Members of the British Science Fiction Association may nominate works for the 2018 BSFA Awards until December 31, 2018. Nominations may be made online here.

BSFA has changed the rules for the Best Novel category:

To bring it into line with all the other awards, we are dropping the publication location requirement for novels. Previously novels were only eligible if they were published for the first time in the UK ...Read More

Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) has been selected for the One Book, One Chicago program by the Chicago Public Library. Numerous events – including book discussion groups, panels, talks, and film screenings – will be held from October 2018 to April 2019. Notable events include N.K. Jemisin and Mikki Kendall discussing the importance of diverse voices in storytelling on November 14, 2018, and Alec Nevala-Lee ...Read More

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is partnering with United for Libraries, Book Riot, and Library Journal/School Library Journal to launch the Summer Scares Reading Program, “an annual list of recommended horror titles for adult, young adult (teen), and middle grade readers.” Each year, a special guest author and a committee of four librarians will announce the selection of nine fiction titles on February 14. The guest author for 2019 is ...Read More

James Patterson has donated £50,000 to school libraries in the UK in cooperation with Scholastic Book Clubs. One hundred schools will receive £250 in both the autumn and spring terms to purchase books, with Scholastic offering an additional 25% off to stretch the buying power. Patterson says, “Libraries are at the heart of every school, and I’m thrilled to be partnering with Scholastic to continue to underscore both the need ...Read More

On September 14, 2018, Astrid Anderson Bear and her children Erik and Alex scattered the ashes of Bear’s parents, SFWA Grandmaster Poul Anderson & Karen Kruse Anderson, from the three-masted ship Zodiac into the Salish Sea (part of Puget Sound). A small gathering of friends and family were present. Astrid read her father’s poem “Sea Burial” after the scattering, and all present toasted Poul and Karen.

–Tom Whitmore

Sea Burial ...Read More

The PEN/Faulkner Foundation has announced the participants of its Literary Horror Night: Dan Chaon, Mark Z. Danielewski, and Brian Evenson, who will read from their work and participate in a panel discussion moderated by Elizabeth Hand. The event will be held on October 29, 2018 at Penn Social in Washington DC.

For more information, see the Eventbrite page.

While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with ...Read More

The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) announced the results of public voting for “America’s #1 best-loved novel” during the finale episode of The Great American Read series on October 23, 2018. The Outlander, Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings series came in second, third, and fifth places, respectively. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen was the fourth-place finalist, while To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee won first place.

As ...Read More

The Free Library of Philadelphia has chosen Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward (Scribner) as the 2019 selection for its annual “One Book, One Philadelphia” citywide book club program. Ward will attend a kickoff event on January 16, 2019 at Parkway Central Library in Philadelphia PA to begin eight weeks of programs “based on the themes” from her novel, including “book discussions, panels, film screenings, collaging and mixed media workshops, ...Read More

Spectrum 26 is open for submissions until January 24, 2019. The annual art collection serves as a “regular showcase for the best fantasy, science fiction, horror, and otherwise uncategorizable artwork created each year” and “as an invaluable resource for art directors, art buyers, and artists from all walks and sensibilities.” Judges this year are Kei Acedera, Wesley Burt, Bobby Chiu, Edward Kinsella III, and Colin & Kristine Poole. Chosen entrants ...Read More

Colson Whitehead was named the state author of New York in an announcement by Governor Andrew Cuomo on August 15, 2018. Whitehead is the 12th author so honored. The title is given every two years to celebrate reading, writing, and the arts. Whitehead will receive the New York State Edith Wharton Citation of Merit for Fiction Writers at an official inauguration ceremony to be held September 28, 2018 at the ...Read More

Applications are open for the 2018 Tiptree Fellowships until October 31, 2018. Each year, the Tiptree Motherboard awards $500 each to two creators who “are doing work that is changing the way we think about gender through speculative narrative.”

For more information, or to apply, see the official website.

While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time or recurring donation. We rely ...Read More

Mercedes Lackey was briefly hospitalized in early August while attending Gen Con in Indiana after she became dizzy and began hallucinating. While she at first feared she was having a stroke, she later realized she was a having a reaction to furniture, carpet, paint, and other materials outgassing in a newly renovated hotel room. She was out of the hospital in time to do her scheduled signing, and is recovering ...Read More

A new organization, Asia SF Association, has been established, with Cixin Liu as president. The organization has members from China, Egypt, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, and other countries. The group first met at APSFCon, held May 18-19, 2018 in Beijing, China, and held a general meeting online in July 2018 to announce the president and board members. In addition to Liu, Latssep of Science Fiction World ...Read More

Frank Frazetta’s 1972 painting “Escape from Venus”, used as the cover for the eponymous Edgar Rice Burroughs volume in 1974, sold for $660,000 at auction in August 2018, the third-highest price yet for a Frazetta painting auctioned in the US – “Death Dealer 6” (1990) sold for $1.79 million this past May.

While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time or recurring ...Read More

George R.R. Martin appeared on stage in conversation with artist John Picacio on August 14, 2018 at the historic Fox Theatre in Redwood City CA. The event was hosted by SF in SF, with proceeds from ticket sales benefitting the Locus Science Fiction Foundation. An audience of nearly 600 (including various genre luminaries in town for Worldcon) gathered for a wide-ranging discussion that stretched over more than two hours (with ...Read More

Space and Time has announced that it will close after 52 years of continuous publication. They plan to produce two more issues, one before the end of 2018 and one in 2019. Editor-in-chief Hildy Silverman says:

The expenses associated with printing and shipping issues have outpaced income by a ridiculous margin — quite simply, S&T no longer has enough subscribers to remain viable. And, as I have a day job ...Read More

The Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University, The MIT Press, and MIT Media Lab have launched a new interactive project called Frankenbook. Joey Eschrich, program manager for the Center for Science and Imagination, explains:

Frankenbook is a collective reading experience of the original 1818 text of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein. The project is hosted by Arizona State University’s Center for Science and the Imagination, The MIT ...Read More

A memorial service for the late Gardner Dozois was held at the Friends Center in downtown Philadelphia on July 7, 2018, with attendees including Ginjer Buchanan, Michael Capobianca, Neil Clarke, Jack Dann, John Douglas, Ellen Datlow, Claire Eddy, Scott Edelman, Gregory Frost, Joe & Gay Haldeman, Peter Heck, James Patrick Kelly, John Kessel, Kay McAuley, Shawna McCarthy, Michael Swanwick, Gordon Van Gelder, Janeen Webb, Sheila Williams, and others. Ellen Datlow ...Read More

The Public Broadcasting Service is holding “The Great American Read,” encouraging members of the public to vote from a list of 100 “most-loved” books and series, as selected through a demographically representative nationwide survey in the US. Voting is open through October 18, 2018, and you can vote more than once. PBS is airing eight-episode series The Great American Read, with the winner to be announced in the finale episode. ...Read More