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December 2012

Star*Line Pushcart Prize Nominations

The following poems published in Star*Line during 2012 were nominated for the Pushcart Prize. —F.J. Bergmann, Star*Line editor

Star*Line 35.2
“LOL_ALIENS” by Elizabeth Barrette

Star*Line 35.3
“Crackling Octopus” by Jessy Randall
“Regrets Only” by Jeanie Tomasko
“Casting the Future” by Serena Fusek

Star*Line 35.4
“Cognizance: A Triptych” by Kurt MacPhearson
“In this House of Sinners” by Isaac Black

November 2012

Eye to the Telescope Pushcart Nominations

The following poems have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize by their respective editors. Thanks to editors & authors for making this such a great collection of nominated poems. I hope some of them win! —David C.Kopaska-Merkel

Eye to the Telescope 3, January 2012
“Something super” by Mary Alexandra Agner.
“The viper stands watch” by Natasha Kochicheril Moni.

Eye to the Telescope 4, April 2012
“There once was a werewolf named Dinah” by P. Andrew Miller.
“Lullaby for arachnophobes” by Ann K. Schwader.

Eye to the Telescope 5, July 2012
“Transmutation” by Linda D. Addison.

Eye to the Telescope 6, October 2012
“Dark revelation” by Fred Phillips.


October 2012

Rattle Speculative Poetry issue
Tribute to Speculative Poetry


September 2012

SFPA at H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival
SFPA members Denise Dumars and Lao American writer Bryan Thao Worra will be guests at the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival September 28–29 in Los Angeles. The H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival promotes the works of American science fiction and horror author H.P. Lovecraft through motion pictures by both professionals and amateurs, current and classic, national and international. hplfilmfestival.com

LeRoy Gorman Appointed
The American Haiku Archives advisory board is pleased to announce the appointment of LeRoy Gorman as the 2012–2013 honorary curator of the American Haiku Archives in Sacramento, CA. americanhaikuarchives.org/curators/LeroyGorman.html

Online Halloween 2012 Poetry Reading
Again this year, I am coordinating the SFPA Halloween Poetry Reading on our website. All SFPA members are welcome to submit one audio file per person of themselves reading one of their spooky, haunting, ghoulish, or humorous Halloween poems.

Submissions should include the audio file and a short text blurb to go with it that includes any or all of the following: intro to the poem and where/when it was first published, intro to the poet, a website or blog link, and mention of a recent publication (collection, anthology, book) with a link to purchasing information. See the Halloween page for examples.

The purposes of the Halloween Poetry Reading are to present enjoyable speculative poetry to a broader audience, to increase awareness of the Science Fiction Poetry Association, its website, activities and membership benefits, and to promote the individual poets who take part. Participation is voluntary and unpaid. The SFPA acquires one-time audio rights only. (For the purposes of Rhysling Award nominations, posting on the Halloween page counts as publication.)

Please keep in mind when selecting a poem to record that Halloween is a popular children's holiday. If I feel that there is a problem with using a specific piece, because of either the content of the poem or the quality of the recording, I will contact the poet about it directly.

Submissions and any inquiries should be sent to me, Liz Bennefeld, at sfpoetry(at)quietspaces(dot)net—contact me also if you have any graphics, spooky photos, etc., that we can for use on the 2012 page. The plan is to have this year's Halloween Poetry Reading page live by October 1, with later submissions uploaded until about a week before the holiday.

Thank you!
Liz Bennefeld

July 2012

World Horror Con GOH
Bruce Boston will be the Poet Guest of Honor at the 2013 Bram Stoker Awards/World Horror Con, to be held June 13-16 at the (supposedly haunted) Hotel Monteleone in the heart of the French Quarter, New Orleans, LA. stokers2013.org/guests.html

April 2012

HWA Stoker Awards
Linda Addison is the recipient of the 2012 Stoker Award for superior achievement in poetry. Her winning collection is How to Recognize a Demon Has Become Your
Friend
(Necon E-Books, 2011).

World Horror Convention
The 2012 World Horror Convention in Salt Lake City included two poetry panels, a poetry slam, and the inclusion of vampire-related poems in the program book. The poetry slam on Thursday night was sparsely attended, but enthusiastic. Poets in attendance included Linda Addison, (2012 Poetry Stoker Award winner) Stephen M. Wilson, James Dorr, myself, and a few others sitting in a circle and sharing our poems. The two poetry panels were better attended. The “Poetry of the Weird from the Romantics to Lovecraft” panel on Thursday consisted of myself, Michael R. Collings, James Dorr, and Linda Addison and was very informative. The “How Poetry Can Influence Your Fiction Writing” panel on Friday consisted of Marge Simon, Michael R. Collings, James Dorr and Roberta Lannes (see photo) and provided good advice for poets and prose writers. Finally I’d like to thank Charlie Harmon and Stephen M. Wilson for their work getting poetry on the program, and including poems by many of the above poets mentioned in the program book, which, by the way, included many illustrations by Marge Simon as well. All in all the convention was a great experience, and Salt Lake City very welcoming. —Gary Clark
World Horror Convention

March 2012

ConDor
More on ConDor by Denise Dumars
ConDor is rapidly becoming the yearly meeting place for SF poets in Southern California. At this year’s ConDor, held at the Town & Country Hotel on Hotel Circle in San Diego, we were given—as we were last year—two panels on which to practice our art and then share it. I strongly suggest that we continue to cultivate the convention and the space, encouraging other poets to attend.

In addition to the people in Debbie’s photograph there were other members of the SFPA and the Southland Poets of the Fantastic present and accounted for who participated in the workshop and read their work. Those individuals include Scott Virtes, Kendall Evans, and Christopher Vera, and during the reading hour we did a round-robin reading from those on the panel and in the audience. Note to Sheila Finch—don’t forget your poems next time! It was awesome to have all these great poets in one room and hear their work, and the prompts that participants came up with during the workshop were awesome—especially when David Lee Summers explained the astronomical terms to those of us who may have majored in English! The workshop and the reading made the whole weekend an inspiring and worthwhile endeavor for me and I hope others who attended feel the same way.

Jim Hay, the organizer of the convention, is wonderful and very accomodating. I suggest for next year that we ask for the room upstairs in the main building where the conference is held at the Town & Country, which is a beautiful Victorian-style salon. I did attend a writing workshop in that room last year and felt it was perfect for that use, so perhaps we could request it for next year.

It’s sad that Los Angeles-area conventions have alienated and largely rejected poets, so our best bet at cultivating a real community of genre poets in Southern California is to continue to cultivate and support ConDor. I hope to see everyone again next year and hopefully even more of our members will attend, as well as more students of genre poetry that us “old hands” wish to inspire and teach.

ConDor Report by Deborah P Kolodji
There was a speculative poetry workshop and reading at ConDor 2012 in San Diego, California. Panelists were David Lee Summers, Denise Dumars, Nancy Ellis Taylor, Samantha Henderson, Deborah P Kolodji, and Deborah Flores. After the introduction of the panelists, Deborah Kolodji read a section from Frances Mayes' book The Discovery of Poetry about synesthesia, including examples. Each workshop participant drew poetry prompts from three different cups. One prompt was a conspiracy theory, in keeping with the 2012 ConDor theme, "Men in Black: Aliens, Conspiracies, & Feds, Oh My!" The second prompt was a quote from Shakespeare and the third prompt was an astronomical object. Participants were asked to use the prompts to write a poem, including an example of synesthesia, if possible. Some truly wonderful poems were written. The workshop was followed by a poetry reading, done as a read-around circle.
ConDor 2012
Right to left: David Lee Summers, Denise Dumars, Nancy Ellis Taylor, Samantha Henderson, Deborah P Kolodji, Deborah Flores

February 2012

Stoker Award Superior Achievement in Poetry, final ballot

The active membership of the Horror Writers Association vote on the nominees, and the winners (in all categories) will be presented with their awards on 3/31/12 following the Stoker Award banquet. The award presentations will be streamed live on the web—details at a later date.

Poetry for SF Fans article on io9
io9.com/5885724/the-perfect-poetry-for-every-type-of-science-fiction-fan

January 2012

Bram Stoker Award Preliminary Ballot—Poetry
MEMBER RECOMMENDATIONS:

JURY:

At least seven of these are SFPA members. Three will move on to the Final Ballot after HWA members vote.

Mentions of Issue 3 of Eye to the Telescope
ankh-hpl.livejournal.com/98283.html
kristinberkey-abbott.blogspot.com/2012/01/persona-poems-at-eye-to-telescope.html

New York Times zombie poetry article
“What Rhymes with Undead? Some Poets Know”

New Scientist poetry article
“Rhyme and reason: The Victorian poet scientists


News Guidelines

We welcome speculative poetry news from SFPA members. Appropriate items for this page include member awards and honors, news of regional member meetings, reports from SF poetry readings and workshops, media recognition of speculative poetry, etc. Photos are welcome, but choose one photo which best represents your news. Photos may be cropped or resized. Please do not send announcements of personal poetry sales. Inclusion is at the sole discretion of the webmaster. With these guidelines in mind, send news to sfpaweb@sfpoetry.com, subject line "sfpa news."

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