Christina Sng

It was great to get to meet speculative poet Christina Sng a week or so ago. I've not met another speculative poet in person before, and really enjoyed getting to know Christina.

Sng also gave me a copy of her book, The Darkside of Eden. I read it and was very impressed. This is the second of Sng's book I've read, the other being Angelflesh, which was also a great read.

The field of speculative poetry is an exciting, growing one, and I am thrilled to meet Singapore's pioneer poet in the field last weekend.



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Good News

I got some exciting news yesterday about my poem "Manipulation," which was first published in the May 2009 online edition of Scifaikuest. The poem, a haibun, was nominated for a 2010 Rhysling Award in the long poem category.


The Rhysling is awarded by the Science Fiction Poetry Association each year for best poem published in the previous year, as voted by members of the association. There are two categories for the poetry award, short (under 50 lines) and long (over 50 lines). It is the biggest award for speculative poetry.

You can read the full text of "Manipulation" at the readers' page set up by Malcolm Deeley, where he is kindly showcasing some of the poems eligible for nomination for this year's award. (You'll have to scroll down to find it.)

This is my first Rhysling nomination, and I'm very excited about it.

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Check out the The 2009 Rhysling Anthology at Amazon



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Interview with John J. Dunphy

Interview with speculative poet John J. Dunphy



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Edwin Morgan, my introduction to speculative poetry

It's no secret that speculative poetry (including sci-fi, fantasy, horror, the surreal, slipstream, etc.) is very much my thing. But long before I knew that genre poetry had such a big market these days, with loads of new reading material being published within the genre all the time, I first stumbled across it in the work of Scottish poet Edwin Morgan. Morgan quickly became one of my favorite poets, as I devoured everything I could get my hands on.

I moved from there to other "mainstream" poets who had done a good deal of exploring of sci-fi themes in their work. It was only years later that I found places like Sam's Dot Publishing, Dreams & Nightmares, and the Science Fiction Poetry Association — all of which directed me on to more and more magazines, small publishers, and so forth that are producing quality work in the field of genre poetry all the time.

And it felt like finding home.

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Scifaikuest

Good news — I am the featured poet for this issue (Nov 2008) of Scifaikuest! I am very pleased about this, as Scifaikuest is one of the best poetry magazines around.

If you'd like to have a look, you can visit the Scifaikuest website. You'll find a link there to order the print magazine, which is where you will find 15 of my poems in the Nov 2008 issue.

Also, if you'd like more updates about what is going on in the world of speculative poetry, you can see my regular update on my main blog.

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Speculative Poetry updates available for Sept 2008

I am trying to keep up with monthly updates from the field of speculative poetry on my main blog. You can check out the September update for news and happenings in the field of speculative poetry.

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Where Do You Go for Good Science Fiction and Speculative Poetry?

Where do you usually go when you are on the hunt for a new work of science fiction or speculative poetry? For me, I like to shop at the Genre Mall online. They have a very wide selection of fiction, poetry, and magazines to choose from. I've bought a fair number of titles from the Genre Mall, and have never failed to be impressed with the work. A large number of small publishing houses choose to distribute their work from the Genre Mall, so it houses a very nice selection of work that may not be available elsewhere. And, when you buy there, you are supporting the real grassroots movement of the genre.

I've also come across a very interesting site recently called Anthology Builder. I like how you can tailor make and anthology there, and have it put together in a way to suit your own needs and desires. I've already written a more extensive explanation about it at my main blog, so if you have some short stories you'd like to put up for sale, or if you are looking for good stories to read, you might pop in over there to have a look at how it works.



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One Summer, a Thousand Days

I enjoy reading speculative fiction a lot, but I probably enjoy speculative poetry even more. It is a narrower field, in terms of readership, but there is a surprising large amount of very good speculative poetry available through various magazines and chapbooks.

I especially enjoy coming across speculative poetry that is written by poets who are otherwise considered "mainstream" writers. Al Purdy has written a fair bit of speculative poetry, as has Edwin Morgan. In Charles Albano's haiku collection One Summer, a Thousand Days (reviewed here), there is a whole section dedicated to scifaiku. The list could go on and on, because there are plenty of good poets who write poetry that some might consider "just" genre poetry.

If you'd like to have a look at more speculative poetry, or if are perhaps looking for market to publish your own work, you can visit the Science Fiction Poetry Association. And one of my favorite publishing house that is dedicated to speculative fiction is Sam's Dot Publishing. There are lots of magazines and chapbooks there.



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