Locus will present winners of the annual Locus Awards with a new trophy, designed by Francesca Myman with art by Shaun Tan. The trophy will be awarded starting with the 2018 Locus Awards, and replaces the previous plaque design.
The 2018 Locus Awards will be held June 22-24, 2018 at the Best Western Executive Inn in Seattle WA. For more information, see the 2018 Locus Awards page.
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Shimmer magazine has announced that it will close with the November 2018 issue, after 13 years of publication. A final anthology will be released in late 2018. Publisher Beth Wodzinski says,
If you’re a reader — the site will stay up indefinitely, and we’ve got lots of great fiction for you to browse and buy.
If you’re a subscriber with a subscription that goes past November, you’ll get a separate ...Read More
Read moreHalf a dozen letters from J.R.R. Tolkien sold at auction in May 2018 for a total of $36,000, with individual letters selling from $2,700 to $13,000. Two of the letters were sent to artist Mary Fairburn in 1968, praising illustrations of The Lord of the Rings she’d sent him, and including a signed original sketch by Fairburn. The other letters were to Oscar Morland (a British ambassador), Baronne A. Baeyens, ...Read More
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Several individuals of genre interest are among the 1,057 people recognized by the Queen of England in her 2018 Birthday Honours list.
Writer Kazuo Ishiguro was knighted “for services to literature,” and bookstore founder Tim Waterstone received a knighthood for “services to bookselling and charity.”
Authors Jeanette Winterson and Ken Follett received the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) for “services to Literature” and “services to Literature ...Read More
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Literary Arts has posted the video of their tribute event for Ursula K. Le Guin featuring “Margaret Atwood (by video), Molly Gloss, Walidah Imarisha, Jonathan Lethem, Kelly Link, China Miéville, and Daniel José Older.” The event took place on June 13, 2018 at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland OR. For more information, and to view the video, see the Literary Arts tribute page.
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NPR‘s summer reader poll 2018 is open to nominations of horror novels, collections, series, and short stories. Readers can nominate up to five titles through an online form. A top 100 list will be curated by Tananrive Due, Ruthanna Emrys, Grady Hendrix, and Stephen Graham Jones and announced later in the year.
For more information, see the NPR website.
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The Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) announced the 2017 inductees to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame: comic book writer and publisher Stan Lee, author J.K. Rowling, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series, and The Legend of Zelda video game series. The inductees will be included in the SF&F Hall of Fame display later this year.
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame was founded in 1996 and ...Read More
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The Horror Writers Association (HWA) has announced the addition of a new Short Non-Fiction category to its Bram Stoker Awards. HWA president Lisa Morton said:
Works qualifying for the new award category include magazine articles, short essays, and academic papers, all of which must be at least 2,000 words but less than 40,000 words. The works must be published in a book (print or e-format), a magazine (print or online), ...Read More
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The Swedish Academy, the body that awards the Nobel Prize in Literature, has announced that there will be no winner announced in 2018, with two laureates to be selected in 2019 instead. The delay is due to “the currently diminished Academy and reduced public confidence in the Academy.” The prize committee has been rocked by a series of allegations in recent months, with eight members of the committee resigning, including ...Read More
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Junot Díaz has “asked to relinquish” his position as chairman of the Pulitzer Prize board (though he remains a board member) after multiple allegations of sexual misconduct and verbal abuse. The board is “conducting an independent review of allegations of misconduct.” The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where Díaz teaches creative writing, is looking “into concerns shared on social media regarding Professor Díaz…. Both accusers and the accused have rights and ...Read More
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Several writers of genre interest were among the 31 new Fellows introduced into the Royal Society of Literature (RSL) in a ceremony held June 4, 2018 in London UK:
Potential new Fellows must have had published in the United Kingdom at least two substantial works (or a sufficient body of ...Read More
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The Speculative Literature Foundation (SLF), Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), and the Chicago Nerds Social Club (CNSC) have sponsored the Deep Dish science fiction reading series, held at Volumes Book Cafe in Chicago IL.
The inaugural event was held on October 7, 2017 and featured Chris Bauer, Richard Chwedyk, Meg Khoury, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Cath Schaff-Stump, and was hosted by Mary Anne Mohanraj.
Further events in ...Read More
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The 2018 Hugo Voter Packet is available for download by members of Worldcon 76. An announcement has been sent to all members who registered their email address with the convention. The packet can be downloaded from the Worldcon 76 Hugo Awards website in the “Hugo Voter Packet” section.
The packet does not contain all the nominated works in their entirety, but there is some free material in most categories. The ...Read More
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After late-December flooding damaged several books and periodicals in Eastern New Mexico University’s temporary basement storage for library items, special collections librarian Gene Bundy revealed April 6 during the Williamson Lectureship that items are ready to come back from freeze-dried vacuum storage in Fort Worth TX. Once the damaged items are returned to Portales NM, Bundy and his staff will be able to evaluate whether they are salvageable or not. ...Read More
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Alexander Mamut of Lynwood Investments has sold a majority stake of UK-based bookstore chain Waterstones to Elliot Advisors, the UK branch of Paul Singer’s Elliott Management hedge fund. James Daunt will remain as CEO, a post he’s held since 2011, and Lynwood Investments will retain a minority share. Waterstones has more than 280 bookshops in the UK and Europe. Daunt says they are in “expansion mode” and plan to open ...Read More
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Following a successful crowdfunding campaign, Amazing Stories is relaunching as a quarterly print fiction magazine, with the first issue scheduled to coincide with Worldcon 76 in San Jose this August. Steve Davidson is publisher, and Ira Nayman is managing editor. The magazine is open to fiction submissions (guidelines here). The first version of Amazing Stories launched in 1926 and was owned by various companies over the years; the last print ...Read More
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Per The Bookseller, honoring best selling fantasy author Terry Pratchett, the “Terry Pratchett: HisWorld” exhibition at Salisbury Museum and accompanying title Terry Pratchett: HisWorld – A Brief Guide to Discworld compiled by writer Stephen Briggs, with illustrations by Paul Kidby (Clays) raised £20,000 for the Research Institute for the Care of Older People (RICE). The exhibition had over 21,000 visitors.
Rob Wilkins, manager of Sir Terry’s estate, said, “The ‘Terry ...Read More
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Literary Arts has announced a tribute event for Ursula K. Le Guin featuring “Margaret Atwood (by video), Molly Gloss, Walidah Imarisha, Jonathan Lethem, Kelly Link, China Miéville, and Daniel José Older.” The event is scheduled for 7:30 p.m., June 13, 2018 at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland, Oregon. For more information, see the official ticketing site.
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With the April 2018 issue, Mike Allen’s fiction and poetry magazine Mythic Delirium is closing after 20 years. In his editorial, Allen says,
I’m putting Mythic Delirium on what those of us in Smallpressville call ‘indefinite hiatus.’ Put more plainly, the zine is coming to an end—though I reserve the right to bring it back, should the course of my career deliver me to a point where (re)starting a magazine ...Read More
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The shortlist for the 2018 Man Booker International prize includes two titles of genre interest:
The award is given “annually for a single work of fiction, translated into English and published in the UK.” The £50,000 prize is divided equally among the author ...Read More
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The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has announced a list of approved names for features on Pluto’s largest moon, Charon. The list includes mountains named after Octavia E. Butler and Arthur C. Clarke, as well as craters named for characters in works by L. Frank Baum, Stanislaw Lem, and Jules Verne.
The names were proposed by NASA’s New Horizons team which conducted the first survey of Charon in 2015. The full
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Actor LeVar Burton (Roots, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Reading Rainbow) is featuring several science fiction authors in his podcast tour, LeVar Burton Reads LIVE! including Nnedi Okorafor, Charlie Jane Anders, and Nalo Hopkinson. Each live event includes a conversation with the author and a reading of their story by Burton. Okorafor was featured in an event on March 23, 2018 at the Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago IL. Anders ...Read More
Read moreChuck Serface has launched the LGBTQ Initiative with the intention of funding 50 memberships to Worldcon 76. So far, the initiative has raised enough money to fully fund seven memberships.
Funded memberships are available to SF/F fans and professionals who identify as LGBTQ. Applicants should send an email to lgbtqworldcon@gmail.com with a personal statement under 500 words including information about themselves and why they want to attend Worldcon. Applications will ...Read More
Read moreThe inaugural Harlem Ess-Eff reading series event, featuring Golden Baker and Erin Roberts, will take place April 9, 2018 at Silvana in New York City. Baker and Roberts are both graduates of the Odyssey Writing Workshop.
The reading series is hosted by Golden Baker. For more information on future events, see the Harlem Ess-Eff website.
[via SF Site]
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Read moreThe Aurealis Awards announced they are seeking judges for the 2018 awards process in the following categories:
The only qualifications are that applicants must be residents of Australia and demonstrate “knowledge of and interest in their chosen category.” Deadline for applications is ...Read More
Read moreThe Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) has announced that Martin P. Robinson will be Toastmaster at the 2018 SFWA Nebula Awards Conference to be held May 17-20, 2018 at the Pittsburgh Marriott City Center in Pittsburgh PA.
Mr. Robinson is a puppeteer who has worked for the Jim Henson Company for 37 years, performing a range of characters including Mr. Snuffleupagus, Telly Monster, Slimey the Worm, and ...Read More
Read moreAmazon has announced a new imprint, Topple Books, to “spotlight the voices of women of color, gender non-conforming, lesbian, bisexual, and queer writers.” Jill Soloway will serve as editor-at-large, with Carmen Johnson helping to oversee the line. Soloway says, “We live in a complicated, messy world where every day we have to proactively re-center our own experiences by challenging privilege. With Topple Books, we’re looking for those undeniably compelling essential ...Read More
Read moreRebellion Publishing announced the posting of David Moore and Michael Rowley as their “new commissioning team” for SFF imprints Solaris and Abaddon. According to the announcement, “The two will share commissioning and editing duties across both best-selling lists.” Moore joined Rebellion in 2009 and Rowley is new to the company, coming from Waterstones and Penguin Random House UK imprint Ebury.
For more information, see the official announcement.
The five judges for the 2018 Philip K. Dick Award have been announced. Works of science fiction published as paperback originals in the US during the year 2018 are eligible for the award.
Dreaming the Universe: The Intersection of Science, Fiction, & Southern California, a new science fiction exhibit, opened March 3, 2018 at the Pasadena Museum of History in Pasadena CA. The exhibit focuses on the history of Southern Californian science fiction from the 1930s to the 1980s. It is curated by Nick Smith, a former president of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society (LASFS) and “brings together an unusual range of ...Read More
Read moreHoughton Library at Harvard University is displaying the “Landmarks: Maps as Literary Illustration” exhibition of more than 60 literary maps including those based on works from Richard Adams, Frank Herbert, N.K. Jemisin, Ursula K. Le Guin, J.R.R. Tolkien, and more. The exhibit runs through April 14, 2018 and is free and open to the public.
For more information, see the Harvard website.
Storycom is funding The Shimmer Program’s Two-way Exchange Fund, intended “to encourage cultural exchange between Chinese science fiction fans and science fiction fans all over the world.” Similar to their ongoing Program for Chinese fans, the Two-way Exchange Fund
will provide 15,000 RMB per person (this will approximately cover economic class plane tickets and hotels; the fund recipient will be responsible for all costs exceeding this budget). For the first ...Read More
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