Elgin Awards created, first nominations due May 1 for books of speculative poetry

SFPA President David C. Kopaska-Merkel is pleased to announce the creation of the Elgin Awards, named for SFPA founder Suzette Haden Elgin, to be presented annually by SFPA for books published in the preceding year. In this first case, books published in 2012.

There will be two categories, Chapbook and Book. To be considered, chapbooks must contain 10–39 pages of poetry and books must contain 40 or more pages of poetry. E-books are eligible, but self-published books are not. Single-author and collaborative books are eligible; anthologies are not. Books containing fiction as well as poetry are not eligible.

Books must be in English, but translations are eligible. In the case of translations that also contain the poems in the original language, those pages will not count toward the total page count.

Only members can nominate books. They may not nominate their own books, but they may nominate multiple books, and the books need not be by members in order to be nominated or to win. A list of nominated books will be posted on the SFPA website: title, author, and press name and address (URL or postal) will be required to nominate.

If available, a link to a .pdf of the book or to a page where the book can be purchased or downloaded will be provided to facilitate reading for voting purposes (this information is not a requirement for eligibility, but it obviously would help readers make a voting decision). These links will be removed when the voting deadline has passed. A list of the nominated books will be mailed to members who have no e-mail address, or upon request.

The nominations deadline will be May 1; the voting deadline will be July 1. Members may vote for first, second, and third choices in both the chapbook and full-length categories.

Nominations and votes should be e-mailed to elgin@sfpoetry.com; members without access to e-mail may send their nominations and votes directly to the Elgin Award Chair (for 2012 publications, Kendall Evans & Marge Simon) at:

Kendall Evans, Co-Chair
SFPA Elgin Awards
15102 Lefloss Ave
Norwalk, CA 90650-5442.

Winners will be announced on July 15 and the awards will be presented at WorldCon (this year at LoneStarCon 3, San Antonio, TX, Aug. 29–Sept. 2, 2013), with the Rhysling awards.