I’m very excited and grateful that two of my poems, “Helianthus”” and “Petrichor”, have been nominated for the Rhysling award! I’d like to thank the editors in Solarpunk Magazine and Utopia Science Fiction for publishing them.
poetry
Rhysling Eligibility Post
I’m very late to the party, but since the nominations for the poetry Rhyslings awards end tomorrow, here are my eligible poems:
“Worlds Apart” appeared in Star*Line.
“First rule of time travel”, about losing yourself in wormholes, in Star*Line.
“Petrichor”, on the fragmentation of the self and the distributed consciousness in Utopia Science Fiction.
“Helianthus”, an anarchist poem about changing the meaning of work, in Solarpunk Magazine.
“An ode to the stone cold gaze”, about Medusa, in Daughter of Sarpedon: Tempered Tales, from Brigids Gate.
If you haven’t voted yet, it would mean the world to me if you considered my poems.
Short Stories I enjoyed in February and March
Hello! Summer is here! ?
I read 33 stories during these two months, so I thought I’d make a post about them together. So many stories, so little time.
As always, here we go in no particular order:
For sale: One Unicorn Saddle, Mostly Disenchanted by Aimee Picchi in Translunar Travelers Lounge: A short, fun and cute story over the sadness and disappointment for your run-away unicorn and how internet strangers can help you realize what really happened. ?
Gennesaret by Phoenix Alexander in Beneath Ceaseless Skies: What is escaping from what you know when you know nothing else? And who will pay the price? A short and sad story about taking the dangerous leap towards change and going in blind.
Metal like blood in the Black by T. Kingfisher in Uncanny: A unique story about two machines, their relationship with their father and how they managed to survive on their own against a villainous figure. I really enjoyed this one.
An Incomplete Account of the Case of the Bird-talker in Yaros by Eleanna Castroianni in Fireside: From 1967-1974, during the years of the Greek Junta, the island of Yaros in the Aegean was used as a prison for the political prisoners. This is a gentle story in the form of short interviews from the prisoners about the living conditions in prison as well as their personal experiences with the regime.
Poetry:
A Jar of Condensed Milk by Gretchen Tesshmer in Strange Horizons
The Prophet, to His Angel by Bogi Takàcs in Fantasy Magazine
Return to the Cities by Marie Vibbert in The Future Fire
Eosphosphorus by Avra Margariti in Eye to the Telescope
A Message From Her Feline Self, Unborn, to Her Cousin, Whose Ancestors Were Once Wolves by Jessica Cho in Fireside
Shreds and Tatters by Jennifer Crow in Kaleidotrope
Short stories I enjoyed in January
A very late post considering, but my notes are frowning at me and I have to oblige. January was a great month reading wise and I read a lot and very good short stories. As always, here you’ll find both old and new pieces in no particular order. Just the way I put them down on my notes. (You can also see that when I like a magazine or an author I kind of … don’t let go.)
Stories and Poems I liked in March
In March, I finally managed to go back to reading short stories, which has helped change my mood to the better. I didn’t have a plan in the way I chose what I read. In the following list there older stories and newer stories, same venues and same authors. Most of them are flash stories, because it was easier for me to focus for a shorter amount of time. But they are all unique and interesting.
So, there you go!
A poetry anthology dedicated to Ursula K. Le Guin
I am lucky enough to have two of my poems be part of a wonderful poetry anthology dedicated to Ursula K. Le Guin. It’s called Climbing Lightly through Forests: A Poetry Anthology Honoring Ursula K. Le Guin and includes poems and essays inspired by Le Guin’s work from great artists all around the world. Working with the editors Lisa M. Bradley and R.B. Lemberg was a great experience.
The first poem “We dream the future in our songs” has been inspired by my favourite book of hers “The Word for World is Forest” and the second one “Time is being and being time” is an answer to her poem “Hymn to Time”.
While I didn’t discover Le Guin as an author until a decade ago, her words have created a little nest in my heart I visit frequently and add to it as I read more of her work – which I do slowly, as I’m afraid of the emptiness once I won’t have another book of hers to open, like a last step on staircase that doesn’t really exist.
I believe this book covers this emptiness, approaches her work with love and care and all the ways her words have touched her readers.
Time is being and being
time, it is all one thing,
the shining, the seeing,
the dark abounding.
from Hymn to Time, by Ursula K. Le Guin