Building Yesterday’s Future–For Everyone
Here we plan to talk about the speculative poetry scene, chat with poets about their work, and even help those who may think they don’t “get” poetry break down new ways to read (and write!) speculative verse for themselves.
One Hugo best poem finalist has been of particular interest to me because its presence inadvertently reveals one of the core historical touchstones of speculative poetry and reifies the core strength of one of the greatest forms of poetry from antiquity into the modern day.
Let’s tackle the finalist list by putting some of these poems beside each other and asking meaningful questions about their themes and approaches in curious interconnecting ways.
Hello, fellow travelers! I hope you’ve been having a wonderful time digging into the rich banquet of work on the finalist ballot of the Hugo Awards—including the best poem category finalists (but of course I hope you’re reading everything else, too)! Soon we will be tasked with casting our final ballots and determining which among … Read more
I thought it was only fair to step all the way back—to rewind time and our focus way past our initial reading questions and come back to the way we first dig into poetry: by sound and by emotion.
This week we’re chatting with SFPA Grand Master Akua Lezli Hope!
Continuing to pair the early speculative tools for reading with more deeper analytical resources is still in order, so in that vein we’re going to converse about how speculative poetry wrestles with deeply sociopolitical thematic matter.
We should keep acquainting ourselves with some of the standout poets in this wonderful genre, so this week we’re chatting with SFPA Grand Master and editor David C. Kopaska-Merkel!
Now that we have enough early-stage tools to discuss what makes poetry speculative, it’s a good time to consider something just a little bit more complex: what is the poem confronting that is valuable for us?
Consider this a breakdown of not just the avenues to read your way into speculative poetry but also as an encouragement as to why you should.
At this point, we’ve been building up our muscles in finding ways to approach poems that intrigue and challenge us. Today, let’s consider yet another one of those reading tools: considering pop culture as an element of the speculative.