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
References
Science fiction awards
Fantasy
Poetry
Literary awards
Horror