Locus News

Dragon Con has announced the ballot for the 2025 Dragon Awards.

Best Science Fiction Novel

• Nether Station, Kevin J. Anderson (Blackstone)
• The Folded Sky, Elizabeth Bear (Saga)
• Alliance Unbound, C.J. Cherryh & Jane S. Fancher (DAW)
• The Mercy of Gods, James S.A. Corey (Orbit)
• This Inevitable Ruin, Matt Dinniman (Ace)
• Extremophile, Ian Green (Head of Zeus)
• Absolution, Jeff VanderMeer (Picador)

Best Fantasy Novel

The Mythopoeic Society revealed the winners of the 2025 Mythopoeic Awards in an announcement and during the Online MidSummer Seminar 2025, held August 2-3, 2025 online.

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature

• WINNER: The Melancholy of Untold History, Minsoo Kang (Morrow)

• The Warm Hands of Ghosts, Katherine Arden (Del Rey)
• The Fox Wife, Yangsze Choo (Holt)
• The Society of Guenevere, Deborah K. Vleck (FTL)
• The City

Winners for the 2025 Splatterpunk Awards, honoring “superior achievement in the literary sub-genres of Splatterpunk and Extreme Horror fiction” in 2024, were presented at the 2025 KillerCon, held from August 1-3, 2025 in Austin TX.

Best Novel

• WINNER: The Old Lady, Kristopher Triana (Bad Dream)

• Benjamin, Aron Beauregard & Shane McKenzie (Bad Dream)
• This Wretched Valley, Jenny Kiefer (Quirk)
• American Rapture, CJ Leede (Tor Nightfire)
• The

Dream Foundry, a “non-profit dedicated to bolstering the careers of nascent professionals working with the speculative arts,” has announced the winners of its 2025 contests.

Writing Contest

• Yee Heng Yeh (First Place)
• Sanad Tabbaa (Second Place)
• sheena daree romero (Third Place)

Art Contest

• Santiago Rosas (First Place)
• Keturah Rose (Second Place)
• Siana Robey (Third Place)

First place winners receive $1,500, second place receives $750, and third place receives $400.

The

The Lambda Literary Foundation has announced the finalists for the 37th Annual Lambda Literary Awards (the “Lammys”), celebrating “the best lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender books.” Finalists of genre interest include the following.

LGBTQ+ Speculative Fiction

• Metal From Heaven, August Clarke (Erewhon)
• The Palace of Eros, Caro De Robertis (Primero Sueño)
• Markless, C.G. Malburi (Levine Querido)
• The Sunforge, Sascha Stronach (Saga)
• Bury Your Gays, Chuck

StokerCon, sponsored by the Horror Writers Association (HWA), was held June 12–15, 2025 both virtually and in person at the Hilton Stamford Hotel in Stamford CT. Guests of honor were Scott Edelman, Paula Guran, Adam Nevill, Joyce Carol Oates, Gaby Triana, and Tim Waggoner. The Stoker Awards were hosted by Kev­in Wetmore Jr., and this year’s Lifetime Achieve­ment Awards recipients were David Cronenberg and Del & Sue Howison. The convention ...Read More

Aspen Words, a program of the Aspen Institute, is partnering with Book of the Month to hold its inaugural Aspen Literary Festival on September 26-28, 2025 in Aspen CO. The festival will include “a special conversation that highlights science fiction and fantasy” with authors Leigh Bardugo, Victor LaValle, and V.E. Schwab.

Aspen Words executive director Adrienne Brodeur said, “Our goal is to highlight the ways that sci-fi and fantasy expand ...Read More

The finalists for the 2024 Sidewise Awards for Alternate History have been announced.

Long Form

• Westfallen,  Ann & Ben Brashares (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
• Sargassa, Sophie Burnham (DAW)
• The Pandominion (Infinity Gate and Echo of Worlds), M.R. Carey (Grand Central, 2023 & 2024)
• The Last Rival: A Time of Our Choosing, Kyle Palmer (Paramount)

Short Form

• “A Brother’s Oath”, L. Briar (

Simon & Schuster UK is launching a new imprint, Solstice Books, for science fiction, fantasy, romantasy, and horror, as announced by the Bookseller. Gemma Creffield, associate publisher at Angry Robot, will be editorial director beginning in September.

The imprint will start releasing books next year, with titles including The Rainshadow Orphans by Naomi Ishiguro and TimeLess by A.F. Steadman.

Senior marketing manager Sarah Jeffcoate said,

From the shadows to the ...Read More

The International Association of Media Tie-in Writers (IAMTW) has announced the winners of the 2025 Scribe Awards, honoring excellence in licensed tie-in writing. Nominees of genre interest include:

Original Novel — Speculative

• WINNER: Star Trek – Strange New Worlds: Asylum, Una McCormack (Pocket / Star Trek)

• RuneScape: The Gift of Guthix, Erin M. Evans (Titan)
• Arkham Horror: The Forbidden Visions of Lucius Galloway, Carrie Harris (Aconyte)
• Batman:

Finalists for the annual Mike Resnick Memorial Award for Short Fiction have been announced:

• “A Pixel Story”, Jason Boyd
• “Elsewhere”, Anaïs Godard
• “Tales From the Sub-Ocean: Or, Video Game as Metaphor for Mental Illness”, Ian P. Johnson
• “Child at the End of the World”, Tara McKee
• “Sunset Bridge”, Diane Schwebs
• “Kill the Art Monster Before It Kills You”, C.E. Singer

The award, sponsored by Galaxy’s Edge (published by Arc Manor) ...Read More

The winners of the 2025 Colorado Book Awards were revealed at a ceremony located in Denver CO and livestreamed on YouTube. Titles and authors of genre interest include:

Best Science Fiction/Fantasy

• WINNER: Transference, Ian Patterson (self-published)
• Nether Station, Kevin J. Anderson (Blackstone)
• The Future Lies, John Be Lane (Global Arts)

Best Mystery

• WINNER: Play of Shadows, Barbara Nickless (Thomas & Mercer)

Best Creative Nonfiction

• WINNER: The

The 2025 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards were announced at San Diego Comic-Con on July 25, 2025. Winners of genre interest include:

Best Short Story

• “Spaces,” Phil Jimenez (DC Pride 2024 #1)

Best Continuing Series

• Santos Sisters, Marc Koprinarov, Dave Landsberger, Fake Petre & Graham Smith, illustrated by Greg Petre (Floating World)

Best Limited Series

• Zatanna: Bring Down the House, Mariko Tamaki, illustrated by Javier Rodriguez

Kama-kon, the 63rd Japan Science Fiction Convention, has announced the winners of the 2025 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: System Collapse, Martha Wells, translated by Naoya Nakahara (Tokyo Sogensha)

• The Red Arrow, William Brewer, translated by Motomi Ueno (Hayakawa)
• A Master of Djinn, P. Djèlí Clark, translated