The Official Archives of the
The Rhysling Anthologies
and Awards by Year
INTRODUCTION
Since 1978, the members of the Science Fiction Poetry Association have recognized achievement in the field of speculative poetry by presenting the Rhysling Awards, named after the blind bard protagonist of Robert A. Heinlein's "The Green Hills of Earth."
Every year, each SFPA member is allowed to nominate two poems from the previous year for the Rhysling Awards: one in the "long" category and one in the "short" category. Because it's practically impossible for each member to have read every nominated poem in the various publications where they originally appeared, the nominees are all collected into one volume, called the Rhysling Anthology. Copies of this anthology are mailed to all the members, who read it and vote for their favorites. The top vote-getters in each of the two categories become the Rhysling winners.
This archive comprises the first complete bibliography of all the Rhysling Anthologies since 1978, and lists as completely as possible every poem that has been eligible for the SFPA membership's vote. (In addition to the winners, poems by authors as diverse as Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Fred Chappell, Thomas Ligotti, Frank Belknap Long, Nancy Springer and Roger Zelazny can be found in the anthologies' pages.) This archive also contains cover images for every anthology, and, when available, information about the people involved in assembling them.
The Rhysling anthologies have gone through several stages of evolution. In the earliest years, when SFPA founder Suzette Haden Elgin ran the show, the anthologies were simply special issues of Star*Line, the association's newsletter. Under President/Star*Line editor Robert Frazier the anthologies became stand-alone chapbooks; Frazier himself sometimes provided cover art and illustrations. In the early 1990s, now-defunct Figment Press gave the anthologies a sleek, professional look; David Kopaska-Merkel, editor of Dreams & Nightmares (and for a time editor and publisher of Star*Line) brought the minimalist sensibilities of his zine to later volumes. The newest anthologies have been team efforts helmed by layout maestro Mike Williams.
The Rhysling Awards, too, have evolved. In recent years it's become customary for SFPA to give awards for honorable mentions or for poems that came in 2nd or 3rd place in a category. This archive is as complete as possible regarding runner-up awards, and will be updated as any more information becomes available.
ARCHIVE: 1978-2006
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1978
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1979
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1980
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1981
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1982
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Archive created by Mike Allen 2003 e-mail
With grateful acknowledgements to Bruce Boston, Robert Frazier,
Peter Roberts, Deborah Shepard, Mary Turzillo,
The Locus Index to Science Fiction and The Locus Index to Science Fiction Awards
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