Locus News

Matt Haig announced on Instagram plans to open a bookshop and coffee place called Golden, to be located in Brighton UK in the Seven Dials neighborhood, which according to Haig does not currently have a bookshop. The shop aims to open by Christmas.

Haig said,

My belief, as someone who grew up in a town without a bookshop, is that all communities should have a bookshop because bookshops …Read More

Author Dafydd ab Hugh, 65, died in June 2026.

Ab Hugh was born David M. Friedman on October 22, 1960 in Los Angeles CA. He began writing SF/F as early as 1987 with Heroing: or, How He Wound Down the World, first of two books in the fantasy series Jiana. He wrote Arthuriana books Arthur War Lord (1994) and Far Beyond the Wave (1994), as well as several tie-in novels …Read More

Author R.S. Belcher, 59, died July 11, 2026.

Rod Belcher was born May 2, 1967 in Roanoke VA. He graduated Virginia Commonwealth University, worked on a Masters degree in forensic science at The George Washington University, and worked as a newspaper and magazine editor, a reporter, and a freelance writer. After story Orphans appeared in a Star Trek tie-in anthology in 2006, he continued publishing in 2013 with Hollow Moments …Read More

Author and editor Mark J. McGarry, 68, died in May 2026 in Paris, France.

McGarry was born February 6, 1958 in Albany NY. He wrote Sun Dogs (1981) and Blank Slate (1984) as well as several genre works of short fiction published in magazines including Asimov's, Analog, Stellar, Amazing Stories, and F&SF, including Nebula Award nominee The Mercy Gate (1998). He was the original editor of SF magazine Empire and …Read More

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MILESTONES

ELEANNA CASTROIANNI is now represented by Arley Sorg of kt literary.

ERIN LATIMER, CORAL ALEJANDRA MOORE, and J.C. SNOW are now represented by JABberwocky Literary Agency.

ROBERT J. SAWYER will be writer-in-residence at Calgary's Alexandria Writers' Centre Society from September 1 to November 30.

AWARDS

Whatever Kills the Pain by C.W. BLACKWELL won Best Long Story, Blind Pig by MICHAEL BRACKEN won Best Short Story, and The …Read More

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The prize formerly known as the International Booker Prize has announced a partnership with Bukhman Philanthropies, which has made a generous commitment to fund the next 10 years of the International Booker Prize. The funding will double the prize awarded to the winning title from £50,000 to £100,000, split between the author and translator.

The Buhkman International Booker Prize celebrates the best works of long-form fiction or collections of short …Read More

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Stephen King's 1982 collection Different Seasons (Warner) is the most recent book banned from all public schools in Utah after being removed in four school districts. Utah state law requires a book to be removed state-wide if a sufficient number of districts identify it as objective sensitive material, which is defined in state code as instructional material that constitutes pornographic or indecent material. The Davis School District website comments …Read More

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The Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) announced the 2026 inductees to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame: Lois McMaster Bujold and Tim Burton were honored as creators. Metropolis and the X-Men franchise were also recognized as exceptional creations in genre media. Inductees are added to the SF&F Hall of Fame display in the museum.

The Science Fiction Hall of Fame was founded in 1996 and then relocated from …Read More

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The Libertarian Futurist Society (LFS) has announcedA Kiss for Damocles by J. Kenton Pierce (Raconteur) [amazon / bookshop] as the winner of the Prometheus Award in the Best Novel category, honoring pro-freedom works published in 2025. Other nominees were:

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

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SF poet and author Suzette Haden Elgin is the winner of the 2026 Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award, intended to bring attention to lesser-known SF and fantasy authors. Her first story publication, For the Sake of Grace , was in F&SF in 1969. She wrote several SF series leaning into her background in linguistics and was the founder of the SFPA, now the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association.

The award …Read More

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The winners of the 2025 Shirley Jackson Awards for outstanding achievement in horror, psychological suspense, and dark fantasy fiction were announced Saturday, July 11, 2026 at Readercon 35 in Burlington MA, hosted by Readercon guests of honor P. Djèlí Clark and David Gerrold.

Novel

• WINNER: Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng, Kylie Lee Baker (Hanover Square)

• Old Soul, Susan Barker (G.P. Putnam's Sons)
• How to …Read More

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The European Science Fiction Society (ESFS) announced the Hall of Fame Awards, Achievement Awards, and winners of the Chrysalis Awards for emerging talent.

The Hall of Fame Awards winners are:

Best Author

• WINNER: Luís Filipe Silva (Portugal)

• Marc Elsberg (Austria)
• Alessandro Forlani (Italy)
• Agnieszka Hałas (Poland)
• Christian Léourier (France)
• Ruth Frances Long (Ireland)
• Julija Lukovnjak (Slovenia)
• Michael Marrak (Germany)
• Emil Minchev (Bulgaria)
• Ondřej Neff (Czech Republic)
• Luís …Read More

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Winners of the Heinlein Society's annual undergraduate scholarships for the 2026-2027 academic year were announced on July 7, 2026, Robert A. Heinlein's 119th birthday.

This year's winners are Riya Gupta, Nora Kane, Leslie Manga-Abomo, William Mar, and Evan Sturdivant. The scholarship awards $4,000 to each recipient. Winners were selected from 310 applications, including 40 international submissions from 22 different countries.

Gupta receives the Society's new, unnamed scholarship and will attend …Read More

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Finalists for the 2026 Deutsche Science Fiction Preis, presented by Science Fiction Club Deutschland (SFCD), have been announced.

Best German-Language SF Novel

• We Burn the Sun, Anika Beer (Piper Verlag)
• Asimov's Kindergarten, Reda El Arbi (Lectorbooks)
• Der Himmel wird zur Seet, Sven Haupt (Eridanus Verlag)
• Ein Übermaß von Welt, Sven Haupt (Eridanus Verlag)
• Thanatopia, Tom Hillenbrand (Kiepenheuer & Witsch)
• Pandoras Flotte, Christian Märtesheimer (Atlantis Verlag)
• Denial of Service, Aiki …Read More

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The five-title shortlist for the 2026 Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic was announced July 6, 2026:

• The Works of Vermin, Hiron Ennes (Tor) amazon / bookshop
• Horsefly, Mireille Gagné, tr. Pablo Strauss (Coach House) amazon / bookshop
• Wild Life, Amanda Leduc (Random House Canada) amazon
• The Lady, The Tiger and the Girl Who Loved Death, Helen Marshall (Titan) amazon / bookshop
• Veal, Mackenzie Nolan …Read More

  The post 2026 Sunburst Award Shortlist appeared first on Locus.

Author and historian JAMES RAY COMER, who wrote as J. Comer, 59, died in late April or early May 2026.

Comer was born August 5, 1966. He wrote several pieces of short fiction, including Soldier's Coat (2015), Scratch (2016), The Wooing of Etroklos (2016), Star Thistle (2018), Beam That Is In (2019), Tilting the Wick (2020), Sky Machine (2021), Sometime Called Parchment (2021), Quicksilver (2023), and The Weather Maker (2024). …Read More

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Three debuts, Danielle J. Jensen's The Inadequate Heir (Del Rey), K.M. Moronova's Once Upon a Demon's Heart (Bloom), and Jaymin Eve's Night Witch (Mira), each debuts on both the USA Today and Publishers Weekly lists.

Title Debut / #wks on any list NYT
07.12 LAT
07.05 USAT
06.28 PW
07.06 Amz
(07.06) UK:
…Read More

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Author and editor TED WHITE, 88, died May 24, 2026. He was in palliative care.

Theodore Edwin White was born February 4, 1938. He contributed to SF fanzines at a young age and won the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer in 1968. He was assistant editor at F&SF from 1963-1968 and editor for Amazing Stories and Fantastic from 1968-1978. As an author, he wrote Invasion from 2500 (1964) with …Read More

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The North Carolina Speculative Fiction Foundation (NCSFF) has announced the finalists for the 2026 Manly Wade Wellman Award. The award recognizes outstanding achievement in science fiction and fantasy novels written by North Carolina authors.

• The Unseen, Ania Ahlborn (Gallery)
• Last Chance Live!, Helena Haywoode Henry (Nancy Paulsen)
• Infinite Archive, Mur Lafferty (Ace)
• Transmentation: Transience, Darkly Lem (Blackstone)
• The Coming Dark, D.J. Molles (published by the author)
• Labyrinth, A.G. …Read More

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Simon & Schuster has announced that Atria Gallery Group will relaunch the Pocket Books imprint as a core romance imprint that will also publish additional genres including romantic thrillers, dark romance, and horror. Anh Schluep, who is joining Atria Gallery, will be vice president, editorial director, and deputy publisher of Pocket Books. Schluep said,

I'm excited to be bringing back Pocket Books. The imprint, which published its first list in …Read More

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