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Several authors and works of genre interest are among the Mystery Writers of America (MWA) 2025 Edgar Awards nominees.

Best Novel

• The Tainted Cup, Robert Jackson Bennett (Del Rey)

Best First Novel

• The Mechanics of Memory, Lee Audrey (CamCat)

Best Critical/Biographical

• On Edge: Gender and Genre in the Work of Shirley Jackson, Patricia Highsmith, and Leigh Brackett, Ashley Lawson (Ohio State University Press)

Best Short Story

• “Cut

...Read More

The National Book Foundation, together with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, announced the selected books for the 2025 Science + Literature program. The 2025 fiction selection is science fiction novel The Last Animal by Ramona Ausubel (Riverhead), along with two other selections in non-fiction and poetry.

The Science + Literature program, supported by a grant from the Sloan Foundation, identifies three books across fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, that “deepen readers’ ...Read More

Howard Andrew Jones (19 July 1968–16 January 2025) was a beloved sword-and-sorcery editor, reader, scholar, and writer, known for works such as the Ring-Sworn trilogy and the Chronicles of Hanuvar series. In 2016, the Black Gate: Adventures in Fantasy Literature website won a World Fantasy Award, which the winner, John O’Neill, attributes almost entirely to Howard’s efforts over the previous eight years. Jones loved sword-and-sorcery, historical fiction, and adventure pulp, and spent the last twenty-five years helping it to thrive.

His first published books were eight volumes of stories by historical fiction writer Harold Lamb. Jones encountered Lamb’s work in high school and became a fan as well as an expert, working to reprint his stories after learning most were uncollected and no longer in print. Jones considered Lamb to be the unsung grandfather of modern sword-and-sorcery and heroic fiction and was glad to bring attention to his work.

The Lamb books brought Jones into genre editing. Long-time friend and collaborator John O’Neill recounts, “The Harold Lamb stories led to his first job at a magazine, editing the late lamented Flashing Swords ezine from 2006-2007. I was enormously impressed with his talent for spotting, recruiting, and especially nurturing talent, and in 2007 I brought him on board as Managing Editor of Black Gate. The print version of Black Gate folded in 2011, but by 2017 he was back in the editor’s chair, when Joseph Goodman hired him to launch Tales from the Magician’s Skull. He edited the magazine for seven joyous years, until it was sold in 2024. Howard enjoyed writing, but I think he loved being an editor. He was uniquely gifted at finding and encouraging new writers, and his detailed feedback—even in his rejections—was legendary. More than a few successful fantasy writers today owe their start to Howard. He is sorely missed.”

Jones’ first publication of his own work was the Hanuvar story “A Stone’s Throw” that appeared in the second issue of Glyph magazine in Summer 2000. He continued to write short stories and then novels, his first the historical fantasy The Desert of Souls in 2011. Jones went on to publish twelve novels, including four in the Pathfinder Tales world, and his current series, for which he had at least five books on contract, and published three: Lord of a Shattered Land, The City of Marble and Blood, and Shadow of the Smoking Mountain. In 2021, Jones was nominated for The Venarium Award for Emerging Scholar by The Robert E. Howard Foundation.

Author S.E. Lindberg says of Jones, “Howard’s Skull’s persona resonated since it was the antithesis of him. Whereas the villainous champion of the titular magazine spitefully called his readers ‘mortal dogs’ and regularly ‘immolated’ his interns, the man behind the mask was known to be overly gracious, coaching aspiring, mature, and professional writers in myriad conventions, editing, blogs… for decades! He mentored tirelessly even as his body failed. A week before he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, he improvised a personalized ‘Hey Jude’ song at Gen Con Writers Symposium to inspire me on the piano beside the green room, and the lyrics motivate/haunt me continuously. How did he exude so much vitality? His Hanuvar character embodies Howard more accurately, a veteran striving to save his shattered family and reunite his community (refreshing compared to the flood of immoral, vengeful protagonists available). Howard could strike a friendship up in minutes, and combined with his passion for storytelling, [this] makes him one to be remembered as much as for his heroes as for his own heroism. Howard was the quintessential role model. I imagine him inspiring us now in our time of mourning: ‘Behold, mortal readers, do your morning stretches, carry on, and realize the stories inside you. Swords together!’”

Editor and author Sean CW Korsgaard adds, “The impact Howard Andrew Jones had, as an author and editor, will be felt for years to come. He was a champion of sword-and-sorcery at the subgenre’s lowest point, and an architect and leader of its ongoing renaissance. Scores of new fantasy authors cut their teeth or perfected their craft under his watchful eye, and he was a tireless advocate of the classics. And as a writer in his own right, he was an incredible talent, his Chronicles of Hanuvar alone is a generational work of the fantasy genre. But he was so much more than that—he was among the kindest, most generous people working in speculative fiction, a figure whom all that knew him called a friend. He was a role model and inspiration as a writer, an editor, an academic, a husband, a father, a friend.”

Author Martha Wells remembers, “Howard was a wonderful person, a good friend, and a great writer. He wanted sword-and-sorcery to be inclusive, and he did his best to make everyone feel welcome there.”

Howard Andrew Jones lived 56 years.

The post In Memoriam: Howard Andrew Jones appeared first on SFWA.

Author and longtime Locus editor Laurel Amberdine, 54, died January 21, 2025 of cancer.

Born 1970, Amberdine was a devout Catholic who grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and later lived in the Bay Area and Portland OR. She joined Locus in 2015, where she worked as an assistant editor and web editor; she was instrumental in revamping Locusmag.com and keeping it up and running. She was also an ...Read More

by Monica Louzon

Writers have a unique power: With our words, we transport our readers to new worlds. It doesn’t matter whether we write stories or poems, or whether we write long or short works—the end result remains the same. As we exercise that power throughout our lifetimes, we will generate countless documents and scraps as we create worlds, refine drafts, and interact with our families, friends, colleagues, and fans. With that power comes great responsibility: caring for not only our finished works but also our authorial papers and the writing-adjacent ephemera we generated along the journey.

Some writers delete old files and recycle old paper scraps no longer necessary for the drafting process. Still, I’m willing to gamble that many of us (if not most!) hold onto our worldbuilding notes or poetry experiments on the off-chance that we might want to look at them again in the future.

Your creative process matters.

It matters to you. It will matter to researchers trying to understand what it was like to create speculative fiction and poetry during your lifetime. The notes and anecdotes you jot down during your creative process are fodder for future historians seeking to glean details about how much writers made and how geopolitical events impacted (or were reflected in) the works and creative processes of writers of a specific time period.

There are a few steps we authors can take now, in the short term, to help future archivists and family members who may find themselves processing our authorial papers.

Regularly review your authorial papers on a rolling basis. Try to do this every year or two. That way, you know what you’re still holding onto and why you’re giving it that physical (or digital) space. 

• Redact personally identifiable information that could be used for identity theft before donating your authorial papers. This includes social security numbers, license numbers, mailing addresses, and banking details.
• Put dates on things. You may not know specifically when you wrote something, but you probably remember the approximate year, and that’s a lot more than anyone else will. This can also help you when you’re trying to find notes for a specific idea from fifteen years ago, but you don’t have time to read every sheet of paper.
• Group documents by category. You can group them by drafts of specific stories or zines you made during a certain timeframe and store loose pieces of paper from the same period in an envelope marked with approximate dates. If you’ve got the space, labeled boxes help.
• Create an inventory. Archivists with whom you work will be extremely grateful for even a one-page list generally summarizing the types of books, documents, and other materials you’re donating. A basic inventory makes their jobs much more manageable, giving them a starting place as they begin processing your donated papers.
• Clearly categorize personal 18+ or NSFW materials. Sexually explicit materials pertaining to your personal life can have historical value to researchers, particularly those investigating queer history, gender roles, and sexual norms within the speculative fiction community. If you decide to preserve such materials, however, future archivists (and your family members!) will be grateful if you gather them into an envelope or box and clearly mark it with “18+” or otherwise indicate they are Not Safe For Work (“NSFW”).

Be selective. When you’re deciding what to keep, you don’t have to hang onto every single copyedited version of your story drafts—try to preserve the drafts that have had substantive edits and/or markup because they will give researchers the most insight into your creative and editing processes.

• Don’t hold onto trash—literally! No one—be they family, friends, or archivists—wants to be sorting through or touching old drink bottles, chewed gum, used tissues, or boxes of grimy laptops. More importantly, items like these can attract bugs, grow mold, and physically damage the papers near them.
• Give annotated items more weight. Whenever you go to a convention, you are just one person among hundreds (or thousands!) who will all receive the same program. Researchers will be more interested in your program if you’ve annotated it with thoughts, story ideas, or reactions to the events and panels you attended. Archivists routinely have to de-duplicate items in their collections, which means they deaccession duplicate copies of the same item from their holdings unless those duplicates contain additional substance that sets them apart from the other duplicates.
• Consider your legacy. What do you want future generations to know about you? If you’re holding onto family secrets or documents that could disrupt entire lives of people who might still be alive when you die, consider working with the archivists who will be receiving your works (or with a lawyer) to seal them until a set date has passed (such as 50 or 75 years after your death date). After that time, they could be donated to an archive or made available to researchers.

Properly store your authorial papers. Basements and attics are tempting storage locations, but they are rarely climate-controlled. Variations in air temperature and humidity can destroy documents in a surprisingly short time. Whenever possible, store any physical documents in acid-free folders or boxes in a climate-controlled space. If you’re storing items on the ground level of your home (or in the basement), ensure they’re at least a few inches off the floor. This can help protect them from flooding.

If you have performed work for SFWA in any capacity, please separate materials to that work from your authorial papers and contact the History Committee! These materials are considered organization records for SFWA, and the SFWA History Committee would be happy to help you figure out whether they should be donated to the official SFWA archives or operational records that SFWA needs to be able to reference more frequently.

Monica Louzon (she/her) is a queer writer, translator, and editor. Her stories, poems, translations, and essays have appeared in over 35 different magazines and anthologies, including Apex Magazine, Archive of the Odd, Futura House, Paranoid Tree, Star*Line, and others. Her story “9 Dystopias” was a Best Microfiction 2023 winner, and her speculative poetry was nominated for the Dwarf Stars Award. To learn more about Monica and her work, please visit https://linktr.ee/molowrites.

The post Preservation Guidance for Authors Planning to Donate Their Personal Papers to Archives appeared first on SFWA.

Welcome to the January edition of the SFWA Market Report.

Please note: Inclusion of any venue in this report does not indicate an official endorsement by SFWA. Those markets included on this list pay at least $0.08/word USD in at least one category of fiction. This compilation is not exhaustive of all publication opportunities that pay our recommended minimum professional rate. Additionally, SFWA adheres to our DEI Policy when making selections for this report. We strongly encourage writers to closely review all contracts and consult our resources on best contract practices.

New Markets

Torch Literary Arts
Witch Craft
Women of the Weird West (Upcoming)
Wrath Month

Markets Currently Open for Submissions

Analog Science Fiction & Fact
Asimov Press
Asimov’s Science Fiction
Beneath Ceaseless Skies
Book XI (Recently Opened)
Clarkesworld Magazine
Crepuscular Magazine
Escape Pod
Factor Four Magazine
Flame Tree Fiction Newsletter
Frivolous Comma
Infinite Worlds
Issues in Earth Science
Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast (Recently Opened)
Mysterion (Recently Opened)
Nature: Futures
Reckoning
Samovar
Small Wonders
The Cosmic Background
Uncharted Magazine
Utopia Science Fiction

Markets Recently Closed for Submissions

100-Foot Crow
Baffling Magazine
Fantasy Magazine
Future States of Stars
Gamut Magazine (Permanent)
Latin American Shared Stories (Permanent)
Little Blue Marble (Permanent)
Our Dust Earth (Permanent)
Planet Black Joy (Permanent)
Poisoned Soup for the Macabre, Depraved and Insane: Nostalgic Terrors (Permanent)
Shatter the Sun: Queer Tales of Untold Adventure (Permanent)
Silent Nightmares Anthology: Stories to be Told on the Longest Night of the Year (Permanent)
The Deadlands
The Orange & Bee
Three-Lobed Burning Eye

Other Opportunities

Apex Monthly Flash Fiction Contest
The Green Feather Award
The Tomorrow Prize

Upcoming Market Changes

Abyss & Apex‘s Submission window begins and ends soon.
Apex Monthly Flash Fiction Contest‘s Submission Window ends soon.
Apex Monthly Flash Fiction Contest‘s Submission Window begins soon.
Fantasy Magazine‘s Limited Demographic Submission Window: BIPOC writers begins and ends soon.
Fantasy Magazine‘s Submission window begins and ends soon.
Flash Fiction Online (FFO) (Originals)‘s Submission window begins soon.
Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast‘s Submission Window ends soon.
Mysterion‘s Submission Window ends soon.
The Green Feather Award temporarily closes soon.
The Tomorrow Prize temporarily closes soon.
Witch Craft permanently closes soon.

The SFWA Market Report is compiled by David Steffen, editor of Diabolical Plots and The Long List Anthology series, and administrator and co-founder of the Submission Grinder.  You can support Diabolical Plots and the Submission Grinder on PayPal or Patreon or by buying books or merch.

The post SFWA Market Report For January appeared first on SFWA.

Author Howard Andrew Jones, 56, died January 16, 2025. He was diagnosed with brain cancer (multifocal glioblastoma) in September 2024.

Jones was born in Terre Haute IN. He worked as a TV cameraman, recycling consultant, editor of technical books, and writing instructor at the University of Southern Indiana. In addition to writing, he ran a small family farm in Indiana.

He began publishing with historical fantasy novel The Desert of ...Read More

Laura Lippman and John Sandford have been named the 2025 Mystery Writers of America (MWA) Grand Masters. Lippman said,

It was a little humbling how many cliches rushed into my brain when I found out I was to be named a Grand Master by Mystery Writers of America. Things like ‘This is a dream come true!’ and ‘I can’t believe this is happening!’ were, alas, my initial responses. […] I ...Read More

Sean Markey has announced the relaunch of Fantasy Magazine, with the first issue scheduled to publish June 1, 2025. Fantasy will be joining sibling magazine The Deadlands under the Psychopomp publishing umbrella. Sean has named Arley Sorg and Shingai Njeri Kagunda as co-Editors-in-Chief.

Fantasy Magazine will publish original short fiction, flash fiction, and poetry on a quarterly basis. Subscriptions will be available to support the magazine, which will also provide ...Read More

The 2025 Baen Fantasy Adventure Award contest will open from January 20 through April 30, 2025. The contest is for short stories of no more than 8,000 words that depict adventure in any fantasy subgenre. Baen wants

Adventure fantasy with heroes you want to root for. Warriors either modern or medieval, who solve problems with their wits or with their weapons—and we have nothing against dragons, elves, dwarves, castles under ...Read More

MILESTONES

MARK W. TIEDEMANN is now represented by Vaughne Hansen of the Virginia Kidd Agency.

AWARDS

ESPAÑA SHERIFF is the win­ner of the 2024 Rotsler Award for “long-time wonder-working with graphic art in amateur publications of the science fiction community,’’ announced dur­ing Loscon 50, held November 29 – December 1, 2024 at the Marriott Los Angeles Airport Hotel in Los Angeles CA. The award was established in 1998 by the ...Read More

The 71-title longlist for the Dublin Literary Award has been announced. Titles and authors of genre interest follow.

• Audition, Pip Adam (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
• The Enigmatic Madam Ingram, Meihan Boey (Epigram)
• The Fox Wife, Yangsze Choo (Henry Holt)
• James, Percival Everett (Doubleday)
• Hagstone, Sinéad Gleeson (HarperCollins)
• The Mark, Fríða Ísberg, translated by Larissa Kyzer (Faber & Faber)
• Fishing for the Little Pike

...Read More

Seattle Worldcon 2025 is hosting a short story writing contest, with submissions closing January 20, 2025.

The story contest has separate categories for adult and young adult writers.

The winners in each category will be recognized at the convention, receive free memberships to [Worldcon], and have their stories published in an upcoming anthology by Grim Oak Press. Stories must draw inspiration from our Worldcon theme: Building Yesterday’s Future – For

...Read More

In August 2024 we reported on allegations of sexual misconduct against author Neil Gaiman, and followed up regarding further accusations in September.

Journalist Lila Shapiro reported extensively on the allegations and Gaiman’s history in a cover story for New York magazine, “There Is No Safe Word”, published January 13, 2025 (contains content that readers may find disturbing, including graphic allegations of sexual assault). Her article revisits those allegations in detail, ...Read More

There Is a Rio Grande in Heaven by Ruben Reyes Jr. (Mariner) is among the three finalists for The Story Prize 2025, “honoring the author of an outstanding collection of short fiction.”

Finalists are selected by Larry Dark, director of the Prize, and Founder Julie Lindsey. From these finalists, a winner is selected by “three independent judges.” This year, judges were Elliott Holt, writer Maurice Carlos Ruffin, and bookseller Lucy ...Read More

Diamond Comic Distributors filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in US court in January 2025. They have secured $41 million in financing from JP Morgan Chase bank to “fund post-petition operating expenses and ensure adequate working capital to meet its obligations to associates and suppliers.” A letter to distributors from president Chuck Parker says,

I’m writing to share one of the most challenging messages of my career.

Earlier today, Diamond made ...Read More

Four category winners have been announced for the Nero Book Awards for 2024 titles. Of genre interest are Lost in the Garden by Adam S. Lesie (Dead Ink) and The Twelve by Liz Hyder, illustrated by Tom De Freston (Pushkin).

The Awards are run by Caffè Nero, and have four categories: Children’s Fiction, Debut Fiction, Fiction and Non-Fiction. The winners receive £5,000.

From these four winners, one book will be ...Read More

by Corrine A. Kumar

Fight scenes aren’t just about fighting. While writing technically accurate and action-packed fight scenes is important, if we don’t keep the focus on our characters and our worlds, readers will just skim past them. Fight scenes are a powerful opportunity to show the reader who your character is, where they come from, and the type of world they live in.

Status and Expertise

A character’s weapon choice tells us about their social status. In Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive, spears are wielded by lower classes, while powerful Shardblades are reserved for high-ranking nobles. Additionally, a character’s word choice can demonstrate their expertise. A character with less training would use general terms such as “sword” or “punch.” Conversely,  a more experienced character would use more specific jargon, such as “arming sword” or “rear hook.”

Culture

Even in our world, variations on the sword have arisen across the globe. The Egyptian khopesh, the Japanese katana, and the Filipino barong are just three examples. By showing two characters facing off with different blades, we can immediately communicate the different cultures they come from.

The techniques and names of the techniques a character uses can also reflect their culture. While some martial arts may use more poetic, visually evocative terms, such as “Heron Wading in the Rushes” from Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time, other arts may use more utilitarian terms such as “back-fist” and “push-kick.” In some settings, an honor code may restrict fighters to using “respectable” techniques, while others may resort to “underhanded” tactics like biting or pinching. 

Magic and Technology

Integrating magic and technology into fight scenes can be a fantastic method of introducing your world. In her Greenbone Saga series, Fonda Lee does this masterfully by having her characters utilize all six jade-based powers in single duels. This teaches readers how the magic system works in an organic way that also makes her fight scenes feel unique to her world.

This is easier to remember with powers that are clearly useful in combat, such as enhanced strength and speed. However, even subtle powers can be useful. For example, if all a character can do is make their hands glow, this slight magic could be used to distract an opponent at a critical moment. In a fight, even a single small opportunity can be all it takes to win. 

Moreover, it is important to consider how a character’s strategy should change based on their powers or those of their opponents. If a character has the power to shock others on contact, they would be best served by using close-quarters techniques. Conversely, this character’s opponents should utilize techniques that keep them at a distance.

Mindset

When trying to convey a character’s mindset, first focus on the character’s emotional experience. Do they feel anger, fear, sadness, or a combination? Do they push their feelings away or embrace them? In Drew Karpyshyn’s Darth Bane trilogy, he emphasizes the different emotions that Jedi and Sith rely on in combat to create a distinct feel for each character’s perspective.

Next, focus on their physical sensations. Do they feel their hearts racing, fatigue, or pain from a wound? Or are they aware of these sensations only after the battle? Adjusting the level of detail you use to delve into these sensations is a powerful way to make different viewpoint characters feel distinct.

Stakes

Think about what will happen to the character, depending on the outcome of the fight. How much does your character focus on these stakes during combat? Do they focus on what they have to gain or fear what they might lose? Showing the character’s perception of the stakes is the key to creating tension. In Christopher Ruocchio’s Howling Dark, Hadrian begins a fight believing his opponent’s goal is simply to humiliate him. However, partway through, he realizes his opponent means to kill him—resulting in a massive spike of tension as the stakes become steeper.

Morals

Different fighting techniques have different levels of harm they can do, ranging from bruising to death. The techniques and weapons characters choose show us what they are and are not willing to do. Would your character stab someone over an insult to their honor? Would they only use lethal force if their life was threatened? Or, like Batman, would they refrain from killing no matter what?

Goals

A character’s goals affect not only their mindset but the weapons and techniques they use. For example, even a single martial arts system may have dozens of punch defenses. Some require fighters to retreat, while others involve stepping past the opponent. If a character’s goal is to escape, stepping past their opponent may be the best option. In contrast, if their goal is to protect a bystander behind them, stepping past their opponent would not be the right choice, as it would leave the bystander more vulnerable to the attacker. If a character’s goal is not to kill during a fight, they would utilize stun weapons rather than lethal ones.

A character can also have multiple goals in a fight scene. These goals can often be divided into 1) immediate goals and 2) overarching goals. An assassin’s immediate goal may be to kill the guard who has confronted them to achieve their overarching goal of killing the king. In Pierce Brown’s Red Rising series, there are fight scenes that span multiple chapters. While it would be easy for these scenes to feel boring, Brown keeps them engaging by giving his characters a combination of immediate and overarching goals. While having a series of immediate goals gives us a sense of progress, the overarching goal gives the sequence a sense of direction.

We often think of conveying character and world-building through description or dialogue, but fight scenes too can do this same heavy-lifting. Whether you utilize them while writing the first draft or during final revisions, these strategies will make your fight scenes richer, more engaging, and unique while also grounding your reader more deeply in your story as a whole. 

Corrine A. Kumar is a science fiction and fantasy writer with a love of martial arts. She has been a student and apprentice instructor of Hapkido, Jeet Kune Do, and Kali. Her greatest writing influences are Brandon Sanderson, Fonda Lee, Pierce Brown, and Christopher Ruocchio. She studied Chemistry and Neuroscience at Indiana University—Bloomington, graduated from Indiana University School of Medicine, and is now a Pediatrics Resident at Riley Hospital for Children. She is an alumnus of the Futurescapes Writers’ Workshop, and her articles Active Reading to Step Up Your Writing and It’s All About Momentum: Writing Effectively and Productively Amidst a Busy Life were previously published by The SFWA Blog. Corrine can be found on Twitter, Instagram, and Bluesky.

The post Characterization and Worldbuilding Through Fight Scenes appeared first on SFWA.

The 2025 Philip K. Dick Award finalists have been announced:

• City of Dancing Gargoyles, Tara Campbell (Santa Fe Writers Project)
• Your Utopia: Stories, Bora Chung, translated by Anton Hur (Algonquin)
• Time’s Agent, Brenda Peynado (Tordotcom)
• The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain, Sofia Samatar (Tordotcom)
• Alien Clay, Adrian Tchaikovsky (Orbit US)
• Triangulum, Subodhana Wijeyeratne (Rosarium)

The award is presented annually to a distinguished work

...Read More

Grist,  the online environmental magazine, has announced three winners for their Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors Short Story Contest. The contest asks authors to imagine “the future we want — futures in which climate solutions flourish and we all thrive.”

The winners are:

• First Place: “Meet Me Under the Molokhia”, Sage Hoffman Nadeau
• Second Place: “Last Tuesday, for Eternity”, Vinny Rose Pinto
• Third Place: “Mousedeer Versus the Ghost

...Read More