Locus News

The five-title shortlist for the annual Tähtivaeltaja Award has been announced, honoring the best science fiction published in Finland. The award is sponsored by Helsingin Science Fiction Seura (Helsinki Science Fiction Society). The nominees are:

• The Future (Tuleva), Naomi Alderman, trans. Taina Helkamo (Simon & Schuster/Gummerus)
• Keuhkopuiden uni, Siiri Enoranta (Gummerus)
• The Compass Rose (Kompassiruusu), Ursula K. LeGuin, trans. Titia Schuurman (Spectra/Moebius)
• Varjomi (Darkome), Hannu Rajaniemi, trans. Juha

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On February 3, 2025, Scarlett Pavlovich filed suit in Wisconsin federal court against author Neil Gaiman and his estranged spouse Amanda Palmer; the complaint’s nine charges include human trafficking (against both), assault and battery (against Gaiman), infliction of emotional distress (against Gaiman), and negligence (against Palmer).

Pavolovich seeks damages “in an amount to be determined at trial, but which is reasonably believed to be in excess of $1,000,000.00.”

Allegations of ...Read More

Phantastische Akademie announced the finalists for the 2025 SERAPH, a German fantasy award. Winners will be announced March 28, 2025. Best Debut Novel

• Melodie der Asche, Elya Adair (Knaur)
• City of Dust and Shadows, Lara Große (Leaf)
• Shattered Bonds, Lisa-Katharina Hensel (One)
• Der Glückskrämer und die Suche nach dem Unglück, Susann Loevenich (Scylla)
• Die Krähen von Greengate, Cor Nightingale (8280 Edition)
• Die Mutter der Masken

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Penguin Random House and United for Libraries have announced a partnership to provide grants of $500 and $1,000 to help libraries. They plan to donate a total of $25,000 to support Friends of the Library groups and other groups that raise fund for local libraries. PRH will also offer some $500 in-kind donations so libraries can purchase PRH books. Skip Dye, senior vice president of library sales and digital strategies ...Read More

Documents revealed as part of a California class-action lawsuit reveal that Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, was personally aware that pirated books from “shadow libraries” were used to train their Large Language Model AI. The lawsuit alleges that Meta knowingly infringed on copyrighted material in trainings its AI tools. Plaintiffs include authors Ta-Nehisi Coates and Richard Kadrey. A new filing from the plaintiffs reads:

Meta has treated the so-called “public ...Read More

   Welcome to the annual Locus Recommended Reading List…

We saw some fabulous books come out last year and are so pleased to let you know about them!

This list is compiled by the Locus editors and columnists, outside reviewers, and other professionals and well-known critics of genre fiction and non-fiction. This year we looked at 678 titles between short fiction and long fiction. Note: any one of our voting critics ...Read More

The shortlist has been announced for the second annual Inside Literary Prize. Among the four titles selected is dystopian novel Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Vintage).

The Inside Literary Prize is “the first-ever US-based literary prize awarded exclusively by currently incarcerated people,” and the four shortlisted titles were selected by a committee of incarcerated readers, writers, and librarians from Departments of Corrections. Selections were made from books ...Read More

Signaling a change in policy under the Trump administration, the Department of Education announced sweeping changes to its policies regarding school libraries and local book removals, likely to impact genre books and young readership.

The DOE’s Office for Civil Rights has dismissed 11 complaints “related to so-called ‘book bans'” and has rescinded guidance for navigating book removal in the context of civil rights laws. Additionally, the Office for Civil Rights ...Read More

The seventy-year-old Science Fiction Book Club, originally launched by Doubleday in 1953, has announced on its website that it will close for orders as of February, 1, 2025. The Club thanked customers for their longstanding loyalty and gave a hard date for the end of its services.

We very much appreciate your many years of loyalty, patronage, and support. After 2/1/2025, orders will no longer be processed at SFBC.com.

After ...Read More

A new writing contest has been announced today by the Emirates Literature Foundation, in collaboration with the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre in Dubai.

The MBRSC Short Story Award: New Voices in Sci-Fi will award science fiction short stories by writers from the United Arab Emirates. The contest is open to writers ages 16–30; submissions may be in English or Arabic and between 1,500–5,000 words. The deadline is 16 November ...Read More

The American Library Association (ALA) announced the winners of the Youth Media Awards during their LibLearnX conference, at a ceremony held Monday, January 27 in Phoenix AZ. Winners included several works and authors of genre interest.

The Alex Awards honor books for adults that “have special appeal to young adults, ages 12 through 18.” This year, at least four adult books of genre interest appeared on the complete list of ...Read More

The Clarion West writers’ workshop has announced a new scholarship for “trans, two-spirit, nonbinary, and other gender-expansive authors.” The Sea Star scholarship, funded by an anonymous donor, will cover full annual tuition (currently $3200) for one qualifying student per year. Clarion states:

Trans, two-spirit, nonbinary, and other gender expansive authors who continue to change and inform the landscape of speculative fiction for the better. We know that trans writers are ...Read More

The National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) has announced the longlist for the 2024 NBCC awards for books “published in English (including translations) in the United States.” Authors and titles of genre interest include:

Criticism

• Opacities: On Writing and the Writing Life, Sofia Samatar (Soft Skull)
• Magical/Realism: Essays on Music, Memory, Fantasy, and Borders, Vanessa Angélica Villarreal (Tiny Reparations)

Fiction

• Beautyland, Marie-Helene Bertino (FSG)
• James, Percival Everett

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FairyLoot and Transworld Publishers have announced a new fantasy imprint, to launch in fall 2025. FairyLoot is a fantasy book subscription box company specializing in illustrated and deluxe editions, and Transworld is a division of Penguin Random House UK, one of the UK’s “Big Four.”

The new imprint’s name and logo will be revealed at the London Book Fair in March 2025.

The Bookseller reports:

The fantasy imprint will discover ...Read More

Andy Cox and Richard Wagner, who worked together on Black Static and Interzone, announced the launch of a new horror magazine, Remains. The quarterly magazine will feature all-new horror fiction, columns, and features; stories will be illustrated by Wagner, who has contributed cover and interior art for Black Static and more.

From a Facebook post via Livia Llewellyn, Cox announced:

REMAINS. 100 colour pages of new horror fiction. Smells nice. ...Read More

The longlist for the 2025 International Dylan Thomas Prize has been announced and includes several works of genre interest amongst the twelve selected.

• Mrs Jekyll, Emma Glass (Cheerio)
• Rapture’s Road, Seán Hewitt (Jonathan Cape)
• Glorious Exploits, Ferdia Lennon (Fig Tree)
• Monstrum, Lottie Mills (Oneworld)

The annual Dylan Thomas prize, in partnership with Swansea University, awards £20,000 “to the best published or produced literary work in the

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Ellen Datlow is accepting submissions for her 17th Best Horror of the Year anthology, to be published by Night Shade Books and covering material appearing in 2025.

I am looking for stories and poetry from all branches of horror: supernatural, uncanny, sf horror, psychological, dark crime, terror tales, or anything else that might qualify.

This is an all reprint anthology, so I’ll only consider material published in 2025. Deadline ...Read More

Terese Svoboda, Shiva Kumar, Austin Grossman, and Grady Hendrix read at the Barrow’s Intense Tasting Room in Industry City, Brooklyn NY on November 19, 2024 as part of the Brooklyn Books & Booze Reading series, hosted by Randee Dawn

While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time or recurring donation. We rely on reader donations to keep the magazine and site going, and would ...Read More

The Audio Publishers Association (APA) has announced the finalists for the 2025 Audie Awards, “recognizing distinction in audiobooks and spoken-word entertainment.” Finalists of genre interest are listed below; narrators are listed in alphabetical order.

Science Fiction

• Mal Goes to War, Edward Ashton, narrated by Katharine Chin & John Pirhalla (Macmillan Audio)
• The Book of Doors, Gareth Brown, narrated by Miranda Raison (HarperAudio)
• Frontier, Grace Curtis, narrated by

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The Horror Writers Association (HWA) has announced the preliminary ballot for the 2024 Bram Stoker Awards.

Superior Achievement in a Novel

• House of Bone and Rain, Gabino Iglesias (Mulholland )
• I Was a Teenage Slasher, Stephen Graham Jones (Saga)
• The Haunting of Velkwood, Gwendolyn Kiste (Saga)
• American Rapture, CJ Leede (Tor)
• Incidents Around the House, Josh Malerman (Del Rey)
• Eynhallow, Tim McGregor (Raw Dog

...Read More