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Dream Foundry, a non-profit dedicated to bolstering the careers of nascent professionals working with the speculative arts, hasannounced the winners for its 2026 contests.

Writing Contest

• N.A. Blair (First Place)
• Natalie Anai Nowo Lydick (Second Place)
• Tomás Xavier Díaz (Third Place)

Art Contest

• Emelia Feldman (First Place)
• Niko Kristic (Second Place)
• Marcus Leon Solomon (Third Place)

First place winners receive $1,500, second place receives $750, and …Read More

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Baen Books, an independent publisher of military science fiction and fantasy, has announced the creation of a new short story award, named in honor of the author David A. Drake. The reward is in addition to their currently sponsored awards, the Baen Fantasy Adventure Award and Jim Baen Memorial Award.

Baen hopes to find new writing talent and will reward winners with professional publication contracts for their stories as well …Read More

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The shortlist for the2026 Prix Utopiales(honoring the best SF published in France) has been announced.

• Heureux comme jamais,Guillaume Chamanadjian (Aux forges de Vulcain)
• Spectres, Thomas Gunzig (Au diable Vauvert)
• Bordure, Lucie Mosca (L'Atalante)
• Gogmagog, Jeff Noon and Steve Beard (La Volte)
• Les Dieux lents,Claire North (Le Bélial')

Youth short story competition winners were also announced.

• Godet Rochette , Clément - …Read More

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Wolf Moon, Antler Moon by A. C. Wise (Reactor 1/13/25) is the winner of the 2026 Eugie Foster Memorial Award for Short Fictionfor stories that are irreplaceable, that inspire, enlighten, and entertain.

Other finalists were:

• Concerning the Multiplicity of Children in Central Florida's Suburbanized Wet Lands , Ichabod Cassius Kilroy (Analog Science Fiction & Fact 4/25)
• Four People I Need You to Kill Before the …Read More

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The winners of the 2026 Dragon Awards were presented at Dragon Con, held September 3 – September 7, 2026 in Atlanta GA.

Best Science Fiction Novel

• WINNER: Operation Bounce House, Matt Dinniman (Ace)

• God's Junk Drawer, Peter Clines (Blackstone)
• The Faith of Beasts, James S.A. Corey (Orbit)
• Radiant Star, Ann Leckie (Orbit US)
• Slow Gods, Claire North (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
• The Shattering Peace, John Scalzi …Read More

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by Deanna Richards

Speculative fiction offers YA writers something that realistic fiction cannot: the freedom to craft worlds with fantastic, supernatural, or technologically or scientifically enhanced elements that serve as a protective container for catharsis—allowing young readers to safely explore trauma and experience individual and collective liberation.   

Transmuting Trauma Through Genre 

Before diving in, let’s start with a few definitions. Traumatic events are often described as frightening or dangerous experiences, and can include natural disasters, physical or emotional abuse, neglect, experiencing or witnessing crime, violence, death, or war. An overwhelming emotional and somatic response to a traumatic event, which can oftentimes contribute to long-lasting distress, is defined as trauma. Liberation, in this context, means the act of release—which may result in freedom from physical imprisonment, oppression, or harmful psychological states.

Young readers are bound to encounter challenging topics in books, and while some may be comfortable or even prefer exploring those topics in realistic, contemporary fiction, speculative fiction offers readers the chance to experience difficult content in a way that may feel less directly threatening. It also allows for the inclusion of liberatory outcomes that would not be possible in a non-speculative work.

Tomi Adeyemi is one of many writers who has intentionally used speculative fiction to expose, explore, process, and combat trauma with historical roots, such as colonization, the legacy of slavery, and racism. In the Author’s Note at the close of Children of Blood and Bone (2018), she names her intentional choice to use fantasy as a way of transmuting the sense of helplessness and grief into a liberatory experience:

Although riding giant lionaires and performing sacred rituals might be in the realm of fantasy, all the pain, fear, sorrow and loss in this book is real. Children of Blood and Bone was written during a time where I kept turning on the news and seeing stories of unarmed black men, women, and children being shot by the police. I felt afraid and angry and helpless, but this book was the one thing that made me feel like I could do something about it.   

Authors A. S. King, Tracey Deonn, and Justina Ireland also use speculative fiction as a vehicle to explore trauma within interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships, as well as in systemic structures. King’s Dig (2019) addresses family trauma alongside gender-based violence and employs a supernatural element—the spirit of a murdered girl—to exact justice. Deonn’s Legendborn Cycle (2020–2025) tackles traumatic grief alongside racial trauma and allows characters liberation through the reclamation and harnessing of ancestral magical powers. Ireland’s Ophie’s Ghosts (2021), exposes racial injustices in the aftermath of slavery, and justice and freedom are brought about by an unlikely partnership between the living and the dead. These works are a few examples of texts that successfully create a safe space for readers, transform instead of vicariously traumatize, and turn trauma into triumph. 

Empowerment and Liberation

As SF writers, you are uniquely positioned to provide young readers safe passage during the exploration of trauma and to allow them to experience release in new and creative ways. While YA texts may include realistic representations of extreme violence, loss and suffering, life in poverty and war zones, or impacts of generational trauma, the liberation characters can achieve is confined only by the imagination of the writer. Whether by spells, claws, uncanny physical prowess, or with the aid of deceased ancestors, fairies, or divine entities, you possess endless opportunities to empower your characters, devise innovative strategies to break down oppressive structures and disrupt destructive family patterns, and forge paths toward justice, healing, and catharsis. 

If you want to explore trauma and liberation in your work, consider these questions as you craft your story: 

1. In what ways is your hero empowered? What have they learned to do to survive within their deeply flawed and destructive society and/or family? 
2. Ask this of your hero: What parts of themselves can they embrace to turn the traumatic wound into a source of strength? Into a weapon?  
3. How are SFF elements—the fantastic, the supernatural, the technologically advanced, the magical, the alternative histories, or the secondary world—being used to aid your characters in healing themselves, freeing others, achieving justice, or dismantling oppressive structures and disrupting trauma cycles?

Keeping Your Young Reader Safe 

Although speculative fiction inherently offers a layer of protection by being outside of our reality, the genre alone cannot protect a reader; a made-up world containing traumatic events can still become unsafe. However, you can avoid unintentionally harming the young reader by reflecting on the areas below:  

1. Violence: What is the purpose of violence or cruelty in your work? How does what’s happening shape the character’s psyche?  
2. Pacing: When do your characters have space to breathe, even among the traumatic moments? Where are there moments of lightness? Of joy? Of calm? 
3. Empowerment: Are your characters constantly being acted upon? Are they perpetually disempowered?

By wisely using the tools that speculative fiction offers, you can care for your young reader while grappling with difficult subjects.  

Difficult Worlds, Safe Journeys

All fiction, to some degree, can offer the kind of distance that makes reader engagement with trauma feel safe and empowering. Speculative fiction, however, can push the boundaries of resistance and resilience beyond what is possible in real life (or realistic stories). And for younger readers especially, both those reimagined possibilities and the safety of the fantastic world can provide the chance to safely accompany characters on their complex journeys, experience new ways to challenge oppressive structures and patterns in society, and achieve liberation.

Explore more articles from The KidLit Chronicles

Deanna Richards is a queer-identified writer and licensed mental health counselor of Jamaican descent. D has participated in several writing workshops, including the Tin House YA Novel Workshop and the Whole Novel Workshop for SFF genre at Highlights Foundation, and graduated in June 2025 from Lesley University’s MFA in Creative Writing Program, Writing for Young People track.

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Several awards for services to fandom were presented by the First Fandom Foundation during the opening ceremonies of LAcon V, the 84th Worldcon, held August 27, 2026.

First Fandom Hall of Fame Award

• Mike Glyer
• Craig Miller
• Bjo Trimble

First Fandom Posthumous Hall of Fame Award

• Fredric Brown
• Myrtle R. Douglas

Sam Moskowitz Archive Award

• Andrew Porter
• David Ritter

[via File 770] …Read More

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The winners for the 2025 Sidewise Awards for Alternate History were announced August 31, 2026 at LAcon V.

Long Form

• WINNER: Ten Incarnations of Rebellion, Vaishnavi Patel (Ballantine) amazon / bookshop

• Pagans, James Alistair Henry (Moonflower) amazon
• Tobacco Republic: What If The 13 Colonies Never United?, R.A. Moss (Beck & Branch) amazon

Short Form

• WINNER: Caesar at Sea , Alan Smale (Skull X Bones)

…Read More

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Author and editor David Kopaska-Merkel, 69, died August 26, 2026.

David C. Kopaska-Merkel was born January 11, 1957 in Charlottesville VA. He attended William & Mary, earned a doctorate in geology, worked for the Geological Survey of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, and wrote several articles and books on geology and paleontology. He began writing speculative work in short fiction, starting with his first published story Mecroniya (1981), but soon began publishing …Read More

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The African Speculative Fiction Society (ASFS) announced the shortlist for the 2026 Nommo Awards, given to works by African authors as defined by the ASFS and Nommo Awards Guidelines, on August 27, 2026 at LAcon V, the 84th World Science Fiction Convention, in Anaheim CA.

Ilube Award for Best Novel

• The Bone River, Nkereuwem Albert (Phoenix)
• Black Navel, Paul Olisaeloka Anozie (Griots Lounge) amazon / bookshop
• Firstborn of the …Read More

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by John Ryan

Read by Misha Grifka Wander

If you work in game narrative writing for an extended period, you will eventually be working in someone else’s intellectual property (IP). Whether you write for cultural titans like James Bond or Star Wars or if it’s something smaller (like your friend’s D&D campaign), you’ll be tasked with writing “inside the lines” of their world. This comes with challenges as a writer but also opportunities to bring your own voice to the table.

This article is about game writing, specifically. I can’t speak about what it’s like to write for IPs in other media, but I can talk about my experiences writing for IPs in gaming (Horizon, Guild Wars, Iron Man, Fable, Destiny). 

It’s the Money

Games have always been attracted to big IPs (there have been Star Trek video games since 1971!), but after the 2022 financial downturn, established IPs became the safe bet for game development, whether the games were sequels, reboots, or remasters. The most anticipated game of 2026 is a sequel: Grand Theft Auto 6. And it’s not alone. Check out how many of this year’s games are sequels, ports, expansions, compilations, or somehow connected to an established IP.

For the foreseeable future, well-known IPs are going to loom large in the gaming development space.

Knowing the IP

This is a self-selecting issue during the application process. When you apply for a role (or if you are recruited), you’ll be interviewed and tested on what you know about the IP and if you would be a good fit for writing in the IP’s space. You need to know the difference between Jedi and Sith, between Imperium and Tau, between minotaur and mind flayer. Without having that foundational knowledge, you won’t be taken seriously. The IP’s stakeholders need to know they can trust you with their baby. If you have IP knowledge and the writing chops, you’ll be set up better than a lion’s share of the candidates. 

Mastering the Foundation

One of the biggest mistakes I see from younger game writers is immediately leaping in with their ideas for elaborate missions, epic quest arcs, and complex characters on their first day, even before their first narrative debrief.

In the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi, we meet aspiring chefs under the tutelage of sushi master Jiro Ono who must first be able to properly squeeze a hot towel before they can learn to cut and prepare a fish. After ten years of fish work, they’re allowed to cook eggs, and only after 200 failures did one young chef gain Ono’s approval.

In game writing, you won’t have the luxury of 200 tries to get a scene right, but the fundamentals apply: After you’re hired to work on an IP, you’ll always need to show you can write in the IP’s voice. The good news is, IPs will usually have reference materials (for example, story bibles, pronunciation guides for VO performers, timelines) to read if you have questions about the spelling of a name, how a character might sound when they talk, and when certain events happen. 

This is a crucial point where you talk to other writers, stakeholders, and anyone else who has ties to the game’s narrative. Don’t assume you are the expert. I learned a lot more about how a studio approaches an IP’s narrative from conversations than reading internal wikis. Your goal here is twofold: learning how the studio works, and becoming a subject matter expert on the IP and everything set in place before you showed up.

Only once you can prove you have a mastery over what came before will you be trusted to add your own voice and ideas into the mix. 

Yes, You Have a Voice

Once you get the IP down and you have gained the IP stakeholder’s trust, you’ll be able to bring your voice and ideas to the table. This can take the form of pitching original quests, creating new characters or fleshing out existing ones, and contributing to the lore of the IP. Typically, you need to deliver a brief for your new contributions to your narrative lead (the person on the team who is in charge of the game’s narrative vision) on what you want to add, but this is the point where your hard work starts to pay off and you’re trusted to put your stamp on things.

The most important thing you need to do at this stage is keep communicating with your narrative lead to make sure you are on the right path with your idea because…

Everything Is in Service, Everything Is Experience

Remember that everything you create and add to the game is in service to the IP. Your work is yours, but it takes place in someone else’s sandbox. In game development, you will work with anywhere from 2 to 2,000 other developers in various disciplines (hopefully) rowing in the same direction. Everyone works toward a unified vision but still gets to add their own insights and imagination into what they make. 

Lastly, writing for someone else’s IP can help you with your own writing. It gives you experience with pacing, voice, and lore, just as some creatives got their start writing fanfic or coding game mods to develop the chops and confidence to work on their own stuff while understanding what it takes to make and release a game. Being able to show voice mastery across different genres and franchises will prove you’re versatile to work anywhere. 

Writing for someone else’s IP comes down to trust and competency. Once you get your foot in the door, it’s on you to show your professionalism and attention to detail for the assignment.

Explore more articles from Writing for Hire

John Ryan is a veteran game writer/narrative designer who has worked on franchises including Fable, Horizon, Marvel’s Iron Man, Guild Wars, Destiny, Forza, and Lily’s Garden. He’s brought stories to life across multiple genres and platforms, including VR and XR. He is currently working on unannounced projects but is always looking for the next adventure. He currently lives near Seattle with his wife, their cat, and a growing backlog of games on his Steam account. You can read more about him and his work at his site: johnryanwrites.com.

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The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) has named Nancy Kress the 43rd recipient of the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award.

SFWA President Kate Ristau said,

When we choose a SFWA Grand Master, the discussion begins with the Past Presidents. Year after year, Nancy's name has come up as an author who is long overdue for this award. She has made an incredible impact on our …Read More

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LAcon V has announced that Aussiecon 5 and the Brisbane in 2028 bid won the right to host the 2028 Worldcon. The 86th World Science Fiction Convention will be held July 27-31, 2028 at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre in Brisbane, Australia.

Guests of honor announced so far include Claire G. Coleman, David Gaider, Kathleen Jennings, Seanan McGuire, Perry Middlemiss, and Jonathan Strahan.

According to File 770, Brisbane …Read More

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The winners of the Hugo Awards, the Astounding Award for Best New Writer, and the Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book were announced on August 30, 2026 by LAcon V, the 84th World Science Fiction Convention.

The winners are:

Best Novel

• WINNER: The Everlasting,Alix E. Harrow (Tor US; Tor UK) amazon / bookshop

• A Drop of Corruption, Robert Jackson Bennett (Del Rey; Hodderscape) amazon / bookshop

…Read More

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SFWA Names Nancy Kress as 43rd Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master

For Immediate Release

During a Fireside Chat on Friday, August 28 at this year’s Worldcon in Los Angeles (LAcon V), the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) was proud to announce the latest recipient of its Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award: Nancy Kress. SFWA President Kate Ristau and Operations Director Russell Davis were on-scene to celebrate Kress’s extensive contributions to the genre in community.

The SFWA Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award recognizes “lifetime achievement in science fiction and/or fantasy.” It is named after author Damon Knight, SFWA’s founder and the organization’s 13th Grand Master. Initially, the Grand Master wasn’t given out every year, but from 1975 to 2026 much has changed in our field, including the consistency with which we award this prestigious post. The Grand Master is a title usually conferred well in advance of SFWA’s next Nebula Awards Conference, and its announcement creates more opportunities to inspire excellence in the field, on the road to the Nebula Ballot and Finalist section.

SFWA’s 43rd Grand Master joins a group of powerful writers, including N.K. Jemisin, Nicola Griffith, Peter S. Beagle, Connie Willis, Nalo Hopkinson, Ursula K. Le Guin, Ray Bradbury, Anne McCaffrey, Robin McKinley, Joe Haldeman, among other legends of genre fiction.

Nancy Kress is the author of thirty novels, four story collections, and three books on
writing fiction. Her work has won six Nebulas, two Hugos, a Sturgeon, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. Her most recent novel, Observer, co-written with Dr. Robert Lanza, concerns the nature of consciousness, reality, and love. Her forthcoming novel set in the court of Henry VIII, The Queen’s Witch, marks a return to her roots in fantasy. Nancy’s work has been translated into nearly two dozen languages, none of which she can read. She has taught writing at various venues in the United States and abroad, including both Clarions, fifteen years co-teaching with Walter Jon Williams at the intense workshop Taos Toolbox, workshops in Beijing, and a semester as Picador Guest Lecturer at the University of Leipzig. Nancy lives in Seattle with her husband, writer Jack Skillingstead, and Pippin, the world’s most stubborn Chihuahua.

SFWA President Kate Ristau reflects on the timeliness of this selection:

When we choose a SFWA Grand Master, the discussion begins with the Past Presidents. Year after year, Nancy’s name has come up as an author who is long overdue for this award. She has made an incredible impact on our industry not only with her work, but also with her teaching at both Clarions and Taos Toolbox, as well as workshops in Beijing and Leipzig.

She has spent decades writing at the cutting edge of genetics, biotechnology, and human transformation, asking what happens when science changes not only our world, but our understanding of what it means to be human.

There could not be a more prescient time to honor Nancy’s contributions. As we confront the impact of AI on our work and on our livelihoods, Nancy reminds us what it means to be human: to question, to imagine, to connect. Not only that, but to recognize that our humanity cannot be separated from the choices we make about our future.

Former SFWA Presidents further attest to the strength of Kress’s work and contributes to her community:

I met Nancy when we were both teaching at Taos Toolbox. She was as smart, gracious, and generous as everyone in the industry says. I’m tremendously pleased to see her join the ranks of SFWA’s Grand Masters and I know she’ll continue to contribute to the new generations of writers following in her illustrious footsteps.

Jeffe Kennedy (SFWA President, 2021-2024)

Nancy Kress is a master of realistic science fiction that draws you in and keeps you there with her inventive stories and her memorable characters. Her writing is what Hugo Gernsback had in mind when he helped invent the genre.

Paul Levinson (SFWA President, 1998-2001)

“Good writing + good science = an extraordinary talent.”

Barbara Hambly (SFWA President, 1994-1996)

SFWA’s next Nebula Awards Conference will be held in Seattle, June 3-7, 2027, where the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award will be formally bestowed upon Nancy Kress.

The program theme is INTO THE UNKNOWN, and preliminary programming announcements will emerge in September 2026. Conference tickets are on sale for $275 until December 31, 2026, and SFWA is looking forward to an event that will cultivate strong conversations around the state of genre. It is this organization’s privilege to start that conversation by celebrating Grand Master Nancy Kress‘s tremendous accomplishments across science fiction, fantasy, and related genres.

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by Monica Cross

Read by Liz J. Bradley

In 2018, I sat in a bar in Ybor City, Florida, and watched a Martian priestess draw tarot cards. Each card corresponded to a video entry from the archive that she had come to Earth to steal. The video entries were that of the first Mars colony mission. As each card was drawn, the priestess embodied one of the original crew members in her search for answers to what happened to Earth’s ecosystem. Her goal was to understand why similar things occurred  on the terraformed Mars. 

L. Nicol Cabe in The Sybil of Mars at Tucson Fringe 2017. Photo by JJ Snyder Photography.

The Sibyl of Mars was performed by its author, L. Nicol Cabe, who stood alone on stage, wearing a flight suit. She had nothing but a chair, a tablet, and her tarot deck. At the end of the show, the sibyl used the tarot cards drawn throughout the hour-long performance to produce a reading that was a call to arms for the audience about how to save our own planet from ecological collapse. Seven years later, I still think about the simplicity of the staging, the complexity of the writing, and the immediacy of the performance. This sort of science fiction and fantasy frequently graces the stages of fringe festivals across the world.

What Is Fringe?

Fringe festivals started over 70 years ago with the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and celebrate original and often experimental performances. A fringe festival does not produce shows, but it provides a framework for artists to present their own work. Writers who want their work done at fringe are either going to produce it themselves or need to find a producer to take on the project.

Most fringe festivals are open to improv, stand-up, dramatic work, musicals, puppets, you name it, and these festivals are often uncensored and unjuried. So while each fringe has its own organizer, culture, and process, there are some common things you can expect at most festivals. For instance, many use a lottery system: Artists apply and names are drawn until there are no slots left.

Jenny Aldrich Walker as Roxanne and Donald Walker as Cyrano in Cyrano on the Moon written and directed by Monica Cross at the Tampa International Fringe Festival in 2017.

There are some fringe festivals that are curated. They select participants in order to maintain a specific feel across their entire event. Whether they are curated or unjuried, there is an expectation among fringe festivals that the shows will be fresh and innovative work.

World Fringe maintains a list of fringe festivals across the globe. Check out their website for more information and to find a fringe near you.

SFF at Fringe

It’s not only the unjuried nature of most fringe festivals that makes them an ideal setting for new science fiction and fantasy plays; it is also the culture of experimentation. Between the relative scarcity of SFF in theater and SFF plays’ tendency toward pushing theatrical limitations, SFF is ideal for the fringe environment. There is a buzz that surrounds fringe festivals, and they attract a very loyal following among a certain type of theatergoer. Most fringe attendees are eager to see something that they can’t get in a mainstream theater. Often, the weirder a show is, the more attention it will receive.

J. Merrill Motz as Chewy in Paper Soul’s 2018 MN Fringe Production of SOFT by J. Merrill Motz.

During my times at fringe festivals, I have found plays of a speculative nature to be well attended and well received. I have seen everything at fringe from an interactive space-adventure play for children (Remy Raygun of the Space Brigade: A Build-Your-Own Space Opera written by Jacob Gulliver and Kyle Dekker) to a dystopian one-man show (Soft written by J. Merrill Motz) about a “nice guy” who is willing to literally torture himself in order to match on an experimental dating app. And I saw them both the same weekend at the Minnesota Fringe Festival.

Why Fringe?

Some playwrights create with the fringe as the final destination for their work. These are the audiences and this is the community that their work is made for. Some of these writers are local to a large fringe that they write and produce for regularly, while others travel around from one festival to another, touring the same show, sometimes for years. The network of festivals to which artists tour a show  is often called “the fringe circuit.” Typically, touring shows are done by solo artists or small groups that write or devise their own material and then also perform it. 

Alex Kingsley and J.R. Steel in Unplanned Obsolescence by Alex Kingsley at Philadelphia Fringe Festival in 2023. Photo by Isaiah White.

Other playwrights create shows with the idea of fringe as a starting place for their work. The fringe production becomes “proof of concept” for other theater companies that might be interested in the script. Writers with this in mind might focus on inviting reviewers to their fringe show and getting high-quality photos.

SFF Fringe Success

My most successful play, Cyrano on the Moon, started as a show that I took to the Tampa International Fringe Festival in 2017.

Unplanned Obsolescence, which fellow SFWA member Alex Kingsley wrote for the Philadelphia Fringe Festival in 2023, was so popular that it was standing room only by the final performance of that run. Unplanned Obsolescence was later produced by Gender Fucked Productions as a staged reading at Trans Scribe: A New World Festival (Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago).

Manuel Solis-Bauza, Charis Watler, and Isla Llorens in The Vast of Darkness by Bethany Dickens Assaf at Orlando Fringe 2024. Directed by Joe Llorens. Photo by Gontran Durocher.

In recent years, a science fiction play won an award at one of the largest fringe festivals in North America: The Vast of Darkness by Bethany Dickens Assaf won the Critics’ Choice Award for Best Play-Drama at Orlando Fringe in 2024, and it was remounted at Orlando’s mini-fringe, FESTN4, the next year. Orlando is the longest-running fringe festival in the United States, making that a significant recognition among fringe artists.

Go Forth and Fringe!

If you are writing an SFF play, I want to encourage you to consider fringe as an avenue for producing the play. I suggest starting by going to fringe yourself and checking out the work. Talk to artists whose work you like. Fringe artists frequently attend as many other shows as they can, and there are places where artists and audience members can congregate to discuss shows. If you are looking for a producer, reach out to groups that seem to work with playwrights and see if you can pitch them a show idea. If you are interested in self-producing, put a team together and start working on it.

Explore more articles from SFF of Screen and Stage

Monica Cross is a neurodivergent (ADHD/Dyslexic) playwright and dramaturg in Wisconsin. Her work has been produced at Silk Moth Stage, Whiskey Theatre Factory, MadLab, Otherworld Theatre Company, Theatre Odyssey, and the Hippodrome Theatre, as well as various fringe festivals and universities. She has been a finalist for Wisconsin Wrights, semifinalist for Shakespeare’s New Contemporaries and The O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. She was awarded the John Ringling Towers Individual Artist Award for Performing Arts, 2018, and she was a Fellow at the Hermitage Artist Retreat, 2019. She is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association.

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Fan and organizer Robin Johnson, 89, died July 6, 2026 in Ballarat, Australia of underlying causes after a fall.

Johnson was born March 9, 1937 and lived variously in Melbourne, Sydney, Hobart, and Ballarat, as well as in England. He chaired the first Australian Worldcon in 1975 as well as Thylacons 1-3. He was awarded the Ditmar Awards Special Award in 1974 and in 1983, and he received the Big …Read More

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Finalists for the 2026 Washington Science Fiction Association (WSFA) Small Press Award for Short Fiction have been announced:

• Not a Fish , Andrew Dykstal (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 6/12/25)
• Half Life , Stephen Harper (Skull X Bones)
• The Last Mardi Gras , Raven Jakubowski (DreamForge Anvil6/1/25)
• The Teleporting Disaster Fairy , Rati Mehrotra (Uncanny 11-12/25)
• Blackrock , R.M. Olson (Skull X Bones)
• Billionaire's Tears …Read More

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Wendy N. Wagner has announced that she will bestepping down as editor-in-chief of Nightmare Magazine to focus on writing, with the December 2026 issue being her last. Wagner wrote,

On the plus side,I'm simply returning the reins to our founder, John Joseph Adams. I am absolutely thrilled to see what he'll do now that he's had a bit of rest; his amazing work as a horror short fiction editor is …Read More

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by Gabrielle Kirouac Byrne

Read by the author

The Victorians got at least one thing right. In the wake of new technologies and Darwin’s trip on the HMS Beagle, citizen science flourished. The wealth of new discoveries (and people’s access to information about them) stirred hearts and grew in scope and ferocity. All anyone needed to make a potentially valuable contribution was curiosity, a way to take notes, and their own eyes. That spirit of citizen discovery continues today. Whether it’s through binoculars, satellites, or the naked eye, there’s always more to understand and investigate—and we can all take the case.

Victorians loved scientific exploration, but many also loved to combine scientific exploration with fantasy, as in this illustration of a “boa” or “hydra” depicted in Curious creatures in zoology by John Ashton, 1890 (p. 290). Ashton claimed these were found in Italy.
Source: Biodiversity Heritage Library. Applying Familiar Patterns to Fantasy Particulars

Human brains are built for pattern recognition, and we’re a curious bunch. Throughout our lives, we examine the world and collect data to make patterns. On top of that, writers tend to be amazing observers and good at asking questions. We can use these truths to our very great advantage when we create our speculative worlds by building on patterns we know exist in nature.  

A kitten eats and must find food. A bear eats and must find food. I eat and must find food. Therefore, I can imagine that a dragon must also eat and find food. Connecting a fantastical element (dragons) to an observable, obvious pattern (creatures need to eat) can enrich our stories. Multiplied across a world, these simple, familiar connections also help readers inherently connect to that fictional place, even when it’s different in all the particulars.

While the scale and amount of detail we share depends on our word count and our audience, this worldbuilding approach works for readers of any age. We are all in relationship with our world no matter how old we are. All fictional universes combine the strange with the familiar to get reader buy-in, whether it’s an epic adult saga or a middle grade stand-alone. Nature questions help integrate and explore the strange through the familiar. Younger readers may be especially receptive to these patterns of connections because they are still in the process of actively building these observations to understand their own place and power in this world.

Victorians thought the Monster of Lake Fagua lived in Chile.
Via Wikimedia Commons. Basic Needs Are the Building Blocks

Start by applying questions about the basic needs of living beings to your worldbuilding. I’ve included a list of sample questions below. Begin with one creature/animal—ideally one you expect to be at least tangentially relevant to your story—but you can also consider the same questions for related creatures that come up. Most, if not all, of these questions are also relevant to humans/humanoids, and it can be elucidating to use them with your human characters. It’s deceptively simple, but you may be surprised by the trove of information you glean.

Keep in mind that, particularly when writing for kids, even small details can fuel fantastic scenes. Pick your poison (perhaps literally) and these moments of human-animal interaction can be funny, poignant, or pivotal to plot and character development. Whether it’s baby moose snot or the toxins of a colorful frog, ask yourself: What would a kid think was cool/gross/extra/sweet about this fictional creature? What would they do if they came across it? What would you have done at that age? For a young adult, ask whether the interaction could be formative to who they are—or who they’re becoming. Could it provide a deeper understanding or metaphor for something they’re going through?

Be Curious: Nature-based Questions for Your Worldbuilding

●  Is your animal primarily a predator, prey, working animal, or companion?

●  What is this animal called? Start with its common name (e.g., squirrel, dragon, bear-cat, greater bipple-hound). For fun, try exploring a scientific name. For example, a gray squirrel is Sciurus carolinensas. Sciurus comes from the words shadow and tail (in Greek) and the Carolinas were where people documented the beasties.

●  What does your animal eat? If your creature is a companion or working animal, consider what it would eat in its natural environment.

●  Where is your animal’s food found, and what does it have to do to get it? Do other creatures also eat this same food? Does the food have a way to protect itself? What does your animal’s food eat?

●  How has your animal adapted to where it lives? For example, if it lives in a cold place, does it have a fur coat or layer of blubber? If it lives in the dark, does it have a strong sense of smell or good night vision? If it needs to hide in trees, does it have long claws to cling to the bark?

●  What can hurt or kill your animal?

●  When in danger, is your animal more likely to fight or to hide? How is it adapted to do this?

●  Does your animal migrate? If so, why, and when, and how, and to where/how far?

●  How does your animal reproduce? Does it have lots of babies, or is it rare to have children, or is it something in-between? Is your animal born alive, or does it hatch, or clone itself, or something else? How long do babies stay with their parents (or don’t they)?

●  How long does your animal live?

●  Does your animal have a death ritual (e.g., elephants, who often have family graveyards)?

●  What does the landscape look like where your animal lives (mountains, desert, ocean, air, jungle, savannah, urban/sub-urban, other)?

●  What stories would humans share about these animals (scary, funny, irritated, loving, reverent)? Try telling one of these stories.

●  Does this animal (or perhaps one of its related resources or habitats) impact a human system (think economic resources, power structures, social hierarchies, spiritual belief systems—or some/all of the above)? How?

From a single creature, you’ll be building a landscape. For each landscape, you can go on to consider additional questions about things like storms, the seasons, the weather, the light, and more.

Using questions about nature like these, writers can enhance existing fantasy worlds or reverse engineer rich, expansive landscapes from scratch—worlds that impact our characters and touch our readers no matter how old they may be. You don’t need a science degree. Just the directive of Victorian citizen scientists: have fun and be curious.

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Gabrielle Kirouac Byrne lives in the tangled wilds of the Pacific Northwest, where she writes fantasy for both kids and grown-ups. Gabby also works as an editor and book coach for fantasy writers, has degrees in literature and in environmental studies and spent more than 15 years working in communications and non-formal science education on topics related to marine organisms and habitat, conservation, policy, and human health. She is the author of Rise of the Dragon Moon and The Edge of Strange Hollow. Learn more at www.gkbyrnebooks.com.

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