For 27 years, the Science Fiction Poetry Association has selected the best science fiction, fantasy and horror-themed poetry for its prestigious Rhysling Awards. Given annually, the award takes its name from Robert A. Heinlein's legendary Blind Singer of the Spaceways. For the first time, the SFPA is offering its annual collection of Rhysling Award nominees for sale to the general public. Among the 40 poems reprinted in the 2004 Rhysling Anthology, you'll find work by Hugo Award winner Maureen McHugh and Nebual Award winner Richard Chwedyk; literary voices such a Diane Ackerman; verse from established veterans such as Ian Watson and Bruce Boston, and from hot new writers such as Theodora Goss and Tim Pratt. If you're a fan of speculative poetry, or seeking to experience it for the first time, you won't want to miss this anthology.
Review From Analog Science Fiction & Fact Magazine:
"Every year, the Science Fiction Poetry Association awards its Rhysling Awards for best long and short poems in the fields of SF, fantasy, and horror. The 2004 Rhysling Anthology presents the 2003 works of members of the SFPA deemed worthy as contenders for the awards. If you have any taste for this side of the SFF field, it's an excellent chapbook to acquire. Sources for the material include major genre magazines, small press magazines, and single-author chapbooks (such as Mike Allen's PETTING THE TIME SHARK). The poets covered include Diane Ackerman, Mike Allen, Bruce Boston, John Grey, David Kopaska-Merkel, Maureen McHugh, Steve Sneyd, John Teehan, Ian Watson, and many more. The poems themselves vary widely in approach content, and cleverness. I liked Allen's "How I will Outwit the Time Thieves," Grey's "Night of the Living Dead," Kopaska-Merkel's "The Mad Scientist Has All the Time in the World," and Teehan's "What to Do When an Alien Spacecraft Lands and the Visitors Come Out to Greet You" (for one thing, "If you own a tractor or pet pig! , hide them before giving any major interviews")." --Tom Easton, Analog
