Dwarf Stars Award
The Dwarf Stars Award is an annual award presented by the Science Fiction Poetry Association to the author of the best horror, fantasy, or science fiction poem of ten lines or fewer published in the previous year. The award was established in 2006 as a counterpoint to the Rhysling Award, which is given by the same organization to horror, fantasy, or science fiction poems of any length. Poems are submitted to the association by the poets, from which approximately 30 are chosen by an editor to be published in an anthology each fall. Members of the association then vote on the published poems, and first through third-place winners are announced. The 2006 anthology was edited by Deborah P. Kolodji, and subsequent anthologies have been edited by an array of editors, including Kolodji, Stephen M. Wilson, Joshua Gage, Geoffrey A. Landis, Linda D. Addison, Sandra J. Lindow, John Amen, Jeannine Hall Gailey, and Lesley Wheeler.
During the 14 nomination years, 45 poems by 32 poets have been selected as third place or better, including one three-way tie for second place in 2016 and one two-way tie for third place in 2018, of which 14 poets have won outright. Jane Yolen has been noted four times, a first and a third place and two second-place results; Deborah P. Kolodji, Julie Bloss Kelsey and LeRoy Gorman have each received a first and a second place; Greg Beatty a first and a third place; Sonya Taaffe has received two second-place results; Sandi Leibowitz has received a second and a third-place result; and Ann K. Schwader and Sandra J. Lindow have each received two third-place results.
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 blue 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.| Year | Author | Poem | Publication | Ref. |
| * | "Knowledge Of" | Kerem | ||
| + | ' | |||
| "Prayer Causes Stars" | Abyss & Apex | |||
| * | "Last Unicorn" | Asimov's Science Fiction | ||
| + | "Troll Under Bridge" | Asimov's Science Fiction | ||
| "Dwarves" | ' | |||
| * | "Place Mat by Moebius" | Asimov's Science Fiction | ||
| + | "Muse" | Strange Horizons | ||
| "Dancing to Van Gogh" | Mythic Delirium | |||
| * | "Fireflies" | Asimov's Science Fiction | ||
| + | Doorways Magazine | |||
| "Goodbye Billy Goat Gruff" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| * | "Bumbershoot" | Abyss & Apex | ||
| + | Goblin Fruit | |||
| Poet's Espresso | ||||
| * | "Comet" | microcosms | ||
| + | "Tapping the Vine" | Goblin Fruit | ||
| "Returning" | Star*Line | |||
| * | "Blue Rose Buddha" | |||
| + | "Closure" | Illumen | ||
| "Snowflake galaxies" | microcosms | |||
| * | "Basho After Cinderella " | Rattle | ||
| + | Lovers & Killers | |||
| "Sarcophagus" | inkscrawl | |||
| 2014 | * | "And Deeper than Did Ever Plummet Sound" | Strange Horizons | |
| 2014 | + | Strange Horizons | ||
| 2014 | "Hourglass" | Prism International | ||
| 2015 | * | "abandoned nursing home" | Tales of the Talisman | |
| 2015 | + | "Princess: A Life" | Mythic Delirium | |
| 2015 | Star*Line | |||
| 2016 | * | "We Begin This Way" | Gingerbread House | |
| 2016 | + | "at the barre" | Rattle | |
| 2016 | + | Grievous Angel | ||
| 2016 | + | "Weathering" | Silver Blade | |
| 2016 | "Alice was chasing white rabbits out of a black hole" | Abbreviate Journal | ||
| 2017 | * | "aster than the speed of lightf" | Scifaikuest | |
| 2017 | + | "Lover" | Homestead Review | |
| 2017 | "Loss" | Through the Gate | ||
| 2018 | * | "The Green" | Carrying the Branch: Poets in Search of Peace | |
| 2018 | + | "If She Knew She Was a Ghost" | Polu Texni | |
| 2018 | "Lo Shu’s Magic Square" | Snakeskin | ||
| 2018 | "Lace at the Throat" | 2017 SFPA poetry contest | ||
| 2019 | * | "embalmed" | Multiverse: An International Anthology of Science Fiction Poetry | |
| 2019 | + | "where to hide an alien in plain sight" | Scryptic | |
| 2019 | "Negative Space" | Sky Island Journal | ||
| 2019 | - | - | - | - |