[UPDATE: The results of the 2023 SFPA Poetry contest have been posted! You can read the winning and runner-up entries online. Congrats to the winners, and a big thank you to the HUNDREDS who entered…it was a pleasure reading each and every piece.]
I have been a member of the Science Fiction Poetry Association almost as long as I’ve been writing. I’ve published in their journal Star*Line (and the affiliated one, Eye to the Telescope),I served as Secretary/Treasurer for a few years in the 90s, I’ve recorded recitations of poems for their online Halloween audio series, I’ve helped with the organization of the Rhysling Awards…heck, I even came up with the slogan on their t-shirt, “In Space, No One Can Hear You Rhyme.” You might think the SFPA has nothing to do with horror, but they are an inclusive gang, covering all “speculative” fiction — normally called sf/f/h (science fiction, fantasy and horror) — the genres that ask “what if?” and imagine alternatives to reality.
I love what they do.
So it was an honor to be invited to judge this year’s SFPA Poetry Contest.
Below are the guidelines and information, ported in directly from their webpage. I would only add that I plan to judge entries blind, but any friends of mine who submit will be disqualified. I don’t believe in playing favorites in this kind of thing, and I also don’t want to even appear like I do. If we are writing acquaintances or colleagues who have chatted at conferences or classes that’s fine. But if you are a student of mine at SHU, a long-standing buddy, or other colleague, or if you think you might be disqualified by entering, then please don’t — submit the poem to Star*Line for regular publication (and payment) instead! And please do consider joining the SFPA if you write SF/F/H Poetry.
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SFPA CONTEST INFORMATION AND GUIDELINES
Our contest is intended to raise funds for SFPA, as well as to draw more attention to speculative poetry and reward writers of good speculative poems.
The 2023 SFPA Speculative Poetry Contest opens for entries on June 1. Deadline August 31.
Contest Rules: The SFPA speculative poetry contest is open to all poets, including non-SFPA-members. Prizes will be awarded for best unpublished poem in 3 categories: Dwarf (poems 1–10 lines [prose poems 0–100 words]); Short (11–49 lines [prose poems 101–499 words]); Long (50 lines and more [prose 500 words and up]). Line count does not include title or stanza breaks. All sub-genres of speculative poetry allowed in any form. Entries are read blind; friends/family/students of the judge may not enter. 2022 winners are posted here.
Prizes: In each category (Dwarf, Short, Long): $150 First Prize, $75 Second Prize, $25 Third Prize. Publication on the SFPA website for first through third places.
2023 Judge: Michael Arnzen
Michael Arnzen holds four Bram Stoker Awards and an International Horror Guild Award for his disturbing (and often funny) fiction, poetry and literary experiments, including the uniquely musical horror collection available on cd, Audiovile. He has been teaching as a Professor of English in the MFA program in Writing Popular Fiction at Seton Hill University since 1999, and has work forthcoming in Weird Tales, Writing Poetry in the Dark and more. He also was Secretary/Treasurer of the SFPA way back in the early 1990s.
See what he’s up to now at michaelarnzen.com or listen to him read at arnzen.bandcamp.com
2023 Contest Chair: R. Thursday
R. Thursday (they/them) is a writer, educator, historian, and all-around nerd. When not subverting Middle School Social Studies curriculum, they can be found cooking the spiciest version of any given dish, playing video games, reading, watching cartoons, and writing about vampires, superheroes, queerness, mental health, space, monsters, and on a very good day, all of the above. They placed second in the 2021 Rhysling Award for Short Poems, and the 2022 Bacopa Formal Verse Contest. Their work has been published in Vulture Bones, The Poet’s Haven, Crow and Quill, Eye to the Telescope, Sheepshead Review, Luna Station Quarterly, Book of Matches, and many other fine journals. They live in South King County, Washington, with the world’s most copacetic cat.
Submission guidelines:
- The 2023 contest opens June 1
- Deadline is August 31
- Online entry form: bit.ly/SFPAContest2023
- Entries will be read blind. Please do not include any identifying information in the file (file name can be anything); enter your name only in the form. The form can take a submission with multiple poems in the same category (dwarf, short, or long). Use a separate documents to submit poems from different categories. .rtf preferred. Either submit poems via form, or send all in one file, separated by ***, with “SFPA Contest” in the subject line, to 23contest@sfpoetry.com & pay treasurer via PayPal at sfpatreasurer@gmail.com.
- Unpublished poems only. Author retains rights, except that first through third place winners will be published on our website.
- Enter as many poems as you like, but an entry fee of $3 per poem must be paid via PayPal at entry (credit card can be used without a PayPal account). Simultaneous submissions are permitted, but must be immediately withdrawn if accepted elsewhere.
- No PayPal, or problems with form? Send poems via e-mail to 23contest@sfpoetry.com
Put “SFPA contest” in subject line, .rtf preferred, and send a check payable to SFPA to SFPA
PO Box 1563
Alameda CA 94501
Confirmation of receipt of your submission should follow within 3 days.
Announcement of winners will be posted on the SFPA website.
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