Sneyd, Steve
Entry updated 14 April 2025. Tagged: Author, Critic, Editor, Fan, Poet.
(1941-2018) UK poet, Poetry critic, bibliographer, publisher and editor who (having an American mother) gained a transatlantic perspective from growing up in both the UK and US. He published several short sf stories, mostly in Amateur Magazines, beginning with "The Duke of Oldfranc" in SFinx #9 for March 1974. His many collections include several volumes of sf poetry, beginning with Bad News from the Stars (coll 1989 chap) [see Checklist for further titles]. Through his Small Press, Hilltop Press, he published books of verse by more than twenty other sf poets, notably Lilith Lorraine with Ape into Pleiades (coll 1988 chap) and Time Grows Thin (coll 2009). His idiosyncratic handwritten Fanzine Data Dump (226 issues November 1991-November 2016, 4pp A5 format, initially Orbiting a Data Dump) began as a draft Bibliography of UK sf and fanzine verse but developed into a monthly Newszine covering all aspects of sf and fantasy poetry worldwide, including incidental verse by the author found in stories and novels. Researches into genre verse published in Fanzines were assembled as Flights from the Iron Moon – Genre Poetry in UK Fanzines & Little Magazines 1980-1989 (1995), followed by other titles covering different periods and regions [again see Checklist].
Sneyd was appreciated as a significant figure in sf poetry. In 2015 he was honoured by the Science Fiction Poetry Association (now the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association) as a grand master (see Rhysling Award). [DRL]
see also: Back Brain Recluse; Fantasy Commentator.
Stephen Henry Sneyd
born Maidenhead, Berkshire: 20 March 1941
died Halifax, West Yorkshire: 13 June 2018
works (selected)
poetry
- Bad News from the Stars (Denver, Colorado: Ocean View Books, 1989) [poetry: coll: chap: dos: hb/t Winter-Damon]
- In Coils of Earthen Hold (Salzburg, Austria: University of Salzburg Press, 1993) [poetry: coll: pb/Ian M Emberson]
- Gestaltmacher, Gestaltmacher, Make Me a Gestalt (Stevenage, Hertfordshire: Four Quarters Press, 1990) [poetry: coll: chap: pb/SAM]
- What Time Has Use For and Other Arthurian Poetry (Stamford, Lincolnshire: K T Publications, 1992) [poetry: coll: chap: pb/Steve Sneyd]
- What Time Has Use For and Other Arthurian Poetry (Stamford, Lincolnshire: K T Publications, 1998) [poetry: coll: chap: exp of the above: pb/Steve Sneyd]
- Mistaking the Nature of the Posthuman (Almondbury, West Yorkshire: Hilltop Press, 2008) [poetry: coll: pb/Gunter Wessalowski]
nonfiction
- Flights from the Iron Moon – Genre Poetry in UK Fanzines & Little Magazines 1980-1989 (Almondbury, West Yorkshire: Hilltop Press, 1995) [nonfiction: see links below: pb/Harry Turner]
- Laying Siege to Tomorrow: Poetry in UK SFanzines from the 1930s to 1950s (Almondbury, West Yorkshire: Hilltop Press, 1998) [nonfiction: chap: pb/Harry Turner]
- In Space's Belly: Poetry in UK SFanzines & Little Magazines: The 1970s (Almondbury, West Yorkshire: Hilltop Press, 1999) [nonfiction: chap: pb/Alan Hunter]
- Gnawing Medusa's Flesh: The Science Fiction Poetry of Robert Calvert (Almondbury, West Yorkshire: Hilltop Press, 2000) [nonfiction: chap: Robert Calvert: with biography and discography by David Jones: see links below: pb/David Jones]
- A Word in Your Eye – An Introduction to the Graphic Poem (Almondbury, West Yorkshire: Hilltop Press, 2000) [nonfiction: chap: pb/Craig Miller]
- Elsewhen Unbound – Poetry in American SFanzines, the 1930s to 1960s (Almondbury, West Yorkshire: Hilltop Press, 2004) [nonfiction: chap: pb/Alan Hunter]
works as editor
- Lilith Lorraine. Ape into Pleiades (Almondbury, West Yorkshire: Hilltop Press, 1988) [poetry: coll: chap: pb/Stuart Raymond Scouler]
- War of the Words: A Sampler of SF "Pomes" from the '30's to the '80's (Almondbury, West Yorkshire: Hilltop Press, 1990) [poetry: anth: chap: verse from sf Fanzines: pb/Harry Turner]
- Dreamers on the Sea of Fate (Southend-on-Sea, Essex: Sol Publications, 1999) [poetry: anth: chap: pb/John Light]
- Lilith Lorraine. Time Grows Thin (Almondbury, West Yorkshire: Hilltop Press, 2009) [poetry: coll: with critical introduction by Sneyd: pb/Gunter Wessalowski]
links
- Steve Sneyd (archived)
- Flights from the Iron Moon
- Gnawing Medusa's Flesh
- Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Picture Gallery
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