The shortlist for the 2022 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, given by The Orwell Foundation to novels and short story collections published in the UK which explore major political and social themes through a fictional lens, includes at least two titles of genre interest: Cwen, Alice Albinia (Serpent’s Tail) The High House, Jessie Greengrass (Swift Press) The judges for 2022 are Dennis Duncan, Sana Goyal, Adam Roberts (chair of judges), and
Clarkesworld 2/22 Analog 3-4/2022 The Sunday Morning Transport 1/23/2022 The first three stories in February’s Clarkesworld all feature an aspect of human life that I’ve long felt gets short shrift in science fiction in particular, but also in fantasy – parenting. I was complaining once (after I became a parent myself, naturally) that I just did not see many folks with kids in these stories, and someone (childless, I believe)
Abdullah, Chelsea: The Stardust Thief (Orbit US 978-0-316-36876-6, $28.00, 480pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, May 17, 2022) Fantasy novel inspired by One Thousand and One Nights/Middle-Eastern folklore. Afifi, Nadia: The Emergent (Flame Tree Press US 978-1787586666, $14.95, 320pp, formats: trade paperback, hardcover, ebook, May 17, 2022) SF thriller/horror novel about clones and immortality, sequel to The Sentient. Bustamante, Ashley: Vivid (Third Day Books/Enclave Escape 9781621842309, $22.99, 304pp, formats:
Finalists have been announced for the 2022 Premios Kelvin 505 Awards, presented by the Celsius 232 festival and honoring the best science fiction, fantasy, and horror novels published in Spain. Mejor Novela Original (Best Original Novel) Dientes Rojos, Jesús Cañadas (Obscura) Membrana, Jorge Carrión (Galaxia Gutenberg) La señora Potter no es exactamente Santa Claus, Laura Fernández (Random House) El Morador, Daria Piertrzak (Dilatando Mentes) Mejor Novela Juvenil (Best YA Novel)
Yiyun Li won the 2022 PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story. “Given since 1988 in honor of the late Bernard Malamud, the award recognizes writers who have demonstrated exceptional achievement in the short story form.” Li’s genre work includes 2019 novel Where Reasons End (Random House). Li will be honored at the annual PEN/Malamud Award Ceremony, held in partnership with American University, on December 2, 2022. While you
The African Speculative Fiction Society (ASFS) has announced the shortlist for the 2022 Nommo Awards, given to works “by Africans as defined by the ASFS and Nommo Awards Guidelines.” Best Novel The Madhouse, TJ Benson (Penguin South Africa) The Gilded Ones, Namina Forna (Delacorte; Usborne) The Library of the Dead, T.L Huchu (Tor) Son of the Storm, Suyi Davies Okungbowa (Orbit US; Orbit UK) They Made Us Blood and Fury,
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) has announced Petra Mayer, Arley Sorg, and Troy L. Wiggins as recipients of the Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award “for distinguished contributions to the science fiction and fantasy community.” The Solstice Award, created in 2008 and given at the discretion of the SFWA president with the majority approval of the Board of Directors, is for individuals, living or dead, who have had
Fire Becomes Her, Rosiee Thor (Scholastic 978-1-33867-911-3, $18.99, 368pp, hc) February 2022. In Rosiee Thor’s Fire Becomes Her, Candesce, a nation similar to the United States in the 1920s, is on the cusp of an historic presidential election. Gwendolyn Brooks, a former entertainer, is challenging Senator Holt, an excessively wealthy man everyone believes is a shoe-in. When she was a child, Ingrid Ellis’s father was thrown in jail for bootlegging
F-CON, the 59th Japan SF Convention, has announced the finalists for the 2022 Seiun Awards (the Japanese equivalent of the Hugo Awards), honoring the best original and translated works published last year in Japan. Best Translated Novel No Enemy but Time, Michael Bishop, translated by Yutaka Oshima (Takeshobo) This Is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone, translated by Kazuko Yamada (Hayakawa) The Fated Sky, Mary
The British Fantasy Society (BFS) is looking for judges for the British Fantasy Awards. “For each category, 3-5 jurors read/watch/examine every entry on the final shortlist (4-6 titles) & then agree between themselves on the final winner.” The BFA constitution calls for “at least one non-member of the Society” to be on the jury. Interested individuals may apply through the webform, which is scheduled to close May 29, 2022. For
Holly Black’s adult debut, Book of Night (Tor), debuts on four lists, ranking as high as #2 on the New York Times‘ fiction hardcover list.
The 2022 Indie Book Awards Shortlist has been announced, with several titles and authors of genre interest: Fiction The Women of Troy, Pat Barker (Doubleday; Hamish Hamilton) Piranesi, Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury US; Bloomsbury UK) Mrs Death Misses Death, Salena Godden (Canongate) Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro (Knopf; Faber & Faber) Non-Fiction The Comfort Book, Matt Haig (Penguin Life; Canongate) Children’s Fiction The Week at World’s End, Emma Carroll (Faber)
Dhonielle Clayton was born May 26, 1983 in Olney MD and grew up “right in the shadows of DC.” Clayton graduated from Wake Forest University in 2005, earned her MA from Hollins University in 2008, and her MFA in creative writing from The New School in 2012. She has worked as a children’s librarian. Clayton writes SF, fantasy, and contemporary works for children and young adults. Her first fantasy novel
The Paradox Hotel, Rob Hart (Ballantine 978-1-98482-064-8, 324pp, $28, hc) February 2022. Rob Hart’s The Paradox Hotel sums its own energy up with one line of dialog: ‘‘We’re at DEFCON Level Holy Shit.’’ Hart not only starts in media res, he puts us on the rollercoaster that is the Paradox Hotel just as it is tipping down the first big hill. The pace never really lets up until the end.
Sea of Tranquility, Emily St. John Mandel (Knopf 978-0-59332-144-7, $25.00, 272pp, hc) April 2022. There is this wink-to-the-audience moment about halfway through Sea of Tranquility where Olive Llewellyn, bestselling author of Marienbad, is asked what it’s like to have written such a successful book. Oh. It’s surreal, actually. I wrote three books that no one noticed, no distribution beyond the moon colonies… when I published Marienbad, I somehow fell into
Author ROBERT C. CORNETT, 69, died April 1, 2022 at home in Albuquerque NM. Cornett was a prolific author of SF, military, and adventure fiction. His work of genre interest includes the Time Mercenaries series with Kevin D. Randle: Remember the Alamo! (1980), Remember Gettysburg! (1988), and Remember the Little Bighorn! (1990), and the Fifty Million Years War series, also written with Randle: Seeds of War (1986), The Aldebaran Campaign
MILESTONES Horror author JOHN SKIPP, 64, has announced his retirement from writing and publishing fiction; his final title is collection Don’t Push the Button (Clash Books). Going forward he will focus on music and film. He has two new albums, The Antidote to Fear and Cry Me a Rainbow, out via his own Fungasm Records label. He also wrote, produced, directed, and scored short film Doppelbanger, which premiered in March
The Horror Writers Association (HWA) has announced the winners for the 2021 Bram Stoker Awards. Superior Achievement in a Novel WINNER: My Heart Is a Chainsaw, Stephen Graham Jones (Saga) The Queen of the Cicadas, V. Castro (Flame Tree) The Final Girl Support Group, Grady Hendrix (Berkley) Children of Chicago, Cynthia Pelayo (Agora) The Book of Accidents, Chuck Wendig (Del Rey) Superior Achievement in a First Novel WINNER: Queen of
The 45th Williamson Lectureship, held April 7-9, 2022 in Portales NM, was a smaller event after two years of COVID, but those who attended were happy to see each other. “I’m so glad we’re in-person this year,” Connie Willis said at Friday’s luncheon. “It’s so nice to see people’s faces, whether masked or not. I am so pleased we’re here today, and not on Zoom.” “Speculative Fiction: Never the Same
The Temperature of Me and You, Brian Zepka (Disney-Hyperion 978-1-36806-471-2, $17.99, hc, 416 pp) January 2022. Author Brian Zepka set out to blend a sweet romance with high school drama and a major science fiction twist in The Temperature of Me and You, a novel involving the teen victim of a lab accident/experiment that has left him literally burning from the inside out. I’ll be honest; I’m a bit fuzzy
Masters of Science Fiction: Robert Sheckley, Robert Sheckley (Centipede Press 978-1-61347-311-5, hardcover, 728pp, $65 February 2022. There have been four previous volumes in Centipede Press’s gorgeous series Masters of Science Fiction. (Lordy, how splendidly assembled and adorned these books are!) The dedicatees are: James Patrick Kelly, Fritz Leiber, Richard Wilson, and Kate Wilhelm. I endorse these selections wholeheartedly. (I even did the introduction to the Wilson volume.) True masters, one
The winners of the 2022 Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire, honoring the best SF/F work published in France in 2021, have been announced. French Novel WINNER: Vivonne, Jérôme Leroy (La Table ronde) Citadins de demain, Claire Duvivier (Aux forges de Vulcain) Nous sommes les chasseurs, Jérémy Fel (Rivages) La Nuit du faune, Romain Lucazeau (Albin Michel) Feminicid, Christophe Siébert (Au diable vauvert) Foreign Novel WINNER: Notre part de nuit, Mariana Enriquez
The finalists for the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for the best short science fiction story have been announced by the Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction. “If the Martians Have Magic“, P. Djèlí Clark (Uncanny 9-10/21) “Philia, Eros, Storge, Agápe, Pragma”, R.S.A Garcia (Clarkesworld 1/21) The Album of Dr. Moreau, Daryl Gregory (Tordotcom) “Broad Dutty Water: A Sunken Story”, Nalo Hopkinson (F&SF 11-12/21) “Proof by Induction“, José Pablo Iriarte (Uncanny 5-6/21) “The Dark
Flash Fiction Online 2/22 Fireside 2/22 Strange Horizons 2/7/22, 2/14/22 At Flash Fiction Online, February is often dedicated to stories about love, and new editor Emma Munro keeps that tradition going. A small note for full disclosure that this issue contains a reprint of my own story, “A Lumberjack’s Guide to Dryad Spotting” (the story also appears as a reprint in Xenocultivars, which I’m also reviewing in this column). Some
The winners of the 91st Annual California Book Awards, presented by the Commonwealth Club of California, have been announced. Home Is Not A Country by Safia Elhillo (Make Me a World) won the gold medal in the Young Adult category, while Refractive Africa by Will Alexander (New Directions) won the gold medal in the Poetry category. The awards honor “the writers who have come to define California to the world.”
Chen, Mike: Star Wars: Brotherhood (Penguin Random House/Del Rey 978-0-593-35857-3, $28.99, 352pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, May 10, 2022) Star Wars tie-in novel, set just after the events of Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. Finelli, Jen: Neodymium Betrayal (WordFire Press 978-1-68057-284-1, $18.99, 406pp, formats: trade paperback, hardcover, ebook, May 4, 2022) SF novel, second in The Neodymium Chronicles series. A young space veteran is already struggling with trauma
Kazuo Ishiguro has won the Tähtivaeltaja Award for Klara ja aurinko [Klara and the Sun], translated into Finnish by Helene Bützow (Tammi). The award is sponsored by Helsingin Science Fiction seura. The judging panel includes Hannu Blommila, Toni Jerrman, Elli Leppä, and Kaisa Ranta. For more information, see the announcement. While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time or recurring donation. We rely on
Light Years from Home, Mike Chen (MIRA 978-0-7783-1173-7, $28.00, 353 pp, hc) January 2022. The American painter, Conrad Marca-Relli, was known best for his abstract depictions of the body. He often relied on cut paper forms to build his work, famously stating, ‘‘You get a linear quality from collage that is more rapid than the swiftest drawn line.’’ While Mike Chen’s newest novel, Light Years from Home, is far from
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) has announced that Neil Gaiman and Connie Willis will be Toastmasters at the 2021 SFWA Nebula Awards, to be presented in an online ceremony on May 21, 2022. President Jeffe Kennedy says, “I’m delighted that Connie and Neil have so graciously taken time from their busy schedules to lend their voices and dynamic presences to the Nebula Awards ceremony. I’ve caught a
The Atlas Six, Olivie Blake (Self-published 978-1-679-91099-9, 383pp, tp) January 2020. (Tor 978-1-25085-451-3, 536pp, $25.99, hc) March 2022. I am late to the Olivie Blake (AKA Alexene Farol Follmuth) party because I can’t commit to TikTok, which is where The Atlas Six first caught the imaginations of thousands of readers. This Tor edition is an expanded and revised edit of the version of the book that made the rounds back
The Locus Science Fiction Foundation has announced the top ten finalists in each category of the 2022 Locus Awards. These results are from the February 1 to April 15 voting, done by readers on an open public ballot. Congratulations to all! The Locus Awards winners will be announced June 25, 2022, during the virtual Locus Awards Weekend. Connie Willis will MC the awards ceremony. Additional weekend events include author readings,
Under Fortunate Stars, Ren Hutchings (Rebellion/Solaris 978-1-78618-592-1, $24.99, 480pp, hc) May 2022 It takes less than ten pages to understand the deep love Ren Hutchings has for space operas. Classic ones, modern ones. Movies, series, adaptations. From Firefly to The Forever War, the homages run deep in Under Fortunate Stars. But this is no cookie-cutter hack or half-baked collage. Under Fortunate Stars manages to tease out the familiar, best parts
Author Patricia A. McKillip, 74, died May 6, 2022. She was best known for her fantasy novels for children and young adults, including the Riddle-Master trilogy. Patricia Anne McKillip was born February 29, 1948 in Salem OR. She attended the College of Notre Dame, Belmont, and San Jose State University in California, receiving a BA in 1971 and an MA in English in 1972. Her first publications were short children’s
The Netanyahus by Joshua Cohen (NY Review) won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in the Fiction category. The award, given for “distinguished fiction published in book form during the year by an American author, preferably dealing with American life,” comes with a prize of $15,000. The judges called the winner a “A mordant, linguistically deft historical novel about the ambiguities of the Jewish-American experience, presenting ideas and disputes as volatile as
Susie Haynes of Fantast Three has announced her retirement from bookselling, and will end operations in mid-summer. She specialized in importing and distributing magazines to the UK, and was for a long time the British subscription agent for Locus. Haynes set up Fantast Three in 2008 following the death of her father Ken Slater, the well-known fan and bookseller since the 1940s, who ran Operation Fantast & Fantast (Medway) Ltd. He supported and supplied many
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) has announced the results of its election for open Board of Directors positions. Vice President: John Murphy Chief Financial Officer: Erin Hartshorn Directors-at-Large (through 2024) Jordan Kurella Monica Valentinelli They will join continuing Board members José Pablo Iriarte, Jeffe Kennedy (president), Remy Nakamura, Adam Rakunas (secretary), and Christine Taylor-Butler. Monica Valentinelli will continue as director-at-large for another two years. Nathan Lowell (CFO),
Tor.com 2/26/22, 2/9/22, 1/26/22, 1/12/22 PodCastle 1/18/22, 2/8/22 Uncanny 1-2/22 If you’ve read the three previous Judge Dee stories by Lavie Tidhar, you are sure to enjoy the new one, “Seven Vampires: A Judge Dee Mystery” (Tor.com 2/26/22). You can enjoy it even if you haven’t chanced upon the series previously, but since the three earlier tales are easily found online, you have no excuse not catch up. Judge Dee
When a rupture threatens the multiverse, ordinary mother and laundromat owner Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) is recruited by a shadowy organization. They tell her that only she can save the multiverse… but can they be trusted, is any of this real, and besides all of this, can she really help? Evelyn has to figure it out fast – and sort out her taxes at the same time, or the IRS
Science Museum in London and UK publisher Hodder & Stoughton have announced the inaugural Science Fiction Debuts Writing Prize. To qualify, “writers must be unpublished and not represented by a literary agent, and residents of the United Kingdom.” The author of the winning entry will receive £4,000, a six-month mentorship with Hodderscape editorial director Molly Powell, introduction to three literary agents, and a full critique. The runner-up will receive £2,000
Russian-Ukrainian SF writer Sergey Dyachenko, 77, died May 5, 2022 in California. Dyanchenko was best known for co-authoring over 30 titles with his wife, Marina Dyachenko (née Shirshova), notably Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire winner Vita Nostra (2007), translated into English in 2018. Sergey Sergeyevich Dyachenko was born April 14, 1945 in Kyiv, Ukraine, then part of the USSR. He earned a master’s in biology, then a medical degree, and worked
A new fantasy novel by T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone (Tor), debuts on the Publishers Weekly fiction hardcover list at #23. This is the first time Kingfisher, or Ursula Vernon, has ranked on any of the lists compiled here.
The High House by Jessie Greengrass (Swift; Scribner) and Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford (Faber & Faber; Scribner) are on the five-title shortlist for the 2022 Encore Award, given by the Royal Society of Literature (RSL) to the best second novel of the year. The judges for 2022 are Sian Cain, Paul Muldoon, and Nikesh Shukla. The winner of the £10,000 will be announced May 24, 2022. Each of the
Adrian Czajkowsk, who writes as ADRIAN TCHAIKOVSKY, was born June 4, 1972 in Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire, England. He attended the University of Reading, where he studied zoology and psychology. He worked as a legal executive until becoming a full-time writer in late 2018. Tchaikovsky began publishing with fantasy novel Empire in Black and Gold (2008), first in the ten-book Shadows of the Apt series, concluded with Seal of the Worm
Jawbone, Mónica Ojeda (Coffee House Press 978-1-56689-621-4, $16.95, 272pp, tp) February 2022. On occasion, I’ve been known to make bold pronouncements in this column. Back in January, I crowned John Darnielle’s Devil House as one of the best books of the year, having read less than a handful of novels published in 2022. Three months later and I stand by that proclamation. Having just finished Mónica Ojeda’s Jawbone, translated by
Norwescon 44 was held April 14-17, 2022 in SeaTac WA at the DoubleTree by Hilton Seattle Airport. This was the first time the convention has been held in person since 2019; the 2020 event was postponed, and in 2021 it was virtual. This year’s theme was ‘‘The Stars of Home.’’ Guests of honor were writer Cat Rambo, artist Rob Carlos, and special guests Connor Alexander and Lydia K. Valentine. Fairwood
The Bone Orchard, Sara A. Mueller (Tor 987-1-250-77694-5, $26.99, 432pp, hc) March 2022. The Bone Orchard is Sara A. Mueller’s debut novel. Aesthetically, it has more than a touch of the gothic; thematically, its arguments about autonomy and identity, personhood and empire, remind me strikingly of Arkady Martine’s science fiction, Max Gladstone’s Craft books, and A.K. Larkwood’s debut The Unspoken Name. Bones and traps and secrets, oh my! Borenguard is
The 38th Writers of the Future Awards and 33rd Illustrators of the Future Awards gala event took place on Friday, April 8, 2022 at the Taglyan Complex in Los Angeles CA. The Writers of the Future Golden Pen Award went to Desmond Astaire for story ‘‘Gallows’’, and the Illustrators of the Future Golden Brush Award went to Zaine Lodhi for the illustration of ‘‘Agatha’s Monster’’. Each Golden Award winner received
Flint and Mirror, John Crowley (Tor 978-1250817525, hardcover, 256pp, $26.99) April 2022. Shortly after the 2017 publication of John Crowley’s masterful novel, Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr, Crowley was heard to opine that the book might be his last piece of long fiction, some fifty years of hard work and exquisite dreaming having taken their natural toll and led to a point of closure and cessation. A
The Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction has announced the first Annual Sturgeon Symposium, to be held September 29-30, 2022 at the University of Kansas in Lawrence KS. The Symposium “which will feature the presentation of the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for best science fiction short story and a reading from this year’s winner. This hybrid in-person/online symposium will also feature panels, presentations, and roundtable discussions that highlight
Escape Pod 1/22, 2/22 Cast of Wonders 2/22 GigaNotoSaurus 2/22 Escape Pod saw its first release of the year in late January with “Payday Weather” by Matthew Claxton, which unfolds in a California ravaged by wildfire. Little speculative in that, but the story takes it further, imagines the shape technology might take to fill in the holes left in the social safety net. Mercenary fire suppression workers try to balance
Submissions for the Speculative Literature Foundation’s (SLF) Older Writers Grant are open now through May 31, 2022. The $1,000 grant is awarded to a writer who is fifty years of age or older, who is “just starting to work at a professional level”. The award is “to be used as each writer determines will best assist their work.” The recipient will be selected by SLF members. For more information on
Battle of the Linguist Mages, Scotto Moore (Tordotcom 978-1-250-76772-1, 448pp, $28.99, hc) January 2022. Scotto Moore’s debut story Your Favorite Band Cannot Save You was a weird trip into the wild world of streaming music and touring bands. It was a strange delight – and at about 128 pages, it was just enough too muchness to be fun. Battle of the Linguist Mages is very much a Moore creation –
Aspects, John M. Ford (Tor 978-1250269034, hardcover, 496pp, $26.99) April 2022. I discovered something unique in all my years of reading, upon encountering John M. Ford’s posthumously published novel: it is possible to be both elated and melancholy at the same time. I am elated because what we have here—in nearly five hundred pages of polished text—is a shining, brilliant example of fantasy writing, nothing but pure pleasure and joy…
Jane Smith’s “Salt Water” is the winner of the Feminist Futures Award, which recognizes “excellence in feminist storytelling and capture the complexities and other aspects of identity, as well as intersectionality, through the imaginative power of science fiction.” The prize is part of the Omega Sci-Fi Awards, which announced other results yesterday, including the Roswell Award finalists. Roswell and Feminist Futures stories will be read by celebrity guests during an
Nigerian author and creative writing professor Suyi Davies Okungbowa has announced The Literary Laddership for Emerging African Authors, which “aims to support, elevate and connect emerging fiction authors of Black and/or African descent, based primarily on the African continent and writing in English.” Fellows “will be offered a funded ($500 each) three-month digital residency, membership in a private community of practice, and continuous support through the publishing ecosystem.” The current
Quantum of Nightmares, Charles Stross (Tordotcom 978-1-25083-937-4, $27.99, 368 pp, hc) January 2022. Charles Stross’s Quantum of Nightmares is the 11th of the Laundry Files books, a series whose trademark is the blending of tropes, motifs, and narrative conventions from the supernatural-horror and intrigue/crime/spy-thriller genre families. At the beginning, these struck me as light entertainment, part Lovecraftian-gothick, part secret-agent adventure, with a generous dollop of political-social satire, all delivered with
Banker, Ashok K.: The Blind King’s Wrath (Harper Voyager US 978-0-358-45133-4, $17.99, 416pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, May 3, 2022) Indian fantasy novel, third and final in the Burnt Empire series. Krushni and her father, the Demonlord Jarsun, battle for the Burning Throne and the fate of the Krushan dynasty. Barnhill, Kelly: When Women Were Dragons (Penguin Random House/Doubleday 978-0385548229, $28.00, 352pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, May 3,
Chicon 8 has announced Brian Keith Ellison as the designer of the 2022 Hugo Award base, and Sara Felix as the designer of the 2022 Lodestar Award. The awards will be presented during Chicon 8, the 80th World Science Fiction Convention, to be held September 1-5, 2022 in Chicago, Illinois. For more information, see the Chicon 8 website. While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with
Winners of the second annual Barnes & Noble Children’s & YA Book Awards have been announced, and Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao (Penguin Teen; Rock the Boat) won the YA category. Winners were also announced in the Young Reader and Picture Book categories. For more information, including the complete list of winners, see the Barnes & Noble website. While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus
The Omega Sci-Fi Awards announced finalists and winners for some of their annual prizes. Roswell Award short story competition finalists: “Dr. Harriet Hartfeld’s Home for Aging AIs”, Paul Martz “Astronomology; or How Elon Musk killed Neil deGrasse Tyson”, Ed Marsh “Tyrannosaurus Mechs”, Gregory Norris “Beauty is the Beast”, Ven Pillay “Heart to Heart”, Susan Wachowski The Roswell Award short story competition is open to writers 16 years old and up.
Metaphorosis 2/2022 Apparition Lit 1/2022 Mysterion 1-2/2022 I’ve enjoyed every issue of Metaphorosis Magazine that I’ve picked up, and I always regret not getting to all of them. The February issue features two debuts, starting with “Freely Given” by Connor Mellegers. In Jean and Ev’s society, giving larger gifts grants you vastly increased social status, while laboring for wages is looked down upon. Joan sets up Ev to get false
An anthology of stories set in the world of Janelle Monáe’s Dirty Computer concept album and short film, The Memory Librarian (Harper Voyager), debuts on three lists.
Greetings from the past. I write these words six weeks before you will read them. I used to do this all the time, back in the glory days of print. Hell, I spent most of the ’90s writing a monthly guide to interesting websites, which came out two months after I submitted it. I’ve been writing six columns per year for Locus for fourteen years and I have not missed
The Visual History of Science Fiction Fandom – Volume Two: 1940, David Ritter & Daniel Ritter (First Fandom Experience 978-1-7366596-1-8, $195.00, 484pp, hc) December 2021. It’s already been a couple of years since David & Daniel Ritter’s The Visual History of Science Fiction Fandom, Volume One: The 1930s gave us a sort of tomb-raider’s view of the early days of fan culture, more or less concluding with the first Worldcon
The 42nd International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts (ICFA 43) returned as an in-person event this year, held in sometimes sunny, sometimes overcast, but always muggy Orlando FL on March 16-20, 2022, at the Orlando Airport Marriott Hotel. The theme was “Fantastic Communities”. Nisi Shawl was the guest of honor, and Farah Mendlesohn was guest scholar. Academics, writers, publishers, editors, artists, students, independent scholars, and more gathered for
Crazy in Poughkeepsie, Daniel Pinkwater (Tachyon 978-1-61696-374-3, $16.95, 192pp hc) April 2022. There’s always a degree of satisfaction, maybe bordering on smugness, in finding that a favorite quirky writer is also a favorite of other writers you respect. In a career of half a century, Daniel Pinkwater has gained the admiration of writers as diverse as Cory Doctorow, Neil Gaiman, and Charlie Jane Anders – some lucky enough to have
The previously reported #DisneyMustPay movement has written an open letter to Disney, signed by “The #DisneyMustPay Task Force, Neil Gaiman, Tess Gerritsen, Lee Goldberg, Mary Robinette Kowal, Chuck Wendig.” The letter states: You’ve paid some authors what you owed them. But there are other creators that you don’t want to talk about. And, because you did not take our advice, new creators are coming forward who are owed money, too.
The International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts (IAFA) has announced that Tananarive Due will be Guest of Honor and and Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay will be the Guest Scholar for the 2022 online conference, scheduled October 7-9. “The Global Fantastic” is the theme. Submissions for paper proposals open June 1. IAFA invites proposals “responding to, but not limited to” themes and topics including Afrofuturism, Indigenous futurisms, theories of the fantastic
Authors and works of genre interest are among the winners of the Mystery Writers of America (MWA) 2022 Edgar Awards, “honoring the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction and television.” “The Road to Hana” by R.T. Lawton (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine) won in the Best Short Story category, and Concealed by Christina Diaz Gonzalez (Scholastic) won the Best Juvenile category. “Analogue” by Rob Osler (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine) won the Robert
Strange Horizons 1/03/22, 1/10/22, 1/17/22 GigaNotoSaurus 1/22 Lightspeed 2/22 Fantasy 2/22 The big news out of Strange Horizons as the year opens is the increase in poetry they’re publishing, doubling their poetic offerings every issue. For fiction, the year opens with “Broken Blue” by E.M. Faulds, a story about a recently divorced woman, Katie, her adorable Labrador, and the stranger who enters her life, filling up an empty space. For
Robert J. Sawyer’s WWW trilogy — Wake (2009), Watch (2010), and Wonder (2011) — won the Machine Intelligence Foundation for Rights and Ethics 2021 Media Award, presented by AI research foundation MIFRE in “recognition of the representation of human and Machine Intelligence forming and thriving in a cooperative peer relationship.” With this award, the Foundation intends to recognize, and encourage, works of fiction that portray a future in which humans
This list covers new SF/F/H print, online, and electronic periodicals (including regularly updated websites) seen by Locus magazine, focusing on those that publish fiction or reviews and criticism. To submit titles for listing on these pages, please send to Locus Publications, 655 13th St. #100, Oakland CA 94612 or email locus@locusmag.com. Fiction River: Broken Dreams Kristine Kathryn Rusch, ed. Issue No. 37 $15.99 paper/$6.99 digital, irregular, 224pp, 14 x 21½
The Broken Tower, Kelly Braffet (Mira Books 978-0-77833-179-7, $27.99, 480pp, hc) Cover by Micaela Alcaino. Content-warning: mentions of self-harm, child abuse. Kelly Braffet’s The Broken Tower picks up right after the The Unwilling, where Judah the Foundling jumps from the top of a castle tower to save her stepbrother, Gavin. Following her leap of faith, she finds herself in the company of two mysterious men, and her magical connection with
The 8-title shortlist for the 2022 Branford Boase Award has been announced, and includes several titles of genre interest: Skin of the Sea, Natasha Bowen (Penguin) The Upper World, Femi Fadugba (Penguin) Grimwood, Nadia Shireen (Simon & Schuster) The award is “given annually to the author of an outstanding debut novel for children.” The author and editor of the winning title each receive an engraved trophy, and the author receives
The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak (Bloomsbury) is on the shortlist for the £10,000 Royal Society of Literature (RSL) Ondaatje Prize The award is given “to an outstanding work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry that best evokes the spirit of a place.” The judges for 2022 are Patrice Lawrence, Sandeep Parmar (Chair), and Philippe Sands. The winner will be announced on May 4. For more information, including the
The 6-title shortlist has been announced for the 2022 Women’s Prize for Fiction. Nominees of genre interest include: The Bread the Devil Knead, Lisa Allen-Agostini (Myriad) The Sentence, Louise Erdrich (Harper) The Book of Form & Emptiness, Ruth Ozeki (Viking) The prize celebrates “excellence, originality and accessibility in writing by women throughout the world.” The winner will be announced on June 15, 2022, and will receive £30,000 and a bronze
Westercon has announced that as of the April 15th deadline, there have been no bids filed to host Westercon 76. The Site Selection is now open, and those interested in bidding can still file until July 2, 2022 to be eligible as a write-in bid. If there are no eligible bids, the site selection will fall to the Westercon Business Meeting on July 3, 2022. For more information, see the
According to The Bookseller, Eleanor Teasdale has been promoted to publisher and Gemma Creffield has been promoted to commissioning editor at Angry Robot. Teasdale was previously commissioning editor, and Creffield was managing editor, both joining Angry Robot in 2019. While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time or recurring donation. We rely on reader donations to keep the magazine and site going, and would
Winners of the 2022 Oregon Book Awards were announced by Literary Arts on April 25, 2022. What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad (Knopf) won the Ken Kesey Award for Fiction. Judges for the category were Alexandra Kleeman, Robin Wasserman, and Charles Yu. Courtney Gould’s The Dead and the Dark (Wednesday Books) won the Young Adult category; judges were Zan Romanoff, Francisco X. Stork, and Shelley Tanaka. Guidelines for the
The Long Game, K.J. Parker (Subterranean 978-1-64524-080-0, $44.88, 108pp, hc) March 2022. K.J. Parker may not have invented the idea of using an exasperated, put-upon narrator to undercut the implicit pretensions of a classic fantasy setting, but he’s certainly become its reigning virtuoso. His latest novella, The Long Game, is again set in his alternate late-medieval Europe, with its not-quite-recognizable place names like Idalia or Sabades Amar but fully recognizable
