Rhysling Award

The Rhysling Awards are an annual award given for the best science fiction, fantasy, or horror poem of the year. The award name was dubbed by Andrew Joron in reference to a character in a science fiction story: the blind poet Rhysling, in Robert A. Heinlein's short story "The Green Hills of Earth". The award is given in two categories: "Best Long Poem", for works of 50 or more lines, and "Best Short Poem", for works of 49 or fewer lines.

The nominees for each year's Rhysling Awards are chosen by the members of the Science Fiction Poetry Association (SFPA). Each member may nominate one work for each of the categories. The nominated works are then compiled into an anthology called The Rhysling Anthology, and members of the Association then vote on the final winners. From 2005 to 2011, the Awards were presented in July at a ceremony at Readercon. While the "Best Short Poem" category allows very short poems to be entered the SFPA also has the Dwarf Stars Award which is for poems from one to ten lines.

In 2005, the SFPA published an anthology of the winning poems, The Alchemy of Stars: Rhysling Award Winners Showcase.

Winners and Runners Up
From 1978 to 1994, only a first-place winner was awarded. In 1995, a number of runners up were named and in 1996, a number of "Honorable Mentions" were given. Since 1997, 2nd and 3rd place have also been honored, and from 2020 onward, "Honorable Mentions" have been mentioned once again.

{{legend|#FAEB86|text=*|Winners}} {{legend|lightyellow|text=†|Second place}} {{legend|BurlyWood|text=|Third place}} {{legend|transparent|Runners Up/Honorable Mentions}}