The Rhysling Awards are a prize given each year for the best poem from science fiction, fantasy, or horror.  Most awards for writing are named for the creator of the award, the subject of the award, or an important person. The Rhyslings are named for a character in a science fiction story: the blind poet Rhysling, in Robert A. Heinlein's short story The Green Hills of Earth. Two awards are given: "Best Long Poem", for poetry of 50 or more lines, and "Best Short Poem", for works of 49 or fewer lines.

The members of the Science Fiction Poetry Association (SFPA) choose several possible winners (nominees) for each year's Rhysling Awards.  Each member may name one work that should win in each category.  All of the nominees are published in a book called The Rhysling Anthology. Members of the Association then vote on the final winners. Since 2005, the Awards have been presented in July at a ceremony at Readercon. The "Best Short Poem" category allows very short poems to be entered. However, the SFPA also has the Dwarf Stars Award for poems from one to ten lines.

Best Long Poem winners
 1978 Gene Wolfe The Computer Iterates the Greater Trumps
 1979 Michael Bishop For the Lady of a Physicist
 1980 Andrew Joron The Sonic Flowerfall of Primes
 1981 Thomas M. Disch On Science Fiction
 1982 Ursula K. Le Guin The Well of Baln
 1983 Adam Cornford Your Time and You: A Neoprole's Dating Guide
 1984 Joe Haldeman Saul's Death: Two Sestinas
 1985 Siv Cedering A Letter from Caroline Herschel (1750-1848)
 1986 Andrew Joron Shipwrecked on Destiny Five
 1987 W. Gregory Stewart Daedalus
 1988 Lucius Shepard White Trains
 1989 (tie): Bruce Boston In the Darkened Hours ; John M. Ford Winter Solstice, Camelot Station
 1990 Patrick McKinnon dear spacemen
 1991 David Memmott The Aging Cryonicist in the Arms of His Mistress Contemplates the Survival of the Species While the Phoenix Is Consumed by Fire
 1992 W. Gregory Stewart the button and what you know
 1993 William J. Daciuk To Be from Earth
 1994 W. Gregory Stewart and Robert Frazier Basement Flats: Redefining the Burgess Shale
 1995 David Lunde Pilot, Pilot
 1996 Margaret B. Simon Variants of the Obsolete
 1997 Terry A. Garey Spotting UFOs While Canning Tomatoes
 1998 Laurel Winter why goldfish shouldn't use power tools
 1999 Bruce Boston Confessions of a Body Thief
 2000 Geoffrey A. Landis Christmas (after we all get time machines)
 2001 Joe Haldeman January Fires
 2002 Lawrence Schimel How to Make a Human
 2003 (tie): Charles Saplak and Mike Allen Epochs in Exile: A Fantasy Trilogy ; Sonya Taaffe Matlacihuatl's Gift
 2004 Theodora Goss Octavia Is Lost in the Hall of Masks
 2005 Tim Pratt Soul Searching
 2006 Kendall Evans and David C. Kopaska-Merkel The Tin Men
 2007 Mike Allen The Journey to Kailash
 2008 Catherynne M. Valente The Seven Devils of Central California
 2009 Geoffrey A. Landis Search
 2010 Kendall Evans and Samantha Henderson In the Astronaut Asylum
 2011 C.S.E. Cooney The Sea King's Second Bride
 2012 Megan Arkenberg The Curator Speaks in the Department of Dead Languages
 2013 Andrew Robert Sutton Into Flight
 2014 Mary Soon Lee Interregnum
 2015 F.J. Bergmann 100 Reasons to Have Sex with an Alien
 2016 (tie): Krysada Panusith Phounsiri It Begins With A Haunting; Ann K. Schwader Keziah
 2017 Theodora Goss Rose Child

Best Short Poem winners
 1978 (tie): Duane Ackerson The Starman ; Andrew Joron Asleep in the Arms of Mother Night ; Sonya Dorman Corruption of Metals
 1979 (tie): Duane Ackerson Fatalities ; Steve Eng Storybooks and Treasure Maps
 1980 (tie): Robert Frazier Encased in the Amber of Eternity ; Peter Payack The Migration of Darkness
 1981 Ken Duffin Meeting Place
 1982 Raymond DiZazzo On the Speed of Sight
 1983 Alan P. Lightman In Computers
 1984 Helen Ehrlich Two Sonnets
 1985 Bruce Boston For Spacers Snarled in the Hair of Comets
 1986 Susan Palwick The Neighbor's Wife
 1987 (tie): Jonathan V. Post Before the Big Bang: News from the Hubble Large Space Telescope ; John Calvin Rezmerski A Dream of Heredity
 1988 (tie): Bruce Boston The Nightmare Collector ; Suzette Haden Elgin Rocky Road to Hoe
 1989 Robert Frazier Salinity
 1990 G. Sutton Breiding Epitaph for Dreams
 1991 Joe Haldeman Eighteen Years Old, October Eleventh
 1992 David Lunde Song of the Martian Cricket
 1993 Jane Yolen Will
 1994 (tie): Bruce Boston Spacer's Compass ; Jeff VanderMeer Flight Is for Those Who Have Not Yet Crossed Over
 1995 Dan Raphael Skin of Glass
 1996 Bruce Boston Future Present: A Lesson in Expectation
 1997 W. Gregory Stewart Day Omega
 1998 John Grey Explaining Frankenstein to His Mother
 1999 Laurel Winter egg horror poem
 2000 Rebecca Marjesdatter Grimoire
 2001 Bruce Boston My Wife Returns as She Would Have It
 2002 William John Watkins We Die as Angels
 2003 Ruth Berman Potherb Gardening
 2004 Roger Dutcher Just Distance
 2005 Greg Beatty No Ruined Lunar City
 2006 Mike Allen The Strip Search
 2007 Rich Ristow The Graven Idol's Godheart
 2008 F.J. Bergmann Eating Light
 2009 Amal El-Mohtar Song for an Ancient City
 2010 Ann K. Schwader To Theia
 2011 Amal El-Mohtar Peach-Creamed Honey
 2012  Shira Lipkin The Library, After
 2013 Terry A. Garey The Cat Star
 2014 Amal El-Mohtar Turning the Leaves
 2015 Marge Simon Shutdown
 2016 Ruth Berman Time Travel Vocabulary Problems
 2017 Marge Simon George Tecumseh Sherman's Ghosts

Other websites
SFPA Rhysling Anthology

References

Science fiction awards
Fantasy
Poetry
Literary awards
Horror