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.
MILESTONES
CHIARA BULLEN is now represented by Emily Barrett at the Blair Partnership. The Inn at the Foot of Mount Vengeance and another book sold to Anne Groell at Del Rey in a pre-empt via Jessica Mileo of Inkwell Management on behalf of The...
The inaugural The Muse Writers Conference was held Saturday, September 20 in person at the Sheraton Norfolk Waterside Hotel in Norfolk, Virginia. The one-day event had a capped attendance of one hundred attendees and sold out quickly. Guest speakers included authors Cassandra Rose Clarke...
Can*Con 2025 was held October 17-19 in person at the Brookstreet Hotel in Ottawa, Canada. Guests of honour were Kate Heartfield, Stephen Kotowych, and Premee Mohamed. A separate virtual Can*Con was held on April 12 with roughly one hundred attendees.
There were 500 in-person registered...
Adedapo Adeniyi (also goes by Dapo The Abstract) is a Nigerian artist working in literature, film and photography, music (DJ) as well as art curation and counterculture archiving. He expresses his art through abstract...
John Varley (78) died December 10, 2025 in his home in Beaverton OR. He had COPD and diabetes.
John Herbert Varley was born August 9, 1947 in Austin TX. He attended Michigan State University. His first novelette, Picnic on Nearside , released in 1974, establishing the Eight Worlds...
Literary Hub has published an annual list of noteworthy books published in 2025 by small presses, reviewed by a selection of 40 contributors. The list was conceived in 2024 to complementThe New York Times annual 100 Notable Books list, which featured approximately 11% small or...
Winners of the 2025 Deutsche Science Fiction Preis, presented by Science Fiction Club Deutschland (SFCD), have been announced.
Best German-Language SF Novel:
- WINNER: Das zweigeteilte All, Ralph Alexander Neumüller (p.machinery)
The Cercador Prize has announced Jazmina Barrera's The Queen of Swords, translated by Christina MacSweeney (Two Lines), as its 2025 winner. The $1000 prize recognizes works of literature in translation as selected by a committee of independent booksellers based across the United...
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) has declined to hear the appeal of the plaintiffs in Little v. Llano County, who sought to challenge the removal of 17 works from public libraries in Texas, with authors of genre interest including Lauren Myracle and Maurice Sendak.
...The winners of the African Speculative Fiction Society (ASFS) 2025 Nommo Awards, given to works by Africans as defined by the ASFS and Nommo Awards Guidelines, were announced at a the 2025 Aké Arts & Book Festival Welcome Ceremony in Lagos and livestreamed on YouTube on November 20,...
Winners of the 2025 Goodreads Choice Awards, voted on by users of the site, have been announced. Winners of genre interest include:
Romantasy: Onyx Storm, Rebecca Yarros (Red Tower) 298,565 votes
Fantasy: Bury Our Bones in the...
The second annual Future Creation Workshop in Chongqing, held October 13-22, featured many improvements over the first workshop. What remained the same was the gathering of aspiring writers from around China to pursue dreams of publishing their work in their home country and the West....
The 51st World Fantasy Convention, held in combination with British Fantasycon, was held October 30 - November 2, 2025 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Brighton Metropole in blustery Brighton UK. Guests of honor were author Suniti Namjoshi, artist Vincent Chong, and publishers Vivian Cheung...
The 2026 Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund (TAFF), which will fund travel for a North American fan to the 2026 Eurocon in Germany, is open for nominations until February 1, 2026, 23:59 Pacific North West time.
TAFF was created in 1953 for the purpose of providing funds to bring well-known and...
The Clarion Workshop in San Diego CA has announced the instructors for its 2026 session: Andy Duncan, Elizabeth Hand, Grady Hendrix, Sarah Pinsker, Abbey Mei Otis, and Erin Roberts.Jac Jemc is faculty director.
The workshop will be held June 28, 2026 – August 8, 2026 at UC San Diego....
The Odyssey Writing Workshop has announced its online classes for 2026.
Melissa Scott will teach Worldbuilding in Fantastic Fiction from March 5 - April 2, 2026.
Barbara A. Barnett will teach All the World's a Page: Adapting Acting Techniques to Strengthen Your Fiction from...
The LAcon V organizers have announced that Terese Mason Pierre will be a special guest for the 84th World Science Fiction Convention. Pierre is an acclaimed Canadian writer who has worked to platform members of equity-deserving communities, chief programming officer and an editor for Augur...
Playwright and screenwriter Tom Stoppard, 88, died November 29, 2025 in Dorset, England.
Stoppard was born as Tomáš Sträussler in Zlín, Czechoslovakia, now the Czech Republic, on July 3, 1937. His family fled the imminent Nazi occupation and his mother, Martha, married a major in the...
The LAcon V organization team has announced via email that the 2026 Hugo Awards will feature Best Poem as its additional category.
LAcon V chair Joyce Lloyd said,
Speculative poetry has a long and storied tradition. Arguably the first works of speculative fiction were epic poems...
Canadian SF writer Jean-Louis Trudel, 58, died November 17, 2025.
Trudel was born in Toronto, Ontario. He began publishing short fiction in French as early as 1984. He wrote several genre works in English, and more have been translated. His short fiction and poetry has appeared in...
The Sidewise Award for Alternate History has announced a change in the judging panel beginning with the reading list for 2025 and 2026.
Three judges will be added to the panel: Andrea Horbinski, Alana Phelan, and Arturo Serrano. Returning judges include Matt Mitrovich, Kurt Sidaway, and...
Clarion West has announced that the 2026 Summer Six-Week Workshop will run virtually from June 21-August 1, 2026. The instructors will be Tara Campbell, Indrapramit Das, David Thomas Moore, and Rebecca Roanhorse.
Tuition is $3,600, and full and partial tuition scholarships will be...
Winners have been announced for the Frank R. Paul Awards, honoring outstanding work in book and magazine cover art.
Best Book Cover
- WINNER: Maurizio Manzieri for The Year's Top Hard Science Fiction Stories 8 by Allan Kaster, ed. (Infinivox...
The judges for the 2026 World Fantasy Awards have been empaneled.
The judges will read and consider eligible materials from 2025 between now (November 24, 2025) and April 30, 2026. Any materials not received by all five judges and Peter Dennis Pautz after April 30 will receive little or...
Sean Markey, publisher of Psychopomp,The Deadlands, andFantasy Magazine, has announced that Psychopomp will no longer be publishing novellas or novelettes, nonfiction on Psychopomp is on hiatus, and Fantasy Magazine will go on hiatus after its December issue.
...
Winners for the National Book Awards (NBA) were announced at the 76th National Book Awards Ceremony on November 19, 2025. Genre authors and works in categories with winners of interest include:
Fiction
- WINNER: The True True Story of Raja the Gullible...
The American Library Association (ALA) has announced the shortlists for the 2026 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence for the best fiction and nonfiction books for adult readers published in the U.S. in the previous year with three fiction and three non-fiction titles.
Titles of genre...
TimeMagazine has released a list of 100 Must-Read Books of 2025. Works and authors of genre interest include:
- The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother), Rabih Alameddine (Grove)
- Book of Lives,...
On October 1, 2025 Simon & Schuster announced the launch of Scarlett Press, a New Adult imprint dedicated to commercial, fast-paced, romance-forward books in all genres, geared to readers 18 and above, and its inaugural list of titles scheduled for Spring 2026, all of which are of genre...
Barnes & Noble has announced the finalists for its 2025 Book of the Year. Titles and authors of genre interest include:
- Sunrise on the Reaping, Suzanne Collins (Scholastic)
- King of Ashes, S.A. Cosby (Flatiron)
- Katabasis...
The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) has named N.K. Jemisin the 42nd recipient of the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award.
SFWA President Kate Ristau said,
Jemisin is a celebrated speculative fiction author with multiple Hugo,...
MILESTONES
VAISHNAVI PATEL is now represented by Jordan Hill of New Leaf Literary & Media. Patel sold contemporary fantasy We Dance Upon Demons, following a burnt-out reproductive health care worker, to Sareena Kamath at Saga Press via...
For its 30th anniversary, Tachyon Publications hosted a celebratory party and reading, held Sunday, October 5, 2025 at the San Francisco Public Library in San Francisco CA. After light refreshments in the lobby, the Koret Auditorium opened at 3:00 p.m. for an SF in SF reading by Tachyon authors...
The StokerCon Governing Committee has announced the details of StokerCon 2026, or StokerCon 10. The convention will be held June 4-7, 2026 at The Westin Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh PA. Tickets can be purchased on Eventbrite. In-person admission is $300 and virtual is $75.
The six Guests of...
Writer and organizer Celeste Rita Baker, 67, died October 30, 2025.
Baker was a Virgin Islander born July 29, 1958. She moved between St. Thomas and the US several times. She published short stories in The Caribbean Writer, khōréō, Lightspeed, F&SF...
The winners of the 2025 Prix Utopiales and the 2025 Prix Utopiales Jeunesse have been announced. The prizes recognize work in the fantastic genres published or translated into French.
Prix Utopiales (Adult Literature)
- WINNER: La dernière tentation de...
We Live Here Now by C.D. Rose (Melville House) is the winner of The Goldsmiths Prize, created in 2013 by Goldsmiths College at the University of London.
Other shortlisted authors and titles of genre interest include Helm, Sarah Hall (Faber) and ...
The 2025 Galaxy Science Fiction Convention, recently branded as Galaxycon, took place in Chengdu from October 18-21, 2025, drawing China's SF community and an international presence for three days of events centered around the 40th annual Galaxy Awards. Galaxycon was held on the newly developed...
National Book Tokens have announced the winners of the 2025 Books Are My Bag Readers Awards. The awards aim to reflect the truly diverse tastes of real booklovers and the bookshops they love to visit across the UK and Ireland. Winners of genre interest follow.
Young Adult Fiction...
The Future Worlds Prize for Fantasy and Science Fiction Writers of Colour is open to submissions from unpublished writers of color based in the UK until March 1, 2026.
The winner will receive £4,500, one runner-up £2,500, and up to six shortlisted authors will each receive £850. All...
The British Fantasy Society (BFS) has announced the winners of the 2025 British Fantasy Awards:
Best Fantasy Novel (the Robert Holdstock Award)
- WINNER: Masquerade, O.O. Sangoyomi (Forge)
- Long Live Evil,...
The World Fantasy Awards winners for works published in 2024 were presented during the 2025 World Fantasy Convention, held October 30 - November 2, 2025 in Brighton, UK.
The Life Achievement Awards, presented annually to individuals who have demonstrated outstanding service to the fantasy...
by Philip A. Suggars
There’s a moment in the Wachowski’s seminal 1999 movie the Matrix where Keanu Reeves’s elegantly blank Neo sees the same black cat walk past a doorway twice. In the movie, such moments are signals that the nefarious Agents are about to emerge into Neo’s simulated...
The shortlist for the Waterstones Book of the Year 2025 has been announced. Titles and authors of genre interest include:
- Universality, Natasha Brown (Faber & Faber)
- Sunrise on the Reaping, Suzanne Collins (Scholastic)
- ...
John Clute, co-founder of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, has announced the release of a Substack site associated with the online database, which will host both short free-access posts and longer posts for subscribers. Posts on the site will include essays, news updates,...
The Canadian Children's Book Centre (CCBC) has announced the winners for the 2025 CCBC Book Awards, celebrating outstanding literary achievement with seven children's book awards. Awards of genre interest include:
Arlene Barlin Award for Science Fiction and Fantasy
...
Updated 11/3/25: Colette H. Fozard and The Development Center for Chengdu Worldcon, Inc. announced on November 2 that they will begin to reach out to 2023 Hugo Award winners to gather information to deliver trophies.
Updated 10/28/25: Fozard and DCFCW have shared...
Vector editors are supporting a workshop on applied SF at the University of Lagos as part of a larger collaboration with the African Speculative Fiction Society and Aké...
Seattle Worldcon 2025, the 83rd World Science Fiction Convention, received 1,962 valid ballots, down from 3,436 at Glasgow 2024. 1,338 nominating votes were cast electronically (another two sent by surface mail arrived too late to count); that's down from 1,720 in 2024.
The procedure for...
