@caseyaimer
Cyberpunk poet repped by Tasneem Motala at Belcastro Agency - Elder emo, sci-fi nerd, anarchist, SFWA Poetry Committee & SFPA - Radon Journal EIC - Publishing MPS & Poetry MFA - Poems in Strange Horizons, Small Wonders, and many more. CaseyAimer.com
Another good day with SFWA and SFPA. Many SFF fans have found us but not all.
Come get a respite from the literary journals and enjoy a speculative space.
Sfwa member checking in, also member of the Pacific Media Workers union as one of the only open access scientific publishers to unionize
Love Vol. 2's artwork
I'll be at AWP working the combo @sfpoetry.bsky.social and @sfwa.org table at spot T346
We won't be there and live until Thursday so have fun today without us. But be seeing everyone Thur-Sat
I'm making this year's theme be, "Yeah, sci-fi poetry does exist. And you should write it."
One-of-us, one-of-us
The most complex conference floor I've ever seen
We'll combine our anxieties to become super-writers. Or at least weird poets. Cheers from the SFWA/SFPA table across the hall
That was one of the poems that I had the most fun writing
Sci-fi poetry is a black hole of goodness
I'm proud to say that--for the first time--I have a poem nominated in both the short and long categories of the Rhysling Award.
"Black Hole Framing" at @foofarawpress.bsky.social and "An Aging AI Tries to Remember Its Life" at @smallwondersmag.com
Hopefully it keeps going to the 80s
11) Every poetic technique a poet uses is in service of one goal: to get you to feel emotions.
Sometimes it's to experience free therapy, but usually it's the emotion angle.
So if you feel something, dig deeper. Sit with it. If you keep wanting to read it again and again, nominate that poem.
10) Most sci-fi and fantasy poetry is more narrative. Poems aim to tell a snapshot of a moment. A hyper-emotional story moment, if you will.
That 10-page climax of your story? It's a poem now, and more dramatic, and only 90 words. That's the power of a spec poem.
Except lyrical poems. No one understands those. Literally no one. But that's the point of them (usually). To put you into their word maze like it's a Fall Festival and your crush just left you alone on your first date after you kissed.
But some people enjoy that.
10) Just because a poem is overly confusing doesn't mean it's good. It means it's bad, 9.8/10 times.
Yes, poetry challenges us to read thoughtfully and make unique connections between images and story, but you're NOT SUPPOSED to be bewildered after you finish.
8) Consider the imagery (metaphors/similes/comparisons) the poet used. Are they clichΓ©? Is every metaphor how their tears are rain, how love is fire, and every rose red?
9) Do the words play with language in an interesting way? Is the language challenging notions of meaning or how we usually see?
7) Take a (tiny) breath at each line break, and read the poem how the poet intended. If there is white space between words, read even slower. The poet wants your eyes to focus on those words or phrases.
Or trying to tell a story through temporal time and these are speed bumps
6) Now read the poem with intention. Slow down like the poetry police just arrived inside your house and are trying to force you to an overwrought poetry slam if you don't do things their way.
4b) Yes, the poem made you feel something? Then it's a good poem. Fuck any other qualifier. That's the primary measure that matters.
Oh, but you want to be a serious judge of poetry for serious awards, you say?
Okay, next steps:
5) Put every poem that made you feel into a pile.
3) Ignore the line breaks. Literally read the poem like sentences, from top to bottom. Poet put a quarter-page of blank space like they're trying to be Taylor Swift? Do this:
(β―Β°β‘Β°)β―οΈ΅ β»ββ» and say "not today, poet"
4) Did the poem make you feel any emotion?
4a) No? Stop and move to the next poem
1) Don't read the words. (Yet). Side-eye that shit, like you're the Eleventh Doctor finding hidden doors in the corner of your eye. Get a sense how the poem looks on the page. Treat it like a painting.
2) Realize you're a fiction reader and don't know what the poet is trying to do anyway.
GUIDE FOR FICTION-LOVERS READING POETRY FOR THE FIRST TIME:
So you've only read fiction your whole life, and now people are yelling at you to nominate poems.
How the hell do you figure out what's a good poem? Let a guy with three degrees in fiction + poetry + publishing tell you.
There's a whole SFWA interview/article helping you get to know the new Poetry Nebula Award: www.sfwa.org/2025/02/18/s...
Stack of books. Radon Issue 12 is at the top
Open page of issue 12. "I Can't Decide What to Feel About this Life" by Manuela Amiouny
Radon Journal Issue 12 cover featuring a silhouetted figure painting the sky with an aurora borealis
Copyright page of issue 12
Mail day! Adding Issue 12 of @radonjournal.bsky.social to my stack of production babies.
I'll be at AWP this year working the combined SFWA & SFPA table.
Just looking at the full list of who's coming and it's fucking huge. Pretty much all the big names. Pour one out for my fellow small presses and journals who will never afford the $1.5k to get a booth
Make it cyber-wood with in-laid circuitry, and sure
How's everyone's Nebula poetry nominations going? Hardest thing you've ever had to do, due to endless options and possibilities condensed down to five?
They haven't gone for people on cruise ships, yet. That's good at least. Not that me accessing the Internet after a week shows me anything other than a decreasing quality of life for us
Had a foundational idea for a new poetry collection though, while looking into the sea-abyss. So that's something
In an hour I'll board a cruise ship in Texas for my honeymoon. I'm making this status to note I am not suicidal in any way. If anything happens to me it is because of political persecution. My wife and I are both US citizens
Radon's twelfth issue came out, online & in print radonjournal.com/issue12
This one is special, in that it's the perfect mix of raging against the machine & emotional tear-jerkers. This issue is a reaction against the fascist takeover of the US where our editors are, yet infused with so much hope