The longlist for the 2024 Highland Book Prize (Duais Leabhair na Gàidhealtachd) has been announced. Some titles of genre interest are amongst the 12 longlisted titles, including:
The Prize’s website states:
The Highland Book Prize, established
The Horror Writers Association (HWA) has opened applications for its annual Scholarship from Hell.
The Scholarship from Hell is awarded annually to an applicant interested in attending StokerCon and furthering a career in horror writing. Per the Scholarship’s webpage, the recipient will receive “domestic coach airfare (contiguous 48 states) to and from the StokerCon venue, $50 for luggage reimbursement, a 3-night stay at the convention, free registration to StokerCon, and ...Read More
Read more
Uncanny Magazine has opened up its annual poll for readers’ favorite fiction. On the poll, available here, readers select their three favorite original Uncanny stories from a list. Per an email, the poll closes on February 17, 2025.
“Uncanny Magazine is an online Science Fiction and Fantasy magazine featuring passionate SF/F fiction and poetry, gorgeous prose, provocative nonfiction, and a deep investment in the diverse SF/F culture.” For more information ...Read More
Read more
Fiyah magazine is seeking judges for the longlist judging cohort for its annual Ignyte Awards.
Candidates should be “interested, available, organically well-read in diverse and inclusive titles in sffh, whether professionally or otherwise… Please be familiar with the Ignytes’ mission and backlist of nominated titles….”
The Ignyte Awards are given annually to works of speculative fiction, and are publicly voted from a shortlist.
Selected judges will not be announced. Applications ...Read More
Read more
For 2024, the Financial Times featured several genre books across their best-of lists in various categories.
FT’s Science Fiction List (includes fantasy):
FT’s general Fiction list includes several titles
Amazon published its yearly array of lists to promote the best books of 2024, with editors’ selections in various categories. Works and categories of genre interest follow. Amazon’s top pick is followed by their list of other recommended works, alphabetized by author last name.
Science Fiction and Fantasy
Tachyon Publications is celebrating 30 years of operation in 2025, with numerous events planned.
The San Francisco Public Library will host an exhibition of Tachyon books, historical photos, and documents. Tachyon will host an anniversary party, open to the public, at the library on October 5, 2025. Attendees will receive a limited-edition commemorative chapbook. Tachyon will also give away ebooks to newsletter subscribers. They plan a virtual salon with Tachyon ...Read More
Read more
The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) has opened applications their 2025 career mentoring program, seeking both mentors and mentees. The program “is an all-volunteer service provided free of charge… with the objective of providing community, sharing knowledge, and offering networking opportunities.” The program runs for three months.
Mentees are chosen via lottery and paired with mentors based on their responses to questions. “Mentorships are open to all SFWA ...Read More
Read moreArtist Chris Moore, 78, died February 7, 2025 at home in the UK. Moore was a prolific artist, best known for his hard SF book covers and album artwork by artists including Rod Stewart and Fleetwood Mac.
Christopher Norton Moore was born June 1, 1947 in Rotherham, South Yorkshire. He attended Doncaster Art School, Maidstone College of Art, and the Royal College of Art, graduating from the latter in 1972. ...Read More
Read more
Brendan Durkin has been promoted to Editorial Director at Gollancz, reports The Bookseller.
Durkin has been a member of the Gollancz team since 2018, and was promoted to Editor in 2020. He also launched The Gollancz Emporium, a direct-to-consumer line of special editions and classic works. Durkin has been involved with the publishing of works by authors and estates like Joe Abercrombie, Frank Herbert, Nnedi Okorafor, and Brandon Sanderson.
Read more
Nominations are now open for the 2025 Hugo Awards, the Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book, and the Astounding Award for Best New Writer. These awards will be presented at Seattle Worldcon 2025, the 83rd World Science Fiction Convention, to be held August 13th-17th, 2025, in Seattle WA. The convention says,
Nominations can be submitted by all individuals holding WSFS Memberships in either the 2024 (Glasgow) or 2025 (Seattle) ...Read More
Read more
The 19 winning titles for the January 2025 PEN Translates awards have been announced. The awards are given to works translated from other languages into English, “on the basis of outstanding literary quality, the strength of the publishing project, and their contribution to UK bibliodiversity.” Many of the works are forthcoming for 2025 and 2026.
Winning titles and authors of genre interest include:
Author Tom Robbins, 92, died February 9, 2024 at home in La Conner WA. Robbins was best known for his absurdist, irreverent novels, which inspired a devoted cult following and included numerous bestsellers. While his work was rooted in 1960s counterculture, he had a devoted readership that spanned generations.
Most of his works had speculative (or absurdist) elements, among them Another Roadside Attraction (1971), Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1976), ...Read More
Read more
The Horror Writers Association (HWA) has announced a collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh Library System (ULS). ULS has committed to a ten-year Legacy Sponsorship for the HWA’s annual conference Stokercon starting in 2025. HWA says,
The Archives & Special Collections Department within the ULS is home to the prestigious horror studies collection which includes an extraordinary array of rare books, film and literary archives, pulps, comics, and much more. ...Read More
Read more
The Heinlein Society has opened its 2025 scholarships for undergraduate students. The deadline to apply is 11:59 p.m. PDT on April 1, 2025. Applicants must be entering their sophomore, junior, or senior year in a 4-year, accredited college in any country, and must submit a 500-1000 word essay.
The Society awards four $4,000 scholarships:
The five-title shortlist for the annual Tähtivaeltaja Award has been announced, honoring the best science fiction published in Finland. The award is sponsored by Helsingin Science Fiction Seura (Helsinki Science Fiction Society). The nominees are:
On February 3, 2025, Scarlett Pavlovich filed suit in Wisconsin federal court against author Neil Gaiman and his estranged spouse Amanda Palmer; the complaint’s nine charges include human trafficking (against both), assault and battery (against Gaiman), infliction of emotional distress (against Gaiman), and negligence (against Palmer).
Pavolovich seeks damages “in an amount to be determined at trial, but which is reasonably believed to be in excess of $1,000,000.00.”
Allegations of ...Read More
Read more
Penguin Random House and United for Libraries have announced a partnership to provide grants of $500 and $1,000 to help libraries. They plan to donate a total of $25,000 to support Friends of the Library groups and other groups that raise fund for local libraries. PRH will also offer some $500 in-kind donations so libraries can purchase PRH books. Skip Dye, senior vice president of library sales and digital strategies ...Read More
Read more
Documents revealed as part of a California class-action lawsuit reveal that Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, was personally aware that pirated books from “shadow libraries” were used to train their Large Language Model AI. The lawsuit alleges that Meta knowingly infringed on copyrighted material in trainings its AI tools. Plaintiffs include authors Ta-Nehisi Coates and Richard Kadrey. A new filing from the plaintiffs reads:
Meta has treated the so-called “public ...Read More
Read more
We saw some fabulous books come out last year and are so pleased to let you know about them!
This list is compiled by the Locus editors and columnists, outside reviewers, and other professionals and well-known critics of genre fiction and non-fiction. This year we looked at 678 titles between short fiction and long fiction. Note: any one of our voting critics ...Read More
Read more
The shortlist has been announced for the second annual Inside Literary Prize. Among the four titles selected is dystopian novel Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Vintage).
The Inside Literary Prize is “the first-ever US-based literary prize awarded exclusively by currently incarcerated people,” and the four shortlisted titles were selected by a committee of incarcerated readers, writers, and librarians from Departments of Corrections. Selections were made from books ...Read More
Read more
Signaling a change in policy under the Trump administration, the Department of Education announced sweeping changes to its policies regarding school libraries and local book removals, likely to impact genre books and young readership.
The DOE’s Office for Civil Rights has dismissed 11 complaints “related to so-called ‘book bans'” and has rescinded guidance for navigating book removal in the context of civil rights laws. Additionally, the Office for Civil Rights ...Read More
Read more
The seventy-year-old Science Fiction Book Club, originally launched by Doubleday in 1953, has announced on its website that it will close for orders as of February, 1, 2025. The Club thanked customers for their longstanding loyalty and gave a hard date for the end of its services.
We very much appreciate your many years of loyalty, patronage, and support. After 2/1/2025, orders will no longer be processed at SFBC.com.
After ...Read More
Read more
A new writing contest has been announced today by the Emirates Literature Foundation, in collaboration with the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre in Dubai.
The MBRSC Short Story Award: New Voices in Sci-Fi will award science fiction short stories by writers from the United Arab Emirates. The contest is open to writers ages 16–30; submissions may be in English or Arabic and between 1,500–5,000 words. The deadline is 16 November ...Read More
Read more
The American Library Association (ALA) announced the winners of the Youth Media Awards during their LibLearnX conference, at a ceremony held Monday, January 27 in Phoenix AZ. Winners included several works and authors of genre interest.
The Alex Awards honor books for adults that “have special appeal to young adults, ages 12 through 18.” This year, at least four adult books of genre interest appeared on the complete list of ...Read More
Read more
The Clarion West writers’ workshop has announced a new scholarship for “trans, two-spirit, nonbinary, and other gender-expansive authors.” The Sea Star scholarship, funded by an anonymous donor, will cover full annual tuition (currently $3200) for one qualifying student per year. Clarion states:
Trans, two-spirit, nonbinary, and other gender expansive authors who continue to change and inform the landscape of speculative fiction for the better. We know that trans writers are ...Read More
Read more
The National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) has announced the longlist for the 2024 NBCC awards for books “published in English (including translations) in the United States.” Authors and titles of genre interest include:
Criticism
Fiction
FairyLoot and Transworld Publishers have announced a new fantasy imprint, to launch in fall 2025. FairyLoot is a fantasy book subscription box company specializing in illustrated and deluxe editions, and Transworld is a division of Penguin Random House UK, one of the UK’s “Big Four.”
The new imprint’s name and logo will be revealed at the London Book Fair in March 2025.
The Bookseller reports:
The fantasy imprint will discover ...Read More
Read more
Andy Cox and Richard Wagner, who worked together on Black Static and Interzone, announced the launch of a new horror magazine, Remains. The quarterly magazine will feature all-new horror fiction, columns, and features; stories will be illustrated by Wagner, who has contributed cover and interior art for Black Static and more.
From a Facebook post via Livia Llewellyn, Cox announced:
REMAINS. 100 colour pages of new horror fiction. Smells nice. ...Read More
Read more
The longlist for the 2025 International Dylan Thomas Prize has been announced and includes several works of genre interest amongst the twelve selected.
The annual Dylan Thomas prize, in partnership with Swansea University, awards £20,000 “to the best published or produced literary work in the
Ellen Datlow is accepting submissions for her 17th Best Horror of the Year anthology, to be published by Night Shade Books and covering material appearing in 2025.
I am looking for stories and poetry from all branches of horror: supernatural, uncanny, sf horror, psychological, dark crime, terror tales, or anything else that might qualify.
This is an all reprint anthology, so I’ll only consider material published in 2025. Deadline ...Read More
Read more
