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.
By Joey Eschrich and Ed Finn
Center for Science and the Imagination, Arizona State University
At the Center for Science and the Imagination (CSI) at Arizona State University, we’ve edited and published more than a dozen collections of...
By Joey Eschrich and Ed Finn
Center for Science and the Imagination, Arizona State University
At the Center for Science and the Imagination (CSI) at Arizona State University, we’ve edited and published more than a dozen collections of...
Hellcon, the 64th Japan Science Fiction Convention, has announced the finalists for 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
- ...
Luminous by Silvia Park (Simon & Schuster) is the winner of the 2025 Otherwise Award (formerly the James Tiptree, Jr. Award), given annually to works of science fiction or fantasy that expand and explore our understanding of gender.
...
The shortlist for the 2026 International Dylan Thomas Prize has been announced. The six-title list includes genre books Open, Heaven by Seán Hewitt (Jonathan Cape; Vintage) and Under the Blue by Suzannah V. Evans (Bloomsbury Poetry).
The annual Dylan...
Finalists for the 2026 Imadjinn Awards have been announced. Categories, titles, and authors of genre interest include:
Best Science Fiction Novel
- Dead to Rights: A Car Warriors Autoduel Novel, Jay Barnson (Three Ravens)
- ...
Hachette Book Group has cancelled the upcoming US release and will discontinue the UK release of horror novel Shy Girl by Mia Ballard after reviewing the text for signs of generative AI use.
Shy Girl was self-published in February 2025 and republished in...
When the Tides Held the Moon by Venessa Vida Kelley (Erewhon) is one of the five titles shortlisted for the inaugural James Patterson and Bookshop.org Prize, a new literary prize celebrating debut authors, hand-selected by independent booksellers.
Titles, which must be...
The shortlists for the 2026 Carnegie Medal for Writing and Carnegie Medal for Illustration, honoring UK books for children and young adults, were announced March 10, 2026. Titles and authors of genre interest include:
Carnegie Medal for Writing
- ...
Baen Books has announcedthe ten finalists for the 2026 Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Award.
- Thomas Butler
- Jason P. Crawford
- Joyce Frohn
- Liam Hogan
- Philip Levin
- Paul Malory
- Joel C. Scoberg
- Gideon Smith
- ...
The Climate Fiction Prize has announced its inaugural shortlist. Founded by Rose Goddard, Imran Khan, and Leo Barasi and supported by Climate Spring, the prize seeks to celebrate the most inspiring novels tackling the climate crisis.
Shortlisted titles and authors of genre interest...
The IAFA is pleased to announce that the winner of this year's Crawford Award isCall and Response (Neon Hemlock) by Christopher Caldwell.
The Crawford Award, given by the International Association of the Fantastic in the Arts, recognizes an outstanding writer whose...
The Horror Writers Association (HWA) has announced the recipients of its 2026 Specialty Awards.
Bad Hand Books is the recipient of the Specialty Press Award, given to a specialty publisher whose work has substantially contributed to the horror genre, whose publications display general...
PEN America announced the 2026 finalists for ten literary awards on January 29, 2026. The awards will confer nearly $350,000 to writers and translators. ... Spanning fiction, poetry, essay, translation, and more, these Longlisted books are dynamic, diverse, and thought-provoking examples of...
The 5-title shortlist for the 2026 Aspen Words Literary Prize has been announced. Titles and authors of genre interest includeThe True Story of Raja the Gullible (And His Mother) by Rabih Alameddine (Grove),Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (Flatiron), and...
The Lambda Literary Foundation has announced the finalists for the 38th Annual Lambda Literary Awards (the Lammys ), celebrating the best lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender books. Categories, authors, and titles of genre interest include the following:
LGBTQ+...
Zando announced the launch of Evil Twin, a new imprint focusing on horror, from psychological twists to supernatural terror and bone-chilling gore, in February 2026.
According to Publishers Weekly, Nancy Trypuc, deputy director of marketing at Zando, will be the publishing...
Nancy Omondi is the recipient of this year's Working Class Writers Grant, presented by the Speculative Literature Foundation (SLF). The $1,000 grant is given annually to assist working class, blue-collar, poor, and homeless writers who have been historically underrepresented in speculative...
Writer and organizer M.R. Hilde Hildebrand, 80, died in her home in Glendale AZ on March 4, 2026, after entering home hospice care for rheumatoid arthritis in 2025.
Hildebrand was born in 1946. In the 1970s, she became an active member, organizer, and host in Phoenix AZ fandom, working to...
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) has released the finalists for the 2025 Nebula Awards.
Novel
- When We Were Real, Daryl Gregory (Saga)
- The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, Stephen Graham Jones (Saga; Titan UK)
- ...
MILESTONES
CURTIS C. CHEN is now represented by Sara Megibow of Megibow Literary Agency.
JOSUE OF PACHUCA is now represented by Arley Sorg of kt literary.
AWARDS
MARTHA WELLS was...
The Resistance/ Vector 302
As Heraclitus pointed out, you can’t step in the same river twice. The current is continually flowing, responding to the seasons and the weather, swirling into ever changing fractal patterns. While this is literally true, the power of the...
The Resistance/ Vector 302
As Heraclitus pointed out, you can’t step in the same river twice. The current is continually flowing, responding to the seasons and the weather, swirling into ever changing fractal patterns. While this is literally true, the power of the...
Short fiction writer and editor Lee Martindale died March 10, 2026 after a brief illness.
Martindale was born in 1949 and raised in rural Kentucky. She sold her first story, YearBride , in 1992 at the age of 43. Her stories have since appeared in many magazines and anthologies, including...
The REH Foundation has announced the nominees for the 2026 Robert E. Howard Awards, honoring work that is substantively devoted to the life and/or work of Robert E. Howard or that carries on the spirit and tradition of Robert E. Howard, to better recognize and celebrate his influence on future...
International Thriller Writers has announced the finalists for the 2026 Thriller Awards. Titles and authors of genre interest include:
Best Series Novel
- The Big Empty, Robert Crais (G.P. Putnam's Sons)
...
The Audio Publishers Association (APA) has announced the winners of the 2026 Audie Awards, recognizing distinction in audiobooks and spoken-word entertainment. Books and authors of genre interest among categories with winning titles of interest include:
Audiobook of the Year...
The Bookseller has announced the shortlists for the 2026 British Book Awards. Titles and authors of genre interest include:
Author of the Year
- Elif Shafak
- A.F. Steadman
Fiction
- Dream Count...
Bram Stoker, Shirley Jackson, and Locus Award-winner Stephen Graham Joneswill be joining us as a Guest of Honor at the Locus Awards Weekend on May 29-31, 2026, in Oakland, California! We're very happy to welcome him. Jones joins fellow Guests of Honor Nnedi Okorafor and Tananarive Due, as well...
The 16-title longlist has been announced for the 2026 Women's Prize for Fiction. Titles and authors of genre interest include:
- Paradiso 17, Hannah Lillith Assadi (Knopf US; 4th Estate UK)
- Audition, Katie Kitamura (Riverhead US; Fern UK)...
The shortlist for the 2025 British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) Awards has been announced.
BestNovel
- A Granite Silence, Nina Allan (Riverrun)
- Project Hanuman, Stewart Hotston (Angry Robot)
- When...
The results of the annual Clarkesworld readers' poll for best stories and cover art of 2025 have been announced in an editorial by Neil Clarke.
Best Short Story
- WINNER: Missing Helen , Tia Tashiro (7/25)
- In My Country , Thomas Ha...
From Upstream by Sophia Aki Kawamura of the University of Washington is the winner of the 2026 Must Read Books Award, previously the Dell Magazines Award,for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing.
The complete list of honors is:
- First Runner-up:...
The US Supreme Court has declined to hear the case of a Missouri computer scientist whose copyright application was rejected for a work of AI-generated art. The decision sets a precedent that works without human authors are ineligible for copyright registration, although it does not stop all...
The winners of the 2026 Fan Activity Achievement Awards (FAAns) were announced at Corflu 43, held February 27 - March 1, 2026 Santa Rosa CA.
Best Personal Zine
- This Here...
Best Genzine
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) has announced that writer Tananarive Due will be toastmaster at the 61st Annual Nebula Awards, to be held June 3-7, 2026 in Chicago IL.
SFWA Executive Director Isis Asare said, Due is an exceptional speaker – brilliantly...
World Fantasy, Bram Stoker, and Shirley Jackson Award-winner Tananarive Due will be joining us as a Guest of Honor at the Locus Awards Weekend on May 29-31, 2026, in Oakland, California! We're delighted to welcome her. Due joins fellow Guests of Honor Nnedi Okorafor and Stephen Graham Jones, as...
Yen Ooi: When I first came across Professor Roger Ames’s lecture on Zoetology, I felt a surge of relief alongside excitement, as finally, there was language to explain my “rationality” – the foundational thought-structure that I had grown up with. This applied easily...
Yen Ooi: When I first came across Professor Roger Ames’s lecture on Zoetology, I felt a surge of relief alongside excitement, as finally, there was language to explain my “rationality” – the foundational thought-structure that I had grown up with. This applied easily...
Dan Simmons, 77, award-winning author of 31 novels and short story collections, passed away on February 21, 2026 in Longmont, Colorado. Many of his books won honors ranging from the Hugo Award, science fiction's most prestigious award, to two World Fantasy Awards, three Bram Stoker Awards for...
TheBaltimore Science Fiction Society (BSFS) has announced the finalists for the 2026 Compton Crook Award:
- A Song of Legends Lost, M.H. Ayinde (Saga)
- Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory, Yaroslav Barsukov (Caezik SF & Fantasy)
- ...
Saraswati by Gurnaik Johal (Serpent's Tail) andThe Greatest Possible Good by Ben Brooks (Avid Reader) are among the four shortlisted titles announced for the Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year Award for work by British or Irish authors 18-35...
Winners in several categories of the 57th NAACP Image Awards, honoring outstanding work in various media by Black performers and creators, have been announced February 23-24, 2026 as part of a virtual pre-show.
Nnedi Okorafor's Death of the Author (Morrow) was announced...
Locus is pleased to announce that Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, Locus, Eisner and Lodestar Award-winner Nnedi Okorafor will be joining us as a Guest of Honor at the Locus Awards, May 30, 2026, in Berkeley, California, during the Bay Area Book Festival! We're very happy to welcome her and...
Finalists have been announced for the 2025 Prix Bob Morane, recognizing French-language works in the science fiction, fantasy, espionage, and thriller genres.
Romans traduit (Translated Novels)
- Les éléments [The Elements], John Boyne, tr....
The 2025 Aurealis Awards winners, recognizing the best in Australian speculative fiction, have been announced.
Best Science Fiction Novel
- WINNER: Wastelands, Samira Lloyd (Arianhrod)
- Letters to Our Robot Son...
