Rhysling Award

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