Orma McCormick

Orma McCormick was a poet and an amateur press publisher.

Her first publishing endeavor was the science fiction poetry publication Starlanes, subtitled "The International Quarterly of Science Fiction Poetry", co-edited with Nan Gerding. It was published from January 1951 to December 1961, with 40 issues released during that time. Writers who appeared in the fanzine included Joseph Payne Brennan (Essence), John Brunner, Lin Carter (Spaceteer), Philip Jose Farmer, Lilith Lorraine, Edith Ogutsch, Robert Silverberg, Lewis Turco, and many others.

In the 1950s, McCormick was also the poetry editor of Ray C. Higgs' fanzine Arion.

McCormick was named the Poet Laureate of the National Fantasy Fan Federation in 1951. Orma McCormick also contributed to many fanzines, both before and after she released her own publication. Her work, mostly poetry, was featured in issues #3 and #5 of Quandry, and #3 and #4 of Challenge, in the U.S.A., and in Perhaps in Australia, among many others.

The Crow's Nest, the Newsletter of the Ferndale Historical Society for Ferndale, Michigan, U.S.A., in their Fall 2011 issue (#11), tells us, "In the 1950s, homemaker Orma McCormick, 1558 W. Hazlehurst, was the first Michigan poet ever to be elected to the prestigious America Poets' Fellowship Society. She wrote narrative fantasies, sonnets, science fiction and song lyrics, many completed while she did household chores. By 1953 her work appeared in Selected American Poets, an anthology of modern verse. By 1954, she was included in Who's Who in American Poetry Today. As early as 1948 she had poems published in various sources, and by the early 1950s had won two first-place awards from respected amateur poetry associations...Today she is recalled for her unique poetry, her efforts as an amateur press publisher, and her ability to engage in a career from a card table in her home''."

Zines

 * Starlanes (with Nan Gerding)

Contributor

 * Arion
 * BOO!
 * Cataclysm
 * Challenge
 * The Chigger Patch of Fandom
 * Danse Macabre
 * Different
 * The Fantatic Fanzine
 * Fan-Fare
 * Ghuvna
 * Hodge-Podge
 * Mezrab
 * Nandu
 * The Nekromantikon
 * Orb
 * Perhaps
 * Quandry
 * Raki
 * Scintilla
 * Sevagram
 * Shadowland
 * Snowflakes in the Sun
 * Soma
 * Spaceship
 * Straight Up
 * Vega
 * Worlds Apart