Elgin Awards

Elgin Award
Awarded forThe best science fiction, fantasy, or horror poetry books published in English in the last two calendar years
Presented byScience Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association
First award2013
Websitehttps://sfpoetry.org/wp/elgin-award/

The Elgin Award is an annual award presented by the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association to the author of the best horror, fantasy, or science fiction poetry Chapbooks (booklets of 10-39 pages) or books (40 pages or more). The award is named for Suzette Haden Elgin, founder of the SFPA. Works are eligible for two years after publication, those that place in the top three in their first year of eligibility are not eligible again in their second. Works must be published in English, though translated works are eligible.

Critic Holly Lyn Walrath has written that "Speculative poetry is a radical field right now ... reading from the Elgin nominee list is a fantastic starting place."

Winners and nominees

In the following table, the years correspond to the date in which the award was given, rather than when the poem was first published. Each year links to the corresponding "year in poetry". Entries with a yellow background and an asterisk (*) next to the writer's name have won the award, while those with a gray background and a plus sign (+) took second place, and those with a white background took third.

* Winners
+ Second place
  Third place

Books

'Books' are works with 40 or more pages of English language poetry.

Year Author Title Publisher Ref.
2013 Mary Turzillo* Lovers & Killers Dark Regions Press
Bruce Boston+ Notes From the Shadow City Dark Regions Press
Gary William Crawford+
Sandra Kasturi Come Late to the Love of Birds Tightrope Books
2014 Bryan Thao Worra* Demonstra Innsmouth Free Press
Jeannine Hall Gailey+ Unexplained Fevers New Binary Press
Bruce Boston Dark Roads Dark Renaissance Books
2015 Marge Simon* Sweet Poison Dark Renaissance
Mary Turzillo*
Bruce Boston+ Dark Roads: Selected Long Poems 1971-2012 Dark Renaissance
Stephanie Wytovich Mourning Jewelry Raw Dog Screaming
2016 Mary Soon Lee* Crowned: The Sign Of The Dragon Book 1 Dark Renaissance
Jeannine Hall Gailey+ The Robot Scientist’s Daughter Mayapple
Ann K. Schwader Dark Energies P’rea
2017 Jeannine Hall Gailey* Field Guide to the End of the World Moon City
Jenna Le+ A History of the Cetacean American Diaspora Anchor & Plume
Marge Simon+ Small Spirits: Dark Dolls Midnight Town
Wendy Rathbone Dead Starships Eye Scry
2018 Christina M. Rau* Liberating the Astronauts Aqueduct
Marge Simon+ Satan’s Sweethearts Weasel
Mary Turzillo
Margaret Rhee Love Robot The Operating System
2019 Marge Simon* War Crystal Lake
Alessandro Manzetti*
Bruce Boston+ Artifacts Independent Legions
Kiki Petrosino Witch Wife Sarabande
2020 Franny Choi* Soft Science Alice James
Mary Soon Lee+ Elemental Haiku Ten Speed
G.O. Clark The Comfort of Screams Alban Lake
Marge Simon The Demeter Diaries Independent Legions
Bryan D. Dietrich
2021 Mary Soon Lee* The Sign of the Dragon JABberwocky
Christina Sng+ A Collection of Dreamscapes Raw Dog Screaming
Octavia Cade Mary Shelley Makes a Monster Aqueduct
LindaAnn Loschiavo A Route Obscure and Lonely Wapshott
2022 Brandon O’Brien* Can You Sign My Tentacle? Interstellar Flight
Geneve Flynn+ Tortured Willows: Bent. Bowed. Unbroken Yuriko
Lee Murray+
Christina Sng+
Angela Yuriko Smith+
Ann K. Schwader Unquiet Stars Weird House
2023 David C. Kopaska-Merkel* Some Disassembly Required Diminuendo
Avra Margariti+ The Saint of Witches Weasel
Tiffany Morris Elegies of Rotting Stars Nictitating Books
Rebecca Buchanan Not a Princess, But (Yes) There Was a Pea & Other Tales to Foment Revolution Jackanapes
2024 Christina Sng* The Gravity of Existence Interstellar Flight
Deborah L. Davitt+ Bounded By Eternity self-published
Deborah L. Davitt From Voyages Unreturning Aqueduct
Jeannine Hall Gailey Flare BOA Editions
2025 Pedro Iniguez* Mexicans on the Moon Space Cowboy
Miguel Mitchell+ Surrealia Gnashing Teeth
Jamal Hodge The Dark Between The Twilight Aqueduct
2026 Linda D. Addison* Everything Endless -
Jamal Hodge*
Lee Murray+ Fox Spirit on a Distant Cloud -
Herb Kauderer Sleepless Nights in the Dreamers Mall -

Chapbooks

'Chapbooks' are works with between 10 and 39 pages of English language poetry.

Year Author Title Publisher Ref.
2013 F. J. Bergmann* Out of the Black Forest Centennial Press
Samantha Henderson+ The House of Forever: Selected Poems Raven Electrick Ink
David C. Kopaska-Merkel The Edible Zoo Sam’s Dot Publishing
2014 Helen Marshall The Sex Lives of Monsters Kelp Queen Press
David C. Kopaska-Merkel+ The Edible Zoo Sam’s Dot Publishing
Joshua Gage Inhuman: Haiku from the Zombie Apocalypse The Poet’s Haven
2015 Mary McMyne Wolf Skin Dancing Girl
David C. Kopaska-Merkel Seti Hits Paydirt Popcorn
David Clink If the World Were to Stop Spinning Piquant
2016 Shannon Connor Winward Undoing Winter Finishing Line
John Philip Johnson Stairs Appear in a Hole Outside of Town Graphic Poetry
E. Kristin Anderson A Guide for the Practical Abductee Red Bird
2017 Neil Aitken* Leviathan Hyacinth Girl
Margaret Rhee+ Radio Heart, or; How Robots Fall Out of Love Finishing Line
John C. Mannone Apocalypse Alban Lake
2018 F.J. Bergmann* A Catalogue of the Further Suns Gold Line
Christina Sng+ Astropoetry Alban Lake
Dan Hoy The Terraformers Third Man
2019 Holly Lyn Walrath* Glimmerglass Girl Finishing Line
G.O. Clark+ Built to Serve Alban Lake
Laura Madeline Wiseman Every Girl Becomes the Wolf Finishing Line
Andrea Blythe
2020 John Philip Johnson* The Book of Fly Graphic Poetry
Christina Olson+ The Last Mastodon Rattle
Herb Kauderer Fragments from the Book of the After-Dead The Poet’s Haven
2021 Akua Lezli Hope* Otherwheres ArtFarm
Andrea Blythe+ Twelve Interstellar Flight
Terese Mason Pierre Manifest Gap Riot
2022 Amelia Gorman* Field Guide to Invasive Species of Minnesota Interstellar Flight
Deborah P Kolodji+ Tug of a Black Hole Title IX
John W. Sexton Visions at Templeglantine Revival
2023 Jane Yolen* The Last Robot and Other Science Fiction Poems Shoreline of Infinity
Bruce Boston+ Spacers Snarled in the Hair of Comets Mind’s Eye
Denise Dumars Cajuns in Space self-published
2024 Amelia Gorman* Worm Sonnets Quarter
F.J. Bergmann+ Shelf Life Space Cowboy
Holly Lyn Walrath Numinous Stones Aqueduct
2025 Katherine Quevedo* The Inca Weaver’s Tales Sword & Kettle
Mahaila Smith+ Water-Kin Metatron
Brian U. Garrison Micropoetry for Microplanets Space Cowboy
2026 M. Frost* The Women of Myth -
Gerri Leen+ Over It: Goddesses Who’ve Reached Their Limit
David C. Kopaska-Merkel Risk Assessment -

References

  1. ↑ "About the Elgin Award". Retrieved 2026-10-18.
  2. ↑ ""The Best Speculative Poetry of the Year Is Award-Worthy"". Interstellar Flight Magazine. Sep 16, 2025. Retrieved 2026-10-20.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "2013 Elgin Awards: 2013 Winners". Retrieved 2026-10-19.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "2014 Elgin Awards: Award Information". Retrieved 2026-10-19.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "2015 Dwarf Stars and Elgin Award Winners". Locus Online. Retrieved 2026-10-19.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "2016 Dwarf Stars and Elgin Awards Winners". Locus Online. Retrieved 2026-10-19.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "2017 Elgin Awards Winners". Locus Online. Retrieved 2026-10-19.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "2018 Elgin Awards Winners". Locus Online. Retrieved 2026-10-19.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "2019 Dwarf Stars and Elgin Awards Winners". Locus Online. Retrieved 2026-10-19.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "2020 Elgin Awards Winners". Locus Online. Retrieved 2026-10-19.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "2021 Elgin Awards Winners". Locus Online. Retrieved 2026-10-19.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "2022 Elgin Awards Winners". Locus Online. Retrieved 2026-10-19.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "2023 Elgin Awards Winners". Locus Online. Retrieved 2026-10-19.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "2024 Elgin Awards Winners". Locus Online. Retrieved 2026-10-19.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "2025 Elgin Awards and Rhysling Awards Winners". Locus Online. Retrieved 2026-10-19.
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "SFPA Announces 2026 Elgin, Dwarf Star, and Rhysling Award Winners". File770. Retrieved 2026-10-19.