Suzette Haden Elgin - RIP (Amazing Stories) and remembering other mentors

My latest article on Amazing Stories is a tribute to Suzette Haden Elgin, the author (Native Tongue among many others), linguist and founder of the Science Fiction Poetry Association, who died recently (27 January 2015) at the age of 78. I also review and discuss "The Science Fiction Poetry Handbook", which she published in 2004. Her works are not only of interest for Science Fiction or Poetry readers. She also wrote many non-fiction books on variations of her most famous work "The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-defense". One day I hope to read and appreciate her "The Grandmother Principles", the skills of which she says are disappearing. She was a mentor that I wish I'd had. She withdrew from the (writing/online) world in 2009 when advancing Alzheimer's made writing impossible.

Speaking of mentors, my beloved singing teacher, Cornelius L. Reid, died 7 years ago on February 3, 2008. He would've been 105 on Feb. 7, 2015. I miss him and wish I had known him longer (earlier), because he had so much knowledge and expertise to offer and I only gleaned a small fraction of it from him. At least I did get to experience his work first hand and I have his books, so I'm still learning from him in a sense.

I also learned recently that another college professor passed away: Samuel Jones, my Diction for Singers prof. I disliked him intensely, but for some reason he like me, so I did not suffer too much at his hands (like others). He was extremely knowledgeable and demanded the best and I did learn a lot from him. Here's the obituary.

I have little excuse

Hello folks!

There's been a lot of activity here at Poetry Planet Headquarters (PPHQ), but I've had little time and and even littler head-space to process everything and report or announce. So, one thing at a time. In manageable doses. That's the ticket!

In a rush to read all the nominee books for this years Elgin Award, I was granted permission to post my article a day later than usual. So, that was last week Thursday. I wrote a short blurb about each of the books nominated, if I was able to read them. And yes, I read all but one, somewhat perfunctorily but I read enough to get a good impression and to give me something to write about. My goal was to give readers and idea of what each book was "about", if indeed there was a theme, and clue them in to what type of poetry they could find there. Science Fiction, Horror, Fantasy, Fairy Tales, Humorous, formal, long and short, retrospective or narrative. It was all there. Go have a look - maybe there's a collection that intrigues you? You'll find links to all the books and where you can purchase them in the post.

Poetry - Elgin Award Nominee Showcase

Next: WorldCon / LonCon3 in London, England! My first convention ever...

Narration Fixation #2 - Poetry (+playlist)

I was recently interviewed on a video podcast dedicated to narration, specifically (in this episode, and because I was the guest) on pod-casting poetry. It was fun. I didn't hem and haw too much... I recite Ann K. Schwader's Rhysling Award winning poem "To Theia" about two-thirds of the way through.



Enjoy!

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Amazing Stories - More Awards! The Rhysling Award

So, did I say it was awards season? But with WorldCon in San Antonio, TX just past you'd know that. That is, if you are interested in Science Fiction in any manner. But if you aren't you probably aren't reading this! Let me know in the comments if you get to the end, despite having no love for Science Fiction! :-)

The Rhysling Award for 2013 was officially announced at WorldCon and I've posted an announcement of my own and a discussion of the two winning poems at Amazing Stories Magazine.

Here's a snippet:

...

However, the main thrust of this post is about the Rhysling Award, the Science Fiction Poetry Association's award for poetry in two length categories: short (under 40 lines) and long (40 lines and over). As per the rules only SFPA members are entitled to vote, so it's more like a Nebula Award than a popular award, but if you are interested in helping choose the best SF Poetry becoming a member is very easy and quite inexpensive, especially if you are willing to read the association's journal Star*Line as a PDF instead of in print. I urge you to check it out.

This year's winners were gleaned from a selection of 110 poems (70 short and 40 long). which could be found in 57 different print, online and audio publications. Kudos go to Star*Line, Goblin Fruit and Stone Telling with 11, 9 and 7 poems nominated respectively.

I will be producing an edition of Poetry Planet for StarShipSofa showcasing the Rhysling Award winning and placing poems, much like I've done in the past 2 years. I hope you'll listen! It's always a wonderful way to get fresh insight and deepen your understanding of a poem. But I'm not biased at all.

Terry A. Garey's winning short poem, "The Cat Star", published in the anthology Lady Poetesses from Hell (Bag Person Press) won by ....

Go to Amazing Stories for the whole article! Enjoy!

And if you don't normally read Science Fiction I'd like to encourage you to read this blog post by Nina Munteanu about "When Science Fiction IS Science Fiction". She does a great job of illustrating what it is about SF that I love and what motivates me to read it. Let me know what you think!

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Poetry Planet No. 10 - Elgin and Dwarf Stars Awards Showcase

Poetry Planet is back!

After 8 months, it's embarrassing to say, I've finally produced another Poetry Planet. This is the 10th one. You may (or may not) be wondering what happened to No. 9. Well, way back with the Time Travel episodes, I did something ridiculous and numbered that split episode Nos. 5a and 5b. And then went on with No. 6 etc. However, there have, in fact, been 10 episodes, so I'm going to remedy that now!

This 10th edition of Poetry Planet is dedicated to the recently announced winners and placers of both the new Elgin Award and the Dwarf Stars Award in Science Fiction Poetry awarded by the Science Fiction Poetry Association.

You'll find it on StarShipSofa.com in episode No. 303 at about the 01:17.0 marker. As usual, you can listen to it on the site itself, or download it on iTunes or your usual podcatcher.

Linkety linkage:

You'll hear a poem from each of the best chapbook length collections (Elgin Award):

• 3. Come Late to the Love of Birds, Sandra Kasturi, 
• 2. The House of Forever, Samantha Henderson and 
• 1. (Winner) Out of the Black Forest, F. J. Bergmann 

And a poem from each of the full-length collections (Elgin Award)

• 3. The Edible Zoo, David C. Kopaska-Merkel, 
• 2. Notes from the Shadow City, Bruce Boston and Gary William Crawford and 
• 1. (Winner) Lovers & Killers, Mary Turzillo 

The top 3 Dwarf Stars Award poems

3. "Sarcophagus", (inkscrawl 3) N.E. Taylor,
2. "The Hidden", from Lovers & Killers, Mary Turzillo and
1. (Winner) "Basho after Cinderella (iii)", (Rattle 38), Deborah P. Kolodji

Please follow the links to their websites and/or books and check them out!

I had the pleasure of reviewing each of the collections, which placed in the Elgin Award on Amazing Stories. If you would like to check out those reviews please go to my author page.

Enjoy!!

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Rhysling Award winners announced

The Rhysling Award winners and runners-up have been announced!
Here they are:

Short Poem

• 1. Shira Lipkin, “The Library, After” In Mythic Delerium, No. 24
• 2. Erik Amundsen, “The Lend” In Stone Telling No. 5
• 3. Lyn C. A. Gardner, “In Translation” In Tales of the Talisman 7, No. 1

Long Poem

• 1. Megan Arkenberg, “The Curator Speaks in the
  Department of Dead Languages“ In Strange Horizons
• 2. G. O. Clark and Kendall Evans, “The 25-Cent Rocket: One-Quarter of the Way to the Stars” In Dreams & Nightmares, No. 89
• 3. Mary Turzillo, “The Legend of the Emperor’s Space
  Suit (A Tale of Consensus Reality)” In New Myths

I’ve linked to the ones available online. I’m also going to do a Rhysling Award Showcase on Poetry Planet soon, soon, soon. Hope I get permission to do all of them. 4 down 2 to go!

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Announcing the 2012 SFPA poetry contest

The Science Fiction Poetry Association announces its 2012 speculative poetry contest. Speculative poetry encompasses science fiction, fantasy, and horror poetry. Deadline September 15, 2012.

There is no entry fee, and the contest is open to non-members, with $50 prizes and publication to the winners in 3 length divisions, and an additional $50 prize to the best poem by a non-member. Winners also receive a year's membership in SFPA and member publications.

The complete guidelines for the 2012 SFPA contest are posted on the SFPA website here.

Oh! And if you think you might have the odd genre poet who frequents your blog or website, the SFPA would be much obliged if you'd copy and paste the above and post it somewhere prominent! Thank you!

Poetry Planet No. 3 "Rhysling Award Showcase"

I've done it. I've finally managed to finish another Poetry Planet! I pre-empted the planned theme for this edition because I lost the complete recording and didn't want too much time to pass before I podcast the Rhysling Award winning (and placing) poems.

Poetry you'll hear:

CSE Cooney, Dogstar Men (3rd place, short form)
Robert Frazier, Wreck-diving the Starship (3rd place, long form)

Karen A. Romanko, Binary Creation Myth (2nd place, short form)
Bruce Boston, Dark Rains Here and There (2nd place, long form)

Amal El-Mohtar, Peach-Creamed Honey (winner, short form)
CSE Cooney, The Sea King's Second Bride (winner, long form)

They are all wonderful poems - wonderous, whimsical, erotic, funny, wry, sentimental. Those are some of the words I'd use to describe these poems. Go listen to them. You can find them at StarShipSofa Show No. 202.

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Seekrit Projekt is Reality! "Poetry Planet"!

Poetry Planet is Reality, folks. What is Poetry Planet you might ask? It's a monthly segment I've decided to produce for my favorite podcast, StarShipSofa. And as you might guess it showcases Poetry. Science Fiction Poetry. Or Fantasy Poetry. Or Dark Poetry. Or Speculative Poetry. All of the above and more, probably.

This has been a long labor. I first had the idea last year to record more poetry for Tony, but he wasn't fielding submissions anymore. It's a lot of work! I had the idea that I could do a monthly segment and do all the work of receiving submissions and just deliver a finished project to Tony. But I just couldn't wrap my mind around getting it done. Then it was New Years, and I was considering what could be my New Years Resolution. I decided I would create a first article and spring it on Tony, so he couldn't refuse! I joined the Science Fiction Poetry Association and ordered Suzette Haden Elgin's Handbook of Science Fiction Poetry. I roamed around the web familiarizing myself with things. I rolled the formatting around my mind and decided the first show would be simple, with only one poem - an SF poem about poetry by Suzette Haden Elgin that I'd found on her website, and otherwise, just talking about poetry, how I've come to enjoy reciting and reading it aloud and giving guidance on how listeners might learn how to appreciate poetry.

But then life happened. I got radio silence from the powers that be (all volunteers) at the SFPA. Life happened for them too, I guess. I couldn't raise any signs of life from Ms. Elgin and so I started looking around for other poems I could. I turned to a couple of the poets whose poems I'd already read for SSS and inquired about poems about poetry. I introduced myself at the SFPA Forum and YahooGroup and announced my intention for creating the segment and got good feed back (not overwhelming though - I guess I was too vague in my request for submissions). Laurel Winter and Bruce Boston gave me wonderful poems that I'm using and Ann Schwader was so helpful and supportive of the idea, that I am indebted to her indefinitely. Check out Bruce Boston's poem "The Poetry of Science Fiction" on his site.

Finally about a month ago I wrote my first draft of the article, recorded it in very rough form and sent it to Tony for approval, which he gave with his usual enthusiasm! Yippee! I could get going! Then I couldn't find the time to record the actual thing. I had grand plans of using a new recording software, but I had even less time to delve into THAT. I wanted to have music and well, it all seemed insurmountable.

Then I discovered that April is National Poetry Month in the USA. Oh MAN! I've got to get it done before the opportunity comes and goes! So I gave myself a kick in the butt and submitted the final product (flawed as it is) to Tony.

You can listen to show No. 184 by going to StarShipSofa's website. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to listen on the website or listen on iTunes Poetry Planet is after the main fiction at the 51 minute mark (Thanks Steve!).

And if you are a fan of poetry or of StarShipSofa, or of all things Science Fiction or just of me :-), please link, link, link! Thank you! And if you are a poet, my idea for the next segment in May 2011 is "First Contact". If you have any poetry even vaguely fitting that label, please get in touch with me. For discussion of the SSS show go to the Forum, where all possible links will be posted as well!

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