sci-fi, because /that/ you can understand -or, less passive aggressively- get these fucking phasers out of my face” • J. C. Rodriguez • Freeze Ray Poetry 19
  • “invocation of my guardian angel in six sexts” • Camille Rosas • Eye to the Telescope 37
  • “Arrival Mind” • Louis B. Rosenberg • Arrival Mind (Outland Publishing)
  • “Of fairy tales—” • David F. Shultz • Star*Line 43.1
  • “People Dropping Dead in the Mall Parking Lot” • Alan Ray Simmons • Abyss & Apex 76
  • “Journey’s End” • Marge Simon • Silver Blade 46
  • “Old Playfellow” • Noel Sloboda • Abyss & Apex 75
  • “Riding the Exhale” • Angela Yuriko Smith • HWA Poetry Showcase Vol. VII, ed. Stephanie Wytovich
  • “The Deer” • Christina Sng • A Collection of Dreamscapes (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
  • “Dream Weaver” • Blaize Kelly Strothers • Apparition Lit 12
  • “The Selkie Wife” • Marcie Lynn Tentchoff • Speculative North 3
  • “Andromeda’s Lament” • Gretchen Tessmer • Liminality 26
  • “End Credits” • Gretchen Tessmer • Liquid Imagination 44
  • “A Tempest” • Sheree Renée Thomas • Star*Line 43.4
  • “Why did white people conquer the world for spices and then never use them?” • R. Thursday • Drunk Monkeys, November 16
  • “King Pest” • Richard L. Tierney • Spectral Realms 13
  • “Athena Holds Up a Mirror to Strength” • Ali Trotta • Uncanny 34
  • “Persephone’s Sneakers” • Amanda Trout • Little Death Lit 5
  • “Extinction No. 6” • Morgan L. Ventura • Augur 3.2
  • “Unlooping” • Marie Vibbert • Asimov's Science Fiction, January/February
  • “Acacia” • Holly Lyn Walrath • Liminality 24
  • “we are all energy” • M. Darusha Wehm • Kaleidotrope, Spring
  • “The Paper Effigies Shop” • Deborah Wong • Eye to the Telescope 36
  • [hand-me-down] • Greer Woodward • Eye to the Telescope 35

Long Poems

  • “And It Was Bad” • Anne Carly Abad • Abyss & Apex 75
  • “The Looking Glass” • Colleen Anderson • Illumen, Spring
  • “Snow White's Apples” • Colleen Anderson • Polu Texni, April 14
  • “Time Traveller’s Memory” • Davian Aw • The Future Fire 55
  • “Regarding” • F. J. Bergmann • Polu Texni, March 30
  • “The Riches of the Cloud Country” • Ruth Berman • Asimov's Science Fiction, May/June
  • “Eleven Exhibits in a Better Natural History Museum, London” • Jenny Blackford • Strange Horizons, 14 September
  • “The priestess’s daughter” • Jenny Blackford • Heroic Fantasy Quarterly 43
  • “The Third Sister” • Andrea Blythe • Twelve (Interstellar Flight Press)
  • “Parabiont” • Robert Borski • Dreams and Nightmares 115
  • “Devilish Incarnations” • Bruce Boston • Star*Line 43.1
  • “Wishes” • Jennifer Bushroe • Polu Texni, September 7
  • “Learning the Way” • Sarah Cannavo • Liminality 25
  • “Mrs. Housekeeper” • Beth Cato • Eye To The Telescope 35
  • “My Cat, He” • Beth Cato • Uncanny 36
  • “Cursebody” • May Chong • Apparition Lit 11
  • “Municipal Ghosts” • May Chong • Eye to the Telescope 36
  • “La Bête: The Beast of Gévaudan” • Frank Coffman • Black Flames & Gleaming Shadows (Bold Venture Press)
  • “The Wheel of the Year” • Frank Coffman • Black Flames & Gleaming Shadows (Bold Venture Press)
  • “The Imp and the Bottle” • Sharon Cote • Star*Line 43.2
  • “The King of Eyes” • PS Cottier • Monstrous (IP, Brisbane, Australia)
  • “Twisted Sayings” • Ashley Dioses • The Withering (Jackanapes Press)
  • “After the Decipherment” • FJ Doucet • SFPA Poetry Contest
  • “Penelope, the truth” • Clarabelle Fields • Corvid Queen, April 3, 2020
  • “The Mad Scientist to the Muse of her Dreams” • Adele Gardner • Dreams and Nightmares 114
  • “Odysseus Grins at Fate and the Gods” • Adele Gardner • Mithila Review 13
  • “Seven Steps to Reach Your Father Across the Great Divide” • Adele Gardner • Liminality 25
  • “Cellars, Caskets, and Closets” • Maxwell I. Gold • Baffling Magazine 1
  • “The Secret Ingredient is Always the Same” • Sarah Grey • Fantasy Magazine 61
  • “Fermi’s Spaceship” • Jamal Hodge • Star*Line 43.4
  • “Igbo Landing” • Akua Lezli Hope • Penumbra, Fall 2020
  • “First Turn” • Juleigh Howard-Hobson • Final Cut Zine, October 31
  • “The Finger” • Abi Hynes • Dreams and Nightmares 114
  • “An Offering” • Michael Janairo • Line of Advance (2020 Col. Darron L. Wright Memorial Awards)
  • “The Emerald Witch Stone” • Clay F. Johnson • Moonchild Magazine, January
  • “The First Dragon” • Herb Kauderer • Altered Reality Magazine, 14 December
  • “The Unicorn Insane” • Herb Kauderer • Speculations II: Poetry from the Weird Poets’ Society, ed. Frank Coffman
  • “Dictionary of the Lost” • Luke Kernan • Déraciné 7
  • “Robo sapiens Thinks He Thinks” • Geoffrey A. Landis • Eye To The Telescope 35
  • “Ford” • Mary Soon Lee • The Sign of the Dragon (JABberwocky Literary Agency)
  • “Jumble” • Mary Soon Lee • Heroic Fantasy Quarterly 43
  • “Two Weeks” • Mary Soon Lee • The Sign of the Dragon (JABberwocky Literary Agency)
  • “Invisible Ink” • Gerri Leen • Community of Magic Pens (Atthis Arts anthology)
  • “Social Graces” • Lori R. Lopez • Bewildering Stories 871
  • “The Whistle Stop” • Lori R. Lopez • Impspired 8
  • “The Son-in-Law from Hell” • LindaAnn LoSchiavo • Bewildering Stories 875
  • “Budapest” • S. Qiouyi Lu • Charge Magazine 4
  • “Alice” • Alessandro Manzetti • Whitechapel Rhapsody (Independent Legions)
  • “The Cage” • Alessandro Manzetti • Midnight Under the Big Top, ed. Brian James Freeman (Cemetery Dance Publications)
  • “The Believers” • Meep Matsushima • Strange Horizons, 21 December
  • “Nephele, On Friday” • Elizabeth R. McClellan • Air: Sylphs, Spirits & Swan Maidens, ed. Rhonda Parrish (Tyche Books)
  • “There Must Be Blood” • Elizabeth R. McClellan • Rejection Letters, October 8
  • “lagahoo culture (Part I)” Brandon O’Brien • Uncanny 35
  • “Mise-en-scène” • Suphil Lee Park • Michigan Quarterly—Mixtape: Apocalypse issue
  • “Next!” • Michael H. Payne •  Silver Blade 47
  • “Caged” • Marsheila Rockwell • American Diversity Report, December 16
  • “Our Lady of the Acherontia” • Allan Rozinski • Spectral Realms 13
  • “Such Monstrous Births” • Emily Smith • Strange Horizons, 9 March
  • “All That I Have Lost” • Christina Sng • Spectral Realms 13
  • “Dark Forest” • Christina Sng • New Myths 53
  • “Hansel and Gretel” • Christina Sng • A Collection of Dreamscapes (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
  • “Love Song of the Swamp Witch Scorned” • Alena Sullivan • Crow & Cross Keys, December
  • “A Song from Bedlam (with apologies to Christopher Smart)” • Nike Sulway • Liminality 23
  • “A Dish Best Served” • Lisa Timpf• Liminality 23
  • “Daughters Saving Mothers” • Holly Lyn Walrath • Liminality 23

Nominations per Publication

Number of NominationsPublication Name
134 Orchard
5Abyss & Apex
1Air: Sylphs, Spirits & Swan Maidens, ed. Rhonda Parrish (Tyche Books)
1Altered Reality Magazine
1American Diversity Report
1Analog Science Fiction and Fact
1Android Girl and Other Sentient Speculations (Three Ravens Publishing)
1Awen
3Apparition Lit
1Arcana
1Arrival Mind (Outland Publishing)
1Arsenika
4Asimov’s Science Fiction
2Augur Magazine
1Baffling Magazine
2Bewildering Stories
2Black Flames & Gleaming Shadows (Bold Venture Press)
1Charge Magazine
2A Collection of Dreamscapes (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
1Community of Magic Pens (Atthis Arts anthology)
1Corvid Queen
1Crow & Cross Keys
1Cosmic Horror Monthly
1Déraciné
4Dreams and Nightmares
1Drunk Monkeys
1Eternal Haunted Summer
10Eye to the Telescope
1Fantasy Magazine
2Final Cut Zine
1FIYAH
1Freeze Ray Poetry
1The Future Fire
1Glitchwords
2Heroic Fantasy Quarterly
2HWA Poetry Showcase Vol. VII, ed. Stephanie Wytovich
3Illumen
1Impspired
1Kaleidotrope
9Liminality
1Line of Advance (2020 Col. Darron L. Wright Memorial Awards)
1Liquid Imagination
1The Literary Hatchet
1Little Death Lit
1Making the Novel
1Michigan Quarterly
2Midnight Under the Big Top, ed. Brian James Freeman (Cemetery Dance Publications)
1Mithila Review
1Mobius: The Journal of Social Change
2Monstrous (IP: Brisbane, Australia)
1Moonchild Magazine
2New Myths
1Nightingale & Sparrow
1Octavos
1Penumbra
1Poetry Super Highway
5Polu Texni
1Rattle
1Rejection Letters
1Ribbons
1Scifaikuest
1SFPA Halloween Page
1SFPA Poetry Contest
1Shelved: Appalachian Resilience Amid Covid-19 (Mountain Gap Books anthology)
3The Sign of the Dragon (JABberwocky Literary Agency)
4Silver Blade
1Simultaneous Times
1Songs of Eretz Poetry Review
4Space & Time Magazine
3Spectral Realms
1Speculations II: Poetry from the Weird Poets’ Society, ed. Frank Coffman
6Speculative North
15Star*Line
5Strange Horizons
1Survision Magazine
1Taj Mahal Review
1Tales from the Moonlit Path
1Twelve (Interstellar Flight Press)
6Uncanny
1Utopia Science Fiction
1Whitechapel Rhapsody (Independent Legions)
1The Withering (Jackanapes Press)
Scroll to Top