On Saturday 7 July 2007, Readercon played host to The Rhysling Award Poetry Slan. This event was emceed by former Science Fiction Poetry Association (SFPA) President Mike Allen, and featured more than a dozen Rhysling Award nominees, past winners, and other poets reading their poetry. The readings were actually a prelude to the announcement of this year’s winners of the SFPA’s Rhysling Awards for Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Poetry.
Following the readings, Rhysling Chairman Drew Morse anounced the winners of this year’s awards.
In the short category (poems of fewer than 50 lines), the winner is “The Graven Idol’s Godheart” by Rich Ristow (originally published in The Shantytown Anomaly 2, March 2006). Second place went to Joe Haldeman for “god is dead short live god” (Mythic 1, April 2006). Third place went to Lawrence Schimel for “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Hole” (Helix 3, December 2006).
The long category (poems of 50 lines or more) winner is “The Journey of Kailish” by Mike Allen (Strange Horizons, 23 January 2006). Second place went to Catherynne M. Valente for “The Eight Legs of Grandmother Spider” (Mythic 1, April 2006). And third place went to Samantha Henderson for “Sleepers” (Dreams & Nightmares 75, September 2006).
Remarking on the quality of the winners and runners-up, Morse noted that there were approximately 100 ballots cast, and that a scant 3 votes separated first from third place in the short form category. In the long form category, the difference between the top three finishers was 5 votes.
Several of the poems were read prior to the awards, although Mike Allen’s winner was not one of them. Instead, he performed another, shorter poem, which may have been the highlight of the event. Entitled “Manifest Density,” his performance poem was both inspiring and amusing.
This article, which we published in April, talks about the award and the contains a link to the full list of nominees.
[Edited 13 July 2007 to add this link to photos of the readers at the event.]