Industry News

We are so pleased to have the talented Alyssa Winans as Featured Local Artist at the Locus Awards Weekendon May 30, 2026 in Berkeley, California! Her work is vibrant and inventive, and we can't wait to see it at the event. Winans joins a lineup of amazing local creators, as well as Guests of Honor Nnedi Okorafor, Tananarive Due, and Stephen Graham Jones, for an unforgettable celebration.

ALYSSA WINANS …Read More

The post Locus Awards Announces Featured Local Artist Alyssa Winans appeared first on Locus Online.

Clarion West (CW) has announced a collaborative partnership with artist-led nonprofit Common AREA Maintenance (CAM) in Seattle to advance development and long-term usage of the El Rey Building - a previously abandoned 30,000 square foot building in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood. The ADA-accessible building will be the new site of the Clarion West Six-Week Workshop and will support multiple artists and writers year-round.

CAM purchased the building for $20 in …Read More

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by Michael Capobianco

Read by Robert Greenberger

Giving democratically chosen awards for writing isn’t easy. When the authors themselves are designing the process, there is additional pressure to make the process “fair.” It was even tougher before the Internet, when nominations and updates had to be mailed. In what was then called Science Fiction Writers of America, a small group of dedicated volunteers carried most of that burden. They were the Nebula Awards Report (NAR) Editors. 

Creation of the Nebula Awards was suggested by SFWA’s first Secretary-Treasurer, Lloyd Biggle, Jr., as a way to collect the contents of an annual award anthology that would help fund the nascent organization as well as promote the best science fiction. Founder and then-SFWA President Damon Knight ran with the idea, and the Nebula Awards were born. Modeling them from various sources, including the decade-old Hugo Awards, the awards would be voted on by the Active and Associate Members of SFWA. The first vote would be for works published in 1965 and there would be a Nebula Awards Banquet in Spring 1966.  From the very beginning, the process involved the publication of nominees submitted by members. The first set of Nebula rules was published in the September 1965SFWA Bulletin and included:

“6. All SFWA members in good standing, whether active or associate, may nominate and vote on stories and novels. Stories and novels may also be nominated, but not voted on, by the editors and publishers who originally published them. Such nominations will be accepted from one representative of each publishing firm.”

“7. Nominations will be published, and ballots distributed to members, in the November 1965 issue of the Bulletin. If three or fewer nominations are received for any story or novel, the names of those making the nominations will be listed in the Bulletin.”

A 1965 nomination ballot for short story, “novelet,” and novella was mailed with the November 1965 SFWA Bulletin. Nominations for novel would continue until December 30. These ballots were to be returned to a law firm for unbiased counting. Time was tight. Final votes would happen in February 1966 and the Nebula Awards Banquet was scheduled for March 11. (Read more about the inaugural ceremony in “A Brief History of SFWA: The First Nebula Awards” by Michael Capobianco.)  

Page 1 of Nebula Awards Report Volume 3, Number 5, Copyright (c) 1975 SFWA.

The January issue contained the first recommendations for 1966 along with a request from President Damon Knight:

“Members are asked to drop the Bulletin a postcard whenever they read an outstanding science fiction story or novel. If this procedure is confirmed when we vote on it in March, it will become part of the SFWA Awards nominating system; even if not, I think it will be a valuable service to members.”

Knight primed the pump with the first nominations for 1966, for “Apology to Inky” by Robert M. Green, Jr. (F&SF) and “An Ornament to His Profession” by Charles L. Harness (Analog). 

The winners for 1965 were announced in the April 1966 issue (which included coverage and photos from the New York and Los Angeles Nebula Banquets) and, importantly, the first list of new Nebula nominations for the year 1966. It included nine recommendations from four members: six by James H. Schmitz, two by James Blish, and one each by Greg Benford and John Brunner. The June 1966 issue contained six recommendations; August’s had 20 nominations, several with more than one nominator; September’s had 11 and November’s 11. At this time, SFWA had approximately 200 members.

For whatever reason, the Final Ballot for 1966 was underpopulated, with only three candidates each for novel, novella, and short story. Knight’s two recommendations made the final ballot but didn’t win. James H. Schmitz’s nominee for best novel, The Last Castle by Jack Vance, made the ballot and won. (For more on the Nebulas’ physical look, read “Planets and Plastic: A History of the SFWA Trophies and Awards” by Michael Armstrong.)

From this distance, if the process was supposed to let members know of worthy prospects, it looks pretty shaky. No listings for the 1967 Nebulas were published until the August 1967 Bulletin, which included a more formal listing of nominees by category and had 20 entries. October had 30, and December another 18. Nominating was catching on. In 1968, the rules were revised and regularized, with, significantly, the addition of Rule 4.(c):  

“Any title receiving a total of three (3) or more nominations will be considered to qualify for placement on the Ballot in its appropriate category. Any title with fewer than three (3) nominations will be disqualified.”

Now a single recommendation wasn’t enough, and so recommendation counting became a group pastime.

Page 2 of Nebula Awards Report Volume 3, Number 5, Copyright (c) 1975 SFWA.

The last full list of Nebula recommendations in the SFWA Bulletin appeared in issue 41/42 in July 1972. It was accompanied by a note saying that Vonda N. McIntyre was now assisting Hal Clement in preparing the list. 

Then the crystal ball grows hazy. SFWA has a complete run of Bulletins, but it’s missing some issues of its other publications from this time. The next time we encounter the NAR is the September 1974 issue of the SFWA Forum. Vonda N. McIntyre is the editor and nominations go to her. She has created a distinctive heading and the contents are well-organized. This basic format (see photos) will persist right to the end of the NAR in 2008. 

This stand-alone NAR is among the most ephemeral of SFWA’s publications. None of the original paper copies have survived in SFWA’s archives. Frank Catalano, who edited the NAR in the early ’80s, tells what it was like to edit and mail it.

“What I remember the most was the physical challenge of actually getting the report out the door. I will qualify this by stating my memory of the details of the process, 40+ years ago, may be flawed. But I recollect that Nebula recommendations would come in on postcard, mostly, some by letter. They’d be tallied and organized, and then printed on multiple sheets of letter-sized paper, folded in half, stapled, labelled, stamped and mailed. Among those who’d show up for these mailing parties at my apartment were Vonda N. McIntyre and, I think, Greg Bear. (…) What I remember the most was just the camaraderie and conversation. The need to get it right. And all of the damp sponges required to attach the stamps.”

Seven SFWA volunteers have been given the Kevin. O’Donnell, Jr. Service to SFWA Award because of their work on the NAR: Chuq Von Rospach (NAR Editor 1989–1996), Brook and Julia West (NAR Editors 1989–2008), and Vonda N. McIntyre (NAR Editor 1972–1976). Other members who have taken a turn: C. L. Grant, George W. Proctor, Frank Catalano, Elizabeth Waters, Orson Scott Card, and Mark Van Name.

So, why did the NAR end? Rule changes made the Nebula more and more cumbersome to administer, and the awards were no longer tied to a specific year. Former SFWA President and current SFWA Operations Manager Russell Davis offers this summary: “The Nebula Award rules when I took office in 2008 were extraordinarily convoluted.” In 2009, the nomination process  changed to the simpler one still in place in 2026.

Explore more articles from THE HISTORY FILES

Michael Capobianco is co-author, with William Barton, of the SF books Iris, Alpha Centauri, Fellow Traveler, and White Light. He has published two solo science fiction novels, Burster and Purlieu as well as short fiction. Capobianco was President of SFWA from 1996 to 1998 and again in 2007–2008. He currently serves as SFWA’s Authors Coalition Commissioner, Chair of SFWA’s Contracts Committee, Co-chair of SFWA’s Legal Affairs and Estates-Legacy Committees, and is a member of SFWA’s History Committee.

The post A Brief History of SFWA: The Nebula Awards Report appeared first on SFWA - The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association.

John H. Guidry, 81, died March 9, 2026.

John Henry Guidry was born December 15, 1944 in New Orleans LA and attended William Carey College. He created the Edgar Rice Burroughs Amateur Press Association and co-published Forgotten Tales of Love and Murder (2001). In 1988, he was the chair of Nolacon II, the 46th World Science Fiction Convention. He is survived by his sister and his nieces and nephews. …Read More

The post John H. Guidry (1944–2026) appeared first on Locus Online.

The Los Angeles Times has announced the winners of their 46th annual Book Prizes.

Winners of genre interest, and other titles and authors of genre interest in those categories, include:

Science Fiction/Fantasy

• WINNER:Luminous, Silvia Park (Simon & Schuster)

• The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, Stephen Graham Jones (Saga)
• The Death of Mountains, Jordan Kurella (Lethe)
• Death of the Author, Nnedi Okorafor (William Morrow)
• Esperance, Adam Oyebanji (DAW)

Fiction …Read More

The post LA Times Book Prize Winners appeared first on Locus Online.

The preliminary ballot for the 2026 Ditmar Awards for Australian SF has been announced.

Best Novel

• Veil, Jeff Clulow (Third Eye) amazon / bookshop
• Honeyeater, Kathleen Jennings (Tordotcom) amazon / bookshop
• When Dark Waters Burn, Zena Shapter (Midnight Sun) amazon
• The Crimson Road, A.G. Slatter (Titan) amazon / bookshop
• Upon a Starlit Tide, Kell Woods (HarperCollins) amazon / bookshop

Best Novella or Novelette

• Cinder House, Freya Marske …Read More

  The post 2026 Ditmar Awards Preliminary Ballot appeared first on Locus Online.

The 2026 Aurora Awards ballot for works by Canadians has been announced. The Aurora Awards are nominated by members of the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association. The top five nominated works were selected, with additional works included when there was a tie for fifth place.

Best Novel

• A Shift of Time, Julie E. Czerneda (DAW) amazon / bookshop
• Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales, Heather Fawcett (Del Rey) …Read More

  The post 2026 Aurora Awards Ballot appeared first on Locus Online.

The Libertarian Futurist Society (LFS) has announced the five finalists for the Best Novel category of the Prometheus Awards, honoring thematically pro-liberty works published in 2025.

• Storm-Dragon, Dave Freer (Raconteur) amazon / bookshop
• War By Other Means, Karl K. Gallagher (Kelt Haven) amazon
• No Man's Land Volumes 1-3, Sarah A. Hoyt (Goldport) amazon / bookshop
• A Kiss for Damocles, J. Kenton Pierce (Raconteur) amazon / bookshop
• Powerless, Harry Turtledove …Read More

  The post 2026 Prometheus Novel Award Finalists appeared first on Locus Online.

Reviewed by Kathleen Hughes

It came as no surprise to me to learn that Wole Talabi is an engineer by profession. Convergence Problems (2024), Talabi’s anthology of short stories, is filled with vivid tales of industrial failure, mechanical faults, and systemic entropy. In the future worlds depicted by Talabi – often set in Nigeria, where he is from – prosperity and investment have come and gone (‘Embers’), citizen dissidents are sentenced to death (‘An Arc of Electric Skin’), and dangerous interplanetary mining landscapes become the setting for just-in-time rescue missions (‘Blowout’). What struck me most about the collection as a whole is its recurring focus on the human side of systems and states: the legacy of industrial injury across generations, the bitterness of unfulfilled potential, and the pressure to succeed, conform, or escape. Talabi’s strength lies in his ability to highlight the profound human impact within hard-science themes such as environmental collapse, mining, or the oil industry. 

The longer stories stood out for me, such as ‘Saturday’s Song’ and ‘Ganger,’ both beautifully crafted, though in very different styles. ‘Saturday’s Song’ is the haunting sequel to an earlier short piece (‘Wednesday’s Story’) and tells the tale of Saura and Mobola, who fall in love at a financial management conference in Abuja, whose relationship ends in tragedy after Saura’s mother seeks the intervention of Shigidi, the Yoruba deity (Orisha) of nightmares. This Orisha also appears in Talabi’s 2023 novel Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon, and Talabi’s use of Yoruba figures, here,  is typical of his ability to weave traditional beliefs between harder science themes found through the collection. Told through the accounts of personified days of the week, the story is multi-layered, spanning the lives of humans and deities and the strange interactions among them and the anthropomorphised calendar. ‘Ganger’ is particularly striking and timely, portraying a segregated society overseen by a megalomaniac tech CEO who, after whisking the wealthy to safety in the wake of a climate catastrophe, creates an indentured class out of pity or necessity, whose lives are micromanaged and whose every action is pre-empted. As Adelaide, the central character, becomes trapped inside a robot built to manage her subservient class after a calamitous attempt to rebel, the reader is left wondering whether she has actually attained a peculiar type of freedom.

I also very much enjoyed ‘Performance Review,’ as a researcher of the future of work, in its portrayal of a meeting between an employee and her boss. As the story unfolds, he proposes she maximise her efficacy by taking an experimental performance-enhancing drug, Optimiline – no obligation, of course, but with the coercive persuasion of a threat of termination. The take brilliantly portrays the dehumanising and flattening effect of corporate performance metrics, shaping employee conduct to fit data points, as well as the creeping effect of encouraging behaviour modifications to achieve what a company perceives as value. I was then surprised to find out that ‘Performance Review’ was written as part of a workshop testing out an AI tool in development – Google’s Wordcraft – as a writing assistant. This makes the story even more fascinating, as an experimental product of emerging technology, the debates about which touch on some of the same themes of the story itself (standardisation, depersonalisation, corporate overreach). Talabi does not shy away from these points in the ‘Authors’ notes’ at the end of the collection, reflecting carefully on how he weighs his optimism for technology and its potential against serious concerns about AI’s impact on the creative industries. These reflections form part of a very informative set of authors’ notes overall, which chart the development of stories, their connections, and the cross-fertilisation of ideas, which provide insight into the writer’s craft. 

Talabi has also written on his writing process and source material elsewhere, for example, in the essay ‘Human and Energy Transitions’ (2026), included in this volume. That piece is an extremely valuable accompaniment to ‘Embers’, a short story in the collection that depicts the downfall of its protagonist, Uduak. Uduak is a once hopeful scholarship recipient in the Nigerian oil industry whose dreams – and life – unravel in the face of new renewable energy technologies (Kawashida cells) that render his career redundant. In the companion essay, Talabi explores the human cost of an industry that refuses to take responsibility for the impact of the dependence it fosters, providing a lifeline to communities through their resources and skills which risk becoming stranded assets. Talabi’s short story captures the nuances of the ‘just transition’ debate through the complexities of a personal story, embracing the fact that people make poor choices and react badly when faced with loss and wounded pride. As Talabi highlights, how can just transitions be truly just when the foundations they are built on are exploitative, extractive, and ‘take a page from the standard colonial playbook’?  

As a collection, broad themes emerge across stories. In no particular order, they are technological advances and industry at a large scale, and the impact of technology on societies or states; the human impact of both work and technology, especially as it echoes across generations; and family ties, including legacies, disappointments, and grief. These themes connect together, recurring and repeating like echoes across stories. In ‘Blowout,’ for example, Folake Adeyemi strives to rescue her brother Femi, part of the N-12 surface exploration crew, battling through both Martian conditions and the emotional turmoil of the circumstances that bear resemblance to their mother’s catastrophic injury decades before, at work on an offshore gas production site near Angola. Talabi portrays the depth and contradictions of traumatic response, as it is not only the impact of the risk her brother is in that is so disturbing to Folake, but also her own actions, as she contemplates how far she is blindly repeating her mother’s devastating heroism.

The familial impact of workplace injury is further portrayed in ‘Abeokuta52,’ partly written in the form of an opinion piece in The Guardian, by the child (Bidemi Akindele) of a researcher studying an alien impact site, after the researcher’s death from the subsequent illness. The opinion piece wraps the details of the events in Nigeria that led to Stella Akindele’s death, alongside Bidemi’s lament at the injustice of her death and concern that she does not suffer a ‘second death’ through her name passing outside of living memory. Thus, ontological questions of time and memory are woven eloquently with the personal and political circumstances described. Like several of the stories in the collection, the piece takes on an experimental form, including the somewhat mysterious online comments below the opinion piece, adding complexity to the portrayal of Government corruption and cover-up. 

The theme of inter-generational and familial trauma tied to industry, exploitation, and sacrifice is once again returned to in ‘A Dream of Electric Mothers,’ which also featured in Africa Risen, the 2022 anthology edited by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, Sherée Renee Thomas, and Zelda Knight. In this story, it is the great-aunt of the protagonist who has given herself to the National Memory Data Server (NMDS), a national computational consciousness based on the recorded thoughts of every previous citizen. This is a profound re-imagining of AI that again brings in ontological dimensions through collectivism that I have also seen in academic work on Ubuntu and AI. Here, in literary form, the lived reality of grief, of having not properly said goodbye to one’s mother, is juxtaposed with ethical considerations of AI decision-making. AI adopts a maternal wisdom that could be fruitfully critically juxtaposed against, for example, the personification of contemporary AI chatbots (Siri, Alexa) as subservient females who aim to please (Sindoni, 2024; West, Kraut and Chew, 2019). It is here that the value of the speculative literary form in relation to knotty and abstract topics is particularly apparent, as through the building of a complete alternative world where a computer system is built on the idea of an ‘electric mother,’ with the wisdom to speak what we need to hear, the contours and limitations of our own technologies and imaginations become more apparent and stark. 

Collectively, the deep intertwining of parental grief, sibling rivalry, and the impacts of technology at an industrial and state scale leave the reader with a deep sense of missed opportunity and injustice. Together, they create a collection that would be valuable to anyone interested in the intersection between humans and technology. 

References:

Sindoni, M.G. (2024). The femininization of AI-powered voice assistants: Personification, anthropomorphism and discourse ideologies. Discourse Context & Media, 62, pp.100833–100833. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2024.100833.

Talabi, W. (2026). ‘Human and Energy Transitions’ in Applied African SF (Ping Press, 2026).

West, M., Kraut, R. and Chew, H.E. (2019). I’d Blush If I could: Closing Gender Divides in Digital Skills through Education. [online] Unesco.org. Available at: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000367416.

Reviewed by Kathleen Hughes

It came as no surprise to me to learn that Wole Talabi is an engineer by profession. Convergence Problems (2024), Talabi’s anthology of short stories, is filled with vivid tales of industrial failure, mechanical faults, and systemic entropy. In the future worlds depicted by Talabi – often set in Nigeria, where he is from – prosperity and investment have come and gone (‘Embers’), citizen dissidents are sentenced to death (‘An Arc of Electric Skin’), and dangerous interplanetary mining landscapes become the setting for just-in-time rescue missions (‘Blowout’). What struck me most about the collection as a whole is its recurring focus on the human side of systems and states: the legacy of industrial injury across generations, the bitterness of unfulfilled potential, and the pressure to succeed, conform, or escape. Talabi’s strength lies in his ability to highlight the profound human impact within hard-science themes such as environmental collapse, mining, or the oil industry. 

The longer stories stood out for me, such as ‘Saturday’s Song’ and ‘Ganger,’ both beautifully crafted, though in very different styles. ‘Saturday’s Song’ is the haunting sequel to an earlier short piece (‘Wednesday’s Story’) and tells the tale of Saura and Mobola, who fall in love at a financial management conference in Abuja, whose relationship ends in tragedy after Saura’s mother seeks the intervention of Shigidi, the Yoruba deity (Orisha) of nightmares. This Orisha also appears in Talabi’s 2023 novel Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon, and Talabi’s use of Yoruba figures, here,  is typical of his ability to weave traditional beliefs between harder science themes found through the collection. Told through the accounts of personified days of the week, the story is multi-layered, spanning the lives of humans and deities and the strange interactions among them and the anthropomorphised calendar. ‘Ganger’ is particularly striking and timely, portraying a segregated society overseen by a megalomaniac tech CEO who, after whisking the wealthy to safety in the wake of a climate catastrophe, creates an indentured class out of pity or necessity, whose lives are micromanaged and whose every action is pre-empted. As Adelaide, the central character, becomes trapped inside a robot built to manage her subservient class after a calamitous attempt to rebel, the reader is left wondering whether she has actually attained a peculiar type of freedom.

I also very much enjoyed ‘Performance Review,’ as a researcher of the future of work, in its portrayal of a meeting between an employee and her boss. As the story unfolds, he proposes she maximise her efficacy by taking an experimental performance-enhancing drug, Optimiline – no obligation, of course, but with the coercive persuasion of a threat of termination. The take brilliantly portrays the dehumanising and flattening effect of corporate performance metrics, shaping employee conduct to fit data points, as well as the creeping effect of encouraging behaviour modifications to achieve what a company perceives as value. I was then surprised to find out that ‘Performance Review’ was written as part of a workshop testing out an AI tool in development – Google’s Wordcraft – as a writing assistant. This makes the story even more fascinating, as an experimental product of emerging technology, the debates about which touch on some of the same themes of the story itself (standardisation, depersonalisation, corporate overreach). Talabi does not shy away from these points in the ‘Authors’ notes’ at the end of the collection, reflecting carefully on how he weighs his optimism for technology and its potential against serious concerns about AI’s impact on the creative industries. These reflections form part of a very informative set of authors’ notes overall, which chart the development of stories, their connections, and the cross-fertilisation of ideas, which provide insight into the writer’s craft. 

Talabi has also written on his writing process and source material elsewhere, for example, in the essay ‘Human and Energy Transitions’ (2026), included in this volume. That piece is an extremely valuable accompaniment to ‘Embers’, a short story in the collection that depicts the downfall of its protagonist, Uduak. Uduak is a once hopeful scholarship recipient in the Nigerian oil industry whose dreams – and life – unravel in the face of new renewable energy technologies (Kawashida cells) that render his career redundant. In the companion essay, Talabi explores the human cost of an industry that refuses to take responsibility for the impact of the dependence it fosters, providing a lifeline to communities through their resources and skills which risk becoming stranded assets. Talabi’s short story captures the nuances of the ‘just transition’ debate through the complexities of a personal story, embracing the fact that people make poor choices and react badly when faced with loss and wounded pride. As Talabi highlights, how can just transitions be truly just when the foundations they are built on are exploitative, extractive, and ‘take a page from the standard colonial playbook’?  

As a collection, broad themes emerge across stories. In no particular order, they are technological advances and industry at a large scale, and the impact of technology on societies or states; the human impact of both work and technology, especially as it echoes across generations; and family ties, including legacies, disappointments, and grief. These themes connect together, recurring and repeating like echoes across stories. In ‘Blowout,’ for example, Folake Adeyemi strives to rescue her brother Femi, part of the N-12 surface exploration crew, battling through both Martian conditions and the emotional turmoil of the circumstances that bear resemblance to their mother’s catastrophic injury decades before, at work on an offshore gas production site near Angola. Talabi portrays the depth and contradictions of traumatic response, as it is not only the impact of the risk her brother is in that is so disturbing to Folake, but also her own actions, as she contemplates how far she is blindly repeating her mother’s devastating heroism.

The familial impact of workplace injury is further portrayed in ‘Abeokuta52,’ partly written in the form of an opinion piece in The Guardian, by the child (Bidemi Akindele) of a researcher studying an alien impact site, after the researcher’s death from the subsequent illness. The opinion piece wraps the details of the events in Nigeria that led to Stella Akindele’s death, alongside Bidemi’s lament at the injustice of her death and concern that she does not suffer a ‘second death’ through her name passing outside of living memory. Thus, ontological questions of time and memory are woven eloquently with the personal and political circumstances described. Like several of the stories in the collection, the piece takes on an experimental form, including the somewhat mysterious online comments below the opinion piece, adding complexity to the portrayal of Government corruption and cover-up. 

The theme of inter-generational and familial trauma tied to industry, exploitation, and sacrifice is once again returned to in ‘A Dream of Electric Mothers,’ which also featured in Africa Risen, the 2022 anthology edited by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, Sherée Renee Thomas, and Zelda Knight. In this story, it is the great-aunt of the protagonist who has given herself to the National Memory Data Server (NMDS), a national computational consciousness based on the recorded thoughts of every previous citizen. This is a profound re-imagining of AI that again brings in ontological dimensions through collectivism that I have also seen in academic work on Ubuntu and AI. Here, in literary form, the lived reality of grief, of having not properly said goodbye to one’s mother, is juxtaposed with ethical considerations of AI decision-making. AI adopts a maternal wisdom that could be fruitfully critically juxtaposed against, for example, the personification of contemporary AI chatbots (Siri, Alexa) as subservient females who aim to please (Sindoni, 2024; West, Kraut and Chew, 2019). It is here that the value of the speculative literary form in relation to knotty and abstract topics is particularly apparent, as through the building of a complete alternative world where a computer system is built on the idea of an ‘electric mother,’ with the wisdom to speak what we need to hear, the contours and limitations of our own technologies and imaginations become more apparent and stark. 

Collectively, the deep intertwining of parental grief, sibling rivalry, and the impacts of technology at an industrial and state scale leave the reader with a deep sense of missed opportunity and injustice. Together, they create a collection that would be valuable to anyone interested in the intersection between humans and technology. 

References:

Sindoni, M.G. (2024). The femininization of AI-powered voice assistants: Personification, anthropomorphism and discourse ideologies. Discourse Context & Media, 62, pp.100833–100833. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2024.100833.

Talabi, W. (2026). ‘Human and Energy Transitions’ in Applied African SF (Ping Press, 2026).

West, M., Kraut, R. and Chew, H.E. (2019). I’d Blush If I could: Closing Gender Divides in Digital Skills through Education. [online] Unesco.org. Available at: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000367416.

UK-based publisher Bloomsbury has announced plans to streamline its structure for future growth, after doubling its sales in four years, more than doubling its profits in 2023-2024, and increasing headcount from 738 to 1,238 in five years. The plans include cutting about 55 roles in the US and UK.

The company will restructure its three major editorial divisions to Bloomsbury Global Academic & Professional, Bloomsbury USA, and Bloomsbury Consumer UK. …Read More

The post Bloomsbury Layoffs appeared first on Locus Online.

Mind, body, and spirit-focused publishing company Red Wheel/Weiser has announced that it has acquired the majority of the titles of Watkins Media's flagship imprint, Watkins Publishing. Other Watkins Media imprints, such as Angry Robot, Datura, and Repeater, are not currently affected by the acquisition. Distribution will continue through PRH Publisher Services in the US and Wiley in the UK until July 1, 2026, when Red Wheel/Weiser will begin to …Read More

The post Watkins Publishing Sold appeared first on Locus Online.

Finalists for the Hugo Awards, the Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book, and the Astounding Award for Best New Writer have been announced by LAcon V, the 84th World Science Fiction Convention. There were 1,488 valid nominating ballots received and counted from members of the 2025 and 2026 World Science Fiction Conventions for the 2026 Hugo Awards. Voting on the final ballot will open during May 2026. Members of …Read More

The post 2026 Hugo, Lodestar & <i>Astounding</i> Awards Finalists appeared first on Locus Online.

by Melynda Hill-Teter

Read by Liz J. Bradley

Every first draft begins with words on a page and a plan. As a writer, I tracked story ideas, outlined plots, sketched scenes, developed characters, and logged worldbuilding details. But I reached a point where ideas and notes needed structure.

I wanted uninterrupted blocks of two to three hours a day at my laptop to make writing progress, but this mindset backfired, leading to procrastination. Writing ideas clicked into place, but I couldn’t find the time to write for a few hours a day.

Between work and long train commutes, I set out to build a consistent writing routine. That’s when I realized voice typing—or dictation—could help me start an outline or first draft. Basically, it’s talking into an app on a mobile device or computer and letting speech-to-text create your draft.

How Dictation Programs Work

Although language models have been around since the 1980s, the adoption of deep learning algorithms for speech recognition has dramatically improved performance over the past 15 years. Speech-to-text programs use deep learning models, training datasets, and artificial intelligence to convert spoken language to text. Over time, they adapt to each speaker’s voice, including accent, tone, pace, and preferred vocabulary.

Google Docs Voice Typing uses Google’s speech recognition AI, which is integrated with Google Workspace applications. Microsoft Dictate is built on Azure’s AI-powered speech engine and allows for dictation across Microsoft applications. Other options include Otter.ai, which converts speech into transcription, and Dragon Dictate, the first consumer speech-recognition software that allows users to dictate documents and emails and create individual voice profiles. 

When choosing dictation tools, consider if the language model can adapt to your speaking style over time to improve accuracy, support regional accents, correct misheard words by voice or keyboard, and handle noisy environments or crosstalk.

Dictation apps use editing phrases: predefined voice commands that the app recognizes as instructions for modifying text. Editing phrases include: “add comment” to add a blank comment; “delete” to remove the last word; “new line”; “start list”; “em dash”; “new paragraph”; “comma”; “period”; “question mark”; “apostrophe”; and more.

These apps pause to capture audio before transcribing several words at once. The resulting draft often requires cleanup and formatting.

My Dictation Process

I use Word Dictation and Google Docs on my iPhone, but there are many note-taking options, such as Evernote, Notion, Microsoft OneNote, Google Keep, Obsidian, and Apple Notes.

Working in a quiet location minimizes the background noise picked up by a microphone. When commuting, I sit in a quiet section of the train, away from energized voices, which helps me feel less self-conscious when dictating in public. I speak directly into my iPhone to ensure clear audio capture. There are good options, such as Apple AirPods or wireless earbuds, if you don’t want to hold your device in your hand while dictating. And some people like to walk while dictating, since sitting may feel static. 

On my iPhone, I turn on Do Not Disturb to silence notifications and calls before I begin. Dictating an outline is the first step to capturing my ideas. I then auto-save the draft to the cloud and fix a few misheard words by using the on-screen keyboard. I make sure to email the outline to myself as a backup. After the dictation session, I edit the cloud copy on my laptop to develop the next version.

I block off time on my calendar for writing while commuting and on weekend afternoons. Using Google Calendar, I schedule writing tasks for specific dates and times, such as outlining, to-do items, and next steps. At the end of the week, I revisit the calendar items to verify that I accomplished each task.

Workflow for Word Mobile Dictation

Estimated setup time: 15 minutes.

Purchase a Microsoft 365 personal license, then install and sign into the Word Mobile and OneDrive apps on your phone. This feature converts speech to text, requiring a microphone and a reliable internet connection.

To get started, open Word and tap the Create button, then tap the blue plus button to open a blank document. Tap the microphone icon at the bottom-right corner to start dictating.

To apply a heading style, place your cursor at the end of the heading, tap the three dots on the bottom toolbar, tap Styles, tap the heading you want to apply, such as Heading 1.

To clear formatting, place the cursor at the end of the line where you want to remove the formatting (such as a Heading style) and say “select that” and “clear formatting.”

To save time punctuating while in a live document with the microphone enabled, tap the gear button (bottom-left corner) and enable Auto Punctuation.

To auto-save your draft in OneDrive, tap More Options and enable AutoSave or Save. 

If you accidentally close Word during a dictation session, you can find your draft by tapping Browse at the bottom-right corner of the Home screen, then Recovered Drafts.

Workflow for Google Docs Voice Typing

Estimated setup time: 15 minutes. Note: Google Docs uses the term voice typing instead of dictation.

Install the Google Docs Mobile and Google Drive apps on your phone. Your draft will be automatically saved in Google Drive once you sign into both apps.

To get started, open Google Docs and tap the bottom-right plus button to open a blank document. Tap New Document and name your document, and tap Create. To begin voice typing, tap the microphone icon on the on-screen keyboard.

To bold a word, touch and hold the word, tap Select > Bold on the formatting toolbar. To apply heading styles, touch and hold the heading, tap Select > Font (top-right corner). Under the Text group, tap the right arrow next to Styles, and select your heading.

To clear document formatting, touch and hold the word, tap Select > Font > Text > Clear Formatting.

To restore previous versions, go to Google Drive on a computer and open the document, then go to File > Version History > See Version History and select a version to restore.

Experiment with Your Process

This process might not work for everyone. Some people feel uncomfortable dictating, especially in public. Still, I found that dictating and editing helped move ideas out of my head and into an outline, a draft, and then a story. The key is to stay curious and keep experimenting until you discover what works best for your writing process.

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Melynda Hill-Teter holds a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology and a Certificate in Technical Writing. She is a freelance writer with 20+ years of experience as an IT analyst, specializing in user support and Microsoft applications. Melynda is currently writing her debut novel, inspired by her grandfather’s intriguing claim that he invented FM radio and built a 1923 alpha radio set—one said to receive transmissions from the future.

The post Talk to Write: Advance to a Completed Draft Using Dictation appeared first on SFWA - The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association.

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