Locus News

Speculative poet and critic Donald Sidney-Fryer, 91, died May 2, 2026 in Chatham MA. He was in palliative care for bone cancer.

Sidney-Fryer was born September 8, 1934. He published well over 100 works of speculative poetry, starting as early as 1968 with Connaissance Fatale and publishing in periodicals including Macabre, Spectral Realms, Weird Tales, and Witchcraft & Sorcery; anthologies including Off the Coastal Path (2010); and collections including The …Read More

The post Donald Sidney-Fryer (1934–2026) appeared first on Locus.

Winners of the 2026 Steve Miller Baltimore Science Fiction Society (BSFS) Annual Poetry Contest have been announced.

• 1st Place: Terracotta Warrior , Y.M. Pang
• 2nd Place: Starlight Bathing , Vivian McInerny
• 3rd Place: The Planet that Learned our Fear , Ayesha Mansoor
• Youth Award: Faster Than Light , Madame Reeds-A-Lot
• Honorable Mention: The Witch of Dark Matter , Kristin5689
• Honorable Mention: The River Remembers , Hashim Quraishi

The …Read More

The post 2026 BSFS Poetry Contest Winners appeared first on Locus.

The winners have been announced for the 2026 Kurd Laßwitz Preis. The prize is awarded to German-language SF works published in the previous year.

BestGerman SFNovel

• WINNER: Lyneham, Nils Westerboer (Klett-Cotta)

• We Burn the Sun, Anika Beer (Piper)
• The Deniables: Gestohlene Vergangeheit, Stefan Cernohuby (Leseratten)
• Skyrmionen oder: A Fucking Army, Dietmar Dath (Matthes & Seitz)
• Der Himmel wird zur See, Sven Haupt (Eridanus)
• Ein Übermaß von Welt, …Read More

  The post 2026 Kurd Laßwitz Preis Winners appeared first on Locus.

The Bookseller has announced the winners of the 2026 British Book Awards, including the Book of the Year Winners. Winning titles and authors of genre interest, and other finalists of interest in those categories, include:

Author of the Year

• WINNER: A.F. Steadman

• Elif Shafak

Fiction

• WINNER: Boleyn Traitor, Philippa Gregory (HarperFiction)

• Dream Count, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (4th Estate)
• The Rose Field: The Book …Read More

  The post 2026 British Book Awards Book of the Year Winners appeared first on Locus.

LAcon V has announced that online voting for the 2026 Hugo Awards, the Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book, and the Astounding Award for Best New Writer are now open.

WSFS members can access the Hugo Awards Voter Packet and cast their ballot by logging in to the LAcon V online balloting portal. The deadline is August 8, 2026, 12:00 p.m. PDT, and votes can be resubmitted at any …Read More

The post Online 2026 Hugo Voting Open appeared first on Locus.

Finalists for the 2025 Analog Analytical Laboratory (AnLab) Award and the 2025 Asimov's Readers' Awards have been announced.

The Analog AnLab Awards finalists are:

Novella

• Aleyara's Flight , Christopher L. Bennett (11-12/25)
• Apartment Wars , Vera Brook (1-2/25)
• Murder on the Eris Express , Beth Goder (3-4/25)
• The Return of Tom Dillon , Harry Lang (3-4/25)
• Under the Moons of Venus , Jay Werkheiser …Read More

  The post 2025 Analog AnLab Awards and Asimov’s Readers’ Award Finalists appeared first on Locus.

Horror author Thomas Tessier, 78, died March 26, 2026.

Thomas Edward Tessier was born May 10, 1947 in Waterbury CT. He studied at University College Dublin in Ireland and lived in the UK for many years before eventually returning to Connecticut.

Tessier's first genre novel was The Fates (1978), an SF horror, and he also wrote The Nightwalker (1979); Shockwaves (1982); World Fantasy Award nominee Phantom (1982); Finishing Touches (1986); …Read More

The post Thomas Tessier (1947-2026) appeared first on Locus.

The Pulitzer Prize Winners have been announced.Angel Down by Daniel Kraus (Atria) won in the Fiction category. Other finalists of genre interest include Auditionby Katie Kitamura (Riverhead) andStag Dance: A Quartetby Torrey Peters (Random House). In addition, Things in Nature Merely Grow by Yiyun Li (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) won in the Memoir or Autobiography category.

The Pulitzer jury said ofAngel Down: A breathless novel of World War …Read More

The post 2026 Pulitzer Prize Winners appeared first on Locus.

Transworld has announced the launch 3AM Books, Penguin Random House's first dedicated horror imprint. The imprint will reflect the full range and ambition of horror today, bringing together established voices, bold new talent and a growing community of readers, according to The Bookseller.

Imprint leadership will include publishing director Rachel Winterbottom, editorial director Simon Taylor, editor Nicole Witmer, assistant editor Anna Carvanova, marketing executive Molly Openshaw, press officer Nina Lewis, …Read More

The post New Imprint: 3AM Books appeared first on Locus.

Author and publisher Michael P. Spradlin, 65, died April 12, 2026.

Michael P. Spradlin was born and raised in Michigan. He worked at the Hearst Corporation for Avon Books and William Morrow, and later at HarperCollins. He wrote the Spy Goddess books, including Live and Let Shop (2005) and To Hawaii, with Love (2006); the Killer Species books, including Menace from the Deep (2013), Feeding Frenzy (2013), Out for Blood …Read More

The post Michael P. Spradlin (1960-2026) appeared first on Locus.

The five judges for the Philip K. Dick Award for works of science fiction published as paperback originals in the US during the year 2026 have been announced:

• Deji Bryce Olukotun, 1701 Anacapa St Unit 23, Santa Barbara CA 93101-1064; mobi files to starship@nigeriansinspace.com
• Adam Rakunas, 1431 26th Ave, Seattle WA 98122-3101; epub files to rak@giro.com
• Rebekah Sheldon, 817 S High St,Bloomington IN 47401-6160; pdf files to rsheldon@iu.edu
• Andrew …Read More

  The post 2026 Philip K. Dick Award Judges appeared first on Locus.

We are pleased to announce that award-winning authors Sarah Gailey & Maggie Tokuda-Hall will be joining us as Emcees at the Locus Awards Weekend on May 29-31, 2026, in Oakland, California!We're delighted to welcome them both!

From their website: Sarah Gailey is a Hugo Award and British Fantasy Award winning, bestselling author of speculative fiction, short stories, and essays. They have been a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, and …Read More

The post 2026 Locus Awards Emcees Sarah Gailey & Maggie Tokuda-Hall appeared first on Locus.

SF/F author eluki bes shahar, 69, died April 7, 2026 of sepsis.

Bes shahar was born in June 1956. She also wrote under the names Rosemary Edghill and James Mallory. Her debut novel, Speak Daggers to Her (1994), was the first in the Bast series, followed by Book of Moons (1995), The Bowl of Night (1996), omnibus Bell, Book, and Murder (1998), several short fiction pieces, and collection Failure of …Read More

The post eluki bes shahar (1956-2026) appeared first on Locus.

The shortlist for the 2026 Branford Boase Award for children's books has been announced. Titles and authors of genre interest includeGloam by Jack Mackay (Viking Books for Young Readers US; Rock the Boat UK) [amazon / bookshop] and Augmented by Kenechi Udogu (Faber & Faber Children's) [amazon / bookshop].

The Boase award is given annually to the author of an outstanding debut novel for children. The author and editor of …Read More

The post 2026 Branford Boase Award Shortlist appeared first on Locus.

Winners of the Tolkien Society Awards 2026 were announced on April 27, 2026. The awards recognize excellence in the fields of Tolkien scholarship and fandom, highlighting our long-standing charitable objective to 'seek to educate the public in, and promote research into, the life and works of' J.R.R. Tolkien. The society's trustees choose the shortlist, with winners chosen by the membership.

Best Book

• WINNER:The Tower and the Ruin: J.R.R. Tolkien's …Read More

  The post The Tolkien Society Awards 2026 appeared first on Locus Online.

We are so pleased to have the talented Alyssa Winans as Featured Local Artist at the Locus Awards Weekendon May 30, 2026 in Berkeley, California! Her work is vibrant and inventive, and we can't wait to see it at the event. Winans joins a lineup of amazing local creators, as well as Guests of Honor Nnedi Okorafor, Tananarive Due, and Stephen Graham Jones, for an unforgettable celebration.

ALYSSA WINANS …Read More

The post Locus Awards Announces Featured Local Artist Alyssa Winans appeared first on Locus Online.

Clarion West (CW) has announced a collaborative partnership with artist-led nonprofit Common AREA Maintenance (CAM) in Seattle to advance development and long-term usage of the El Rey Building - a previously abandoned 30,000 square foot building in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood. The ADA-accessible building will be the new site of the Clarion West Six-Week Workshop and will support multiple artists and writers year-round.

CAM purchased the building for $20 in …Read More

The post Clarion West Announces Partnership for Residency Program appeared first on Locus Online.

John H. Guidry, 81, died March 9, 2026.

John Henry Guidry was born December 15, 1944 in New Orleans LA and attended William Carey College. He created the Edgar Rice Burroughs Amateur Press Association and co-published Forgotten Tales of Love and Murder (2001). In 1988, he was the chair of Nolacon II, the 46th World Science Fiction Convention. He is survived by his sister and his nieces and nephews. …Read More

The post John H. Guidry (1944–2026) appeared first on Locus Online.

The Los Angeles Times has announced the winners of their 46th annual Book Prizes.

Winners of genre interest, and other titles and authors of genre interest in those categories, include:

Science Fiction/Fantasy

• WINNER:Luminous, Silvia Park (Simon & Schuster)

• The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, Stephen Graham Jones (Saga)
• The Death of Mountains, Jordan Kurella (Lethe)
• Death of the Author, Nnedi Okorafor (William Morrow)
• Esperance, Adam Oyebanji (DAW)

Fiction …Read More

The post LA Times Book Prize Winners appeared first on Locus Online.

The preliminary ballot for the 2026 Ditmar Awards for Australian SF has been announced.

Best Novel

• Veil, Jeff Clulow (Third Eye) amazon / bookshop
• Honeyeater, Kathleen Jennings (Tordotcom) amazon / bookshop
• When Dark Waters Burn, Zena Shapter (Midnight Sun) amazon
• The Crimson Road, A.G. Slatter (Titan) amazon / bookshop
• Upon a Starlit Tide, Kell Woods (HarperCollins) amazon / bookshop

Best Novella or Novelette

• Cinder House, Freya Marske …Read More

  The post 2026 Ditmar Awards Preliminary Ballot appeared first on Locus Online.