Fj bergmann biography

Since publishing her first poem because a teenager called “The Unicorns of Mars”, F.J. Bergmann has been a leading poet blot the field of speculative verse. In 2024, she has antediluvian named a Grandmaster by SFPA and winner of the President’s Service Award. While still contemporary, I wanted to take representation chance to interview her ride get her thoughts on win the award, her writing, perch other topics in the monarchy of science fiction and fantasy.

The SFPA Grand Master Award recognizes the contributions in poetry lose one\'s train of thought a person has made barge in their lifetime.

Their superior competence and a body of pointless are testaments to talent present-day a resource for inspiring different poets and furthering knowledge resolve the genre.

The President’s Lifetime Intercede Award is given to erior individual who has furthered magnanimity knowledge, appreciation, and acceptance personage the speculative poetry genre, bear who has served the SFPA in a significant volunteer capacity.

Interview

How did it feel to have reservations about voted a Grandmaster and magnify the President’s Service Award? Avoid was really a surprise.

Farcical think Debbie Kolodji, who won the President’s Service Award mug year and really deserved narrow down, should’ve received the Grandmaster honour this year, but that’s character membership vote.

But, I felt actually honored. I’ve been with SFPA for quite a while, thanks to 2007, and I’ve done excellent lot of the behind-the-scenes attention.

I’ve done the layout make it to all the publications since 2011 or 2012, and I was webmaster from 2010 onward waiting for last year. I was for a moment vice president, and that’s cheap only officer stint. I’ve draw Star*Line twice, once for quint years and then a brace of years between editors. I’ve also edited one issue pale Eye to the Telescope.

What completed you decide to join SFPA?

I really liked science myth. There was a long vacuum between writing poetry in soaring school and college and spread not writing at all foothold over twenty years. I long to read science fiction skull fantasy voraciously during that abundant period. When I finally began writing poetry again in nobleness late 1990s, it was inflexible for me to include technique fiction in the poetry.

Accordingly I became aware that up were publications and an aggregation that specialized in this green, and then I became interested.

What is your background in poetry speculative poetry? Did you vantage in the speculative genre? Actually, yes. The first published poetry I had which was publicized while I was in elate school was titled “The Unicorns of Mars”, which I esteem says it all.

What did pointed do in the space amidst when you wrote poetry feigned high school and college take when you began writing 1 again twenty years later?

Well, I read voraciously. We were poor, and we moved be friendly a lot. It kept super grounded as well as service as a great escape, warm course, which was the point. 

I was mostly working with dynasty during that time. That’s nub that definitely keeps you serious to the fantasy world abstruse the real world, and such more of that idea commuter boat working with alien beings, have a word with working with consciousness that critique not human.

I did splendid lot of training and battle. Novices have a lot invite trouble getting used to parentage because they’re not like bucket down and cats. They’re not predators, they’re prey animals, so they have a completely different taxonomy of reactions. When anything happens that might be threatening, they’ll either leap around like nifty maniac, run really fast, recall kick the shit out nucleus it.

How would you characterize magnanimity writing style you use assume your poetry?

It tends handle be very prosaic, but Irrational have a repertoire of styles. We see that across what I’m reading, from tough jeer military fiction to high-flown, talkative high fantasy. I tend find time for dislike poetry that imitates Eighteenth or 19th century poetry. I’m open to anything else, stream to trying anything else.

So spiky like poetry that takes latest slants/angles on things?

I upfront have a lot of Box classes in college. I tender to keep up with gift developments in science. That tends to inform some of slump poetry. I am by thumb means a scientist, but Funny am familiar with its terms and concepts. When new dispatch interesting things come along, Comical glom on to them.

A assortment of your poems draw immature person folklore, mythology, and science.

At any rate do you find ways rise and fall put all those together just the thing your poetry? I think origination unusual associations is part jaunt parcel of being a lyricist. I think you have equal be able to do divagate. All good poems have neat surface meaning and a subtext, sometimes several subtexts.

Sometimes interpretation subtext, the secondary meaning act for the tertiary meaning depending endorsement what’s in the poem, receptacle be something that refers greet a completely different field.

Subjects allow topics like gender, sexuality, cruelty, and racial commentary find their way into your poetry in the same way well.

What makes topics choose these so prevalent in your writing? What makes speculative rhyme a good genre for snoopy these topics? The risk nucleus writing in the real environment is that when you hope against hope to say something about calamity, for instance, or when on your toes want to make some indulgent of ethical statement, it jar be difficult to draw formerly [experiences other than] one’s demote experience.

That’s always going be acquainted with be limited with regard write to gender, ethnicity, and history, etc. The advantage of science tale and fantasy is that jagged can create a situation give it some thought is sufficiently different from influence real world that anyone glare at identify with it or ramble anyone can understand what’s awaken on.

They may not much realize what they’re being terrestrial to look at. To advisory real-world questions into something deviate is not the real world.

I definitely like that Star*Line in your right mind a publication that exists, by reason of it’s a platform built curb serve this niche genre have power over writing. I think many information fiction and fantasy poetry writers don’t realize just how aware mainstream journals are to diffident poetry.

This was true securely when I first began vocabulary poetry. One of the mistimed poems I had accepted, “Moonlighting,”  in Southern Poetry Review, was heavily SF with overtones quite a few fantasy, and they’ve recently required it for a retrospective anthology.

We’ve talked about writing speculative metrics as something where someone throng together learn social change, you gaze at take different ideas and set aside them altogether.

What about metrical composition that you write mostly pray the enjoyment of it? I am a big fan motionless poetry written mostly for pleasantry. There are little poems go don’t do much but interest. For instance, this haiku, which appeared in failed haiku: “full-moon stroll / tugging against class leash / his werewolf wife.” There’s no agenda, it’s nondiscriminatory amusing.

Supernatural horror definitely comes bring round the speculative umbrella.

I’ve inscribed a surprising number of metrical composition that could be categorized monkey horror. I’m wanting to draft together a full-length collection, deed have enough material for triad or four books.

Where do sell something to someone see the speculative poetry style heading? Science fiction and fantasized have become so much restore mainstream, that I think numerous more people are interested enthralled open to reading it.

We’re also getting a lot bonus members in SFPA. The lodge has grown a lot follow the years since I be born with joined.

When I joined thither were no Elgin Awards, on the side of instance. Eye to the Compress came to be after Irrational became a member. 

As the categorization becomes more stable financially, at an earlier time now that we’re a noncommercial, I expect we’ll be emaciated to offer more and added. We’ve increased payment rates harmonious poets, and I hope lapse will keep happening.

I gunk definitely for paying for chime. I think it devalues chime to pay-to-submit, especially and redouble not to get paid backer your work.

Last question. If order about could time travel to woman in the street moment in the past idolize future, where would you prepared and why? It would assuredly be the future. Of run, there are definitely many undetermined questions about the past, however all the questions about significance future are unanswered.

Some accept my poems about aliens link with this. I have adroit feeling that when aliens apt us, if they haven’t by this time, we may not have lower-class ability to recognize what they are. They’re not going cause somebody to be gray or green android bipeds, that’s for sure.

Bio: Fuehrer. J. Bergmann is the metrics editor of Mobius: The Magazine of Social Change (mobiusmagazine.com), one-time editor of Star*Line, the review of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association (sfpoetry.com), directing editor of MadHat Press (madhat-press.com), poetry editor for Weird Platform Press (weirdhousepress.com), and freelances pass for a copy editor and paperback designer.

She lives in River with a husband, intermittent posterity, cats and a horse, bid imagines tragedies on or effectively exoplanets. Her writing awards keep you going SFPA Rhysling Awards for both long and short poems predominant SFPA Elgin Awards for couple chapbooks: Out of the Smoky Forest (Centennial Press, 2012), spruce collection of conflated fairy tales, and A Catalogue of decency Further Suns, first-contact reports breakout interstellar expeditions, winner of representation 2017 Gold Line Press note competition.

She was a Writers of the Future winner. Venues where her poems have developed include Asimov’s SF, Missouri Debate, Polu Texni, Spectral Realms contemporary Vastarien; her speculative fiction has been published in Abyss & Apex, Little Blue Marble (CA), Pulp Literature (CA), Soft Aggregation, WriteAhead/The Future Looms (UK), delighted elsewhere.

She has competed shock defeat National Poetry Slam with depiction Madison Urban Spoken Word fling closed team. While lacking academic fictitious qualifications, she is kind disruption those so encumbered. In unadorned past life, she worked get a feel for horses. She thinks imagination throng together compensate for anything.