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Rhysling Award

Award for best science fiction, fantasy or horror poetry

Summary

Award for best science fiction, fantasy or horror poetry

Field	Value
name	Rhysling Award
awarded_for	Best speculative poetry of the prior year
presenter	Science Fiction Poetry Association
country	United States

NOTOC The Rhysling Awards are an annual award given for the best science fiction, fantasy, or horror poem of the year. The award name was dubbed by Andrew Joron in reference to a character in a science fiction story: the blind poet Rhysling, in Robert A. Heinlein's short story "The Green Hills of Earth". The award is given in two categories: "Best Long Poem", for works of 50 or more lines, and "Best Short Poem", for works of 49 or fewer lines.

The nominees for each year's Rhysling Awards are chosen by the members of the Science Fiction Poetry Association (SFPA). Each member may nominate one work for each of the categories. Until 2022, all nominated works were compiled into an anthology called The Rhysling Anthology, and members of the Association would then vote on the final winners. In 2022, the process was changed such that the nominees are instead presented to a jury, who select no more than 50 finalists for the short award, and no more than 25 for the long award. Now only these finalist are compiled into the anthology and put to a final vote by the SFPA membership. From 2005 to 2011, the Awards were presented in July at a ceremony at Readercon. In 2022, eligibility guidelines were changed to exclude poems also nominated for the Dwarf Stars Award or the Elgin Awards.

In 2005, the SFPA published an anthology of the winning poems, The Alchemy of Stars: Rhysling Award Winners Showcase.{{cite book

Winners and runners-up

From 1978 to 1994, only a first-place winner was awarded. In 1995, a number of runners up were named and in 1996, a number of "Honorable Mentions" were given. Since 1997, 2nd and 3rd place have also been honored, and from 2020 onward, "Honorable Mentions" have been mentioned once again.

1970s

Year	Category	Poem	Author(s)	Publication	Ref.	1978	Long	Short	1979	Long	Short
The Computer Iterates the Greater Trumps*		Speculative Poetry Review
Corruption of Metals*		2076: The American Tricentennial, Pyramid Books
Asleep in the Arms of Mother Night*		Speculative Poetry Review
The Starman*		Cthulhu Calls
For the Lady of a Physicist*		Black Holes, Fawcett Books
Fatalities*		The Eggplant and Other Absurdities, Confluence Press
Story Books and Treasure Maps*		Equinox

1980s

Year	Category	Poem	Author(s)	Publication	Ref.	1980	Long	Short	1981	Long	Short	1982	Long	Short	1983	Long	Short	1984	Long	Short	1985	Long	Short	1986	Long	Short	1987	Long	Short	1988	Long	Short	1989	Long	Short
The Sonic Flowerfall of Primes*		New Worlds
The Migration of Darkness*		Asimov's Science Fiction
Encased in the Amber of Eternity*		The Future at War
On Science Fiction*		Triquarterly
Meeting Place*		Asimov's Science Fiction
The Well of Bain*		Hard Words & Other Poems, Harper & Row
On the Speed of Sight*		Uranus
Your Time and You: A Neoprole's Dating Guide*		Velocities
In Computers*		Science 82
Saul's Death: Two Sestina's*		Omni
Two Sonnets*		Science 83
A Letter from Caroline Herschel (1750-1848)*		Science 84
For Spacers Snarled in the Hair of Comets*		Asimov's Science Fiction
Shipwrecked on Destiny Five*		Asimov's Science Fiction
The Neighbour's Wife*		Amazing Stories
Daedalus*		StarLine*
A Dream of Heredity*		Tales of the Unanticipated
Before the Big Bang: News from the Hubble Large Space Telescope*		StarLine*
White Trains*		Night Cry
The Nightmare Collector*		Night Cry
Rocky Road to Hoe*		StarLine*
In the Darkened Hours*		The Nightmare Collector, 2AM
Winter Solstice, Camelot Station*		Invitation to Camelot, Ace Books
Salinity*		Fantasy & Science Fiction

1990s

Year	Category	Poem	Author(s)	Publication	Ref.	1990	Long	Short	1991	Long	Short	1992	Long	Short	1993	Long	Short	1994	Long	Short	1995	Long	Short	1996	Long	Short	1997	Long	Short	1998	Long	Short	1999	Long	Short
dear spacemen*		Vice Versa
Epitaph for Dreams*		Narcopolis & Other Poems, Hell's Kitchen Productions
The Aging Cryonicist in the Arms of His Mistress Contemplates the Survival of the Species While the Phoenix Is Consumed by Fire*		The Magazine of Speculative Poetry
Eighteen Years Old, October Eleventh*		Asimov's Science Fiction
the button, and what you know*		Amazing Stories
Song of the Martian Cricket*		Asimov's Science Fiction
To Be from Earth*		Xizquil
Will*		The Magazine of Speculative Poetry
Basement Flats*		Air Fish, Catseye Books
Spacer's Compass*		Specula, Talisman
Flight Is for Those Who Have Not Yet Crossed Over*		The Silver Web
Pilot, Pilot*		StarLine*
A Life, Considered in Thirds, Set Against a Galactic Collapse		StarLine*
Partial People		Bears Discover Fire, Tor Books
Homeflight		StarLine*
Between Test Patterns		Antepenult, Dark Regions Press
Fire, Ice		Omni
Dreaming Saturn		Dark Destiny, White Wolf Publishing
Skin of Glass*		The Kore
In These Hills		StarLine*
Dinosaur Highway		Asimov's Science Fiction
Elements of Love		Space and Time
Variants of the Obsolete*		Eonian Variations, The Selected Poetry of Marge Simon, Dark Regions Press
The Westfarer		Dark Destiny: Proprietors of Fate, White Wolf Publishing
Future Present: A Lesson in Expectation*		Asimov's Science Fiction
Satan is a Mathematician		Once Upon a Midnight, Unnameable Press
Bilateral Symmetry		Space and Time
Spotting UFOs While Canning Tomatoes*		Serve It Forth, Warner Aspect
Memories of My Mistress		Mindsparks SF Poetry Anthology
Canto (Evocare!)		Dante's Disciples, White Wolf Press
Day Omega*		Asimov's Science Fiction
Dash		Tales of the Unanticipated
Speaking Bones		Speaking Bones, Dark Regions Press
why goldfish shouldn't use power tools*		Asimov's Science Fiction
Ghost Ships		Asylums and Labyrinths
Medusa's Daughter		StarLine*
Explaining Frankenstein to His Mother*		StarLine*
Shaman		The Catbird Seat
It's All Time-Machines, She Said		StarLine*
On Reading Bradbury		Tesseracts 6, Tesseract Books
Confessions of a Body Thief*		Talisman
egg horror poem*		Asimov's Science Fiction

2000s

Year	Category	Poem	Author(s)	Publication	Ref.	2000	Long	Short	2001	Long	Short	2002	Long	Short	2003	Long	Short	2004	Long	Short	2005	Long	Short	2006	Long	Short	2007	Long	Short	2008	Long	Short	2009	Long	Short
Christmas (after we all get time machines)*		Asimov's Science Fiction
Handwork		Women of Other Wolds, University of Western Australia Press
Salem Town		Gathering Darkness
Impressions from Giger's "Necronomicons"		Dreams & Nightmares
Grimoire*		Tales of the Unanticipated
Clark the Ripper		Dreams & Nightmares
The Au Pair from Out There		StarLine*
Brigit		Calyx
Silicon Trade Agreement		Tales of the Unanticipated
The Unfinished Map of the Sky		Fantasque
A Picture Postcard of the Cerne Abbas Giant		Asimov's Science Fiction
The Language of Rain		Dreams & Nightmares
song of a last duckbill		StarLine*
January Fires*		Asimov's Science Fiction
Maya		Strange Attraction, Bereshith/Shadowlands Press
Valley of Years		Results of a Preliminary Investigation of Electrochemical Properties of Some Organic Matrices, Eraserhead Press
The Lesions of Genetic Sin		Miniature Sun Press
Event Horizons		Snow Monkey
My Wife Returns As She Would Have It*		Asimov's Science Fiction
Of Dance Steps and Distances		Icarus Ascending
Reflections in a Fading "Mir"		Mythic Delirium
Persephone Wakening		The Magazine of Speculative Poetry
How to Make a Human*		Half-Human, Scholastic
Pavane for a Cyber-Princess		Pavane for a Cyber-Princess, Miniature Sun Press
In Bubastis		StarLine*
Trouble With Math		StarLine*
A Crash Course in Lemon Physics		Strange Horizons
We Die as Angels*		Asimov's Science Fiction
Threnody at Sea		Strange Horizons
True Love		Weird Tales
Epochs in Exile: A Fantasy Trilogy*		EOTU Ezine
Matlacihuatl's Gift*		Dreams & Nightmares
Medusa's Tale		Mythic Delirium
Not One of Us		Sex and the Single Alien, Writer's Club Press
Potherb Gardening*		Asimov's Science Fiction
A Ghost Story		Weird Tales
meteor shower		The Magazine of Speculative Poetry
Octavia Is Lost in the Hall of Masks*		Mythic Delirium
A Portrait of the Artist		Strange Horizons
Hugo Schizofrenica		Miniature Sun Press
Just Distance*		Tales of the Unanticipated
"Observe the Month of Spring"		The Magazine of Speculative Poetry
How I Will Outwit the Time Thieves		Strange Horizons
Nursery Ghosts		Raven Electrick
Soul Searching*		Strange Horizons
Making Monsters		Strange Horizons
The Night Watchman Dreams His Rounds at the REM Sleep Factory		Dreams & Nightmares
No Ruined Lunar City*		Abyss & Apex
The Clockmaker's Wife		StarLine*
Rich & Strange		Strange Horizons
The Tin Men*		The Magazine of Speculative Poetry
Old Twentieth: a century full of years		Readercon 16 Souvenir Book
First Cross of Mars		Illumen
The Strip Search*		Strange Horizons
Tsunami Child		StarLine*
South		Illumen
The Journey to Kailash*		Strange Horizons
The Eight Legs of Grandmother Spider		Mythic
Sleepers		Dreams & Nightmares
The Graven Idol's Godheart*		The Shantytown Anomaly
god is dead short live god		Mythic
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Hole		Helix
The Seven Devils of Central California*		Farrago's Wainscot
In Deepspace Shadows		In Deepspace Shadows, Mythic Delirium Books
The Engineer		Isotope
Eating Light*		Mythic Delirium
Ice Palace		The Door, McClelland & Stewart
The Oracle on River Street		Goblin Fruit
Search*		Helix
Hungry: Some Ghost Stories		Lone Star Stories
Damascus Divides the Lovers by Zero; or, The City Is Never Finished		Lone Star Stories
Songs to an Ancient City*		Mythic Delirium
Spell		Goblin Fruit
The Future		The New Yorker

2010s

Year	Category	Poem	Author(s)	Publication	Ref.	2010	Long	Short	2011	Long	Short	2012	Long	Short	2013	Long	Short	2014	Long	Short	2015	Long	Short	2016	Long	Short	2017	Long	Short	2018	Long	Short	2019	Long	Short
In the Astronaut Asylum*		Mythic Delirium
Rattlebox III		Strange Horizons
The First Story		Hot Metal Press
To Theia*		Strange Horizons
The Changeling Always Wins		Goblin Fruit
Nine Views of the Oracle		Abyss & Apex
The Sea King's Second Bible*		Goblin Fruit
Dark Rains Here and There		Dark Matters, Bad Moon Books
Wreck-Diving the Spaceship		Dreams & Nightmares
Peach-Creamed Honey*		The Honey Month, Papaveria Press
Binary Creation Myth		StarLine*
Dogstar Men		Apex Magazine
The Curator Speaks in the Department of Dead Languages*		Stange Horizons
The 25-Cent Rocket: One-Quarter of the Way to the Stars		Dreams & Nightmares
The Legend of the Emperor's Space Suit (A Tale of Consensus Reality)		New Myths
The Library, After*		Mythic Delirium
The Lend		Stone Telling
In Translation		Tales of the Talisman
Into Flight*		Silver Blade
String Theory		Ad Astra
The Necromantic Wine		Avatars of Wizardy, P'rea Press
The Time Travelers Weekend		Liquid Imagination
The Cat Star*		Lady Poetesses from Hell, Bag Person Press
Futurity's Shoelaces		Balticon 2012 Program Book
Sister Philomena Heard the Voices of Angels		Strange Horizons
Interregnum*		StarLine*
Hungry Constellations		Goblin Fruit
I will show you a single treasure from the treasures of Shah Niyaz		Goblin Fruit
Turning the Leaves*		Apex Magazine
Rivers		Asimov's Science Fiction
Music of the Stars		Balticon 2013 Program Book
100 Reasons to Have Sex with an Alien*		2014 SFPA Poetry Contest
Six Things the Owl Said		Goblin Fruit
The Perfect Library		If the World Were to Stop, Piquant Press
Shutdown*		Qualia Nous, Written Backwards
Science Fiction (with apologies to Marianne Moore's “Poetry”)		Dreams & Nightmares
I Imagine My Mother's Death		The Pedestal Magazine
The Peal Divers		Strange Horizons
Extinction		StarLine*
After the Changeling Incantation		Strange Horizons
It Begins With A Haunting*		Dance Among Elephants, Sahtu Press
Keziah*		Dark Energies, P'rea Press
Chronopatetic		Dreams & Nightmares
from "Sunspots"		Poetry
The White Planet		Boulevard
Time Travel Vocabulary Problems*		Dreams & Nightmares
Tech Support for the Apocalypse		Dreams & Nightmares
An Introduction to Alternate Universes: Theory and Practice		Gyroscope Review
Rose Child*		Uncanny
The Rime of the Eldritch Mariner		Spectral Realms
Not Like This		Apex Magazine
George Tecumseh Sherman's Ghosts*		Silver Blade
Build a Rocketship Contest: Alternative Class A Instructions and Suggestions”)		Asimov's Science Fiction
Godzilla Vs. King Kong		Dreams & Nightmares
Richard Feynman's Commute		The Were-Traveler
The Box of Dust and Monsters		Devilfish Review
The Mushroom Hunters*		Brain Pickings
For Preserves		StarLine*
Alternate Genders		Mithila Review
Advice to a Six-Year-Old*		StarLine*
Rivers		Mythic Delirium
Gramarye		Polu Texni
Ursula Le Guin in the Underworld*		On Spec
The Fairies in the Crawlspace		Uncanny
3-Minute Future		Unlikely Stories V
After Her Brother Ripped the Heads from Her Paper Dolls*		Mythic Delirium
What Loves You		The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
A City Built on Bones		Abyss & Apex
3D-Printed Brother		Strange Horizons

2020s

Year	Category	Poem	Author(s)	Publication	Ref.	2020	Long	Short	2021	Long	Short	2022	Long	Short	2023	Long	Short	2024	Long	Short	2025	Long	Short
"Heliobacterium daphnephilum"*		StarLine*
The Cinder Girl Burns Brightly		Uncanny
The Macabre Modern		The Macabre Modern and Other Morbidities, P'rea Press
Ode to the Artistic Temperament		Silver Blade
Taking, Keeping*		Apparition Lit
when my father reprograms my mother {		Strange Horizons
Creation: Dark Matter Dating App		Asimov's Science Fiction
The Day the Animals Turned to Sand		Amazing Stories
Eleven Exhibits in a Better Natural History Museum, London*		Strange Horizons
A Song from Bedlam (with apologies to Christopher Smart)		Liminality
Devilish Incarnations		StarLine*
Summer Time(lessness)*		StarLine*
Why did white people conquer the world for spices and then never use them?		Drunk Monkeys
Darning		Asimov's Science Fiction
The Bookstore*		New Myths
Reservation Fairy Tales 101—Final Exam		Augur Magazine
Alexander's Babylon		Victims, Weasel Press
The Captain Flies		Uncanny Magazine
Medusa Gets a Haircut		Uncanny Magazine
Confessions of a Spaceport AI*		Uncanny Magazine
Gravity (some things that fly)		Space and Time
The Butterfly Affect		Were Tales: A Shapeshifter Anthology, Brigids Gate Press
our translucent bodies		Mermaids Monthly
dry land		Strange Horizons
Exquisite		Tortured Willows: Bent, Bowed, Unbroken, Yuriko Publishing
Machine (r)Evolution*		Radon Journal
The Bone Tree		Not a Princess, but (Yes) There was a Pea, and Other Fairy Tales to Foment Revolution, Jackanapes Press
Igbo Landing II		Black Fire—This Time, Aquarius Press
Herbaceous Citadel		The Fairy Tale Magazine
Living in Rubble		Eccentric Orbits 3, Dimensionfold Publishing
The Thing About Stars		Into the Forest: Tales of the Baba Yaga, Black Spot Books
Harold and the Blood-Red Crayon*		StarLine*
In Stock Images of the Future, Everything is White*		Uncanny Magazine
Bitch Moon		Nightmare Magazine
First Contact		Eye to the Telescope
The Gargoyle Watches the Rains End		The Gargoylicon: Imaginings and Images of the Gargoyle in Literature and Art, Mind's Eye Publications
Field Notes from the Anthropocene		Nightmare Magazine
Near the end, your mother tells you she's been seeing someone		SFPA Poetry Contest
Dinner Plans with Baba Yaga		Into the Forest: Tales of the Baba Yaga, Black Spot Books
Little Brown Changeling*		Aphelion
The Witch Makes Her To-Do List		Uncanny Magazine
An Interrogation About A Monster During Sleep Paralysis		Strange Horizons
Pilot		Black Joy Unbound, BLF Press
Cradling Fish		Strange Horizons
Archivist of a Lost World		Eccentric Orbits
No One Now Remembers*		Fantasy and Science Fiction
Language as a Form of Breath		Apparition Lit
The Day We All Died, A Little		Radon Journal
Let Us Dream		Small Wonders
As Does the Crow		Uncanny Magazine
Mass-Market Affair		StarLine*
The Blackthorn*		Dreams & Nightmares
When it Really is Just the Wind, and Not a Furious Vexation		Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day
The Museum of Etymology		StarLine*
The House of Mulberry Leaves		Crow & Cross Keys
The Final Trick		Strange Horizons
Medicine For The Ailing Mortal, as Told in Seven Stories		The Fairy Tale Magazine
Lost Ark*		Space & Time Magazine
A Black Hole is a Melting Pot That Will Make Us Whole		StarLine*
The Witch Recalls Her Craft		Uncanny
Things to Remember When Descending Through the Ocean		Stanza Poetry Competition
Generation Ship		StarLine*
The Last Valkyrie		Forgotten Ground Regained

References

[[David Langford]], [http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/rhysling_award "Rhysling Award."] ''[[The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]]'', 3rd edition (online). Ed. John Clute, David Langford, and Peter Nicholls. 2013. Accessed 19 February 2013
(29 December 2022). "New Rhysling Award Guidelines".
Elizabeth Barrette, [http://www.strangehorizons.com/reviews/2006/02/the_alchemy_.shtm Review: The Alchemy of Stars: Rhysling Award Winners Showcase, edited by Roger Dutcher and Mike Allen]{{Dead link. (November 2025)
"Rhysling Anthology and Awards: 1978".
"Rhysling Anthology and Awards: 1979".
"Rhysling Anthology and Awards: 1980".
"Rhysling Anthology and Awards: 1981".
"Rhysling Anthology and Awards: 1982".
"Rhysling Anthology and Awards: 1983".
"Rhysling Anthology and Awards: 1984".
"Rhysling Anthology and Awards: 1985".
"Rhysling Anthology and Awards: 1986".
"Rhysling Anthology and Awards: 1987".
"Rhysling Anthology and Awards: 1988".
"Rhysling Anthology and Awards: 1989".
"Rhysling Anthology and Awards: 1990".
"Rhysling Anthology and Awards: 1991".
"Rhysling Anthology and Awards: 1992".
"Rhysling Anthology and Awards: 1993".
"Rhysling Anthology and Awards: 1994".
"Rhysling Anthology and Awards: 1995".
"Rhysling Anthology and Awards: 1996".
"Rhysling Anthology and Awards: 1997/1998".
"Rhysling Anthology and Awards: 1999".
"The 2000 Rhysling Anthology and Awards".
"The 2001 Rhysling Anthology and Awards".
"The 2002 Rhysling Anthology and Awards".
"The 2003 Rhysling Anthology and Awards".
"The 2004 Rhysling Anthology and Awards".
"The 2005 Rhysling Winners".
"The 2006 Rhysling Winners".
"The 2007 Rhysling Winners".
"The 2008 Rhysling Winners".
"The 2009 Rhysling Winners".
"The 2010 Rhysling Winners".
(2010-07-12). "2010 Rhysling Awards Winners".
"The 2011 Rhysling Winners".
(2011-07-20). "2011 Rhysling Award Winners".
"The 2012 Rhysling Winners".
(2012-07-17). "2012 Rhysling Awards Winners".
"The 2013 Rhysling Winners".
(2013-09-04). "2013 Rhysling Award Winners".
"The 2014 Rhysling Winners".
(2014-12-16). "2014 Rhysling Awards Winners".
"The 2015 Rhysling Winners".
(2015-07-01). "2015 Rhysling Awards Winners".
"The 2016 Rhysling Winners".
(2016-06-21). "2016 Rhysling Award Winners".
"The 2017 Rhysling Winners".
(2017-07-12). "2017 Rhysling Award Winners".
"The 2018 Rhysling Winners".
locusmag. (2018-07-06). "2018 Rhysling Award Winners".
"The 2019 Rhysling Winners".
locusmag. (2019-07-29). "2019 Rhysling Award Winners".
"The 2020 Rhysling Winners".
locusmag. (2020-06-26). "2020 Rhysling Award Winners".
"The 2021 Rhysling Winners".
locusmag. (2021-07-19). "2021 Rhysling Award Winners".
"The 2022 Rhysling Winners".
locusmag. (2022-06-27). "2022 Rhysling Award Winners".
locusmag. (2022-11-14). "2022 Rhysling Award Long Poem Winners".
"The 2023 Rhysling Winners".
locusmag. (2023-10-02). "2023 Rhysling Awards Winners".
"Science Fiction Poetry Association".
(4 October 2024). "2024 Rhysling Award Winners".
(7 October 2025). "2025 Rhysling Anthology and Award". Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association.
(7 October 2025). "2025 Elgin Awards and Rhysling Awards Winners". [[Locus (magazine).

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