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Poetry has a reputation for being an indulgent way to yammer on about a subject everyone's already tired of. Sure there are needless epics, but good poetry is actually designed to emphasize the strangest and most dramatic aspects of a situation as quickly as possible. That's why it can be a perfect venue for science fiction. Nothing needs to be over-explained or grounded in reality. Scifi poetry is about taking an original idea to its extreme, and stripping everything else away. Take a look at ten poems that do science fiction awesomely. More »
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Do you want to read The Works of the Earls of Rochester and Roscommon, a volume of eighteenth century poetry? No? Well, other people did. They read it so repeatedly, and recommended it to their friends so assiduously, that it was reprinted over twenty times throughout the eighteenth century. In later years, it was resequenced and expanded, with new verses added to the old. People still picked it up. It was a century-long bestseller. More »
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Need a break from holiday commercialism? Want to send a much-needed gift to groups cleaning up one of 2010's worst disasters? Great! Check out Breaking Waves, an anthology featuring award-winning writers like Ursula K. Le Guin and Vonda McIntyre. More »
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Here's your exclusive first look at a new Halloween treat from Quantum Mechanix. The collectables company got John De Lancie (Q from Star Trek: The Next Generation) to read Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven." Prepare to be chilled! More »
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The Roman poet Horace once said of his works that "I have created a monument more lasting than bronze." Well, Canadian poet Christian Bök has pretty much blown Horace away with his plan to encode a poem into bacterial DNA. More »
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In author Neil Gaiman’s poem “The Day the Saucers Came,” the various science fiction apocalypses all happen on the same day. Now artist Jouni Koponen has created a whimsical illustrated print of the poem. More »
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Beowulf, the CGI 3D monstrosity that hits theaters Friday, was originally an alliterative Old English poem. Instead of composing a review of this cinematic epic, I'll just go Old English on your ass and alliterate. Below the fold are your spoilers, in verse. More »
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She's not exactly your typical science fiction writer, but Colorado poet Jessy Randall has done what precious few poets have ever done well: beautifully capture the way our emotional lives in the modern world have become infused with the imagery and alienness of science fiction. I just heard Randall give a reading in support of her new collection, A Day in Boyland (Ghost Road Press), and she had the audience eating out of her hand and laughing at poems about looking for boyfriends on other planets and imagining a future where women would have removable, sentient "bionic alabaster breasts." More »
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