The Dwarf Stars Award is an annual award presented by the Science Fiction & Fantasy 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 19 nomination years, 63 poems by 48 poets have been selected as third place or better, of which 21 poets have won outright. This includes two-way ties for first place in 2022 and 2023, a three-way tie for second in 2016, a two-way tie for third place in 2018, and a three-way tie for third in 2023. Jane Yolen has been noted four times, a first and a third place and two second-place results; 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 and F. J. Bergmann have each 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.
YearAuthorPoemPublicationRef.2006 * "Knowledge Of" Kerem + "Prayer Causes Stars" Abyss & Apex 2007 * "Last Unicorn" Asimov's Science Fiction + "Troll Under Bridge" Asimov's Science Fiction "Dwarves" 2008 * "Place Mat by Moebius" Asimov's Science Fiction + "Muse" Strange Horizons "Dancing to Van Gogh" Mythic Delirium 2009 * "Fireflies" Asimov's Science Fiction + Doorways Magazine "Goodbye Billy Goat Gruff" Asimov's Science Fiction 2010 * "Bumbershoot" Abyss & Apex + Goblin Fruit Poet's Espresso 2011 * "Comet" microcosms + "Tapping the Vine" Goblin Fruit "Returning" Star*Line 2012 * "Blue Rose Buddha" + "Closure" Illumen "Snowflake galaxies" microcosms 2013 * "Basho After Cinderella (iii)" Rattle + Lovers & Killers "Sarcophagus" inkscrawl 2014 * "And Deeper than Did Ever Plummet Sound" Strange Horizons + Strange Horizons "Hourglass" Prism International 2015 * "abandoned nursing home" Tales of the Talisman + "Princess: A Life" Mythic Delirium Star*Line 2016 * "We Begin This Way" Gingerbread House + "at the barre" Rattle + Grievous Angel + "Weathering" Silver Blade "Alice was chasing white rabbits out of a black hole" Abbreviate Journal 2017 * "aster than the speed of lightf" Scifaikuest + "Lover" Homestead Review "Loss" Through the Gate 2018 * Carrying the Branch: Poets in Search of Peace + "If She Knew She Was a Ghost" Polu Texni "Lo Shu's Magic Square" Snakeskin "Lace at the Throat" 2017 SFPA poetry contest 2019 * (translated from Spanish by Lawrence Schimel) "embalsamados" ("embalmed") Multiverse: An International Anthology of Science Fiction Poetry + "where to hide an alien in plain sight" Scryptic "Negative Space" Sky Island Journal 2020 * "Standing Up" Nadwah: Poetry in Translation + Silver Blade "2015 Zinfandella" Dismal Oaks Winery Broadside 2021 * "Yes, Antimatter Is Real" Analog Science Fiction and Fact + Asimov's Science Fiction "Frozen Hurricanes" Minimalism: A Handbook of Minimalist Genre Poetic Forms (Hiraeth Press) 2022 * "Poem with Lines from my Son" Bracken * "What Trees Read" Uppagus + "Colony" Penumbric "Future Portrait of Dark Matter" NewMyths.com 2023 * "Believe the Graves" The Deadlands * "In Perpetuity" Analog Science Fiction and Fact + "Excerpt from a Proposal for the New City" Strange Horizons "As Slow as Starlight" Frozen Wavelets "Surviving" The Rat King: A Book of Dark Poetry (Dooky Zines) "Trichotillomania" Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head (Random House) 2024 * (translated from Chinese by Yilin Wang) 《风不止》 (The Ceaseless Wind) (Prism International) + "All-Kinds-of-Fears" Dreams and Nightmares "Nikola Tesla" Star*Line 2025 * "Perish and Live Forever" Mexicans on the Moon: Speculative Poetry from a Possible Future (Space Cowboy Books) + "[old junkyard]" Star*Line "[warp drive folds spacetime]" Radon Journal
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