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Hellcon, the 64th Japan Science Fiction Convention, has announced the winners of the 2026 Seiun Awards (the Japanese equivalent of the Hugo Awards), honoring the best original and translated works published last year in Japan.

Best Translated Novel

• WINNER: Eversion, Alastair Reynolds, tr. Naoya Nakahara (Tokyo Sogensha)
• WINNER:Babel, R.F. Kuang, tr. Yoshimichi Furusawa (Tokyo Sogensha)

• The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands, Sarah Brooks, tr. Yasuko Kawano …Read More

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The winners have been announced for the 2026 Prix Imaginales, honoring the best works of fantasy published in France.

French Novel

• WINNER: Festin de larmes, Morgane Caussarieu & Vincent Tassy (ActuSF)

• La Nuit ravagée, Jean-Baptiste Del Amo (Gallimard)
• Aatea, Anouck Faure (Argyll)
• Le Solstice des ombres, Sœurs de haine, tome 1, Benjamin Lupu (Mnémos)
• La Fille du feu, Aurélie Wellenstein (Outre Fleuve)

Foreign Novel Translated …Read More

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by J.D. Henning

Read by the author

Look at your keyboard. If you’re on a phone, pull it up for a sec. You’re probably looking at a QWERTY layout. Even with the unlimited theoretical possibilities of a touchscreen, this is what the vast majority of English users see. 

But it’s crap. And we’ve known it’s crap for more than a century.

This all became painfully personal to me in the winter of 2021 when my hands went on strike. As a film editor and screenwriter, my life revolves around my computer. Samurai had their swords, and I have my keyboard. But my hands burned like fire, and my most trusted tool turned out to be the culprit. Repetitive stress injuries are no fun at all. And the horrible part is that a QWERTY keyboard is essentially made to encourage RSIs.

How We Got Here

At their advent in the 1870s, keyboards were ingeniously designed boxes of buttons and levers with actual physical bits of metal slamming against actual physical paper, imprinting ink every time a writer (for the sake of this example, you) hit a key. Problem was, if you really got on a roll—your Dracula/Moby-Dick mashup started to get really juicy—you might jam the typewriter. One lever would interrupt another, and Dracula could not look deeply into the White Whale’s eyes until your machine was serviced. 

Unacceptable.

The industrious designers at Remington & Sons—yes, the rootin’ tootin’ gunmakers—rearranged the keyboard to lessen the likelihood of a jam. This also slowed down your typing speed. So, they intentionally put letters in spots bad for you and good for the machine, because slowly sucking the blood of a whale is better than not sucking it at all. Mr. Remington’s keyboard layout quickly became the standard. And, because we, as humans, don’t like to learn new things, the QWERTY layout stayed in use even when all the mechanical reasons for the QWERTY format disappeared. Hence, your iPhone defaults to it even now, despite making no ergonomic sense at all. We have, by the way, known of its fatiguing nature since the 1910s.

I needed something else for my writing. Something that was made to give priority to the human doing the typing rather than the factory making the tool. Something that wouldn’t make my hands feel like burning charcoal briquettes. Enter stenography.

A specialized keyboard used by stenographers for shorthand. The stenotype keyboard has far fewer keys than a conventional alphanumeric keyboard. Image courtesy of Wikipedia. Stenotype Fights Back

The stenotype machine came about not long after the typewriter, and was, itself, an evolution of shorthand. Heard of Charles Dickens, Agatha Christie, or George Bernard Shaw? They all used shorthand. The invention of a machine further standardized the shorthand system, and the advent of electronic stenotype simplified the process even further. Hobbyists have since come along and created free programs to allow anyone to stenotype on their computers.

So, why doesn’t everyone use it?

Remember how I threw shade at the whole human race for not wanting to learn new things? Several paragraphs later, that’s still true. And it goes in spades for stenography.

How Stenography Works

Stenotype is fundamentally different from a typical keyboard. At its root, it’s phonetic. The 23 keys roughly correspond to the sounds in our English language. A word like ‘though’ only needs the phonetic sounds TH and the long O sound. Thus, “though” becomes “THOE.” Add in that these letters are all pressed at the same time and are ergonomically clustered together, and suddenly, my hands have stopped talking about unionizing.

Of course, the complexity of stenotype rises quickly, as there are plenty of homophones and other weird quirks of the English language. This is where another critical element of machine stenography comes in. It’s basically an enormous list of shortcuts, called outlines. The phonetic base exists for many words, but for all the many, many exceptions to these rules, you have outlines. 

Outlines work for phrases as well as words. If, for example, there is a phrase that comes up all the time in your current project, such as “Alucrad gazed at the white whale, trembling with delight,” you could add an outline for the whole thing. Maybe A*GD. If your hands are as finicky as mine, the ergonomic benefits pile up quite quickly: You’re hitting four rather than 56 keys, and the ones you are pressing don’t require your hands to contort to press them. It’s also much faster, both for this phrase and as a whole.

How fast? It varies based on experience, but to qualify as a stenotype court reporter, you need to get to 225 words per minute. And just think: Court reporters do this all day, every day. If ever there was a job serious about ergonomics, it would be this one.

A modern hobbyist level machine. Image courtesy of StenoKeyboards, maker of this and many other fine stenography machines. Is Stenography for You?

The process of learning steno is probably closest to learning to play a musical instrument. This is another way of saying that it is difficult, though how difficult will depend on the person. Is it worth it for the average writer? Probably not, especially if a good old QWERTY keyboard is working fine for you. Learning to stenotype would be like deciding to learn the guitar if you want to master music composition. Will it be helpful? Probably. Is it strictly necessary? No. 

It can, though, be a lifesaver for someone with RSI or other hand mobility issues.

The basics of learning stenography are the same as most skills: practice, persistence, and patience. I followed a free guide (available here) and worked my way through it over two years. That’s a long time, but my wife and I also had two children during that time. Unless you plan on popping out progeny at the same rate, your timeframe will likely differ from mine.

I can now steno quickly enough for day-to-day work (I’m stenotyping right now). For my next big writing project, I plan to mostly stenotype. I’m still slower at this than QWERTY, but I want to write for a lifetime. And an ergonomic, sustainable writing method is, like that great white whale, a goal certainly worth pursuing.

Editor’s note: To learn more about stenography, see How Steno Works At 200 WPM.

Explore more articles from Writing by Other Means

J.D. Henning is a writer and filmmaker. Best known for writing and executive producing Portal Runner, a New York Times recommended sci-fi film, J.D. also recently took home the prize at the 2025 Worldcon film festival for his short film Superior Subject. J.D. can’t escape an incessant need to write in genre, whether it be spies, spaceships, or zombies. He’s the father of two young children. He, his wife, kids, and cat can be found cross-country skiing in his home state of Montana (well…maybe not the cat). You can learn more about his work at henningworks.com.

The post A 23-Button Stenography Keyboard: All Gain, Zero Pain appeared first on SFWA - The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association.

The Nuremberg 2028 Worldcon bid has announced its withdrawal from the race after a decision by a crew-committee assembly.

This decision comes from a mix of personal, organisational and timing reasons. Since our introduction at Smofcon in November, we have received wonderful support from volunteers, artists, experienced conrunners and communities across Central Europe. We are deeply grateful for that.

But as site selection begins, we have to be honest: we …Read More

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The Locus Science Fiction Foundation announced the winners in each category of the 2026 Locus Awards on May 30, 2026, during the Bay Area Book Festival. Tananarive Due, Stephen Graham Jones, and Nnedi Okoraforwere Guests of Honor, withFeatured Local Artist Alyssa Winans. Additional weekend events included readings, panels with leading authors, and a catered reception.

SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL

• WINNER:Death of the Author, Nnedi Okorafor (Morrow; Gollancz)amazon/bookshop

…Read More

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The 2025 Shirley Jackson Awards nominees for outstanding achievement in horror, psychological suspense, and dark fantasy fiction have been announced.

Novel

• Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng, Kylie Lee Baker (Hanover Square)
• Old Soul, Susan Barker (G.P. Putnam's Sons)
• How to Fake a Haunting, Christa Carmen (Thomas & Mercer)
• Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, Grady Hendrix (Berkley)
• Moonflow, Bitter Karella (Run For It)
• The Lamb, Lucy Rose (HarperCollins)

…Read More

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Hum by Helen Phillips (Marysue Rucci) [amazon / bookshop] has been announced as the winner of the second annual Climate Fiction Prize. Founded by Leo Barasi, Rose Goddard, and Imran Khan, and supported by Climate Spring, the prize seeks to celebrate the most inspiring novels tackling the climate crisis.

Other shortlisted titles and authors of genre interest include:

• Dusk, Robbie Arnott (Astra House US; Chatto & Windus UK; …Read More

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Lalana Dararutana, 49, died May 18, 2026. She had cervical cancer.

Dararutana was born September 15, 1976 in Syracuse NY. In her childhood she was a caregiver to her younger sister and brother. She began publishing books in her thirties after attending a writing conference in 2009. As an author, Dararutana went by Piper J. Drake and PJ Schnyder and published many works of fantasy, paranormal, and SF romance. She …Read More

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The British Fantasy Society (BFS) has announced the shortlists for the 2026 British Fantasy Awards:

Best Fantasy Novel (the Robert Holdstock Award)

• A Song of Legends Lost, M.H. Ayinde (Orbit)
• The Outcast Mage, Annabel Campbell (Orbit)
• Magic, Maps, and Mischief, David Green (self-published)
• Daughters of Nicnevin, Shona Kinsella (Flame Tree)
• Grave Empire, Richard Swan (Orbit)
• Upon a Starlit Tide, Kell Woods (Tor US; Titan UK)

Best Horror Novel …Read More

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by Laurence Raphael Brothers

Read by Misha Grifka Wander

You’ve been writing for a while now. You’ve got a story folder, you’ve been submitting to magazines and anthologies, and then—Nice work! Congratulations on the publication! And commiserations, too, because there have undoubtedly been a lot of rejections along the way to that first sale.

This post is about the secretarial side of writing, and in particular, how to manage your stories over time. It’s a complicated subject, and everyone has different goals. Here are some points to consider.

Safeguard Your Work

Back everything up frequently. Cloud services are great, but it’s risky to rely on a single service provider. If all you have is a Microsoft account and Microsoft decides to suspend your account, what recourse do you have? It’s prudent to archive your work across multiple providers. Common choices include Google, Apple, and Dropbox, but there are many others to choose from. You can save your entire writing folder into a single zip or other archive file and then post the archive to your secondary providers. Losing a manuscript can be an excruciating experience, but losing access to your entire writing history would be far worse.

Track Submissions and Publications

I recommend using both spreadsheets and submission trackers to record submissions. Here’s an excerpt from one of my own spreadsheets:

Each row in this table is a submission. Tracking is a link to the market’s submission manager, if they have one. Ans Date is the date of their response. Pub Link is the published online link to the story. Strike it through or delete it if the publisher goes out of business or takes down the story. Rep Date is the date your contract says the story will be available for reprinting. You might also want to add a Fee column to track your income, a Rights column to indicate which rights were sold, and a Contact column for the market’s email.

I also use The Submission Grinder to manage my story portfolio. You could rely on them (or Duotrope, the Grinder’s for-pay competitor) exclusively, but I prefer to use my own spreadsheet, not only because something could happen to the site or my account, but because with my own spreadsheet, I can add custom columns and data.

Manage Your Contracts

You should retain all contracts associated with your publications. Contracts are the ultimate reference for exclusivity periods, rights sold, reversion terms, fees, and all the other minutiae associated with publication. Simply archiving your email is great, but if that’s your only reference, you might wind up wasting a lot of time looking for the email with a particular attached contract. One simple method is to drop all contracts into a single folder, with the contract files renamed using a standard convention that includes the story title. Another approach is to create a folder for every story, into which you can put manuscripts, revisions, edits, contracts, and anything else relevant to the publication.

Submit Reprints

Reprints can offer you fresh readers for your stories, restore a story that is no longer online to greater availability, and they can even make you money. Submitting a reprint is just like submitting a story for the first time, with a few important provisos.

1. Make sure the rights are available. Some publications demand a lengthy period of exclusivity before reprint rights. If you are submitting to a “best of” anthology, most editors will be happy to grant you a special exception to their exclusivity period if you ask, and many contracts have this exception already written into the terms.
2. Declare the story’s status. Always tell the new editor you’re submitting a reprint in the cover letter. Always name the original market and the date or issue of publication. It’s extremely unprofessional to conceal a past publication, and may be a civil offense, to boot.
3. Set your expectations. While there are some markets that pay the same fee for reprints as for first publication, for the most part, even markets that pay relatively well for original publications will only pay token rates for a reprint. That said, sometimes you can get lucky. My top-earning short story generated four payments of $500 apiece, one first publication, one award payment, and two reprint fees, all coincidentally the same number.
4. Best-of anthologies. I mentioned these anthologies above, and they’re easy to forget about because you can’t submit to them until the story sells, and then you have to do so during a one-year period. You can find some of them by searching The Submission Grinder for “best” in the name field. 

Translations and Foreign-Market Submissions

While many readers of this article are not native English speakers, it’s still the case that an English-language bias exists for SFF writing (though various Chinese markets are coming on strong). The sad fact is that the satisfaction of knowing your English-language submission was accepted for translation and published abroad may be your only payment. That said, there are occasional exceptions to the rule that pay well, and when your story’s exclusivity period ends, it’s worth considering markets worldwide for reprint submissions. One note of caution is that if there is a dispute over rights, payment, or other contract terms, you may have little recourse outside your own country.

Short-Story Collections

Unfortunately, most agents and traditional publishers won’t consider short-story collections except from established authors. Not only is self-publishing an option, but some small presses accept submissions of story collections, either in book-length volumes or in chapbook form. If you’re interested in testing the self-publishing waters and you don’t have a novel in hand, publishing your own short story collection may provide an opportunity to learn the ropes. Such collections also provide some of the benefits of reprints sold to magazines.

Film and Video Options

For the most part, this is only available to writers with agents. However, on rare occasions, even unagented authors may receive solicitations from someone who read their story and wants to know if options are available. Unfortunately, there are many shady operators out there, so always look at such communications with a jaundiced eye. If the soliciting party seems legitimate, now would be a great time to get an agent, because agents will look favorably on a writer with an offer in hand.

Managing your portfolio isn’t all that much work, but it can pay many dividends as you continue to write and sell your stories.

Explore more articles from Back to Basics

Laurence Raphael Brothers is a writer and a technologist. He has published over 50 short stories in such magazines as Nature, Galaxy’s Edge, and The New Haven Review. He has worked in Internet and AI R&D for Bellcore, Verizon, and Google, written professionally for Toptal, and is currently employed as a US patent examiner. Check out his books and stories at http://laurencebrothers.com/bibliography. Pronouns: he/him.

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Bouchercon has announced the nominees for the 2026 Anthony Awards, honoring the best in crime fiction. Authors and works of genre interest include:

Best Hardcover Novel

• King of Ashes, S.A. Cosby (Flatiron)
• All This Could Be Yours, Hank Phillippi Ryan (Minotaur)

Best First Novel

• Mask of the Deer Woman, Laurie L. Dove (Berkley)

Best Juvenile/YA Novel

• Well-Behaved Children Seldom Make History, Chris Chan (Level Best)

…Read More

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Shahriar Shaams is the recipient of the 2026 A.C. Bose Grant for South Asian Speculative Literature, presented by the Speculative Literature Foundation (SLF) and DesiLit.

The $1,000 grant is given annually to a South Asian / South Asian diaspora writer developing speculative fiction. Shaams's winning work is A Night With the Spy.

For more information, see the SLF website. …Read More

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The winners of the 2026 Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire, honoring the best SF/F work published in France in 2025, were announced on May 18, 2026.

French Novel

• WINNER: Aatea, Anouck Faure (Argyll)

• Festin de larmes, Morgane Caussarieu & Vincent Tassy (ActuSF)
• Tovaangar, Céline Minard (Rivages)
• Sintonia, Audrey Pleynet (Le Bélial')
• Une vie de saint, Christophie Siébert (Au Diable Vauvert)

Foreign Novel

• WINNER: Le Livre des …Read More

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Science fiction editor, publisher, critic, and translator Tom Clegg, 68, died suddenly May 5, 2026. He was known in the SFF community for his deep affection for science fiction, and he became an important channel for translated works in France through his work at Bragelonne SF.

Thomas Clegg was born in 1957 in Springfield MA and grew up in Spain with his family. He graduated from Amherst College in 1978 …Read More

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