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What came first, the characters, the language, or the shape of the commune? In some ways, the text suggests that the shape of the commune was predetermined: children needed to be raised communally because there was too much work…  How much did initial conditions and the founders determine the trajectory?

Sue: The characters and the environment shaped each other as they interacted and the story developed, but I started off with two main ideas.

Firstly, I knew I’d have to set the story in the past, with a cast of characters who would want change but not be in a position to have an intellectual discussion about gender. Secondly, shipwrecking them on a hostile, barren island would force a departure from their rigid, oppressive gender roles, as survival would be their primary motivator.

The language evolved with the different dialects and experience each character brought to the island, which also affected the roles the founders adopted within the community. 

There were a lot of adjustments made during the editing process.

The Mune functions without any form of money; was this a deliberate choice? The workload and resources are allocated without any particular system, even as crises pass and the commune grows. 

The short answer is yes. I wanted to create as close to a true democracy as possible —where no role was valued more than another. Everyone on the island contributed what they could and had equal worth. Even when the Mune was stable, there was never an excess of food or time, so there was never complacency. They lived in the present not the past, with no desire to hoard.

History shows us that money tends to create inequality, and wealth is not an indicator of ability or productivity, quite often it’s down to luck and lineage. 

Some of the commune’s most important tenets were suggested by a sci-fi story within the novel. The commune is a model of applied science fiction – however, the relationship is not linear, utopian stories don’t build utopian worlds. Did you intentionally separate the stories and their impacts?

Master’s Science stories are actually pastiches based on work written in the Victorian period that The Mune is set. The stories not only reflect the society of the time but showcase social and political ambitions and the methods imagined for achieving them. I hoped the stories would provide a bridge between accurate historical fact and SF narratives, which contained key nineteenth century ideas and technological advances, whilst imagining a more compassionate future. They also allowed me to shape my characters and add details about the island, reducing exposition in the main narrative.

Speaking of complexity, Betty and Master are among the most challenging protagonists, zigzagging from crimes to saviourism (and/or saviourism as crimes). They are on a different level of complexity compared to other characters. Incidentally, they are both science fiction writers. Is this a coincidence?

I wanted Betty’s character to be influenced by the stories she read with Master, and to use some of the key utopian ideas from those texts to shape the community. It felt just that Betty would be able to use her lived experience and imagination to gain her independence once back in the old world. 

Master’s love of science fiction and discovery meant he was open to novel environments and more focused on discovery once on the island, than trying to control the community. Neither Betty nor Master is inherently bad, but a product of their environment. It’s the inability to change and adapt that causes the problems.

On the back of this, did you intentionally make the main protagonist one that your readers might grow to dislike, or did the Betty character come into her own as the story developed? 

Betty came into her own as the story developed. Her character provided conflict, being so resistant to change. She reacts as I believe the majority of us would do in a life-altering situation, wanting to escape or be rescued rather than face her demons. She was just a child when she arrived on the island, having been gaslit and deeply traumatised.

If gender is technology, then The Mune is a very techno-optimistic narrative. Transformation happens quickly and thoroughly. It is a social tipping point – a tiny nudge (a vote) and all the awful stuff vanishes. It is exhilarating. But was there a temptation to make the process of change slower and painful for society as a whole, not just for Betty or Master?

I wanted the narrative to be optimistic so, there was never a temptation to slow the process of change or make the journey more painful for the society. I felt the majority of the founders had suffered enough in asylums, in service and on the streets of London. Despite the hard work of surviving, the founders acquired agency on the island, learned skills denied to them, and had the freedom to express themselves and there was no one on the island with (perceived) authority to oppose change. It seemed logical that they would want their children to be free of the shackles that bound them and embrace transformation.

The plot ends with a deus ex machina. Commune has to move. I was left with a longing, hoping that another novel was waiting around the corner, waiting to see the Old World remade by the intrusion. Will there be? And, why did you choose to end the story there?

There are a few characters who have refused to leave my imagination despite the fact I’m working on something quite different. There’s Star, the traveller, who would be well placed to reflect on our society, although currently it feels a little too dystopic! And there’s Betty’s child, in the womb on the island, who would have the advantage of the technology brought back by the Mune and witness the altered world. 

However, I’d need my own shipwreck and an isolated island to write it all.

Dr Sue Dawes is an author, educator and editor. She has written and published a large number of science fiction, literary and crime short stories and articles in magazines and online, and her novel, The Mune, was published by Goldsmiths Press in 2025. Sue has taught creative writing at Essex University, for community groups and is a manuscript editor and mentor for The Writers Company. Sue completed her PhD in creative writing in 2023, specialising in gendered language and inclusion. She is currently studying to become an occupational therapist and has a particular interest in community narratives, the occupation of storytelling, and collaborative writing.

What came first, the characters, the language, or the shape of the commune? In some ways, the text suggests that the shape of the commune was predetermined: children needed to be raised communally because there was too much work…  How much did initial conditions and the founders determine the trajectory?

Sue: The characters and the environment shaped each other as they interacted and the story developed, but I started off with two main ideas.

Firstly, I knew I’d have to set the story in the past, with a cast of characters who would want change but not be in a position to have an intellectual discussion about gender. Secondly, shipwrecking them on a hostile, barren island would force a departure from their rigid, oppressive gender roles, as survival would be their primary motivator.

The language evolved with the different dialects and experience each character brought to the island, which also affected the roles the founders adopted within the community. 

There were a lot of adjustments made during the editing process.

The Mune functions without any form of money; was this a deliberate choice? The workload and resources are allocated without any particular system, even as crises pass and the commune grows. 

The short answer is yes. I wanted to create as close to a true democracy as possible —where no role was valued more than another. Everyone on the island contributed what they could and had equal worth. Even when the Mune was stable, there was never an excess of food or time, so there was never complacency. They lived in the present not the past, with no desire to hoard.

History shows us that money tends to create inequality, and wealth is not an indicator of ability or productivity, quite often it’s down to luck and lineage. 

Some of the commune’s most important tenets were suggested by a sci-fi story within the novel. The commune is a model of applied science fiction – however, the relationship is not linear, utopian stories don’t build utopian worlds. Did you intentionally separate the stories and their impacts?

Master’s Science stories are actually pastiches based on work written in the Victorian period that The Mune is set. The stories not only reflect the society of the time but showcase social and political ambitions and the methods imagined for achieving them. I hoped the stories would provide a bridge between accurate historical fact and SF narratives, which contained key nineteenth century ideas and technological advances, whilst imagining a more compassionate future. They also allowed me to shape my characters and add details about the island, reducing exposition in the main narrative.

Speaking of complexity, Betty and Master are among the most challenging protagonists, zigzagging from crimes to saviourism (and/or saviourism as crimes). They are on a different level of complexity compared to other characters. Incidentally, they are both science fiction writers. Is this a coincidence?

I wanted Betty’s character to be influenced by the stories she read with Master, and to use some of the key utopian ideas from those texts to shape the community. It felt just that Betty would be able to use her lived experience and imagination to gain her independence once back in the old world. 

Master’s love of science fiction and discovery meant he was open to novel environments and more focused on discovery once on the island, than trying to control the community. Neither Betty nor Master is inherently bad, but a product of their environment. It’s the inability to change and adapt that causes the problems.

On the back of this, did you intentionally make the main protagonist one that your readers might grow to dislike, or did the Betty character come into her own as the story developed? 

Betty came into her own as the story developed. Her character provided conflict, being so resistant to change. She reacts as I believe the majority of us would do in a life-altering situation, wanting to escape or be rescued rather than face her demons. She was just a child when she arrived on the island, having been gaslit and deeply traumatised.

If gender is technology, then The Mune is a very techno-optimistic narrative. Transformation happens quickly and thoroughly. It is a social tipping point – a tiny nudge (a vote) and all the awful stuff vanishes. It is exhilarating. But was there a temptation to make the process of change slower and painful for society as a whole, not just for Betty or Master?

I wanted the narrative to be optimistic so, there was never a temptation to slow the process of change or make the journey more painful for the society. I felt the majority of the founders had suffered enough in asylums, in service and on the streets of London. Despite the hard work of surviving, the founders acquired agency on the island, learned skills denied to them, and had the freedom to express themselves and there was no one on the island with (perceived) authority to oppose change. It seemed logical that they would want their children to be free of the shackles that bound them and embrace transformation.

The plot ends with a deus ex machina. Commune has to move. I was left with a longing, hoping that another novel was waiting around the corner, waiting to see the Old World remade by the intrusion. Will there be? And, why did you choose to end the story there?

There are a few characters who have refused to leave my imagination despite the fact I’m working on something quite different. There’s Star, the traveller, who would be well placed to reflect on our society, although currently it feels a little too dystopic! And there’s Betty’s child, in the womb on the island, who would have the advantage of the technology brought back by the Mune and witness the altered world. 

However, I’d need my own shipwreck and an isolated island to write it all.

Dr Sue Dawes is an author, educator and editor. She has written and published a large number of science fiction, literary and crime short stories and articles in magazines and online, and her novel, The Mune, was published by Goldsmiths Press in 2025. Sue has taught creative writing at Essex University, for community groups and is a manuscript editor and mentor for The Writers Company. Sue completed her PhD in creative writing in 2023, specialising in gendered language and inclusion. She is currently studying to become an occupational therapist and has a particular interest in community narratives, the occupation of storytelling, and collaborative writing.

The Bookseller and the Writer Beware site are among numerous sources reporting on recent emails which inundate the inboxes of writers, agents, publishers, and more. Many authors on various social media sites have also posted about receiving said emails. The scams often involve impersonating notable authors: The Bookseller mentions impersonations of Margaret Atwood and Writer Beware gives an example using Suzanne Collins. Some of the emails offer to publicize a …Read More

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) announced and then modified Nebula Awards eligibility rules regarding works utilizing generative large language model (LLM) tools. The initial press release, dated December 19, 2025, was met with criticism from numerous members of the SFF community. A subsequent press release was posted shortly thereafter, modifying the initial statements. The new rules according to the later release state:

Works that are written, either …Read More

Conventions in Israel are usually held during the holidays, which are school vacations. This both allows young people in their teens to come to the conventions and lets parents bring along even younger children. The timing of the holidays this year meant that ICon had only two days instead of the usual three. This made the work of the programming committee even harder than usual in deciding what to …Read More

R.F. Kuang announced in an Instagram story that she has withdrawn from the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature (EAFL), to be held in Dubai UAE from January 21 - 27, 2026, with respect for a call for a boycott of the UAE by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement.

In the Instagram story, Kuang shared a message she had sent to the organizers. She wrote that she has always …Read More

The Bookseller has announced the winners of the inaugural British Audio Awards. Categories, titles, and authors of genre interest include:

Science Fiction & Fantasy

• WINNER: Queen B, Juno Dawson, narrated by Nicola Coughlan (Harper Voyager)

• Count Zero, William Gibson, narrated by Alix Wilton Regan, Kyle Soller & Sebastián Capitán Viveros (WF Howes)
• The Shadow Rising, Robert Jordan (Macmillan Audio)
• Doctor Who: Agent of the Daleks, Steve …Read More

The Speculative Literature Foundation (SLF) has announced Ryan Lerrik's The Definition of Yearning as the winner of the 2025 Diverse Writers Grant and Craig Noles's Murderous (Multi)Verses as the winner of the 2025 Diverse Worlds Grant.

Diverse Writers Grant and Diverse Worlds Grant are $500 grants which are intended to support the SLF's mission of promoting literary quality in speculative fiction and awarded by SLF staff on the basis of …Read More

MILESTONES

CHIARA BULLEN is now represented by Emily Barrett at the Blair Partnership. The Inn at the Foot of Mount Vengeance and another book sold to Anne Groell at Del Rey in a pre-empt via Jessica Mileo of Inkwell Management on behalf of The Blair Partnership. UK rights went to Sam Bradbury at Del Rey UK via Bea Fitzgerald while part of The Blair Partnership.

LAURA BLACKWELL is now represented …Read More

The inaugural The Muse Writers Conference was held Saturday, September 20 in person at the Sheraton Norfolk Waterside Hotel in Norfolk, Virginia. The one-day event had a capped attendance of one hundred attendees and sold out quickly. Guest speakers included authors Cassandra Rose Clarke, Wendy Higgins, and Joe Jackson; agents Jessica Errera, Shelly Romero, and Arley Sorg; and more.

Programming featured a single track of panels focused on various …Read More

Can*Con 2025 was held October 17-19 in person at the Brookstreet Hotel in Ottawa, Canada. Guests of honour were Kate Heartfield, Stephen Kotowych, and Premee Mohamed. A separate virtual Can*Con was held on April 12 with roughly one hundred attendees.

There were 500 in-person registered attendees. Programming featured 140 panelists and 96 items on writing, literature, and more, such as ''The Continuation of Epic Fantasy with S.M. Carrière, Suyi Davies …Read More

Adedapo Adeniyi (also goes by Dapo The Abstract) is a Nigerian artist working in literature, film and photography, music (DJ) as well as art curation and counterculture archiving. He expresses his art through abstract avant-garde sensibilities. His debut novel, Wanderer, is available in stores.

Dapo holding his novel, Wanderer

Chisom Umeh is a Nigerian fiction writer and poet. His short stories have been featured in Omenana, Apex, Clarkesworld, Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction 2023, African Ghosts anthology, Isele, Mythaxis, Scifi Shorts, and elsewhere. His short story, “Ancestor’s Gift”, won the 2024 Tractor Beam short story contest. He was a finalist for the Seattle Worldcon Short Story Contest and is the winner of the 2025 Nommo Award for Best African Speculative Fiction Short Story.

Chisom, holding a copy of the Wanderer. Image: African Imaginary

Chisom: Hey Dapo.

Nice to have you do the interview.

I finished reading your novel Wanderer a couple of days ago, and I must say, the journey feels like one long dream. It’s a steady flow of alternating sentences and logic that sometimes contradict each other and yet, strangely enough, feels complete and cohesive. Can you tell me how you were able to keep the story you were trying to tell in focus, even while spinning such a wild tale?

Dapo: Thank you, Chisom. I’m excited to have this interview with you.

I want to start by saying the story mostly wrote itself; I was just a conduit. Most of this book was written in an automatist, stream-of-consciousness style. They were retellings of dreams, memories, and reality, and I wanted them to appear that way. I never lost sight of the story because I welcomed getting lost as I was writing it to find myself.

Chisom: Oh, that’s pretty interesting. To me, the novel reads like Amos Tutuola’s The Palmwine Drinkard crossed with Vajra Chandrasekera’s luminous prose. It definitely felt like older hands were guiding yours on the page. Were there literary influences you were channeling when writing the book?

Dapo: Yeah, I mean, I try to stay away from direct influences while I’m writing, and I didn’t read The Palmwine Drinkard until after I wrote Wanderer. I took influences more from films and cinematic sensibilities than literary, but in that regard, Borges, Philip K. Dick, Timothy Leary, André Breton’s Surrealist Manifesto, Aldous Huxley’s The Doors Of Perception, and my editor and friend, Manuel Marrero. I think these are the ones I can remember right now, plus I don’t want to go overboard. But these people and their works across surrealism, psychedelia, paranoid fiction, sci-fi, metafiction, and so on influenced me in many ways and were formative for how I approached writing and this book.

Chisom: It’s interesting that you mentioned Surrealist Manifesto, psychedelia, and paranoid fiction, because in an essay in Medium titled Abstractism Manifesto, you talked about how ‘abstractism’ is a term that subsumes all of these concepts and more. I like the way you explained it in the essay and how it relates to your work. But could you do a quick description of the term (abstractism) so we could understand it in relation to your work?

Dapo: Absolutely! So when I wrote the Abstractism Manifesto in early 2023, I defined it as being an amalgamation of solipsism, surrealism, psychedelia, subjective reality, and the physics of psychosis. I believe abstractism brings these concepts together to take reality and the world around us from a state of form to an abstract sensory state of formlessness, and that’s what I try to do with my work — the dissolution of some absolute real into an abstract cosmic real.

Chisom: In your experience as a filmmaker, what is the major difference between visual storytelling and written one? Do you prefer one medium over the other?

Dapo: I mean, writing is definitely cheaper. Making films is more expensive and taxing. I also think it’ll kill me faster so that might be why right now it excites me more than writing does. But, frankly, the major difference is the painting. With words, I’m guiding the readers’ imagination. At the end of the day, everyone will come out of it with different images. But with film, I have to literally represent those images on the screen. I’m doing the painting for the audience, they just have to watch and engage.

Chisom: Besides making movies, I know that you do some DJ work on the side. You had a collaboration with NTS, which is really great. How did that happen?

Dapo: Let me put it in context: I work with this new-age collective called Freewater, which was founded by my friends. I serve as its curator and co-director. Freewater secured a residency with NTS Radio, and since I also DJ, they featured one of my mixes as part of the collective. We’re having an underground, new wave music festival/concert on the 11th of December (I think the interview will be out after it?), and NTS is our major partner.

Chisom: That’s incredible, actually. So, does your music influence your writing in any way? Some writers like to curate playlists for particular writing projects. Something they listen to just to put themselves in the mood. Are you that kind of writer?

Dapo: Music definitely plays a huge part in my process. When I was writing Wanderer, all I listened to was shoegaze. I found a shoegaze playlist that had over a hundred songs and it was all I listened to while I slept and dreamt and while I wrote as well. I’ve been DJing for almost 2 years now, and it’s made me understand music as well as how different people interact with it. There are sensibilities of transience I borrowed from writing and translated to how I DJ.

Chisom: I kept wondering about the shoegaze reference when I was reading the book. Something told me there was more to it than just being an element in the story, and I’m glad you just confirmed that. Which brings me to your process with writing your stories and how you edit them. Do you edit while writing or after?

Dapo: Oh yeah, shoegaze has a very dreamlike, haze-inducing feeling and I wanted the book to feel like that. I do very minimal editing while writing. I finished the entire thing then read it over a couple of times before sending it to my editor, and we had this period of sending drafts back and forth and conversations on the subject matter.

But enough about me, I want to hear what type of music you listen to and how editing works for you. I mean, you just won the Nommo, haha.

Chisom: Oh, lol.

Well, I’m very mundane with my music. I don’t have any playlists or do any sort of curation. In fact, when I’m writing, I wouldn’t want to hear any music at all as it easily interferes with my thought processes and breaks my stream-of-consciousness, AKA “flow”. But when I do listen to music, outside writing, it’s very Davido and Asake and Victony, and whatever Dlala Thukzin just released. For edits, I can’t move forward with writing if I feel like there’s something wrong with a previous sentence. So I tinker with that till it feels fine to me. So we’re maybe kind of opposites on this.

Dapo: Correct me if I’m wrong but you seem like a very calculated writer. You’re delicate about detail, you’re careful. I think it’s beautiful. I wish I could be that type of writer. Like I said before (this may sound a little pretentious but I fully believe it), I don’t really do any writing, these things write themselves and use me as a conduit. I don’t know where they come from or where they are going or why; they come raw and I write in real time. My flow can be erratic most times.

Chisom: I like to think I have an eye for detail, but, trust me, I’m not really that meticulous. I know writers who would draw up elaborate plots that cover the first scene to the last, and fill up a board with sticky notes. Me? I mostly just sit down and write a story as it comes into my head. I think both our approaches are valid, so long as the outcome is something folks can read and enjoy. When I’m done writing and send the work out, that’s where my effort ends. But I’ve seen you go through hell and high water to publicize your book. And it has really paid off. Maybe that’s something you’d teach me someday?

Nardwuar holding a copy of Dapo’s first novel, Wanderer

Dapo: You’re amazing, so we’re kin.

Thank you, I think it’s been a learning curve. A lot of how this book has been handled is experimental, constantly trying to see how to reinvent whatever a rollout is supposed to be. Some days before the book came out I’d post videos of just my legs as I was walking around. Wandering, if you will. I made cards and handed out googly eyes. I’ve had readings and talks. I even had an abstractism lecture and played a psychedelic techno set. I keep thinking of ways to present a work of literature outside of just the confines of literature, especially as a multimedia artist. I look forward to reinterpreting the book and presenting it in so many other formats: photograph, sound, installation, you name it.

Chisom: Say I wanted to try my hand at writing abstractism, are you holding one of those lectures anytime soon?

Dapo: Hopefully sometime early next year. I’m working on writing another edition of the manifesto that’s more professional, but I think that through reading the manifesto that’s up right now, as well as Wanderer and some of my short stories, anyone could get the gist of what abstractism is.

What’s next for you now Chisom? In the world of African Speculative Fiction.

Chisom: For me, I’m also trying to piece together a collection of short stories that hopefully might be my debut in the book-publishing space. I want most of the stories in the collection to be centered around two themes, so that means I’m writing mostly new stories.

Anyway, it’s really been wonderful having this chat with you. I’m looking forward to reading more of your stuff in the future.

Dapo: Sending you love and the best of wishes Chisom, excited to see your collection. I’ll send you mine as it comes along. You’re a refreshing voice in the scene here.

Wanderer, cover art

Adedapo Adeniyi (also goes by Dapo The Abstract) is a Nigerian artist working in literature, film and photography, music (DJ) as well as art curation and counterculture archiving. He expresses his art through abstract avant-garde sensibilities. His debut novel, Wanderer, is available in stores. You can read an excerpt of his novel below, courtesy of the author.

Wanderer (excerpt) Download Dapo holding his novel, Wanderer

Chisom Umeh is a Nigerian fiction writer and poet. His short stories have been featured in Omenana, Apex, Clarkesworld, Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction 2023, African Ghosts anthology, Isele, Mythaxis, Scifi Shorts, and elsewhere. His short story, “Ancestor’s Gift”, won the 2024 Tractor Beam short story contest. He was a finalist for the Seattle Worldcon Short Story Contest and is the winner of the 2025 Nommo Award for Best African Speculative Fiction Short Story.

Chisom, holding a copy of the Wanderer. Image: African Imaginary

Chisom: Hey Dapo.

Nice to have you do the interview.

I finished reading your novel Wanderer a couple of days ago, and I must say, the journey feels like one long dream. It’s a steady flow of alternating sentences and logic that sometimes contradict each other and yet, strangely enough, feels complete and cohesive. Can you tell me how you were able to keep the story you were trying to tell in focus, even while spinning such a wild tale?

Dapo: Thank you, Chisom. I’m excited to have this interview with you.

I want to start by saying the story mostly wrote itself; I was just a conduit. Most of this book was written in an automatist, stream-of-consciousness style. They were retellings of dreams, memories, and reality, and I wanted them to appear that way. I never lost sight of the story because I welcomed getting lost as I was writing it to find myself.

Chisom: Oh, that’s pretty interesting. To me, the novel reads like Amos Tutuola’s The Palmwine Drinkard crossed with Vajra Chandrasekera’s luminous prose. It definitely felt like older hands were guiding yours on the page. Were there literary influences you were channeling when writing the book?

Dapo: Yeah, I mean, I try to stay away from direct influences while I’m writing, and I didn’t read The Palmwine Drinkard until after I wrote Wanderer. I took influences more from films and cinematic sensibilities than literary, but in that regard, Borges, Philip K. Dick, Timothy Leary, André Breton’s Surrealist Manifesto, Aldous Huxley’s The Doors Of Perception, and my editor and friend, Manuel Marrero. I think these are the ones I can remember right now, plus I don’t want to go overboard. But these people and their works across surrealism, psychedelia, paranoid fiction, sci-fi, metafiction, and so on influenced me in many ways and were formative for how I approached writing and this book.

Chisom: It’s interesting that you mentioned Surrealist Manifesto, psychedelia, and paranoid fiction, because in an essay in Medium titled Abstractism Manifesto, you talked about how ‘abstractism’ is a term that subsumes all of these concepts and more. I like the way you explained it in the essay and how it relates to your work. But could you do a quick description of the term (abstractism) so we could understand it in relation to your work?

Dapo: Absolutely! So when I wrote the Abstractism Manifesto in early 2023, I defined it as being an amalgamation of solipsism, surrealism, psychedelia, subjective reality, and the physics of psychosis. I believe abstractism brings these concepts together to take reality and the world around us from a state of form to an abstract sensory state of formlessness, and that’s what I try to do with my work — the dissolution of some absolute real into an abstract cosmic real.

Chisom: In your experience as a filmmaker, what is the major difference between visual storytelling and written one? Do you prefer one medium over the other?

Dapo: I mean, writing is definitely cheaper. Making films is more expensive and taxing. I also think it’ll kill me faster so that might be why right now it excites me more than writing does. But, frankly, the major difference is the painting. With words, I’m guiding the readers’ imagination. At the end of the day, everyone will come out of it with different images. But with film, I have to literally represent those images on the screen. I’m doing the painting for the audience, they just have to watch and engage.

Chisom: Besides making movies, I know that you do some DJ work on the side. You had a collaboration with NTS, which is really great. How did that happen?

Dapo: Let me put it in context: I work with this new-age collective called Freewater, which was founded by my friends. I serve as its curator and co-director. Freewater secured a residency with NTS Radio, and since I also DJ, they featured one of my mixes as part of the collective. We’re having an underground, new wave music festival/concert on the 11th of December (I think the interview will be out after it?), and NTS is our major partner.

Chisom: That’s incredible, actually. So, does your music influence your writing in any way? Some writers like to curate playlists for particular writing projects. Something they listen to just to put themselves in the mood. Are you that kind of writer?

Dapo: Music definitely plays a huge part in my process. When I was writing Wanderer, all I listened to was shoegaze. I found a shoegaze playlist that had over a hundred songs and it was all I listened to while I slept and dreamt and while I wrote as well. I’ve been DJing for almost 2 years now, and it’s made me understand music as well as how different people interact with it. There are sensibilities of transience I borrowed from writing and translated to how I DJ.

Chisom: I kept wondering about the shoegaze reference when I was reading the book. Something told me there was more to it than just being an element in the story, and I’m glad you just confirmed that. Which brings me to your process with writing your stories and how you edit them. Do you edit while writing or after?

Dapo: Oh yeah, shoegaze has a very dreamlike, haze-inducing feeling and I wanted the book to feel like that. I do very minimal editing while writing. I finished the entire thing then read it over a couple of times before sending it to my editor, and we had this period of sending drafts back and forth and conversations on the subject matter.

But enough about me, I want to hear what type of music you listen to and how editing works for you. I mean, you just won the Nommo, haha.

Chisom: Oh, lol.

Well, I’m very mundane with my music. I don’t have any playlists or do any sort of curation. In fact, when I’m writing, I wouldn’t want to hear any music at all as it easily interferes with my thought processes and breaks my stream-of-consciousness, AKA “flow”. But when I do listen to music, outside writing, it’s very Davido and Asake and Victony, and whatever Dlala Thukzin just released. For edits, I can’t move forward with writing if I feel like there’s something wrong with a previous sentence. So I tinker with that till it feels fine to me. So we’re maybe kind of opposites on this.

Dapo: Correct me if I’m wrong but you seem like a very calculated writer. You’re delicate about detail, you’re careful. I think it’s beautiful. I wish I could be that type of writer. Like I said before (this may sound a little pretentious but I fully believe it), I don’t really do any writing, these things write themselves and use me as a conduit. I don’t know where they come from or where they are going or why; they come raw and I write in real time. My flow can be erratic most times.

Chisom: I like to think I have an eye for detail, but, trust me, I’m not really that meticulous. I know writers who would draw up elaborate plots that cover the first scene to the last, and fill up a board with sticky notes. Me? I mostly just sit down and write a story as it comes into my head. I think both our approaches are valid, so long as the outcome is something folks can read and enjoy. When I’m done writing and send the work out, that’s where my effort ends. But I’ve seen you go through hell and high water to publicize your book. And it has really paid off. Maybe that’s something you’d teach me someday?

Nardwuar holding a copy of Dapo’s first novel, Wanderer

Dapo: You’re amazing, so we’re kin.

Thank you, I think it’s been a learning curve. A lot of how this book has been handled is experimental, constantly trying to see how to reinvent whatever a rollout is supposed to be. Some days before the book came out I’d post videos of just my legs as I was walking around. Wandering, if you will. I made cards and handed out googly eyes. I’ve had readings and talks. I even had an abstractism lecture and played a psychedelic techno set. I keep thinking of ways to present a work of literature outside of just the confines of literature, especially as a multimedia artist. I look forward to reinterpreting the book and presenting it in so many other formats: photograph, sound, installation, you name it.

Chisom: Say I wanted to try my hand at writing abstractism, are you holding one of those lectures anytime soon?

Dapo: Hopefully sometime early next year. I’m working on writing another edition of the manifesto that’s more professional, but I think that through reading the manifesto that’s up right now, as well as Wanderer and some of my short stories, anyone could get the gist of what abstractism is.

What’s next for you now Chisom? In the world of African Speculative Fiction.

Chisom: For me, I’m also trying to piece together a collection of short stories that hopefully might be my debut in the book-publishing space. I want most of the stories in the collection to be centered around two themes, so that means I’m writing mostly new stories.

Anyway, it’s really been wonderful having this chat with you. I’m looking forward to reading more of your stuff in the future.

Dapo: Sending you love and the best of wishes Chisom, excited to see your collection. I’ll send you mine as it comes along. You’re a refreshing voice in the scene here.

Wanderer, cover art

John Varley, 78, died December 10, 2025 in his home in Beaverton OR. He had COPD and diabetes.

John Herbert Varley, known to his friends as Herb, was born August 9, 1947 in Austin TX. He attended Michigan State University. His first novelette, Picnic on Nearside , released in 1974, establishing the Eight Worlds universe. He went on to publish about 20 more Eight Worlds works, including his first novel …Read More

Literary Hub has published an annual list of noteworthy books published in 2025 by small presses, reviewed by a selection of 40 contributors. The list was conceived in 2024 to complementThe New York Times annual 100 Notable Books list, which featured approximately 11% small or independent publishers in 2024 and approximately 14% in 2025.

Post author Miriam Gershow writes,

This isnota best of list. This isnota comprehensive survey of all …Read More

Winners of the 2025 Deutsche Science Fiction Preis, presented by Science Fiction Club Deutschland (SFCD), have been announced.

Best German-Language SF Novel:

• WINNER: Das zweigeteilte All, Ralph Alexander Neumüller (p.machinery)

• 2nd place: Antarer: Besuch aus dem All, Ralph Edenhofer (self-published)
• 3rd place: Die Sphäre, Tom van Allen (self-published)
• 4th place: Ghostnet – Die letzte Stadt, Fabian K. Roth (self-published)
• 5th place: Apeirophobia, Christian J. Meier (Hirnkost)
• 6th …Read More

The Cercador Prize has announced Jazmina Barrera's The Queen of Swords, translated by Christina MacSweeney (Two Lines), as its 2025 winner. The $1000 prize recognizes works of literature in translation as selected by a committee of independent booksellers based across the United States.

The Cercador Prize bookseller committee, chaired by Emily Tarr, wrote in a statement shared on Instagram,

The Queen of Swords, presented here in a lyrical translation …Read More

The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) has declined to hear the appeal of the plaintiffs in Little v. Llano County, who sought to challenge the removal of 17 works from public libraries in Texas, with authors of genre interest including Lauren Myracle and Maurice Sendak.

In May 2025, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision that reversed more than 40 years of precedent in constitutional law, …Read More

The winners of the African Speculative Fiction Society (ASFS) 2025 Nommo Awards, given to works by Africans as defined by the ASFS and Nommo Awards Guidelines, were announced at a the 2025 Aké Arts & Book Festival Welcome Ceremony in Lagos and livestreamed on YouTube on November 20, 2025.

Best Novel

• WINNER: Womb City, Tlotlo Tsamaase (Kensington)

• The Smoke That Thunders, Erhu Kome (Norton Young Readers)
…Read More

Winners of the 2025 Goodreads Choice Awards, voted on by users of the site, have been announced. Winners of genre interest include:

Romantasy: Onyx Storm, Rebecca Yarros (Red Tower) 298,565 votes

Fantasy: Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, V.E. Schwab (Tor) 102,408 votes

Science Fiction: The Compound, Aisling Rawle (Random House) 45,287 votes

Horror: Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, Grady Hendrix (Berkley) 59,603 votes

Young Adult Fantasy & Sci-Fi: Sunrise …Read More