Photo Story: Bay Area Book Festival

The ninth annual Bay Area Book Festival took place over May 6-7, 2023 in downtown Berkeley CA. Free to the public and staffed by a host of volunteers, the festival included interviews, panels, read­ings, and events for adults, teens, and children on a range of topics across the literary spectrum. Over 300 writers participated, with authors of genre interest including Cory Doctorow, Dave Eggers, Marie Lu, Mary Robinette Kowal, Annalee ...Read More

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Spotlight on: Liz Kerin

LIZ KERIN is an author, playwright, screenwriter, and graduate of the Rita and Burton Goldberg Department of Dramatic Writing at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. She is also the author of The Phantom Forest (2019). She lives in Southern California.

Tell us about your new novel, Night’s Edge — the world where it takes place, and the characters who live in that world.

Night’s Edge takes place in a ...Read More

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Emma Törzs: Explaining Things to Myself

EMMA TÖRZS was born January 8, 1987 and grew up in Cambridge and Acton MA. After graduating college, she worked briefly in retail and restaurants before joining the MFA program at the University of Montana in Missoula, graduating in 2012. She attended the Clarion West writing workshop in 2017. In addition to writing fiction, she is also a translator, and teaches at Ma­calester College. She has lived in Minneapolis MN ...Read More

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Connie Willis: Roswell Redux

CONSTANCE ELAINE TRIMMER WILLIS was born December 31, 1945 in Denver CO and has lived in Colorado most of her life. She earned a BA in English and elementary education from the University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, in 1967, and taught el­ementary and junior high school from 1967-81. She made her first SF sale to Worlds of Fantasy with “The Secret of Santa Titicaca” (1971), and earned her first Hugo ...Read More

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Pim Wangtechawat Guest Post–“Time Travel”

It was a few months before Covid hit when the question first came to me: What would happen if one were to become addicted to travelling back in time?

I was living in Edinburgh, Scotland, and recently embarked on a Creative Writing master’s degree course. I was in a strange, reflective period in my life. I found myself constantly dissecting various aspects of who I was and pondering where they’d ...Read More

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Spotlight on Eli John

Eli John is an illustrator working from a studio in the Pendle Forest, Witch Country, UK. This melancholy landscape is a worthy setting as John works predominantly within the horror genre, inspired by supernatural and weird fiction, ghost stories and gothic literature, creating dark visions of sublime beauty and unsettling psy­chological landscapes. He has worked for renowned publisher’s worldwide, illustrating work by authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, M.R. James, ...Read More

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Spotlight on Ed Binkley

Ed Binkley has created fantasy artwork for three decades. He received the First Place Grand Prize in Infected by Art Volume 10 as well as the Body of Work award. His work is published in numerous issues of Spectrum: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art where he won Gold and Silver awards, and he was a finalist in the Beautiful Bizarre Art Award competition in 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022. ...Read More

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C.L. Clark: Hope and Tragedy

CHERAE LICHELLE CLARK was born August 10, 1990 in Oklaho­ma and grew up in Kansas City KS. She attended interna­tional school just outside London, England, then attended the University of Kansas as an undergrad. She earned her MFA at the University of Indiana, and was a 2012 Lambda Literary Fel­low under Dorothy Allison. Clark has worked as an English teacher, editor, and personal trainer. She lives in the UK.

Clark ...Read More

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Mary Robinette Kowal: The Futures of Many Pasts

MARY ROBINETTE KOWAL was born Mary Robinette Harrison on February 8, 1969 in Raleigh NC. She attended Eastern Carolina University, major­ing in Art Education, with a minor in Theater and Speech. In 1991 she left for an internship at the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta GA and never went back. She has been a professional puppeteer ever since. Kowal spent a year and a half working in Iceland on ...Read More

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Spotlight on: RR Haywood

RR Haywood is a caffeine-befuddled, dog-owning, beard-keeping Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Amazon, and Audible multiple bestselling author with over two million books sold worldwide. He lives in England on the Isle of Wight with his German Shepherd dogs, (and two Herring gulls called Oscar and Veronica that come for breakfast every morning).

 

 

Hello to the famous Locus Mag and all your gorgeous readers! My name is Rich. ...Read More

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Commentary: Cory Doctorow: The Swivel-Eyed Loons Have a Point

One of the more baffling events of the first quarter of 2023 was the mass protest in Oxford (England, not Mississippi) against the “15-minute city pledge,” a movement to get city councils to strive for cities where each neighborhood is a walkable place, with most amenities (groceries, schools, health care, employers, leisure activities) located within a pleasant 15-minute walk from your door.

The 15-minute city is an extremely inoffensive and ...Read More

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Ray Nayler: Biosemiotics

RAY NAYLER was born on June 5, 1976 in Alma, Quebec. When he was three years old, his family moved to California. He attended the University of California at Santa Cruz, where he studied modern literature and developed an interest in semiotics, graduating in 1999. He lived in the Bay Area and Toronto and worked various odd jobs before joining the Peace Corps and moving to Turkmenistan in 2003. He ...Read More

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Charlie Jane Anders: Know What You Want

CHARLIE JANE ANDERS was born in Connecticut and grew up in the small town of Mansfield. She went to Cambridge University in England, studying English and Asian literature, and spent time studying abroad in China. She has lived in Hong Kong, Boston, and other places, and currently resides in San Francisco.

Anders began publishing SF with “Fertility” (1999) and has published well over 100 stories since then in various genres, ...Read More

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Spotlight On Eli Minaya

Eli Minaya is an illustrator and fine artist based in Virginia. His early creative journey began as a graffiti artist, which over time transformed into a career as an illustrator in publishing and gaming; with clients such as Tor Books and Amazon Publishing, as well as fantasy art with clients such as Wizards of the Coast and Image Comics. In his studio, he pushes the boundaries of collage art in ...Read More

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Ayize Jama-Everett: Against Entropy

AYIZE JAMA-EVERETT was born in 1974 in Harlem NY. He has trav­eled widely, including in Asia, Mexico, and North Africa. He has a master’s degree in divinity, another in clinical psychology, and recently finished his MFA in literature at UC Riverside. He currently lives in Oakland CA, where he works as a therapist.

Jama-Everett began publishing with SF novel The Liminal People (2011), launching a series that continued with The ...Read More

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Nisi Shawl: Story Space

DENISE ANGELA SHAWL was born November 2, 1955 and grew up in Kalamazoo MI. (Their cousin Delores came up with the nickname “Nisi.”) At 17, Shawl moved to Ann Arbor to attend the University of Michigan. After leaving the university, Shawl worked as a bookseller, au pair, cook, janitor, and artist’s model. Shawl settled in Seattle in 1996, worked on publicity for Clarion West, and currently serves on the workshop’s ...Read More

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Premiere: Kim Stanley Robinson on About the Author TV

We’re pleased to premiere a career-spanning interview with one of our finest SF authors: Kim Stanley Robinson, by Jake Brown from About the Authors TV as the opening of their new season of science fiction and fantasy author interviews.

Robinson’s works are insightful, smart, entertaining, and center on ecological and global themes about the Earth and our future on it. Brown has been interviewing authors and musicians in a comprehensive ...Read More

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Spotlight on About the Authors TV, with Jake Brown

Locus will be premiering the Kim Stanley Robinson episode for About the Authors TV on the Locus YouTube channel, this Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. Pacific. Check it out!

 

Tell us about your web video series About the Authors TV. How did it come about, and what inspired you to launch it?

I consider it a lightning bolt from beyond. Like so many authors, I was stranded at home over ...Read More

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Commentary: Cory Doctorow: End to End

Within the very first year of operation, 1878, Bell’s company learned a sharp lesson about combining teenage boys and telephone switch­boards. Putting teenage boys in charge of the phone system brought swift and consistent disaster. Bell’s chief engineer described them as ‘Wild Indians.’ The boys were openly rude to customers. They talked back to subscribers, saucing off, uttering facetious remarks, and generally giving lip. The rascals took Saint Patrick’s Day ...Read More

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The Year in Review 2022 by Graham Sleight

My usual comment on publishing and novels ap­plies even more strongly this year. 2022 was an ex­traordinary year in global events and (I think) an exceptional one in the SF and fantasy it saw pub­lished. However, there’s so much lag between an event occurring, an author choosing to write a book about it, and the book mak­ing its way through the publishing process that it’d be a genuine shock if ...Read More

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The Year in Review 2022 by Alvaro Zinos-Amaro

I can’t, in good con­science, pass up the op­portunity to alert read­ers that Mike Ashley’s The Rise of the Cyber­zines: The Story of the Science-Fiction Maga­zines from 1991 to 2020, the fifth and concluding volume in his magisterial and unrivalled history of SF/F magazines from their incep­tion to the (just about) present, was pub­lished in April by Liverpool University Press. Alas, I also can’t discuss the volume in any ...Read More

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The Year in Review 2022 by Charles Payseur

It’s difficult to capture a year spent reading most­ly short fiction and poet­ry, especially one where I’ve been trying to learn new reading patterns and settling into a new role as short fiction reviewer here at Locus. Short fic­tion and poetry always seem like a ‘‘blink and you’ll miss it’’ field, where new works are constantly incoming, and taking the time to pause and reflect can bow beneath the weight

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The Year in Review 2022 by Colleen Mondor

I average three books a month reviewed for Locus, occasionally managing to squeeze in a fourth. Of the 40 or so books I read for the magazine in 2022, sev­eral impressed me ei­ther for their twisty sur­prises, unique stories, or the sheer beauty of their writing. In no particular order, here are my favorite reads of the year, each of which I heartily recom­mend.

Rebecca Ross’s fantasy A River En­chanted

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The Year in Review 2022 by Ian Mond

I had already read my favourite book of 2022 while writing my Locus wrap-up for 2021. I knew as much at the time, re­marking in my review: ‘‘I know it’s only January, but I’m sure [this] will be one of my best nov­els of the year.’’ The novel in question was John Darnielle’s Devil House, an astonish­ing metanarrative that questions the ethics of true crime books while recognising that ...Read More

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The Year in Review 2022 by Tim Pratt

I read a lot of science fic­tion, fantasy, and horror in 2022, because I am (yet again) serving on an award jury, and my overall impression is that the field is healthier than ever, with standout work by established authors, impressive new writers breaking in, and sto­ries from an ever-expanding chorus of voic­es capable of speaking to a vast range of human experience. I went through my long list of ...Read More

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The Year in Review 2022 by Russell Letson

While groping around for an organizing idea for this annual attempt to impose a shape on my shamble through the field, I kept coming back to maps and territories and borders. What fol­lows is not a map of the field but a hand-drawn sketch of the back yard of my own long-cultivated personal tastes. And now that I’ve introduced the metaphor of the map: my wander through the titles had

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The Year in Review 2022 by Paula Guran

First, I want to rave. It took me most of 2022 to finally catch up to online periodical The Sunday Morning Transport. Julian Yap, editor-in-chief, and Fran Wilde, managing editor, publish a single science fiction or fantasy (sometimes dark) short story (almost) every Sunday. Free subscrib­ers receive one story a month. Paid subscrib­ers receive one story each week, 50 weeks a year. Last year’s contributors included Max Gladstone, Karen Lord, ...Read More

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The Year in Review 2022 by Alex Brown

Every year fans of young adult science fiction, fantasy, and horror – like myself – are blessed with well over 300 traditionally published titles, be­tween the Big Five, indies, and small presses. Even though covering YA SFF/H is a big chunk of my reviewing work, even I can’t keep up with numbers that high, much less the average reader. There are countless Best of and No­table lists wrapping up the ...Read More

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Year-in-Review: 2022 Magazine Summary

The magazine field is showing fatigue. While we still have new publications appearing every year, in 2022 we saw a higher number of venues going on hiatus, shifting away from print, lowering frequency, or dropping out entirely. On top of an army of rising costs, inflation, paper shortages, and more, editors faced the stressors of an­other year not-quite-post-pandemic and the exhaustion of constant overwork. And then the blow of the ...Read More

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The Year in Review 2022 by Arley Sorg

Since becoming co-editor-in-chief at Fantasy Magazine in 2020 (a gig I do in my spare time: Locus is my 40+ hour-a-week day job) I have little time to read just for pleasure. But I’m a reg­ular reviewer at Light­speed, and I run a short fiction discussion group. A benefit of these activities is that I read new and recent work beyond the Fan­tasy slush pile. This year’s reviews focused on ...Read More

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The Year in Review 2022 by Adrienne Martini

Another year closes, and with it, another year of memorable new books, a few of which close out many years’ worth of worldbuilding and character develop­ment.

Naomi Novik’s The Golden Enclaves, expertly wraps up her Scholomance trilogy about a school for wizards that is much, much darker and more fulfilling than anything that Scottish lady could imagine. While this third book buttons up El’s growth from a teenager into ...Read More

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The Year in Review 2022 by Gabino Iglesias

I believe this is my third “year in review” essay for Locus, and I’m pretty sure the previous two have started with some version of “It was a great year to be a reader.” Well, 2022 was no dif­ferent. In fact, I think every year gets better, and that’s a tough thing to do. In any case, I enjoyed a lot of what I read in 2022. Here’s some of ...Read More

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