Woo-Hoo, Sneaky Vampiress Makes Dwarf Stars Cut!
The email from John Mannone started off modestly enough. Congratulations! The following has been nominated for the 2019 Dwarf Stars Anthology: Never Trust a Vampiress. The poem, “Never Trust a Vampiress,” had been published in Spring 2018 in STAR*LINE (cf. May 16 2018, et al.), the magazine of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association, and John Mannone is the Editor/Curator of the Dwarf stars Award and associated anthology recognizing the best ultra short (1 to 10 lines) speculative poem published the previous year. Unlike similar awards, however, the poets themselves send suggested work to the contest/anthology in the same way that one might offer work to a [image error]normal publication, and those the editor himself selects become thus the official nominees.
Confused? Well, maybe, but here it runs parallel to the better known Rhysling Competition in that the resulting DWARF STARS ANTHOLOGY is then sent to all SFPA members, whereupon they vote and one of the poems is selected the winner. Though probably not mine, the untrustworthy vampiress of the title preferring to keep a low profile unlife, beneath the attention of vampire hunters. Indeed her poem is just six lines long. Nevertheless, her fur coat around her in case it’s cold, she’ll skulk with the others and we’ll see who wins.
More on DWARF STARS and the competition (and SFPA) can be found here, while the sneaky vampiress can still be discovered in STAR*LINE for last spring, modestly situated on the right and toward the bottom of page 10.
