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.
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...
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...
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...
Interview with Tristan Evarts
Tristan Evarts is the editor of Utopia Science Fiction Magazine, and since 2019 he has overseen the publication of optimistic prose, poetry, non-fiction, and art. The...
Interview with Tristan Evarts
Tristan Evarts is the editor of Utopia Science Fiction Magazine, and since 2019 he has overseen the publication of optimistic prose, poetry, non-fiction, and art. The...
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...
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 ...
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 (...
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...
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...
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...
By Suzie Gray
As digital spaces increasingly mediate the way in which we interact with ourselves and each other, I argue that this dynamic flow of human becoming within digital spaces crystallises as events or spectacles....
By Suzie Gray
As digital spaces increasingly mediate the way in which we interact with ourselves and each other, I argue that this dynamic flow of human becoming within digital spaces crystallises as events or spectacles....
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 (...
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...
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...
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-...
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...
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...
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 ...
The 2026 Aurora Awards ballot for works by Canadians has been announced. The Aurora Awards are nominated by members of the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association. The top five nominated works were selected, with additional works included when there was a tie for fifth place.
...
The Libertarian Futurist Society (LFS) has announced the five finalists for the Best Novel category of the Prometheus Awards, honoring thematically pro-liberty works published in 2025.
- Storm-Dragon, Dave Freer (Raconteur) amazon / bookshop
- War By...
UK-based publisher Bloomsbury has announced plans to streamline its structure for future growth, after doubling its sales in four years, more than doubling its profits in 2023-2024, and increasing headcount from 738 to 1,238 in five years. The plans include cutting about 55 roles in the US and...
Mind, body, and spirit-focused publishing company Red Wheel/Weiser has announced that it has acquired the majority of the titles of Watkins Media's flagship imprint, Watkins Publishing. Other Watkins Media imprints, such as Angry Robot, Datura, and Repeater, are not currently affected by...
Finalists for the Hugo Awards, the Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book, and the Astounding Award for Best New Writer have been announced by LAcon V, the 84th World Science Fiction Convention. There were 1,488 valid nominating ballots received and counted from members of the 2025...
President and publisher of Farrar, Straus & Giroux Mitzi Angel announced in a memo that the MCD imprint is set to close, with MCD publisher Sean McDonald leaving FSG April 15. Angel cited financial realities for their decision to focus on FSG's core programming, including AUWA Books, FSG...
The 42nd annual L. Ron Hubbard's Writers and Illustrators of the Future awards ceremony was held April 16, 2026 at the Taglyan Complex in Los Angeles, concluding a weeklong intensive of workshops, lectures, and classes for the winners. This year's Golden Brush Award went to Bohuslav Argalas...
SF author Ian Watson, 82, died April 13, 2026 in Gijón, Spain.
Watson was born in England on April 20, 1943. He graduated from Balliol College, Oxford with a degree in English literature, later obtained a research degree in English and French 19th-century literature, and went on to teach...
The six-title shortlist has been announced for the 2026 Dublin Literary Award, now in its 31st year. Authors and titles of genre interest include Gliff by Ali Smith (Hamish Hamilton; Pantheon) [amazon / bookshop] and Perspective(s) by Laurent Binet, tr. Sam...
PEN America has announced plans to launch a US Author Safety Program meant to protect against harassment and threats. Supporters include Hachette Book Group, Macmillan Publishers, Penguin Random House, David Baldacci, and the New York Community Trust, which have contributed nearly $1 million to...
Roger Zelazny (1937-1995) has been named the recipient of the fourth Infinity Award.
The award was created by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) to posthumously highlight the life and work of creators who achieved a distinct and tremendous legacy in science fiction...
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Celebrating Roger Zelazny, SFWA’s Infinity Award Recipient for the 61st Annual Nebula Awards
Celebrating Roger Zelazny, SFWA’s Infinity Award Recipient for the 61st Annual Nebula Awards
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
San Francisco, CA – April 15, 2026
...
TheBaltimore Science Fiction Society (BSFS) has announced that The Book of Lost Hours by Hayley Gelfuso (Atria) [amazon / bookshop] is the 44th winner of the Compton Crook Award.
The other finalists were:
- A Song of Legends Lost, M.H. Ayinde (...
MILESTONES
SARA HASHEM is now represented by Chloe Seager at Madeleine Milburn Literary Agency. Hashem's Merciful Carnage, first in a dark fantasy romance duology, and another book went to Alyea Canada at Orbit via Jennifer Azantian of...
Finalists for the 17th-annual Xingyun Awards for Chinese science fiction were announced by the World Chinese Science Fiction Association on March 31, 2026. Titles have been translated by Hu Shaoyan, except where English titles were provided by the authors or publishers.
Best Novel...
Congratulations to all of the Locus Awards top ten finalists! These results are from the February 1 to April 1 voting by readers on an open public ballot.
The Locus Awards winners will be announced May 30, 2026, during the in-person Locus Awards Ceremony...
Katrina Kat Templeton has won the Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund (TAFF) to travel from Europe to North America to attend MetropolCon, the 2026 Eurocon, defeating Lisa Hertel.
There were 76 votes, 3 of which were submitted with no preference. The fund is currently administered by Sarah Gulde in...
Fantasy illustrator MICHAEL HAGUE, 77, died March 10, 2026 in Colorado Springs CO.
Michael Riley Hague was born September 8, 1948 in Los Angeles CA. He attended the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. He illustrated for numerous books, many of them classics,...
Fantasy author John Flanagan, 81, died February 7 of complications from non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
John Flanagan was born May 22, 1944 in Sydney, Australia. He worked in advertising and wrote TV sitcoms before publishing The Ruins of Gorlan, first in The Ranger's Apprentice series, in...
Joyelle McSweeney, author of the poetry collection Death Styles (Nightboat) [amazon / bookshop], is among the recipients announced for the 2026 Donald Windham-Sandy M. Campbell Literature Prize, recognized in the Poetry category.
The Windham-Campbell Prize was...
Anathema: Spec from the Margins, a speculative fiction magazine by and for queer people of color, has announced that it is relaunching after a four-year hiatus.
We're committed to supporting marginalized writers by paying them a professional rate for their work....
The Horror Writers Association (HWA) has announced the recipients of its 2025 Lifetime Achievement Awards: Jonathan Maberry and Lisa Morton. The awards will be presented on June 6, 2026, during the Bram Stoker Awards at StokerCon®2026 in Pittsburgh PA.
The Lifetime Achievement...
