Solo Hugo Reading Club: Poetry
May. 15th, 2026 11:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
leonidskiesI completed ranking for my first Hugo category! This is my first year with a Hugo membership (voting only) and I'd encountered almost nothing on any of the shortlists except the video game/interactive work category (I've played almost the whole shortlist lmaoo). I've been reading for the novella category already, but I decided sure why not I'll take ten minutes and read a handful of poems and do a full set of rankings. All the poems were in the voter's packet so it was super fast.
I'm going to write down a couple short thoughts, but I'll emphasise that this isn't really something for the writers to see and I'm not trying to influence anyone's vote. I just thought it would be neat to write some thoughts down. I'm not much of a poet so this is very vibes based I'm afraid - I feel like I was mostly making judgements based on how speculative it was, how interesting the story it was telling was, and how much I enjoyed* reading it.
*some of these poems are not 'nice' so I mean enjoy in the way of 'it made me feel emotions and that's beautiful'
“Care for Lightning,” by Mari Ness - this is really atmospheric in multiple senses of the word. It was good! It told an interesting story in a fun way and had a sharpness to it that I really liked.
“Hex Supply Customer Support Log,” by Elis Montgomery. I'm not sharing my full rankings because I don't think that's a healthy thing to do, but this was my favourite. I like the format, I like the way it plays with poetry as a concept and as a set of expectations (perhaps why it works so well for me as someone who isn't a poet), the story was interesting and poignant. Good fuckin poem.
“How to Become a Sea Witch,” by Theodora Goss. This one didn't wow me exactly, but I really enjoyed the story it was telling and the picture it painted.
“Landing: Seattle,” by Brandon O’Brien was one I did not super like. This was a poem to celebrate that there were poems included in the last Hugo Awards, and I imagine it was delivered spoken to an audience who by nature all had the ability to nominate this year. Maybe it was the only speculative poem they heard/read at all last year! (Guilty - I read one speculative book that was released in 2025 last year and I nominated it. It didn't make the cut.) It's very much a Worldcon poem and I am not a Worldcon attendee, so it meant very little to me.
“The Mourning Robot,” by Angela Liu. This did not leave a huge impression on me, I'll admit. It had some interesting wording/phrasing.
“The World to Come,” by Jennifer Hudak. On a speculative level, this didn't hugely leave an impression on me, but it has some very emotional phrases that got their hooks in my heart.
I'm hoping to do a post like this for the categories as I finish putting votes in for them! It's two and a bit months until voting closes, so I'm going to do a few categories at least (I'm aiming to hit maybe half the categories).
I'm going to write down a couple short thoughts, but I'll emphasise that this isn't really something for the writers to see and I'm not trying to influence anyone's vote. I just thought it would be neat to write some thoughts down. I'm not much of a poet so this is very vibes based I'm afraid - I feel like I was mostly making judgements based on how speculative it was, how interesting the story it was telling was, and how much I enjoyed* reading it.
*some of these poems are not 'nice' so I mean enjoy in the way of 'it made me feel emotions and that's beautiful'
“Care for Lightning,” by Mari Ness - this is really atmospheric in multiple senses of the word. It was good! It told an interesting story in a fun way and had a sharpness to it that I really liked.
“Hex Supply Customer Support Log,” by Elis Montgomery. I'm not sharing my full rankings because I don't think that's a healthy thing to do, but this was my favourite. I like the format, I like the way it plays with poetry as a concept and as a set of expectations (perhaps why it works so well for me as someone who isn't a poet), the story was interesting and poignant. Good fuckin poem.
“How to Become a Sea Witch,” by Theodora Goss. This one didn't wow me exactly, but I really enjoyed the story it was telling and the picture it painted.
“Landing: Seattle,” by Brandon O’Brien was one I did not super like. This was a poem to celebrate that there were poems included in the last Hugo Awards, and I imagine it was delivered spoken to an audience who by nature all had the ability to nominate this year. Maybe it was the only speculative poem they heard/read at all last year! (Guilty - I read one speculative book that was released in 2025 last year and I nominated it. It didn't make the cut.) It's very much a Worldcon poem and I am not a Worldcon attendee, so it meant very little to me.
“The Mourning Robot,” by Angela Liu. This did not leave a huge impression on me, I'll admit. It had some interesting wording/phrasing.
“The World to Come,” by Jennifer Hudak. On a speculative level, this didn't hugely leave an impression on me, but it has some very emotional phrases that got their hooks in my heart.
I'm hoping to do a post like this for the categories as I finish putting votes in for them! It's two and a bit months until voting closes, so I'm going to do a few categories at least (I'm aiming to hit maybe half the categories).
