#speculativepoetry — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #speculativepoetry, aggregated by home.social.
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New poem published by Altered Reality Magazine. This time it is more science fiction than horror. You can learn about that poem in the link attached. Happy reading!
#poetry #poems #literaryhorror #horror #writing #amwriting #amreading #reading #sciencefiction #speculativepoetry #scifi
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Charm City Spec: April Edition lands at Bird in Hand on April 11, 6pm. Featuring Scott Edelman, TT Madden, Mahaila Smith, Aina Hunter, and Trae Hawkins. Five voices working the edges of speculative fiction, from eco-weird to near-future hope. Join them at 11 E. 33rd St.
#SpeculativeFiction #SciFi #WeirdFiction #CliFi #EcoFiction #Poetry #SpeculativePoetry #SFPoetry #SmallPress #IndiePress #IndieAuthors #BookEvent #AuthorReading #Baltimore #Bmore #Maryland #BookCommunity #ReadingSeries
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Charm City Spec: April Edition lands at Bird in Hand on April 11, 6pm. Featuring Scott Edelman, TT Madden, Mahaila Smith, Aina Hunter, and Trae Hawkins. Five voices working the edges of speculative fiction, from eco-weird to near-future hope. Join them at 11 E. 33rd St.
#SpeculativeFiction #SciFi #WeirdFiction #CliFi #EcoFiction #Poetry #SpeculativePoetry #SFPoetry #SmallPress #IndiePress #IndieAuthors #BookEvent #AuthorReading #Baltimore #Bmore #Maryland #BookCommunity #ReadingSeries
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Charm City Spec: April Edition lands at Bird in Hand on April 11, 6pm. Featuring Scott Edelman, TT Madden, Mahaila Smith, Aina Hunter, and Trae Hawkins. Five voices working the edges of speculative fiction, from eco-weird to near-future hope. Join them at 11 E. 33rd St.
#SpeculativeFiction #SciFi #WeirdFiction #CliFi #EcoFiction #Poetry #SpeculativePoetry #SFPoetry #SmallPress #IndiePress #IndieAuthors #BookEvent #AuthorReading #Baltimore #Bmore #Maryland #BookCommunity #ReadingSeries
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Charm City Spec: April Edition lands at Bird in Hand on April 11, 6pm. Featuring Scott Edelman, TT Madden, Mahaila Smith, Aina Hunter, and Trae Hawkins. Five voices working the edges of speculative fiction, from eco-weird to near-future hope. Join them at 11 E. 33rd St.
#SpeculativeFiction #SciFi #WeirdFiction #CliFi #EcoFiction #Poetry #SpeculativePoetry #SFPoetry #SmallPress #IndiePress #IndieAuthors #BookEvent #AuthorReading #Baltimore #Bmore #Maryland #BookCommunity #ReadingSeries
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Charm City Spec: April Edition lands at Bird in Hand on April 11, 6pm. Featuring Scott Edelman, TT Madden, Mahaila Smith, Aina Hunter, and Trae Hawkins. Five voices working the edges of speculative fiction, from eco-weird to near-future hope. Join them at 11 E. 33rd St.
#SpeculativeFiction #SciFi #WeirdFiction #CliFi #EcoFiction #Poetry #SpeculativePoetry #SFPoetry #SmallPress #IndiePress #IndieAuthors #BookEvent #AuthorReading #Baltimore #Bmore #Maryland #BookCommunity #ReadingSeries
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(Quoted from Kalin Stacey)
The nomination period for the 2026 Aurora Awards CLOSES in three days, on Saturday April 4, at 11:59pm Eastern.
If you're already a member and haven't nominated yet, please go do that! Nominating numbers are never that high so your vote can make a big difference to who gets on the final ballot. Don’t wait until the last moment! Add what you are currently sure of right away and you can always go back to add more before our deadline.
And if you're not yet a member, you can STILL get a 2026 membership and vote before the Saturday deadline. It's only $10 for a membership which allows you to nominate and vote for your favourite Canadian speculative genre authors and artists, plus you get access to the Voters Package which includes ebook/digital copies of the all works on the final ballot.
Unsure about our process?: https://www.csffa.ca/awards-information/general-awards-process/
Lists of what is eligible for 2026: https://www.csffa.ca/awards-information/eligibility-lists/ -
ICYMI, The Woodlot published a thoroughly delightful review by Pearl Pirie of Mahaila Smith's SEED BEETLE. If you still haven't picked up your copy, you truly can't miss with this debut collection.
Read the whole review here: https://the-wood-lot.ca/2025/09/29/seed-beetle-poems-by-mahaila-smith-stelliform-press-2025/
#poetry #canlit #canadianauthor #speculativepoetry #sfpoetry #poetrycollection #debutcollection #books #bookstodon
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ICYMI - Earth Versed: 10 New Poetry Books About Our Relationship with Nature
The Revelator posted a lovely little review of Mahaila Smith's SEED BEETLE: "Easily one of my favorite books of the year. (I enjoyed the electronic review copy so much I bought it in hard copy.)"
https://therevelator.org/environmental-poetry-reviews/
#seedbeetle #mahailasmith #poetrycollection #poetry #canadianpoetry #canlit #sciencefictionpoetry #speculativepoetry #ecofiction #climatefiction #queerfiction #lgbtqfiction #smallpress
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The Aurora award ceremony is this weekend, and I'm a first-time finalist. I know a wack of other writers on the finalist list, too. Won't you celebrate speculative writing/art with us? 17:00 EST Sunday. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy2k5h0AKKQ #AuroraAwards #CanLit #SpeculativeFiction #SpeculativePoetry #SFF
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Voting closes tomorrow for the Aurora awards! I got my votes in. I'm a first-time finalist this year with my poem "Angakkuq." https://www.csffa.ca/awards-information/current-ballot/ #CanLit #PoetryCommunity #AuroraAward #SpeculativePoetry
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Coming up at 6pm on June 27 at L’Eugélionne the Feminist Bookstore: Seed Beetle + Fire Cider Rain Poetry reading! Come to 1426 Beaudry, in Montréal for a beautiful and thought-provoking evening with poets Mahaila Smith and Rhiannon Ng Cheng Hin.
#poetry #canadianpoetry #canadianpoet #canlit #canadianliterature #speculativepoetry #sciencefictionpoetry #narrativepoetry #canadianbooks #canadianauthors #books #smallpress #bookstodon
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The Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association now has Aurora Award voting packages available for members. My poem "Angakkuq" is a finalist, and I'd love for you to read it. Voting for it would be a delicious surprise.
You can access all the wonderful novels, poetry, short stories, illustrations, etc. which made the finals for only ten bucks Canadian. A bargain, for sure. And you don't even need to be an author to get membership. Money supports Canadian speculative authors and illustrators. https://www.csffa.ca/ #CanLit #WritingCommunity #AuroraAward #SpeculativeFiction #SpeculativePoetry #PoetryCommunity #IndigenousCreatives
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Heads up, poetry lovers! Another great poetry event is coming up in a week. The Factory Reading Series, with Mahaila Smith, James K. Moran, Pearl Pirie, Manahil Bandukwala, and MA|DE will be on June 20 7pm at Anina's Cafe, 280 Joffre-Bélanger Way, in Ottawa. Mark your calendars!
#poetry #poetryreading #canadianpoetry #canlit #canadianliterature #speculativepoetry #sciencefictionpoetry #canadianpoet #ottawa #ottawaevents
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Today we're sending this little beetle out into the world. May it burrow into your hearts, in a nice way.
Congratulations to Mahaila Smith for this beautiful, innovative and tender collection of narrative science fiction poetry!
Now available everywhere!
https://www.stelliform.press/index.php/product/seed-beetle-by-mahaila-smith/
#poetry #canadianpoetry #narrativepoetry #speculativepoetry #sciencefictionpoetry #canlit #canadianliterature #debutcollection #publicationday #books #bookstodon
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The voter's' packages for the Aurora Awards are now available. If you're a member of the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association, you can go download them. If you're not a member, it's only ten bucks to become one, and then you can read all sorts of terrific speculative fiction and poetry. My poem "Angakkuq" is one of the contenders, and I'd be honoured if you read it. Go read, and vote for your favourites! https://www.csffa.ca/ #SpeculativePoetry #SpeculativeFiction #AuroraAward #CanLit #IndigenousCreatives #PoetryCommunity #WritingCommunity #IndigenousAuthors
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Congrats to Terese Mason Pierre and Mahaila Smith (and many thanks to Perfect Books in Ottawa) for a wildly successful launch! And of course thanks to everyone who came out to support two amazing poets and their debut collections!
#poetry #canadianpoetry #canlit #canadianliterature #smallpress #booklauch #speculativepoetry #sciencefiction #fantasy #books #bookstodon
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Coming up for Ottawa folks! Terese Mason Pierre and Mahaila Smith will be launching their poetry collections MYTH and SEED BEETLE together at Perfect Books on Tuesday May 6 at 7pm! Don't miss it!
#ottawaevents #poetry #poetrycollection #speculativepoetry #canlit #canadianliterature #canadianauthor #books #bookstodon
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Now that it's up on their page, I can officially announce it now. My poem "Angakkuq" is a finalist for the Aurora Awards. This is my first time as a finalist there. https://www.csffa.ca/awards-information/current-ballot/
#Poetry #AuroraAward #SpeculativePoetry #PoetryCommunity #CanLit -
Mahaila Smith's SEED BEETLE, a science fiction narrative poetry collection, is featured on the Netgalley homepage today! It's always exciting when a small press gets such prominent placement. if you haven't downloaded your review copy, SEED BEETLE is on Netgalley till the end of the month!
#poetry #narrativepoetry #sciencefictionpoetry #speculativepoetry #canadianauthor #canlit #canadian #sciencefiction #ecofiction #climatefiction #reviewcopy #books #bookstodon
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Thank you Myna Chang for this lovely little interview with Mahaila Smith about their upcoming poetry collection SEED BEETLE! "The sweep of the story feels epic, almost mythical. Each poem brings another grain of understanding, building a complex world."
https://mynachang.com/2025/04/04/author-interview-mahaila-smith/
#poetry #poetrycollection #canadianpoet #canadianauthor #sciencefiction #sciencefictionpoetry #narrativepoetry #canlit #speculativepoetry #books #bookstodon
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If whimsy, queer communities, justice & delightful language is what you're looking for in a poetry collection, Mahaila Smith's SEED BEETLE is now up on Netgalley. Netgalley users can download it here: https://www.netgalley.com/catalog/book/605077
Small presses can't exist without reviewers. We sincerely thank you all.
#bookreview #bookreviewer #netgalley #reviewcopy #poetry #poetrycollection #canadianauthor #canlit #canadianliterature #sciencefiction #queerfiction #speculativefiction #speculativepoetry #bookstodon
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In case you missed Trinity's BIPOC Writing Circle & OCAD Emerging Writer's Reading Series at Glad Day Bookshop, here's a couple pics from the evening. Thank you to all who came out to hear some fabulous writers!
#canlit #poetry #canadianpoetry #canadian #speculativepoetry #narrativepoetry #seedbeetle #mahailasmith #ecofiction #sciencefiction #bookstodon #books
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February has been a dry spell for me, but I did just receive my author's copies of OnSpec Magazine. My poem "Angakkuq" is featured inside. This magazine is technically a December 2024 release but the print copies were delayed because of the mail strike.
I have three pieces scheduled for print next month: a poem in Strange Horizons, an essay in ALOCASIA, and a story in Flash Fiction Online. In theory, a longer short story will be printed in an anthology, but that anthology has been going through delays for about a year. We'll see. https://onspec.ca/
#writing #WritingCommunity #PoetryCommunity #IndigenousCreatives #LitMags #SpeculativeFiction #SpeculativePoetry -
Hello, fellow travelers!
Nominations for the Hugo Awards are finally open! Surely that means you’ve been going through the things you’ve read in the past year and whittling them down to the most arresting work you’ve enjoyed—so let today’s Con-Verse serve as yet another reminder to not forget to consider poetry for the Special Hugo Award for Best Poem as well!
As we continue to equip you to engage with speculative poetry, we’ve recently been talking about some of the ways one can start discovering and interacting with the speculative heart of these poems. Let’s keep going by using another question-metric one can apply while reading: What is the poem speculating about?
Something we apply often when reading science fiction and fantasy prose is the question of what this imagined world or an element of its worldbuilding is meant to ask or suggest about the real world. The speculative in speculative fiction, after all, implies that the work is trying to ponder or argue something about our real world using elements that are novel to an imagined reality.
So, sometimes identifying a speculative poem is as easy as asking, “What is this poem trying to ask—or answer—about the things that I know are real?” As a genre tool, it shows up more often in subgenres of poetry that are inherently playing with time; time-travel or alt-historical poems are good speculative spaces because they allow the poet to ask new questions or draw conclusions about what the world would look like after a different set of past experiences, but they are not the only places we can so speculate in verse.
A good first base for what it looks like when this tool is applied is by looking at Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Ozymandias.” On its face, it may seem like a bit of a stretch—Shelley is invoking the past power of a real historical figure, and even as an exaggerated image, it isn’t impossible for just the setting and its objects to potentially exist. But how the persona frames it is meant to prime the reader for assuming something just a bit out of the realm of our present reality:
I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert…Even without necessarily needing to assess the poem’s symbolic intensity, there are some questions those lines are immediately provoking. Who—and where, or even when—is the persona? Who is this “traveler,” and where in fact are they from? What are the circumstances under which this conversation and this discovery would even take place? Even if this poem is happening in our real world, it does imply some radically startling relationship to that world that draws your attention. That priming heightens your reaction to the poem’s otherwise accessible themes of the ephemerality of legacy and the hubris of those with power. It speculates about witnessing the ruins of a past superpower—a real one, just a bit heightened by imagery—and therefore the naivety of our present leaders and the inevitable fall of even our own future society.
What this also shows is that a poem doesn’t necessarily have to speculate by asking a “what-if” question about the past or future—sometimes the themes are just the same now as they ever have been. Shivanee Ramlochan’s “A Letter from the Leader of the Android Rebellion, to the Last Plantation Owner of the Federated Caribbean Bloc” in the Caribbean speculative fiction anthology Reclaim Restore Return uses the imagery of a robot uprising—already an available language for discussions of the body, autonomy, and labor since the 1920s—placed specifically against the backdrop of both past Caribbean indentured servitude and the imagined future of a version of the same Caribbean where such inhumane structures would persist, or be revived, long enough for the robots to take over. It speculates twice—once about the real past through its imagery, and again about the future through recollecting that past—asking questions about labor, agitation, and our connection to our histories.
One of my favourite acts of speculation in a poem is in Danez Smith’s “summer, somewhere,” a capstone poem in their collection Don’t Call Us Dead. The poem’s persona imagines a future place—either a Heaven in the wake of, or, in my preferred reading, a living space transcending far beyond the tragedy of gun violence and police brutality that Black boys find themselves in a world where it is now impossible for death to visit them. So much of its language even dares to imagine a world where, even if some of the symbols of mourning linger, the concept of being in danger of losing a life may even be too novel to name:
no need for geography
now, we safe everywhere.point to whatever you please
& call it church, home, or sweet love.paradise is a world where everything
is sanctuary & nothing is a gun.Even if a poem’s speculative question is a radically intense one like this, it becomes all manner of more pointed real-world speculations in the reading: Why should we have to imagine such a world, especially in mourning, when we can and should instead live in a safer world here? Those layers of questions—from the esoteric or the futuristic down to our present reality—shine bright in poems like these because the act of reading them is also the act of asking or answering them and hoping those questions or answers linger when you put the poem down.
As you’re still flexing your speculative poetry reading muscles, consider digging into some other classic or contemporary poetry outside the realm of the overtly speculative and see if you can discover the speculations they’re making in their work. You’d be amazed at what you may see—turns out poets are imagining a new world all the time!
And, of course, I hope this serves as another useful tool for reading your way into discovering nominations for the Special Hugo Award for Best Poem that will be awarded alongside the other rockets at this year’s Worldcon in Seattle! Maybe something will stick with you because it’s been asking the questions you’ve always been asking—or it may even have the answer!
Until next time, may tomorrow and your good days always rhyme!
Brandon O’BrienBrandon O’Brien is a writer, performance poet, teaching artist, and tabletop game designer from Trinidad and Tobago. His work has been shortlisted for the 2014 and 2015 Small Axe Literary Competitions and the 2020 Ignyte Award for best in speculative poetry, and has been published in many genre magazines and collections. He is the former poetry editor of FIYAH. His debut poetry collection, Can You Sign My Tentacle?, available from Interstellar Flight Press, is the winner of the 2022 Elgin Award. He is the poet laureate for Seattle Worldcon 2025, and the first poet laureate of any Worldcon.
https://seattlein2025.org/2025/02/17/con-verse-the-art-of-speculating-in-verse/
#DanezSmith #PercyByssheShelley #ShivaneeRamlochan #SpeculativePoetry
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Con-Verse: Chatting with Mary Soon Lee: When we started this Con-Verse-ation, we invited several standout poets to answer the pressing question of how to define and identify speculative poetry. Today, we’re chatting with multiple-award-winning poet and SFPA Grand Master Mary Soon Lee! … (#MarySoonLee #SpeculativePoetry)
Full post: https://seattlein2025.org/2025/01/27/con-verse-chatting-with-mary-soon-lee/
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Con-Verse: Chatting with Mary Soon Lee: When we started this Con-Verse-ation, we invited several standout poets to answer the pressing question of how to define and identify speculative poetry. Today, we’re chatting with multiple-award-winning poet and SFPA Grand Master Mary Soon Lee! … (#MarySoonLee #SpeculativePoetry)
Full post: https://seattlein2025.org/2025/01/27/con-verse-chatting-with-mary-soon-lee/
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Con-Verse: Chatting with Mary Soon Lee: When we started this Con-Verse-ation, we invited several standout poets to answer the pressing question of how to define and identify speculative poetry. Today, we’re chatting with multiple-award-winning poet and SFPA Grand Master Mary Soon Lee! … (#MarySoonLee #SpeculativePoetry)
Full post: https://seattlein2025.org/2025/01/27/con-verse-chatting-with-mary-soon-lee/
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Con-Verse: Chatting with Mary Soon Lee: When we started this Con-Verse-ation, we invited several standout poets to answer the pressing question of how to define and identify speculative poetry. Today, we’re chatting with multiple-award-winning poet and SFPA Grand Master Mary Soon Lee! … (#MarySoonLee #SpeculativePoetry)
Full post: https://seattlein2025.org/2025/01/27/con-verse-chatting-with-mary-soon-lee/
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Con-Verse: Chatting with Mary Soon Lee: When we started this Con-Verse-ation, we invited several standout poets to answer the pressing question of how to define and identify speculative poetry. Today, we’re chatting with multiple-award-winning poet and SFPA Grand Master Mary Soon Lee! … (#MarySoonLee #SpeculativePoetry)
Full post: https://seattlein2025.org/2025/01/27/con-verse-chatting-with-mary-soon-lee/
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Hello, fellow travelers!
If you haven’t heard the news yet, the Hugo nomination period soon approaches! Let this week’s installment of Con-Verse be your reminder that if you haven’t gotten your WSFS Membership by the end of January, you will not be able to nominate works for the Hugo Awards when nominations open. And if you already have your membership, look out for more news about nominations soon!
When we started this Con-Verse-ation, we invited several standout poets to answer the pressing question of how to define and identify speculative poetry. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, we figured it was only fair to ask some poets some other, less philosophical but no less important questions about their work, what brought them into speculative poetry, and how they’ve been promoting the craft to the world. Today, we’re chatting with multiple-award-winning poet and SFPA Grand Master Mary Soon Lee!
Photo courtesy of Mary Soon Lee.Mary Soon Lee was born and raised in London, but has lived in Pittsburgh for thirty years. She is a Grand Master of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association, and a three-time winner of both the AnLab Readers’ Award and the Rhysling Award. Her latest books are from opposite shores of the poetry ocean: How to Navigate Our Universe, containing how-to astronomy poems, and The Sign of the Dragon, a novel-length epic fantasy and winner of the 2021 Elgin Full-Length Book Award. Learn more about Mary’s work at marysoonlee.com.
How did you get into writing speculative poetry?
I used to run an in-person SFF writers’ workshop called the Pittsburgh Worldwrights. One of the members, Timons Esaias, started bringing in occasional poems. This led to me deciding to try my hand at speculative poetry.
What about speculative poetry do you enjoy?
Speculative poetry sits at the intersection of two things that I like: science fiction/fantasy and poetry. From the time, age 7 or 8, that I first read Alfred Lord Tennyson’s long poem “The Lady of Shalott,” I’ve loved speculative poetry.
You recently served on the poetry committee of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association, which just announced that there is a poetry award category for the Nebula Awards! What do you think is the importance of rewarding genre poetry in these award spaces?
I think awards acknowledge the worth of the endeavour and will hopefully bring more recognition to speculative poetry. With luck and fair winds, that may lead to more readers, more writers, [and] more openings for speculative poetry.
Your latest collection, The Sign of the Dragon, won the 2021 Elgin Full-Length Book Award, and its opening poem “Interregnum” won the 2014 Rhysling Award for Best Long Poem. Can you tell us more about this collection?
I wrote that opening poem, “Interregnum,” 11 and a bit years ago, intending it to be a stand-alone piece. But the boy in the poem stayed with me, and, a few weeks later, I wrote a second poem about him, and then I couldn’t stop! The Sign of the Dragon grew out of that first poem, and out of my own mixed heritage, and out of my love of fantasy. It’s an epic fantasy that tells the story of King Xau, chosen (spoiler warning!) by a dragon to be king. There are monsters, demons, wars, [and] horse magic; Chinese, Celtic, and Mongolian elements; fire, flood, [and] earthquake; plus a hero whom my family warned me might be too perfect.
An ebook edition of The Sign of the Dragon appeared early in the pandemic, and last week the first print edition was published, which contains, to my delight, 40 extraordinary illustrations by Gary McCluskey.
What is your favourite poem you’ve read recently?
“Robin’s Rest” by Lisa Timpf, which may be read online in the Outlaws issue of Eye to the Telescope.
You can read Mary’s poem “Interregnum” here.
That’s all for today, but look out for more interviews with other stunning poets in the future, interspersed with poetry breakdowns and much more.
Once again—don’t forget to get your membership for this year’s Worldcon if you have yet to renew or join! Not only will it allow you to nominate for the Hugos, including the 2025 Best Speculative Poem, a special award, but it will also allow you to vote on the winner once the ballot of finalists is prepared closer to the event. Plus, with an attending membership, you will get to enjoy all the lovely live poetry content that we plan to offer for you in Seattle!
Until next time, may tomorrow and your good days always rhyme!
https://seattlein2025.org/2025/01/27/con-verse-chatting-with-mary-soon-lee/
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Hello, fellow travelers!
If you haven’t heard the news yet, the Hugo nomination period soon approaches! Let this week’s installment of Con-Verse be your reminder that if you haven’t gotten your WSFS Membership by the end of January, you will not be able to nominate works for the Hugo Awards when nominations open. And if you already have your membership, look out for more news about nominations soon!
When we started this Con-Verse-ation, we invited several standout poets to answer the pressing question of how to define and identify speculative poetry. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, we figured it was only fair to ask some poets some other, less philosophical but no less important questions about their work, what brought them into speculative poetry, and how they’ve been promoting the craft to the world. Today, we’re chatting with multiple-award-winning poet and SFPA Grand Master Mary Soon Lee!
Photo courtesy of Mary Soon Lee.Mary Soon Lee was born and raised in London, but has lived in Pittsburgh for thirty years. She is a Grand Master of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association, and a three-time winner of both the AnLab Readers’ Award and the Rhysling Award. Her latest books are from opposite shores of the poetry ocean: How to Navigate Our Universe, containing how-to astronomy poems, and The Sign of the Dragon, a novel-length epic fantasy and winner of the 2021 Elgin Full-Length Book Award. Learn more about Mary’s work at marysoonlee.com.
How did you get into writing speculative poetry?
I used to run an in-person SFF writers’ workshop called the Pittsburgh Worldwrights. One of the members, Timons Esaias, started bringing in occasional poems. This led to me deciding to try my hand at speculative poetry.
What about speculative poetry do you enjoy?
Speculative poetry sits at the intersection of two things that I like: science fiction/fantasy and poetry. From the time, age 7 or 8, that I first read Alfred Lord Tennyson’s long poem “The Lady of Shalott,” I’ve loved speculative poetry.
You recently served on the poetry committee of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association, which just announced that there is a poetry award category for the Nebula Awards! What do you think is the importance of rewarding genre poetry in these award spaces?
I think awards acknowledge the worth of the endeavour and will hopefully bring more recognition to speculative poetry. With luck and fair winds, that may lead to more readers, more writers, [and] more openings for speculative poetry.
Your latest collection, The Sign of the Dragon, won the 2021 Elgin Full-Length Book Award, and its opening poem “Interregnum” won the 2014 Rhysling Award for Best Long Poem. Can you tell us more about this collection?
I wrote that opening poem, “Interregnum,” 11 and a bit years ago, intending it to be a stand-alone piece. But the boy in the poem stayed with me, and, a few weeks later, I wrote a second poem about him, and then I couldn’t stop! The Sign of the Dragon grew out of that first poem, and out of my own mixed heritage, and out of my love of fantasy. It’s an epic fantasy that tells the story of King Xau, chosen (spoiler warning!) by a dragon to be king. There are monsters, demons, wars, [and] horse magic; Chinese, Celtic, and Mongolian elements; fire, flood, [and] earthquake; plus a hero whom my family warned me might be too perfect.
An ebook edition of The Sign of the Dragon appeared early in the pandemic, and last week the first print edition was published, which contains, to my delight, 40 extraordinary illustrations by Gary McCluskey.
What is your favourite poem you’ve read recently?
“Robin’s Rest” by Lisa Timpf, which may be read online in the Outlaws issue of Eye to the Telescope.
You can read Mary’s poem “Interregnum” here.
That’s all for today, but look out for more interviews with other stunning poets in the future, interspersed with poetry breakdowns and much more.
Once again—don’t forget to get your membership for this year’s Worldcon if you have yet to renew or join! Not only will it allow you to nominate for the Hugos, including the 2025 Best Speculative Poem, a special award, but it will also allow you to vote on the winner once the ballot of finalists is prepared closer to the event. Plus, with an attending membership, you will get to enjoy all the lovely live poetry content that we plan to offer for you in Seattle!
Until next time, may tomorrow and your good days always rhyme!
https://seattlein2025.org/2025/01/27/con-verse-chatting-with-mary-soon-lee/
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I do believe my short poem “How the Blubber Boy Came to Be” is eligible to be nominated for the Rhysling Award. Wanna do me a solid and give me the nom? https://thedeadlands.com/issue-31/blubber-boy/ #SpeculativePoetry #poetry #Inuit @indigenousauthors #PoetsOfMastodon #RhyslingAwards
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A few of my pieces are (hopefully) eligible for the Aurora Awards through the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association. If you are a member, please go check ‘em out. I have three short stories, one poem, and a book review pending. I’ll include links to the various bits in the comments for those of you who aren’t members, because you might like reading them, too. https://www.csffa.ca/members-home/eligibility/ #SpeculativeFiction #SpeculativePoetry #SFF #WritingAwards #AuroraAwards #CanLit @indigenousauthors #CSFFA
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I was away yesterday, but my newsletter update did go out with the daily recommendation - did you see this awesome poem by Sodïq Oyèkànmí in Haven??
https://buttondown.email/bogiperson/archive/that-first-sentence-scythe-by-sodiq-oyekanmi/
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https://www.kinsmanquarterly.org/iridescence-award Submissions are open for short stories and poetry by BIPOC authors for Kinsman Quarterly’s Iridescence Award. Themes should include the supernatural, extraterrestrial, or the paranormal. Prizes include publication in the Iridescence anthology with cash awards up to $500 USD. No fee required. Deadline has been extended to January 31, 2024. #WritingContest #SpeculativeFiction #SpeculativePoetry #WritingCommunity #BIPOCAuthors @indigenousauthors
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https://www.kinsmanquarterly.org/iridescence-award Submissions are open for short stories and poetry by BIPOC authors for Kinsman Quarterly’s Iridescence Award. Themes should include the supernatural, extraterrestrial, or the paranormal. Prizes include publication in the Iridescence anthology with cash awards up to $500 USD. No fee required. Deadline has been extended to January 31, 2024. #WritingContest #SpeculativeFiction #SpeculativePoetry #WritingCommunity #BIPOCAuthors @indigenousauthors
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BIG news -
I'm relaunching my daily story / poem recommendations (formerly on Twitter) as a Buttondown newsletter!
Pay what you want - including free, but paid backers get a longer update for weekends + other bonuses!
Check it out - reposts much appreciated:
https://buttondown.email/bogiperson
#Bookstodon #ShortStories #ShortSFF #SFF @bookstodon @shortstory @shortsff #PoetryCommunity #SpeculativeFiction #SpeculativePoetry #ScienceFiction #Fantasy #Horror #SFFBookClub
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Gypsies, finks and outcasts
https://libranet.de/display/0b6b25a8-6665-8bef-034d-dc9790973172
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Gypsies, finks and outcasts
https://libranet.de/display/0b6b25a8-1565-8bbf-094a-7d1952644844
