2024 ITW Thriller Awards finalists

International Thriller Writers has announced the finalists for the 2024 Thriller Awards, including several titles and authors of genre interest.

Best Hardcover Novel

  • All the Sinners Bleed, S.A. Cosby (Flatiron)
  • The Drift, C.J. Tudor (Ballantine)

Best Paperback Original Novel

  • Hide, Tracy Clark (Thomas & Mercer)
  • The Paleontologist, Luke Dumas (Atria)
  • The Spy Coast, Tess Gerritsen (Thomas & Mercer)
  • Cave 13, Jonathan Maberry (St. Martin’s
...Read More Read more

Gary K. Wolfe Reviews The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed

The Butcher of the Forest, Premee Mohamed (Tordotcom 978-1250881786, $18.99, 160pp, tp) February 2024.

I’m pretty sure that tales of forests that are haunted (or enchanted or forbidden or cursed or simply hallucinogenic) predate haunted-house tales by several centuries – in fact, they prob­ably predate houses – and they’ve long provided powerful templates for fantasy (William Morris, George MacDonald, Tolkien, Robert Holdstock), horror (Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood) and even ...Read More

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Moses Ose Utomi: Unreal Element

MOSES OSE UTOMI was born July 26, 1988 in San Bernardino CA and grew up in Las Vegas NV. He studied psychology as an undergrad, then attended Sarah Lawrence College, where he earned a MFA in creative writing. Utomi is also a lifelong martial artist.

He began publishing work of SF interest with “The Story of a Young Woman” (2018, as Ose Utomi). His short work also includes the Forever ...Read More

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Jake Casella Brookins Reviews Other Minds and Other Stories by Bennett Sims

Other Minds and Other Stories, Bennett Sims (Two Dollar Radio 978-1-9533-8735-6, $18.95. 202pp, tp) November 2023. Cover by Eric Obe­nauf.

Other Minds and Other Stories, the new col­lection from Bennett Sims, is a must-read: a startling, insightful blend of horror and humor, thoughtful and unpredictable. Many of the sto­ries here are about the psychologies of writing, and of reading, the very strangeness of trying to record thoughts or ...Read More

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2024 Future Worlds Prize Shortlist

The Future Worlds Prize for Fantasy and Science Fiction Writers of Colour has announced its eight-title shortlist:

  • “The Unbound Atlas”, Zita Abila
  • “Blood on Shadowed Blades”, Nelita Aromona
  • “The Suit Sellers of Kowloon”, Ese Erheriene
  • “Ek Haseena Thi”, Isha Karki
  • “The Yawn of the Pond”, Inigo Laguda
  • “Walk in Fire”, Ruairidh MacLean
  • “Tribe of the Snow Leopards”, Farah Maria Rahman
  • “Let None Through”, M.A. Seneviratne

The judges are M.H. Ayinde,

...Read More Read more

Alexandra Pierce Reviews Wicked Problems by Max Gladstone

Wicked Problems, Max Gladstone (Tordotcom 978-0-76539-593-1 $19.99, 464pp, tp) April 2024. Cover by Goñi Montes.

Max Gladstone’s new Craft Wars novel Wicked Problems feels like the sort of book that should have a relatively clear-cut binary of heroes and villains. Maybe the heroes would be tarnished, maybe the villains have some redeeming features; but the overall story – terrible things from beyond the void are coming and maybe the ...Read More

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2024 Jhalak Prize Longlists

Both the 12-title Jhalak Prize for Book of the Year and the Children’s & Young Adult prize longlists were announced today.

The awards “seek to celebrate books by British/British resident BAME writers” and “accept entries published in the UK by writers of colour. These include (and not limited to) fiction, non-fiction, short stories, graphic novels, poetry and all other genres.” The prize awards £1000 to each winner, along with “a ...Read More

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People & Publishing Roundup, March 2024

MILESTONES

DAVID-CHRISTOPHER GAL­HEA is now represented via Ginger Clark Literary.

DANI RAANAN is now repre­sented by the John Jarrold Literary Agency.

J. FEDERLE is now a client of Ginger Clark Literary.

 

AWARDS

SUSAN COOPER is the 40th recipient of the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award, presented via the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association. She will be honored June 6-9, 2024, at the 59th Nebula Awards Ceremony in ...Read More

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93rd Annual California Book Awards Finalists

The finalists for the 93rd Annual California Book Awards, presented by the Commonwealth Club of California, have been announced. Titles and authors of genre interest include Empty Theatre by Jac Jemc (MCD) in the Fiction category. There are eight categories of awards, including Poetry, Californiana, and more.

The awards honor “the writers who have come to define California to the world.” The winners will be announced in May.

For more ...Read More

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2023 Aurealis Awards Shortlist

The 2023 Aurealis Awards shortlist, recognizing the best in Australian speculative fiction, has been announced.

Best Science Fiction Novel

  • Minds of Sand and Light, Kylie Chan (HarperCollins)
  • The Comforting Weight of Water, Roanna McClelland (Wakefield)
  • Aliens: Bishop, T.R. Napper (Titan)
  • Dronikus, Marko Newman (AndAlso)
  • Time of the Cat, Tansy Rayner Roberts (self-published)
  • Traitor’s Run, Keith Stevenson (coeur de lion)

Best Science Fiction Novella

  • “Eight
...Read More Read more

Russell Letson Reviews House of Open Wounds by Adrian Tchaikovsky

House of Open Wounds, Adrian Tchaikovsky (Head of Zeus, 978-1035901388, $27.99, 585 pp, hc) December 2023. Cover by Joe Wilson.

Adrian Tchaikovsky’s House of Open Wounds is a follow-on to The City of Last Chances that repeats many of the structural features of its predecessor: a large cast of viewpoint characters; ‘‘mosaic’’ chapters that provide authorial overviews and comments; a rambling story line that nevertheless draws the reader through ...Read More

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2023 Nebula Awards Ballot

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) has released the final ballot for the 2023 Nebula Awards.

Novel

  • The Saint of Bright Doors, Vajra Chandrasekera (Tordotcom)
  • The Water Outlaws, S.L. Huang (Tordotcom; Solaris UK)
  • Translation State, Ann Leckie (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
  • The Terraformers, Annalee Newitz (Tor; Orbit UK)
  • Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon, Wole Talabi (DAW; Gollancz)
  • Witch King, Martha
...Read More Read more

2024 Dublin Literary Award Longlist

The 70-title longlist for the Dublin Literary Awards has been announced. Titles and authors of genre interest include:

  • Chain-Gang All-Stars, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Pantheon)
  • Limberlost, Robbie Arnott (Atlantic)
  • The Crane Husband, Kelly Barnhill (Tordotcom)
  • The House of Fortune, Jessie Burton (Bloomsbury)
  • Solenoid, Mircea Cărtărescu (Deep Vellum)
  • Birnam Wood, Eleanor Catton (Farrar, Straus, Giroux)
  • The Axeman’s Carnival, Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
...Read More Read more

2023 Libby Book Awards Winners

Winners of the inaugural Libby Book Awards, “chosen by a vote from over 1,700 librarians and library workers across North America,” have been announced, including winners of genre interest.

Best Science Fiction

  • System Collapse, Martha Wells (Tordotcom)

Best Fantasy

  • Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros (Red Tower)

Best Young Adult Fiction

  • Divine Rivals, Rebecca Ross (Wednesday)

Best Romantasy

  • Iron Flame, Rebecca Yarros (Red Tower)

Best Historical Fiction

  • Let
...Read More Read more

2024 Aspen Words Finalists

Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Pantheon) is one of the five finalists for the 2024 Aspen Words Literary Prize.

The winner will be announced during a ceremony on April 25, 2024 in New York, NY. The $35,000 prize is awarded to “an influential work of fiction focused on vital contemporary issues.” Finalists and winner are chosen by jury. This year’s judges are Lan Samantha Chang, Christina Baker Kline, Anthony ...Read More

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Cover Reveal: Haven by Mia Dalia

COVER REVEAL: Check out this chilling cover for Haven by Mia Dalia, a new title out from CamCat books this October.

From the publisher:

What if revenge ripples and echoes through time?

You can’t choose your family or your destiny or your legacy. But once upon a time, a woman named Ava St. James had tried to build happiness upon the remains of her broken heart. For better or ...Read More

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A.C. Wise Reviews Short Fiction: Clarkesworld

Clarkesworld 12/23

Clarkesworld’s December issue starts off with a sweet story, “Morag’s Boy” by Fiona Moore, about a young man named Cliff who leaves home and ends up being taken in by a woman named Morag who lives alone on a farm. Cliff shows an aptitude for fixing tech, but struggles to find a direction in life. Morag helps him find his way, leading him to become ...Read More

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2024 Carol Shields Prize Longlist

The longlist has been announced for the 2024 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction. Longlisted works of genre interest include:

  • You Were Watching from the Sand, Juliana Lamy (Red Hen)
  • The Future, Catherine Leroux, translated by Susan Ouriou (Biblioasis)
  • A Council of Dolls, Mona Susan Power (Mariner)
  • Chrysalis, Anuja Varghese (House of Anansi)
  • Land of Milk and Honey, C. Pam Zhang (Riverhead)

The prize recognizes “creativity ...Read More

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2024 International Booker Prize Longlist

The 13-title longlist for the 2024 International Booker Prize has been announced, and includes The Silver Bone, Andrey Kurkov, translated by Boris Dralyuk (MacLehose) and Crooked Plow, Itamar Vieira Junior, translated by Johnny Lorenz (Verso)

The award is given “every year for a single book that is translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland.” The £50,000 prize is divided equally among the author and translator(s). ...Read More

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2024 Yoto Carnegie Medals Shortlists

The shortlists for the 2024 Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing and Yoto Carnegie Medal for Illustration have been announced. Titles and authors of genre interest follow.

Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing

  • The Song Walker, Zillah Bethell (Usborne)
  • Away with Words, Sophie Cameron (Little Tiger)
  • The Boy Lost in the Maze, Joseph Coelho, illustrated by Kate Milner (Otter-Barry Books)

The awards are presented by the Chartered Institute of ...Read More

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Spotlight on Anne Perry of Arcadia

You’re the publishing director for the SF/F imprint at Quercus in the UK (formerly known as Jo Fletcher Books). We understand you’re relaunching with a new vision and name. Tell us about it.

I was very lucky when I started at Quercus; Jo Fletcher Books was 11 years old and well-established, and had a reputation for being particularly strong in epic fantasy, having launched authors like Sebastien de Castell, Peter ...Read More

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Patrick Nielsen Hayden Becomes Editor-at-Large

Patrick Nielsen Hayden is transitioning from VP, associate publisher, and editor-in-chief of Tor to editor-at-large for the Tor Publishing Group.

Publisher and president Devi Pillai says,

I’m thrilled to announce that Patrick Nielsen Hayden has assumed the title of Editor-at-Large for the Tor Publishing Group. With 35 years at the company, Patrick has long been a central part of TPG. He is responsible for publishing the debut novels of many ...Read More

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Sue Arroyo (1966-2024)

Publisher and author Sue Arroyo, 57, died on February 26, 2024 after falling at home in Brentwood TN.

Arroyo was born July 2, 1966 in New York, and worked as a software engineer before founding her own company, Trident Technologies, in 2006. She sold her stake in the company in 2019 to focus on publishing. Arroyo was founder and CEO of small press CamCat Books, launched in 2018. The press ...Read More

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SF in Brazil

Latin American SF in The New York Times

Emily Hart’s piece ‘‘Science Fiction from Latin America, With Zombie Dissidents and Aliens in the Amazon’’ was published in The New York Times on July 10, 2023, and claimed the attention of the Brazilian SF community. Hart writes out of Colombia, and deals in her piece with that country and with Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay, and Brazil. Her starting point ...Read More

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Gary K. Wolfe Reviews The Woods All Black by Lee Mandelo

The Woods All Black, Lee Mandelo (Tordotcom 978-1-250-79031-6, $19.99, 160pp, hc) March 2024.

If Wasserstein describes the challenges of be­ing a trans woman in a near-future Kansas City, Lee Mandelo focuses on the hazardous experi­ences of a trans man in 1929 rural Kentucky in The Woods All Black. Like Wasserstein, Mandelo opens with a classic narrative hook: a stranger arrives in a small town on a new as­signment, ...Read More

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Tanith Lee Wins Infinity Award

Tanith Lee (1947-2015) has been named the recipient of the second Infinity Award.

The award is presented by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) to “posthumously honor acclaimed creators who passed away before they could be considered for a Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award. This new award aims to recognize that even though those celebrated worldbuilders, storytellers, and weavers of words are no longer with us, their ...Read More

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2024 Edgar Awards Nominations

Several authors and works of genre interest are among the Mystery Writers of America (MWA) 2024 Edgar Awards finalists.

Best Novel

  • Flags on the Bayou, James Lee Burke (Atlantic Monthly)
  • All the Sinners Bleed, S.A. Cosby (Flatiron)
  • An Honest Man, Michael Koryta (Mullholand)
  • The River We Remember, William Kent Krueger (Atria)
  • Crook Manifesto, Colson Whitehead (Doubleday)

Best First Novel

  • Murder by Degrees, Ritu Mukerji
...Read More Read more

Bards and Sages to Close

Effective March 6, 2024, Bards and Sages Publishing has begun “the process of winding down.” This includes both Bards and Sages Quarterly and The Society of Misfit Stories and the book publishing program. Back issues of the magazines will remain on sale until the end of 2024, and then all back issues will be removed from sale, and all rights will revert to their respective authors and artists. Editor Julie ...Read More

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Tidhar Pens Animated Series

Lavie Tidhar has written a seven-part animated series, Mars Machines, “an absurdist buddy comedy set in a kitchen on Mars, where every appliance hides a dark secret,” animated and scored by Nir Yaniv and produced by Yaniv’s company Postironish. The first four episodes are up now, with more released weekly.

For more, see the Positronish website.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); While you are here, please take a moment ...Read More

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Adrienne Martini Reviews Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree

Bookshops & Bonedust, Travis Baldree (Tor 978-1-250-88610-1, $17.99, 288 pp, tp) November 2023. Cover by Carson Lowmiller.

Don’t get me wrong; I love a book that chal­lenges my idea of what a story is or how language can work or both. But the last few years have given me a new appreciation for a story where the biggest hurdle is which character can be the most humane, even if ...Read More

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Otherwise Award Hiatus

The Otherwise Award, “an award encouraging the exploration and expansion of gender,” is going on hiatus. In a blog post on the Otherwise Award website, chair Sumana Harihareswara wrote:

Our Motherboard met recently to discuss how to move forward. We remain dedicated to our mission: to celebrate science fiction, fantasy, and other forms of speculative narrative that expand and explore our understanding of gender. But we’re discussing how, as an ...Read More

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2024 Peter Nicholls Prize

The SF Foundation has announced Domenico Di Rosa as the winner of the 2024 Peter Nicholls Essay Prize. The prize recognizes “an original article on any topic, period, theme, author, film or other media within the field of science fiction and its academic study”. Di Rosa’s winning essay will appear in the Spring 2024 issue of Foundation.

The 2025 Peter Nicholls Essay Prize competition is accepting entries until January 6, ...Read More

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