AAP staff report
SAN FRANCISCO (June 25, 2016) — This month the Science Fiction Poetry Association announced the winners of the 2016 Rhysling Awards for Poem of the Year.
In the Short Poem category, Ruth Berman won first place for her poem “Time Travel Vocabulary Problems” published in Dream and Nightmares Magazine. This year, there were ties for first place in the Long Poem category. Ann K. Schwader and Krysada Panusith Phounsiri shared first place for their poems “Keziah” and “It Begins With A Haunting” respectively. Additionally there was a tie for Third Place in the Long Poem category.
The Science Fiction Poetry Association was founded in 1978 along with the Rhysling Awards to recognize and celebrate poetry exploring themes of science fiction and fantasy. Poems that win the Rhysling Awards are often reprinted in the Nebula Awards Anthology from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Eligible voters had a chance to read the nominated candidates in the annual Rhysling Anthology published by the SFPA, with votes finalized in June. 2016 had among the highest number of votes cast in the 38 year history of the organization from members around the world.
The second place winner for the Short Poem category was “Tech Support for the Apocalypse” by F. J. Bergmann, which also appeared in Dreams and Nightmares Magazine, while Sandra J. Lindow won 3rd Place for her poem in the Gyroscope Review entitled “An Introduction to Alternate Universes: Theory and Practice.”
Additional Long Poem winners were F.J. Bergmann’s “Chronopatetic,” also from Dreams and Nightmares Magazine, for Second Place. The Third Place winners were tied between Simon Barraclough’s “From “Sunspots” which first appeared in Poetry, and Albert Goldbarth’s “The White Planet” from Boulevard.
The Rhysling Award will be presented at DiversiCon, in St. Paul (Bandana Square Best Western) by SFPA Vice President, Sandra J. Lindow. This year’s Guest of Honor is Jessica Amanda Salmonson, and Special Guest Naomi Kritzer. Their Posthumous Guests are Orson Welles, Leonard Nimoy and Shirley Jackson.
