I feel like critical discourses now are way too focused on being "right" rather than being an interesting or well-argued engagement with the art.

Great Man theory of history is on pretty shaky evidential grounds, but Load-Bearing Asshole theory is undefeated.

The obvious conclusion to this entire discourse is that everyone should read Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera .

With miracles happening, what are the chances of Adam Roberts getting on the next Clarke shortlist?

This is the odd thing, too: Tor is routinely publishing stuff that feels lit-award worthy. (Will die salty about Notes From A Regicide). Locus, SF's biggest/most professional venue, routinely covers works in translation, SF from literary imprints, etc. But then the Hugo lists...are what they are.

Abigail Nussbaum@abigailnussbaum.bsky.social · yesterday

The fact is that experimental, formally inventive SFF is rarely published by the dedicated imprints these days, and when it is - Rakesfall, for example, or Goliath - it is utterly ignored by the main awards in the field.

The Clarke has given Whiteley some love, but arguably not enough. I've been particularly disappointed by the muted reception for The Misheard World.

I'm the Aliya Whiteley fan in the corner, sobbing while one of the absolute best writers working in the very broadly defined intersection of SFF & litfic is roundly ignored by both SFF awards and mainstream publishing.

The fact is that experimental, formally inventive SFF is rarely published by the dedicated imprints these days, and when it is - Rakesfall, for example, or Goliath - it is utterly ignored by the main awards in the field.

I see people debating whether M. John Harrison is a genre guy or a literary guy, and it's like, he is one of the main New Wave guys! New Wave was a short lived movement in the 60s and early 70s where they decided SFF could be good instead of bad.

Kuzhali Manickavel's A COMPENDIUM OF SUPERNATURAL ENTITIES FOUND IN THE GOVERNMENT GIRLS HIGHER SECONDARY SCHOOL. Brought to my mind DANDADAN & UZAMAKI; it's a gloriously singular, funny, frightening, sad portrait of growing up poor & a woman in India (Tamil Nadu).

A Compendium of Supernatural Entities Found in the Government Girls Higher Secondary School - Angry Robot

In the oppressive heat of a small Tamil Nadu town, strange happenings are common. And the local government secondary school is teeming with supernatural entities. For Thamarai, an outsider considered ...

angryrobotbooks.com

Jared Pechaček@vandroidhelsing.bsky.social · 2d ago

okay if self-promotion is detestable, promoting the work of others is not: tell us about a book you want people to read! provide a link if possible! let’s pass some love around

are you curious about the fiction of Booker winner M. John Harrison? do you want, potentially, the least accessible place to start? the opposite of an explainer?well i did that already for Big Echo, years ago www.bigecho.org/m-john-harri...

Here's PARIETAL GAMES: CRITICAL WRITINGS BY AND ON M. JOHN HARRISON

My god, we’ve entered Jonathan Lethem’s utopia

Lincoln Michel@thelincoln.bsky.social · 3d ago

👍 www.nytimes.com/2026/11/09/b...

palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy there’s vomit on his sweater already m. john’s iGhetti

So M. John Harrison has won the Booker for a work of weird fiction and now you're scrambling to read more about what weird fiction is, or does, or was, or whatever? Do I have some essays for you:

Did we mention that our edition of Harrison's extraordinary novel CLIMBERS is due in July?

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 3d ago

M John Harrison becomes first science fiction author to win the Booker prize

Between this and Kraus getting the Pulitzer, good evidence for my theory the most important trend in literature of last 25 years wasn't autofiction or the like but "genre-bending" fiction and the decline of the literary / SFFH barrier.

Lincoln Michel@thelincoln.bsky.social · 3d ago

👍 www.nytimes.com/2026/11/09/b...

Absolutely delighted that MJH has won the Booker, think it is absolutely deserved. Also delightful that there must be a part of him that is furious that life has turned out to have a clear and comprehensible narrative arc.

More people should be reading this collection; it was excellent.

Michael Swanwick@michaelswanwick.bsky.social · 3d ago

Over on Strange Horizons, Stephen Case gave my most recent colllection, The Universe Box, a rave review. I will not pretend this doesn't fill me with joy. strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...

pals, I am actively working on the 2027 edition of the horror new release list - do me a favor and tell me about your horror/horror-adjacent books coming next year? forms.gle/BBYwJCtziLkR...

2026/2027 Horror Master List Book Submissions

Because I'm out of my mind, I maintain a running list of the year's new horror releases. If you're an author/editor/marketer/publicist/agent who'd like one of your books included, please fill out the ...

forms.gle

Michael Kelly is an exemplary literary citizen, Weird Horror was such a wonderful and strange and exciting magazine. I'm sad to see it go—but wait, what's that I see, poking up from the dirt where it stood? Is that... a pale gray idol, ineffable and strange? palegreyidol.ca

Pale Grey Idol

Weird tales from the best contemporary writers

palegreyidol.ca

Undertow Publications 🇨🇦@undertow.bsky.social · 5d ago

Hello Friends, I'm saddened to say that Weird Horror magazine has published its last issue. It simply isn't cost-effective any more. Issue 13, published in August, is the last issue. Consequently the Weird Horror website will cease to exist early in 2027.

This is so sad - there's been some great stuff in Weird Horror. I'd recommend Feldman's "Cosmic Passage," Moté's "Moksha," Vaindal's "Kettleman," Rickert's "Dead Mermaids," and Ennes "Our Best Selves," to start. Go read them while you can!

Undertow Publications 🇨🇦@undertow.bsky.social · 5d ago

Hello Friends, I'm saddened to say that Weird Horror magazine has published its last issue. It simply isn't cost-effective any more. Issue 13, published in August, is the last issue. Consequently the Weird Horror website will cease to exist early in 2027.

Nothing like the first copies you pull from the printer's boxes. Best Science Fiction of the Year: 2025 has arrived! Author copies are going out first and then I'll start on the signed copies for the people who ordered from Wyrm Publishing. shop.wyrmpublishing.com/b/bsfoty2025...

They're betting on AI. We're betting on the recurrence of people posing for photographs with exquisite, heritage sheep.

In 2019 I was at a workshop with Kelly Link, where I mentioned I'd never tried my hand at fairy tale retellings. We talked. Fast forward 7 years and... www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/775757...

A Dark and Narrow House by Usman T. Malik: 9798217043910 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

"Some writers go a step past, into the darkness, but that step past is just a starting point for Usman T. Malik . . . Follow his voice. If you dare." —Stephen Graham Jones, bestselling author of...

penguinrandomhouse.com

David M. Perry@lollardfish.bsky.social · 7d ago

You should welcome all the new people to Bluesky by TELLING US ALL ABOUT YOUR BOOK AND DONT FORGET A LINK SO WE CAN BUY IT. Bluesky, the app for books.

this book is so good it's the epic fantasy everyone yells about wanting epic fantasy to be and i love it so much. more people need to read it so we can yell about how good this book is (and also tell people who scream EPIC FANTASY IS-- SHUSH READ THE WEST PASSAGE)

Jared Pechaček@vandroidhelsing.bsky.social · last wk.

if I’m reading this quarter’s royalty statement correctly, The West Passage is ludicrously close to earning out like “if a couple hundred people bought a copy” numbers anyway the holidays are coming up. I merely mention

art is for everybody. ideas are for everybody. fund the libraries, fund the schools, fund the colleges, fund the museums, fund the national endowments, and fund some more

Matt Pearce@mattdpearce.com · last wk.

Now that Bluesky is the official social media app representing the popular will of the United States of America™️, what is our first cultural decree?

Ok *now* can we talk about climate?

Available now! My quote: "“Karen Lord’s brilliant novel of how war, and the past, can overtake us before we know it is a masterpiece of concision: powerful, tragic, compassionate, and wise.” www.akashicbooks.com/catalog/the-...

The Angel at the Gates

A man’s quest to resolve an inherited family trauma leads him to an enigmatic priory in a war-ravaged region, from which he’s not sure he will be able to flee Order on Bookshop Order on Barnes & N...

akashicbooks.com

Karen Lord@drkarenlord.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Just picked these up from the post office where, alas, they were thoroughly unboxed by staff, hence no vid. It’s such a cute, neat book! Feels good in the hand, and pleases the eye.

Coming next August from Tor, my new novel about a roadtrip across many worlds: Sunlit Uplands. Available for preorder now, and this is the beautiful cover