A showcase of ultra-short speculative poems, this anthology spans science fiction, fantasy, and horror, featuring diverse forms like haiku, tanka, and prose poems. Themes range from aliens and robots to mermaids and ghosts, offering a vivid, bite-sized exploration of the imaginative and uncanny.
This anthology is a collection of ultra-short speculative poetry, each poem consisting of ten lines or fewer, and spans genres including science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Published on July 1, 2025, and edited by Miguel O. Mitchell, the book gathers over a hundred poems that are under consideration for the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association's annual Dwarf Stars award. The anthology features a wide variety of forms such as free verse, prose poems, haiku, tanka, monostiches, a golden shovel, a cheuh-chu, and a triolet. The content includes a diverse array of subjects, from dragons, monsters, mermaids, and ghosts to aliens, astronauts, AIs, robots, and other hard-to-classify oddities.
Readers appreciated the breadth and diversity of the poems, noting that the anthology offers something for everyone interested in speculative poetry. Specific poems such as Pravat Kumar Padhy's 'spring morning' and works by Tracy Davidson, Eugen Bacon, Ngô Bình Anh Khoa, and Mary Soon Lee were highlighted as standouts. The collection was praised for being a good entry point into micro-poetry forms like scifaiku and for showcasing a wide range of poets, making it a valuable resource for those curious about speculative poetry or who enjoy haiku-style work. The anthology's format, with its focus on very short poems, was also seen as rewarding and accessible.
Some readers expressed reservations about the anthology, particularly regarding the brevity of the poems. One reviewer felt that the short length of each piece prevented the poems from fully developing or 'breathing,' and suggested that the poems might have had more impact in their original publication contexts. The arrangement of the poems together in a single volume was seen by this reader as making it harder to find exceptional works, and the overall experience was described as sound but not particularly exciting. There was also a comparison to the Rhysling anthology, with a preference expressed for longer poems in other collections.
The book has received a total of six reader ratings and four full reviews, with an average rating of 4.83 out of 5. Some reviewers disclosed their own involvement as contributors to the anthology, noting that they abstain from voting for their own work. The reviews tend to be personal reactions rather than scholarly critiques, and in some cases, reviewers chose not to assign an overall star rating. The anthology is positioned as both a showcase for award-nominated poetry and as an accessible introduction to the field of speculative micro-poetry.