2013 Rhysling Awards underway

The Rhysling Awards for 2013, awarded by the Science Fiction Poetry Association, are currently underway, with a deadline for nominations of 28 February. These annual awards, with a long poem (50+ lines) and short poem category, are for work published in the previous year, nominated by members of the association, and ultimately voted on by them. The details of the process are actually somewhat unusual. After members of the association have gone through their nomination process, an anthology of all the nominated work is published, and the membership then votes on the basis of what is in the anthology.

This year, the Rhysling Awards are especially salient in my household because one of the poems that has already been nominated in the “long” category is “Their Cold Eyes Pierced My Skin” by Jenny Blackford – first published in The Pedestal Magazine, and so now to be reprinted in the 2013 Rhysling nominees anthology. It is up against work by some very well known people in the field, and I’m sure that the anthology will be of high quality when we see it… but who knows how it will all pan out?  In any event, it’s an honour for a poet to achieve this much recognition for anything she’s written.

(You might think I’m biased, but I’m here to tell you that “Their Cold Eyes Pierced My Skin” is an extraordinary – linguistically and emotionally powerful – narrative poem. Do check it out if you haven’t read it previously.)