F.J. Bergmann’s Writing

Poetry, Science-Fiction & Fantasy, and Various Comminglings of the Above

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Short Biography & Artist’s Statement

     AWARDS
“Anomaly” won the Dwarf category and “Transference” won the Long category in the 2015 SFPA Poetry Contest; I also got an honorable mention.

“Climacteric” won the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets 65th Anniversary contest.





My poem “Guests” won the 2012 Rannu Fund for Speculative Literature poetry award, and “Fairies vs. Robot Aliens” won an Honorable Mention as well.

My poem “Flash” won the 2012 Joy Bale Boone Award from the Heartland Review.

 

     BOOKS
My new (and first) e-book*, "Remember Me," was released from Musa Publishing’s Urania imprint (science fiction)! Musa has gone belly-up, so this may be available as a Kindle thingie soon.

*Disclaimer: I’m using the term “e-book” loosely. This is actually an e-short-story, but we do not call it that because “e-short-story” does not slip as lithesomely off the tongue. The links will give you enticements, so all I will say here is that it involves a planet orbiting an orange giant star (Aldebaran), an interstellar theater troupe, an alien hate crime, and violet wine.

 

     STORIES
“Opening Doors” appeared in Pulp Literature

“Glossolithia” appeared in Lakeside Circus 1.1

"Mirror" placed second in the Newport Review Flash Fiction contest.

"Fall of Snow" appeared in the first issue of Expanded Horizons. You can read the story here.

"The Dream Tinker" appeared in the fantasy anthology Touched by Wonder (Meadowhawk Press 2007).

"Pale Horse" won the 2006 Mary Shelley Imaginative Fiction Award and appeared in Rosebud, Issue 35, April 2oo6. With my name right up there on the cover with Norman Mailer’s! In the same size font!

 

     POEMS
Over 300 of my poems have been published, in all kinds of places. Many have won awards, as well; "Eating Light," which appeared in Mythic Delirium, won the 2008 Rhysling Award from the Science Fiction Poetry Association. Pushcart Prize nominations include "Gender Characteristics" from Niteblade and "Companion to the Guide to the Norton Reader" from VOX. You can read a bunch of the poems, and see a list of journals that have published or intend to publish my work.

 
     EXTRA!  The Godawful Sonnet Generator and its evil twin, the Plot-O-Matik.
 

     CHAPBOOKS
Out of the Black Forest is available from Centennial Press. With illustrations by Kelli Hoppmann!

Constellation of the Dragonfly (Plan B Press 2008) is available.

Aqua Regia (Parallel Press 2007) can be purchased on our Sales page, as well as Sauce Robert, co-winner of the 2003 Pavement Saw Press chapbook competition. To say nothing of Steaming A Head, a self-produced chapbook of previously-published poems, many by places that should have known better.

 
     EDITING
I’m the editor of Star*Line, the journal of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. I also edit Mobius: The Journal of Social Change, and am an assistant poetry editor at Abyss & Apex. And there’s this thing called PoemFactotum.
 

     ESSAYS

Rants as part of the Speculative Poetry Roundtable discussion at Locus Online.

Genre Disorient Express.

Various articles on poetry appeared in the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets Museletter and may be read at poemfactotum.com.

Professional Opinion: Setting Industry Standards appeared in the 2008 Poet’s Market.

Idiopathic Narcolepsy appeared in 400 Words #2.

Rants at Disorient Express.

 

     ANIMATIONS
Poems, flash (in both senses) fictions, and stories, in moving pictures:

New Physics : Flash-animated SF artist’s book.

Cartomancy : Flash-animated tarot reading, and a poem about it.

Lace : Flash-animated translation of a French concrete poem; selected for presentation at the 2002 Electronic Literature Organization Symposium.

 

     ANTHOLOGIES
The 2008 SFPA Rhysling Award anthology incluces my Rhysling-winning poem, "Eating Light."

The 2007 Sonnet anthology from Spec House of Poetry includes "Dominion."

I’m proud to be part of “Assembling the Corpse” on WeirdDeer.com, October 2007.

Touched by Wonder anthology
Touched by Wonder (Meadowhawk Press 2007): YA fantasy short-story anthology, in which my story The Dream Tinker may be found.

Diagram 2 (New Michigan Press, 2006) includes "Melt Completely."

Rhymes for Adults (Pantoum.org 2006): relationships with a bloody edge, completely inappropriate for a Disney-movie audience, in which my poem "No ’Gator Love" appears; buy it at pantoum.org/rfa/purchase.html.

180 More (Random House 2005), edited by Billy Collins, includes my poem "An Apology."

Connected: Life in the Age of Computers (2000) includes “Photomancy.”

 

     TRANSLATIONS
“No Need” (Pas Besoin, Alain Bosquet) 2003 ei8ht photojournalism Vol. 1 #4.

“Istanbul In My Dreams” (Istanboul dans mes rêves, Uzeyir Cayçi ) 2003 Tryst #3.

“ The Poet As Furniture” (Le Poète Comme Meuble, Alain Bosquet) 2003 New England Poetry Club, Der-Hovanessian Prize honorable mention.