The 2024 Albertine Translation Prize, which honors American publishers of French works translated into English, has been announced by Villa Albertine. The fiction prize was awarded to translator Eve Hill-Agnus for her translation of Ultramarine by Mariette Navarro (Deep Vellum), a seafaring novel with speculative elements. Villa Albertine is the cultural and educational division of the French Embassy in the U.S. The Prize winners are selected by a committee of

The ten-title 2025 PEN/Faulkner longlist for fiction has been announced, with a number of titles and authors of genre interest, including: Ghostroots, ’Pemi Aguda (Norton) The Mighty Red, Louise Erdrich (Harper) James, Percival Everett (Doubleday) There Is a Rio Grande in Heaven, Ruben Reyes, Jr. (Mariner) Devil Is Fine, John Vercher (Celadon) The prize “honors the best published works of fiction by American citizens in a calendar year.” This year’s

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: Storm’s Edge: Life, Death and Magic in the Islands of Orkney, Peter Marshall (William Collins) Gliff, Ali Smith (Hamish Hamilton/Pantheon) The Island at the Edge of Night, Lucy Strange (Chicken House) The Prize’s website states: The Highland Book Prize, established in 2017, celebrates

What happened, 2024? Where did we all go wrong? Even if it was a weird, rocky, stressful year in many ways, it was still another great year for fiction! After closing Fantasy Magazine in late 2023 I became a literary agent at kt literary, which meant that a lot of my read­ing time went to novel submissions. I retained my post as a reviewer for Lightspeed, among various other roles

I’m going to focus here on the best books I read this year by women and nonbinary folks, and also separate them into a few categories; I need some way to organise my thoughts. Novellas Three amazing novellas stand out for 2024. Ann LeBlanc’s debut novella, The Transitive Prop­erties of Cheese is superficially a cheese heist in space; it also has a lot to say about bodies and identity and

Sorcery and Small Magics, Maiga Doocy (Orbit 978-0-316-57675-8, $19.99, 400pp, tp) October 2024. When I settled in to read Maiga Doocy’s debut, Sorcery and Small Miracles, I expected an ‘‘en­emies to lovers’’ romance with magic between the unserious but sweet protagonist, Leovander ‘‘Leo’’ Loveage, and his classmate, the brooding, often surly, Sebastian Grimm. Both of them are students at the Fount, learning to be sorcerers for reasons that have as

  Visit our bookshop.org page to purchase this week’s new books and support your local bookstore. And us! New science fiction, fantasy, and horror books for the week of February 11, 2025.  Becker, Elizabeth: The Moonlight Healers (Harlequin/Graydon House 978-1525830426, $30, 336pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audiobook 02/11/2025) Louis Winston belongs to a family whose women possess magical healing powers, which they use by moonlight. She moves to her grandmother’s orchard, where she

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

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 about

Flash Fiction Online 10/24 Cast of Wonders 10/20/24, 11/11/24 Strange Horizons 10/21/24, 11/4/24 Flash Fiction Online released an extra-large issue in honor of the spookiest month, which is capped off by Christine Lucas’s haunting “Final Harvest”, in which the daughter of a rather abusive and manipulative mother returns to perform said mother’s final rites – the harvest of nekrophyta that grows on the body of the dead. These small plants

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 close

For 2024, the Financial Times featured several genre books across their best-of lists in various categories. FT’s Science Fiction List (includes fantasy): The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands, Sarah Brooks (Flatiron) No One Is Safe!, Philip Fracassi (Lethe) Extremophile, Ian Green (Head of Zeus) Conan: City of the Dead, John C Hocking (Titan) The Great When, Alan Moore (Bloomsbury)       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 #1 Pick: The Familiar, Leigh Bardugo (Flatiron) Navola, Paolo Bacigalupi (Knopf) The Ministry of Time, Kaliane Bradley (Avid Reader) The Book of

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

Ten for 2024 by Tim Pratt Well, here we are, right down at the closing of the year (though you’ll read this near the beginning of the next one). 2024 was some­thing of an annus horribilis, but as usual, I found comfort and refuge in fiction, and sometimes even inspiration to keep fighting for a chance at better tomorrows. Still, since I’m in a dark turn of mind, I’ll start

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

We are so happy to release our third episode of The Storytellers, our series of Zoom-recorded author readings! Previously, we had Tobi Ogundiran read “Midnight in Moscow” from his collection, Jackal, Jackal. Today we are pleased to show Samantha Mills reading the first chapter of The Wings Upon Her Back. The novel is a sci-fantasy told in two timelines, following one woman’s rise to power and fall from grace as

  A new novel by Chloe C. Peñaranda, The Night Is Defying (Bramble), second in her Nytefall trilogy, debuts in the top 10 on three lists. Rebecca Yarros’s Onyx Storm remains at #1 or #2 on all four print lists.

Artist 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.

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.   While

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)

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: Hell of Solitude: Selected Writings by Ryūnosuke

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),

IBI AANU ZOBOI was born was born Pascale Philantrope in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on June 22, 1977. She grew up in New York City, and now lives in New Jersey with her husband and three children; she legally changed her name after marriage. Zoboi attended Clarion West in 2001. She also attended a Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation workshop in 2011, and earned her MFA in Writing for Children and Young

The Year’s Top Robot and AI Stories: Fifth An­nual Collection, Allan Kaster, ed. (Infinivox 978-1-88461-259-6, $18.99, 234pp, tp). October 2024.Cover by Maurizio Manzieri. In my review of The Year’s Top Robot and AI Stories: Fourth Annual Collection, I noted that AI was gaining more presence in our lives – something that has increased over the last year. I also noted that the stories in that anthology were overwhelmingly bleak. This

Gliff, Ali Smith (Hamish Hamilton 978-0-24166-557-2, £18.99, 288pp, hc) October 2024. (Pantheon 978-0-59370-156-0, $28.00, 288pp, hc) February 2025. If one definition of literary voice is that it is the combination of what a writer’s sentences pay at­tention to and how they pay attention to it, then Ali Smith’s voice is one of the most distinctive of the twenty-first century. What her sentences pay attention to are the political and linguistic

She’s Always Hungry, Eliza Clark (Harper Perennial 978-0-06339-326-4, $17.99, 240pp, tp) November 2024. Eliza Clark has been on my radar for several years since her debut novel, Boy Parts, was released by Influx Press in 2020, followed by her best-selling second novel, Penance. (You won’t be surprised to learn that I own both but have read neither.) Her eclectic first collection, She’s Always Hungry, which gathers 11 stories that run

As we are given carte blanche to write about books however we wish in these annual essays, I am going to indulge myself and share some thoughts on the titles I read in the past year that particularly impressed and/or made me happy. There were several surprises, including Annie LeBlanc Is Not Dead Yet by Molly Morris. This coming-of-age drama veers from the expected as soon as the reader realizes

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.

Nightmare 10/24 Uncanny 11/12-24 Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet 9/24 Reactor (10/2/24 – 11/20/24) Both of the full-length original stories from Night­mare #146 are very dark fantasy. The narrator of Raven Jakubowski ’s “She Sheds Her Skin” is in love with an immortal shapeshifter who must mur­der to gain a new skin. The narrator has “shifted” herself: She’s “more reliable, becoming a rock [her lover] could lean on, a place she