The Mirror Season, Anna-Marie McLemore (Feiwel & Friends 978-1-250-62412-3 $18.99, 320pp, hc) March 2021. Content warning: This title deals graphically with the emotional and psychological fallout from sexual assault. As Anna-Marie McLemore’s The Mirror Season opens, Graciela Cristales (“Ciela”) is dropping off a boy she does not know at the emergency room in her hometown of Astoria OR. It quickly becomes clear that the two of them were at a

The Ghost Variations: One Hundred Stories, Kevin Brockmeier (Pantheon Books 978-1-524-74883-8, $27.00, 288pp) March 2021. I became aware of Kevin Brockmeier’s work back in 2008 when Robert Shearman, in an in­terview with Eric Forbes, included Brockmeier in a list of writers “who play with the short story, squeeze as much out of it as they can.” Sadly, I’ve only now gotten around to reading Brock­meier’s short fiction, picking up his

The Omega Sci-Fi Awards has announced the finalists for its Roswell Award short story competition: “The Rite to Vote”, Matthew Cushing “Imagine Dandelions”, Andrea Goyan “Autonomous”, Ben Hennesy “Run”, Tenzin Phillips “Biomimicry”, Ven Pillay “Realtiger”, Susan Wachowski Honorable mentions were given to the following stories: “When the Books Were on Paper”, Evgeniy Bondarev “Logistics”, Christian Darkin “Buddy and I”, Bryan Leong Jing Ern “Opt-In”, Susan Harper “Way Out”, Larry Herbst

Anders, Charlie Jane: Victories Greater Than Death (Tor Teen 978-1-250-31731-5, $15.99, 288pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, April 13, 2021) A young-adult SF novel and the first in the Unstoppable trilogy, centering around a sleeper-agent alien teenager on Earth whose part in an intergalactic war is bigger than she thinks.  “It’s properly, wickedly exciting – I devoured it! How Anders packs so much power and energy into her prose is astonishing.

MILESTONES JOHN VARLEY, 73, began having chest pains in late February 2021, and subsequently underwent quadruple bypass surgery. He re­turned home on February 28 and is recovering well. “I thank you for the good vibes and wishes and karma sent my way during my recent travails. Yes, and your prayers as well, though I’m an atheist and don’t know quite what to do with them. Is anyone really listening? Maybe

All the Murmuring Bones, A.G. Slatter (Titan 978-1-78909-434-3, $15.95, 368pp, tp) March 2021. All the Murmuring Bones is A.G. Slatter’s (a semi-pseudonym of Australian author Angela Slatter) first novel-length work set in the Irish-flavored world of her acclaimed Sourdough and Other Stories and The Bitter­wood Bible. For fans of Slatter, that’s probably all that needs to be said to compel immediate acquisition. The rest of you, even if you were

The Royal Mail has issued a series of stamps featuring art to commemorate classic science fiction stories by British authors including: Childhood’s End, Arthur C. Clarke, illustration by Matt Murphy Brave New World, Aldous Huxley, illustration by Thomas Danthony Shikasta, Doris Lessing, illustration by Sarah Jones Frankenstein, Mary Shelley, illustration by Sabina Šinko The Time Machine, H.G. Wells, illustration by Francisco Rodríguez The Day of the Triffids, John Wyndham, illustration

F&SF 3-4/21 Analog 1-2/21 The March-April issue of F&SF is a sig­nificant one, the first put together by new editor Sheree Renée Thomas. Based on the evidence in front of me, she’s got off to an outstanding start, though we need to wait a few issues before we begin to understand Thomas’s editorial vision. The issue features a strong Madeleine Robins story, “Mannikin“, about a boy who is raised as

Finalists for the Hugo Awards, the Astounding Award for Best New Writer, and the Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book have been announced by DisCon III, the 79th World Science Fiction Convention. There were 1,249 valid nominating ballots received (1,246 electronic and 3 paper). Best Novel Piranesi, Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury US; Bloomsbury UK) The City We Became, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK) The Relentless Moon, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor;

Speculative poetry and flash fiction magazine Arsenika announced that it will permanently close following the release of its upcoming Spring 2021 issue. The magazine ran for five years, starting with Issue 0 in Winter 2017. Issue 8 will be the last, and will include a longer statement from editor S. Qiouyi Lu.   While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time or recurring donation.

“Nice try, but she should go read Tom Clancy to see how it’s done.” That was a review on my first novel, Aurora: Darwin. I remember being a little stumped by this at the time because I hadn’t been trying to emulate Tom Clancy at all. I’ve never actually read any of his books, and as far as I’m aware he doesn’t write science fiction…. Perhaps it was the military

» San Francisco Chronicle: Gabino Iglesias Review: With ‘Hummingbird Salamander,’ sci-fi great Jeff VanderMeer changes direction » SF Gate: Dan Gentile: Everyone’s reading the buzzy novel ‘Klara and the Sun.’ Here’s why. » Onion AV Club: Alex McLevy: Jeff VanderMeer’s latest work of bleak eco-fiction is an apocalyptic page-turner

Winners of the Tolkien Society Awards 2021 were announced on April 11, 2021. The awards “recognize excellence in the fields of Tolkien scholarship and fandom, highlight­ing our long-standing charitable objective to ‘seek to educate the public in, and promote research into, the life and works of’” J.R.R. Tolkien. The society’s trustees choose the shortlist, with winners chosen by the membership. Best Artwork WINNER: “He Beheld a Vision of Gondolin Amid

Finalists for the 2021 Colorado Book Awards have been announced, including titles of genre interest: Science Fiction/Fantasy Tower of the Four: The Champions Academy Episodes 1-3 [The Quad, The Tower, The Test], Todd Fahnestock (F4) Once Again, Catherine Wallace Hope (Alcove) White Trash Warlock, David R. Slayton (Blackstone) Additionally, Molly Tanzer’s Creatures of Charm and Hunger (John Joseph Adams Books) is a finalist in the Historical Fiction category. Winners will

Burn by Patrick Ness (Walker) and Bearmouth by Liz Hyder (Pushkin) are among the titles shortlisted for the UK Literacy Association (UKLA) awards in the 11-14+ category. The UKLA awards are “the only national book awards which are judged by teachers.” Winners will be announced during the virtual UKLA International Conference on July 2, 2021. For more information, including the complete shortlists, see the UKLA website. While you are here,

Madeleine L’Engle’s library is being auctioned by New England Book Auctions to benefit three charity organizations. A small portion of the collection was auctioned in December 2020, raising nearly $10,000 for PEN America’s Prison and Justice Writing Program, Smith College’s Madeleine L’Engle Travel Research Fellowships, and the L’Engle Initiative at Image Journal. The rest of the books can be bid on through the New England Book Auctions website, with lots being

Westercon 73, the West Coast Science Fantasy Conference scheduled for July 1-4, 2021 in Seattle WA, has announced that the convention will not be held. It is disbanding its committee due, in part, to the coronavirus pandemic. They are working with LASFS, owner of the Westercon service mark, to implement Section 1.9 of the Westercon Bylaws regarding a Westercon committee failure. Loscon 47, scheduled for November 26-28, 2021 at the Marriott Los Angeles

Author, editor, and publisher John C. Pelan, 63, died April 12, 2021 in Albuquerque NM of an apparent heart attack. He lived in Gallup NM. Pelan was a significant figure in the dark fantasy and horror field, best known for founding numerous small presses and editing anthologies. Pelan was born July 19, 1957 in Seattle WA. In 1986 he founded Axolotl Press, publishing work by James P. Blaylock, Charles de

A new YA novel by Leigh Bardugo, Rules of Wolves (Imprint), second in the King of Scars Duology, debuts on three lists.

Author David Bowles and Estudio Tlalli have announced The Path Grant, which will award annual $2,500 prizes “to new and emerging BIPOC women writers of speculative fiction.” To fund the grant, Bowles will donate royalties from The Path series of novels (The Blue-Spangled Blue, The Deepest Green, The Rising Red, and The Swirling Black) and is seeking additional funding “to provide support to the maximum number of BIPOC women writers

Polskie Towarzystwo Studiów and Przyszłością (PTSP), the Polish Society for Futures Studies, will host the Stanisław Lem Centennial Debate, free online on April 18, 2021 at 12:00 p.m. Pacific Time. The event, billed as “the expansion of future consciousness through the practice of science fiction and futures studies,” features Thomas Lombardo, Kacper Nosarzewski, and Karlheinz Steinmüller, and is supported in part by the World Futures Studies Federation, Association of Professional

Ursula Vernon was born May 28, 1977 in Japan to a military fam­ily. She lived in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, and grew up mostly in Oregon, Arizona, California, and Minnesota, moving 18 times by age 20. She attended Macalester College in Saint Paul MN. Vernon has lived in North Carolina for the past 17 years. An illustrator and author, Vernon has written extensively for children and also writes

The Libertarian Futurist Society (LFS) has released the finalists for the Prometheus Award in the Best Novel category, honoring pro-freedom works published in 2020. Who Can Own the Stars?, Mackey Chandler (self-published) Storm Between the Stars, Karl K. Gallagher (Kelt Haven) The War Whisperer, Book 5: The Hook, Barry B. Longyear (Enchanteds) Braintrust: Requiem, Marc Stiegler (LMBPN) Heaven’s River, Dennis E. Taylor (Ethan Ellenberg) All members of the Libertarian Futurist

Out Past the Stars, K.B. Wagers (Orbit Books 978-0356512402, $16.99, 400pp, tp) February 2021. It is often difficult to begin a review of the third volume in a trilogy, particularly when, as with K.B. Wagers’s Out Past the Stars, it is the third volume of the second trilogy to star its protagonist and her world. Behind The Throne, After the Crown, and Beyond the Empire are the story of how

The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson (Del Rey) is the winner of the 2021 Compton Crook Award. Other finalists were: Axiom’s End, Lindsay Ellis (St. Martin’s) Nameless Queen, Rebecca McLaughlin (Crown) Architects of Memory, Karen Osbourne (Tor) The Bone Shard Daughter, Andrea Stewart (Orbit) Docile, K.M. Szpara (Tordotcom) The award is given by the Baltimore Science Fiction Society (BSFS) to honor the best first SF/fantasy/horror novel of the year.

» Washington Post: Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Lavie Tidhar: Let’s talk about the best — and newest — science fiction and fantasy story collections » Guardian: Lisa Tuttle covers The best recent science fiction and fantasy – reviews roundup, with titles by VanderMeer, Aristide, Suzuki, and Slatter

The winners for the 2021 PEN America Literary Awards have been announced, including Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn (MCD) in the $10,000 PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel. Other finalists of genre interest in the category were These Ghosts are Family, Maisy Card (Simon and Schuster) Temporary, Hilary Leichter (Coffee House) How Much of These Hills Is Gold, C Pam Zhang (Riverhead) PEN America “confers over

The New York Public Library announced its five Young Lions Fiction Award finalists for 2021, which includes Pew by Catherine Lacey (Farrar, Straus, Giroux) and Temporary by Hilary Leichter (Coffee House). The winner will be announced June 17, 2021. The $10,000 prize is awarded “each spring to a writer age 35 or younger for a novel or a collection of short stories” by a panel of judges. 2019’s winner was

Purgatory Mount, Adam Roberts (Gollancz 978-1473230941, £16.99, 336pp, hc) February 2021. It’s not too uncommon for an SF story to split itself between different time frames separated by centuries, with the causal links between frames only gradually made apparent – M. John Harrison’s Light is a well-known example – but the odd structure of Adam Rob­erts’s Purgatory Mount still seems pretty bold, as does the novel’s shifting tone from Clarkean

Experimenter Publishing Company has announced that, due to ongoing legal issues with a licensing agreement, it is placing Amazing Stories magazine on indefinite hiatus. Amazing Stories publisher Steve Davidson said, Experimenter Publishing hopes to get our current issue, featuring Canadian Writers and Artists, published once we raise funds to cover expenses. The Amazing Stories website will continue to publish on a daily basis and is not expected to be affected. Amazing Selects, Experimenter Publishing’s

Constelación 1/21 Metaphorosis 1/21, 2/21 Beneath Ceaseless Skies 1/1/21, 1/14/21 Welcome to 2021! Sure, it might be March or later as you’re reading this, but really my reading “year” runs from the March issue to the February “Year in Review” issue of the following year. I think we’re all look­ing for a better year to come, and the fiction I’ve been reading so far gives me hope. A genuine newcomer

DisCon III, the 79th World Science Fiction Convention, announced that it will be held as an in-person convention December 15-19, 2021, at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC. The move comes “after nearly two-thirds of respondents to a public survey put out by DisCon III said they would prefer an in-person December convention over a virtual convention in August.” Virtual memberships to the December convention will still be available.

The Unfinished Land, Greg Bear (John Joseph Adams Books 978-1-328-58990-3, $26.00, hc, 365 pp) February 2021. Greg Bear’s The Unfinished Land is not your standard-issue fantasy adventure, even if it does feature a young naïf who travels across a magical, quasi-living landscape, guided by and encountering a range of strangely powered beings, all on the way to a series of rev­elations about the true natures of said landscape, beings, and

Allington, Patrick: Rise & Shine (Scribe US 978-1-950354-42-9, $16.00, 240pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, April 6, 2021) Post-apocalyptic SF novel of survivors in the only two city-states left, literally fed only by the suffering they see in graphic footage of perpetual war. [Rise & Shine] could easily be an episode of Charlie Brooker’s Netflix series Black Mirror…Rise & Shine does not shy away from the complex moral terrain of

Legendborn, Tracy Deonn (Simon Pulse 978-1-534-44160-6, $18.99, 512pp, hc) September 2020. In Legendborn, an epic blend of Arthurian legend and Southern Black magical tradition, author Tracy Deonn incorporates the endless allure of collegiate secret societies with a lighter version of Hunger Games-esque battles (not to the death), and a cast of demons to give readers a big adventure that doesn’t stop until the final pages. (And even then it’s not

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) board unanimously signed a statement about anti-Asian hate crimes and racism. The statement reads, in part, Anti-Asian racism has long been a part of America’s fabric from the Page Act to the Chinese Exclusion Act and includes our own SF/F communities. We’ve seen it in the tropes and stereotypes that fetishize Asian women as dragon ladies and butterfly maidens, portray Asian

The most enduring title on these lists in recent months is Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library, now in its 25th week and still ranking #2 or #3 on three print lists here.

In ancient Rome, they marked the new year in March, a time which has always made far more sense to me than a dark, frigid day in January. March is when we get the first breath of spring, when winter’s grasp begins to ease, and we realize that we have survived another miserly winter season. After a very dark COVID-19 winter surge, I have emerged bleary-eyed into a new year

Burning Girls and Other Stories, Veronica Schanoes (Tordotcom 978-1-250781505, $25.99, 336pp, hc) March 2021. “History is a fairy tale”, a subtitle in Veronica Schanoes’s story “Emma Goldman Takes Tea with the Baba Yaga”, could almost serve as an epigram for the whole of her first collection, Burning Girls and Other Stories. Schanoes, who is a scholar of fairy tales, feminism, and Jewish literature and history, brings all of her considerable

Road Out of Winter by Alison Stine (Mira) won the 2021 Philip K. Dick Award, announced April 2, 2021 during the virtual Norwescon 43. A special citation was given to The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey (Orbit US). Other finalists were: Failed State, Christopher Brown (Harper Voyager US) Dance on Saturday, Elwin Cotman (Small Beer) Bone Silence, Alastair Reynolds (Orbit US) The Doors of Eden, Adrian Tchaikovsky (Orbit US) The

The winners for the 2020 British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) Awards have been announced. Best Novel WINNER: The City We Became, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit) Threading the Labyrinth, Tiffani Angus (Unsung Stories) Piranesi, Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury) The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again, M. John Harrison (Gollancz) Light of Impossible Stars, Gareth L. Powell (Titan) The Ministry for the Future, Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit) Club Ded, Nikhil Singh (Luna) The Doors of Eden,

There have been big changes at Quirk Books. Brett Cohen has resigned as president and publisher, end­ing a 20-year career there, with owner/founder David Borgenicht returning as president and Jhanteigh Ku­pihea promoted to publisher. Nicole De Jackmo rises to the new position of senior vice president of sales, marketing, and publicity. Megan Dipasquale was promoted to vice president of finance, Andie Reid to art director, Jane Morley to managing editor,

We Need Diverse Books has launched a new program, the Black Creatives Fund, starting in Spring 2021. The program, sponsored by Penguin Random House, is devoted to “supporting emerging and established Black writers and illustrators,” with plans including a workshop on revision, mentorships, and marketing education in association with The Brown Bookshelf, a group devoted to pro­moting children’s literature by Black creators. The revision workshop will include stipends for a

Remote Control, Nnedi Okorafor (Tordotcom 978-1-250-77280-0, 160pp, $17.99, hc) January 2021. Cover by art by Greg Ruth. Nnedi Okorafor’s Remote Control is a dark fantasy with Africanfuturistic elements that explores life, death, and loneliness while chronicling a few years in the early life of young girl who becomes the Angel of Death. Easy to read, emotionally gritty, and wildly imaginative, this is a short novel that takes readers into that

Publisher Serial Box, known for serialized audio fiction by notable genre authors, has rebranded as Realm. They produce original fiction and media tie-ins by authors including Max Gladstone, Ellen Kushner, Yoon Ha Lee. Malka Older, Fran Wilde, and many more. According to the official announcement, they are also introducing subscription plans and distributing some content via platforms such as Spotify and Apple, where audiences can listen for free. For more details,

The 19th Annual/5th International Science Fiction Conference was organized by the Indian Association for Science Fiction Studies Bangalore (IASFS) in collaboration with Bangalore University and held online December 7-10, 2020. The theme was “All Roads Lead to Science Fiction”, and participants included members of 58 departments at the university, faculty from 700 affiliated colleges, scientists, authors, editors, journalists, and luminaries from all over the world. A variety of activities and

Relics, Wrecks, & Ruins, Aiki Flinthart, ed. (Cat Press 978-0-648-99173-1, $29.99, 460pp) January 2021. On her website, novelist and editor Aiki Flinthart tells us that “after being diag­nosed with terminal cancer in late 2019, [she] reached out to as many of the best sci-fi/fantasy/horror authors as would answer.” The end product of this clarion call is Relics, Wrecks, & Ruins, an anthology that, despite the tragic circumstances surrounding its origins,

The International Costumers’ Guild (ICG) has relaunched the Pat and Peggy Kennedy Memorial Archives, an online collection of “over 100,000 photos and hundreds of masquerade videos” preserving the history of science fiction fan costuming. The archive contains photos from “science fiction and fantasy conventions, masquerade competitions, fashion shows, historical dress competitions and events, and other costume events and displays.” For more information, see the ICG online gallery. While you are

The Ravens, Kass Morgan & Danielle Paige (HMH Books 978-0-358-09823-2, $18.99, 400pp, hc) November 2020. Kass Morgan & Danielle Page’s novel The Ra­vens combines several current YA trends. The primary setting is a college sorority comprised of witches who are mostly preoccupied with furthering their own popularity. They live in a gorgeous historic house, attend a Georgia col­lege that has an appropriately creepy cemetery nearby, and spend a lot of

» New York Times: Ezra Klein: The Author Behind ‘Arrival’ Doesn’t Fear AI. ‘Look at How We Treat Animals.’, subtitled, “The award-winning author and Ezra Klein discuss A.I. suffering, free will, Superman’s failures and more. » The New Yorker: Ted Chiang: Why Computers Won’t Make Themselves Smarter, subtitled, “We fear and yearn for ‘the singularity.’ But it will probably never come.”

The 2020 Aurealis Awards shortlist, recognizing the best in Australian speculative fiction, has been announced. Best Science Fiction Novel Ghost Species, James Bradley (Penguin Random House) Aurora Burning, Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff (Allen & Unwin) Fauna, Donna Mazza (Allen & Unwin) The Animals in That Country, Laura Jean McKay (Scribe) The Mother Fault, Kate Mildenhall (Simon & Schuster Australia) Repo Virtual, Corey J. White (Tordotcom) Best Science Fiction Novella

A Wild Winter Swan, Gregory Maguire (Wil­liam Morrow, 978-0-06298-078-6, $27.99, 240pp, Hardcover) October 2020. One of the best aspects of Gregory Maguire’s work is his refusal to remove the wildness from animals, even anthropomorphized animals, in his books. Animals in his work fail to conform to human behavior and expectations in ways that are totally realistic for animals, and un­heard of in Disney films and their creative descen­dants. Maguire continues

Cover reveal! Dare to Know by James Kennedy from Quirk Books. Dark Matter meets Annihilation in this mind-bending and emotional speculative thriller set in a world where the exact moment of your death can be predicted–for a price. From the publisher: Our narrator is the most talented salesperson at Dare to Know, an enigmatic company that has developed the technology to predict anyone’s death down to the second. Divorced, estranged from his

Winners of the 2021 American Academy of Arts and Letters Literature Awards have been announced, including authors of genre interest. Laura van den Berg won the $200,000 Mildred & Harold Strauss Livings Award, given “in recognition of literary excellence and to provide freedom to devote time exclusively to writing.” Chang-rae Lee won the $25,000 Award of Merit for the Novel, given “to an outstanding writer representing excellence in the craft

Several titles and authors of genre interest made the 13-title longlist for the 2021 International Booker Prize: At Night All Blood Is Black, David Diop, translated by Anna Mocschovakis (Pushkin) The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, Mariana Enríquez, translated by Megan McDowell (Granta) When We Cease to Understand the World, Benjamín Labatut, translated by Adrian Nathan West (Pushkin) The Employees: A workplace novel of the 22nd century, Olga Ravn, translated

French author Jean-Claude Mourlevat is the winner of the 2021 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, honoring children’s and young-adult literature. The award, presented by the Swedish Arts Council, is accompanied by a cash prize of 5 million krona (approximately $572,000), and is the world’s largest financial award for children’s and young-adult works. The jury said, Jean-Claude Mourlevat is a brilliant renewer of fairy tale traditions, open to both hardship and beauty.

The Weak Spot, Lucie Elven (Soft Skull 978-1-593-76630-6, $15.95, 176pp, tp) February 2021. Lucie Elven’s novella, The Weak Spot, is set in a village somewhere in Europe; “an unrushed place” situated at the top of a mountain, which can only be reached by a funicular. Into this secluded environment comes our unnamed narrator, a young pharmacist who scores a gig at the local chemist, under the tutelage of its owner

Brown, Eli: Oddity (Candlewick Press/Walker US 978-1-5362-0851-1, $18.99, 368pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, Mar 30, 2021) Middle-grade alternate-history fantasy novel set in a 19th century where the Louisiana Purchase never went through, leaving the US in conflict with France. The daughter of a murdered doctor protects a magical Oddity he left behind. Illustrated by Karin Rytter.   Langmead, Oliver K.: Birds of Paradise (Titan Books US 978-1789094817, $15.95, 304pp, formats: trade

Editor and fan Wanda June Alexander, 69, died February 14, 2021 in Santa Fe NM. She was an editor for Tor from 1984 until 2006, where she worked with authors including George R.R. Martin. She was active in fandom starting in the ’70s. Alexander was born June 15, 1951 and grew up in Montrose NY. She worked for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in the ’70s, then returned

The winners of the 2021 Fan Activity Achievement Awards (FAAns) were announced by Corflu 38 administrators in an online ceremony on March 29, 2021.

Finalists for the inaugural Barnes & Noble Children’s & YA Book Awards Shortlist have been announced. Authors and titles of genre interest include: Young Adult Felix Ever After, Kacen Callender (Balzer + Bray) These Violent Delights, Chloe Gong (Margaret K. McElderry) Cemetery Boys, Aiden Thomas (Swoon) Punching the Air, Ibi Zoboi & Yusef Salaam (Balzer + Bray) Young Readers Amari and the Night Brothers, B.B. Alston (Balzer + Bray) Wink,

News Corp, parent company of HarperCollins Publishers, has announced that it will acquire Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s (HMH) publishing company, HMH Books & Media, for $349 million in cash. HMH will become part of HarperCollins, the second-largest consumer book publisher in the world. The deal will add more than 7,000 titles to the HarperCollins backlist, including The Lord of the Rings trilogy and other titles by J.R.R. Tolkien, 1984 and Animal Farm

Sanjna N. Singh is the recipient of the 2021 A.C. Bose Grant for South Asian Speculative Literature, presented by the Speculative Literature Foundation (SLF) and DesiLit. The $1,000 grant is given annually to “a South Asian / South Asian diaspora writer developing speculative fiction.” Singh has worked in New York City for over fifteen years, at HBO, and as a television producer for shows such as Mob Wives, Storm Chasers,

George R.R. Martin has signed a five-year contract with HBO, reportedly worth “mid-eight figures.” The network is developing six Game of Thrones prequel projects based on Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, including House of the Dragon, scheduled to air in 2022. Martin will also executive produce an adaptation of Nnedi Okorafor’s post-apocalyptic novel Who Fears Death, and an adaptation of Roger Zelazny’s fantasy novel Roadmarks, for HBO. While

Patricia Briggs’ Wild Sign (Ace), sixth in the Alpha and Omega series, debuts strongly on three print lists. A limited one-volume edition of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings (HarperCollins) with the author’s own illustrations, due in October, ranks on Amazon Canada’s list this morning.

The Complete Ivy Frost, Donald Wandrei (Haffner Press 978-1893887619, 720pp, $49.99, hardcover) December 2020 Haffner Press has been gifting the world of bibliophiles and literature-lovers with enormously attractive and highly readable books since 1998, when they published Jack Williamson’s The Queen of the Legion. (For a complete record of their offerings, visit their ISFDB page.) Any publication from Haffner exemplifies craftsmanship, graphic design ingenuity, and attention to textual fidelity. Moreover,

A Desolation Called Peace, Arkady Martine (Tor 978-1250186461, $26.99, 496pp, hc) March 2021. Despite how many readers raved about it, I didn’t manage to read Arkady Martine’s multi-award winning A Memory Called Empire when it first came out. There is never enough time, you know? But when the follow-up – A Desolation Called Peace – hit my in-box, I read the first few pages and was so hooked that I

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo (Hamish Hamilton), Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor and translated by Sophie Hughes (New Directions), and The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday) are on the six-title shortlist for the €100,000 2021 International Dublin Literary award. A total of 49 titles were nominated by libraries from 30 countries. The winner will be announced May 20, 2021. The shortlist and winner are chosen by the judging

Baen Books has announced the results of the 2021 Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Award: Grand Prize: “Salvage Judgement”, G. Scott Huggins First Runner-up: “Reaction Time”, C. Stuart Hardwick Second Runner-up (tie): “Samba do Espaço”,  Gustavo Bondoni Second Runner-up (tie): “Love On The Ganymede Trail”, Kurt Pankau The Grand Prize winner will be featured on the Baen website. The author will be given a trophy and paid professional rates. Grand

The shortlist for the 2021 International Dylan Thomas Prize has been announced. Titles and authors of genre interest include The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi (Faber) and Pew by Catherine Lacey (Granta). The annual Dylan Thomas prize, in partnership with Swansea University, awards £20,000 “to the best published or produced literary work in the English language, written by an author aged 39 or under.” This year’s judges are

Mark Kelly’s regular Periodicals posts have been discontinued. We will list online and print magazines seen by Locus each month.

Ancestral Futures and the Speculative Literature Foundation (SLF) have announced that applications are now open for their three-month mentorship in speculative fiction program. The program seeks to match writers who identify as Black, Indigenous, or a writer of color (BIPOC+), who have not published prose in professionally paying markets, with a professionally published author for “coaching and mentorship.” Interested applicants must email info@ancestralfutures.org before March 31, 2021. There is no

F&SF 1-2/21 Uncanny 1-2/21 The Book of Dragons, Jonathan Strahan ed. (Harper Voyager) July 2020. F&SF opens the year with a remarkable no­vella from John Kessel. “The Dark Side” concerns Leon Czolgosz, the murderer of President McKinley. The story runs on two tracks, one detailing Czolgosz’s actions leading up to his crime, plus some backstory, and also the aftermath as he is tried and executed. The other track concerns a

» Washington Post: Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Lavie Tidhar: Let’s talk about wonderful Indian science-fiction and fantasy novels » Slate: COVID-19 Isn’t the Apocalypse We Expected—or the One Some Wanted, subtitled “Recent novels from Don DeLillo and Jonathan Lethem fantasized about turning off screens forever,” beginning with a look back at E.M. Forster’s “The Machine Stops” » NYT: Kermit Pattison reviews associational book THE ZOOLOGIST’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY: What Animals

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado (Serpent’s Tail) has won the 2021 Rathbones Folio Prize. Other finalist titles of genre interest included A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa (Tramp) and The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey (Peepal Tree). The £30,000 Rathbones Folio Prize is open to all works of literature written in English and published in the UK during the previous calendar year.

Ancestral Futures and the Speculative Literature Foundation are sponsoring an online reading and anthology launch event, April 2, 2021 at 6:30 p.m. Pacific time, “to support publication of a community-centered Black Speculative Literary Arts story collection from various members of The AfroSurreal Writers Workshop of Oakland, The Association of Black and Brown Writers, Voodoonauts Fellows, and VONA Alumni.” The even will be hosted by LP Kindred and feature Trey Keeve

Project Northmoor, a fundraising campaign with the goal of buying J.R.R. Tolkien’s Oxford house and turning it into a literary center, failed to raise the £4.5 million needed to purchase and renovate the house. As of February 4, 2021, it had raised just 17% of its goal. However, the organizers announced that “we have been offered an alternative home for the first literary centre dedicated to Tolkien in a very

Peter S. Beagle and newly formed ownership group SHP, LLC have regained the rights to much of Beagle’s intellectual property in a sale recently approved by the US Bankruptcy Court. Beagle filed a lawsuit against his former business manage, Connor Cochran, in 2015, winning a total of $332,500 in damages. Related lawsuits against the Avicenna De­velopment Corporation and Conlan Press, Inc., were stayed when Cochran filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy for

M.A. Carrick, The Mask of Mirrors (Orbit 1/21) Marie Brennan & Alyc Helms join together under the Carrick pen name to bring us this first in the Rook & Rose trilogy. Con artist Ren comes to Nadezra, the City of Dreams, and gets swept up in its aristocratic glamor and nightmare magic for a captivating fantasy adventure.   Kristin Cashore, Winterkeep (Dial 1/21) Cashore returns to the world of her

Omenana 12/20 Strange Horizons 11/16/20, 12/1/20 Samovar 10/20 Speaking of speculative fiction from Africa, Omenana‘s 16th issue dropped in December. This one is full of tales of hauntings and other spooky happenings. A very confused ghost nar­rates “A Magician” by Rešoketšwe Manenzhe. In “Drummer Boy in a World of Wise Men” by Tobi Ogundirun, a young boy abandoned by his drummer father knows something is wrong when two strange men