Speculative Literature News
News from the Speculative Literature writing community, including items from Locus Magazine, SFWA, etc. Please contact us if you would like to suggest a news source.
The British organization Society of Authors has announced the winners and runners-up for its 2024 Translation Prizes. The Prizes, “celebrating translation around the globe,” honor works translated into English across several categories.
A total of eight winning works and...
The Baltimore Science Fiction Society (BSFS) has announced the finalists for the 2025 Compton Crook Award:
- The Stars Too Fondly, Emily Hamilton (Harper Voyager)
- Sun of Blood and Ruin, Mariely Lares (Harper Voyager)
- The...
The 2024 Albertine Translation Prize, which honors American publishers of French works translated into English, has been announced by Villa Albertine. The fiction prize was awarded to translator Eve Hill-Agnus for her translation of Ultramarine by Mariette Navarro (Deep Vellum...
The ten-title 2025 PEN/Faulkner longlist for fiction has been announced, with a number of titles and authors of genre interest, including:
- Ghostroots, ’Pemi Aguda (Norton)
- The Mighty Red, Louise Erdrich (Harper)
- James...
The longlist for the 2024 Highland Book Prize (Duais Leabhair na Gàidhealtachd) has been announced. Some titles of genre interest are amongst the 12 longlisted titles, including:
- Storm’s Edge: Life, Death and Magic in the Islands of Orkney, Peter Marshall (William...
The Horror Writers Association (HWA) has opened applications for its annual Scholarship from Hell.
The Scholarship from Hell is awarded annually to an applicant interested in attending StokerCon and furthering a career in horror writing. Per the Scholarship’s webpage, the recipient...
Uncanny Magazine has opened up its annual poll for readers’ favorite fiction. On the poll, available here, readers select their three favorite original Uncanny stories from a list. Per an email, the poll closes on February 17, 2025.
“Uncanny Magazine is an online Science...
Fiyah magazine is seeking judges for the longlist judging cohort for its annual Ignyte Awards.
Candidates should be “interested, available, organically well-read in diverse and inclusive titles in sffh, whether professionally or otherwise… Please be familiar with the Ignytes’...
For 2024, the Financial Times featured several genre books across their best-of lists in various categories.
FT’s Science Fiction List (includes fantasy):
- The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands, Sarah Brooks (Flatiron)
- No One...
Amazon published its yearly array of lists to promote the best books of 2024, with editors’ selections in various categories. Works and categories of genre interest follow. Amazon’s top pick is followed by their list of other recommended works, alphabetized by author last name.
...
Tachyon Publications is celebrating 30 years of operation in 2025, with numerous events planned.
The San Francisco Public Library will host an exhibition of Tachyon books, historical photos, and documents. Tachyon will host an anniversary party, open to the public, at the library on...
The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) has opened applications their 2025 career mentoring program, seeking both mentors and mentees. The program “is an all-volunteer service provided free of charge… with the objective of providing community, sharing knowledge,...
Artist Chris Moore, 78, died February 7, 2025 at home in the UK. Moore was a prolific artist, best known for his hard SF book covers and album artwork by artists including Rod Stewart and Fleetwood Mac.
Christopher Norton Moore was born June 1, 1947 in Rotherham, South Yorkshire. He...
Brendan Durkin has been promoted to Editorial Director at Gollancz, reports The Bookseller.
Durkin has been a member of the Gollancz team since 2018, and was promoted to Editor in 2020. He also launched The Gollancz Emporium, a direct-to-consumer line of special editions and classic...
Nominations are now open for the 2025 Hugo Awards, the Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book, and the Astounding Award for Best New Writer. These awards will be presented at Seattle Worldcon 2025, the 83rd World Science Fiction Convention, to be held August 13th-17th, 2025, in Seattle WA. The...
The 19 winning titles for the January 2025 PEN Translates awards have been announced. The awards are given to works translated from other languages into English, “on the basis of outstanding literary quality, the strength of the publishing project, and their contribution to UK...
Author Tom Robbins, 92, died February 9, 2024 at home in La Conner WA. Robbins was best known for his absurdist, irreverent novels, which inspired a devoted cult following and included numerous bestsellers. While his work was rooted in 1960s counterculture, he had a devoted readership that...
The Horror Writers Association (HWA) has announced a collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh Library System (ULS). ULS has committed to a ten-year Legacy Sponsorship for the HWA’s annual conference Stokercon starting in 2025. HWA says,
The Archives & Special Collections...
We Need Diverse Books (WNDB) has announced the winners and honor books for the 10th annual Walter Dean Myers Awards for Outstanding Children’s Literature. The awards “are given in honor of author Walter Dean Myers and to celebrate diversity in children’s books.”
...
The Heinlein Society has opened its 2025 scholarships for undergraduate students. The deadline to apply is 11:59 p.m. PDT on April 1, 2025. Applicants must be entering their sophomore, junior, or senior year in a 4-year, accredited college in any country, and must submit a 500-1000 word essay....
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),...
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 (...
- Melodie der Asche, Elya Adair (Knaur)
- City of Dust and Shadows, Lara Große (...
Welcome to the February edition of the SFWA Market Report.
Please note: Inclusion of any venue in this report does not indicate an official endorsement by SFWA. Those markets included on this list pay at least $0.08/word USD in at least one category of fiction....
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...
Published in Foundation 149 (winter 2024) edited by Paul March-Russell. Republished with permission.
By Jo Lindsay Walton and Polina Levontin
This article explores cultural and design dimensions of non-governmental voting systems, focusing on science...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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 “...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
A lo-fi, low-key critique of solarpunk
By Jo Lindsay WaltonJoyce Ch’ng’s ‘The Barricade’ (2024) is a solarpunk short story in which nothing much happens. The lack of incident is probably deliberate: a gentle rejection of the idea that all narratives need conflict. ...
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...
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...
Several authors and works of genre interest are among the Mystery Writers of America (MWA) 2025 Edgar Awards nominees.
Best Novel
- The Tainted Cup, Robert Jackson Bennett (Del Rey)
Best First Novel
- ...
The National Book Foundation, together with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, announced the selected books for the 2025 Science + Literature program. The 2025 fiction selection is science fiction novel The Last Animal by Ramona Ausubel (Riverhead), along with two other selections...