Remind Me

I've never thought too hard about science fiction and fantasy poetry. I knew it existed. I knew that Robert J. Sawyer's wife Carolyn Clink was one of the form's noted practitioners. But like many fantasy readers, I've been guilty of skipping the poems or the songs that inevitably find their way into fantasy epics.

So why am I talking about it now?

In October 2010, I attended the World Fantasy Convention in Columbus, Ohio. At one of the many parties, this one hosted by Canadian publisher ChiZine, a poetry reading broke out amidst the launch of Paul Tremblay's In the Mean Time and Robert Boyczuk's Nexus: Ascension.

Sandra Kasturi, ChiZine co-publisher declared we would listen to a poem because "she'd bought the beer". She read a poem from her first collection The Animal Bridegroom called "Frankenstein's Monster's Wife's Therapist."

Amazing.

Now, lo and behold, one of Canada's two major SF&F awards, the Prix Auroras, have added a poetry category. Both Clink and Kasturi published numerous poems in 2010, also notable is Helen Marshall's "Waiting for the Harrowing". Even the "Dean of Canadian Science Fiction", Robert J. Sawyer has an eligible work; his prose poem, "The Transformed Man".

No longer a category I'll be ignoring.

A list of 2010 publications

Nominate for the Auroras