ayida shonibar
@ayidashonibar.bsky.social
Writer of dark & wistful speculative fiction. Words in APEX, PSEUDOPOD, BAFFLING, FFO, SMALL WONDERS, SILK & SINEW (Bad Hand Books), NIGHT OF THE LIVING QUEERS (Wednesday Books), etc. Lambda Literary, McCormack, Otherwise. 🌈 she / they ayidashonibar.com
Modi has lost it. "The govt has responded by massively increasing the security presence in the capital. Around thirty thousand police and paramilitary personnel have been deployed, internet services have been disrupted, trains to Delhi have been cancelled, metro stations and roads have been closed."
On a chaotic Saturday in Delhi, the police reportedly detained more than 7,000 protesters demanding the resignation of CEC Gyanesh Kumar. Smaller protests were also held in Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru. Read all about it in our special newsletter. newsletter.scroll.in/post/2227001...
Thousands detained in Delhi, other cities, as police crack down on protesters
On a chaotic Saturday in Delhi, the police reportedly detained more than 7,000 protesters demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
newsletter.scroll.in
💚💚💚 So delighted, and a warm congratulations to all other winners and nominees. Thank you also to Alter Mag for commissioning a long-form essay on the history of Indian SF as the debut piece in their magazine. It’s available to read for free here: altermag.com/articles/the...
The Secret History of Indian Science Fiction.
Before Asimov, there was Rokeya.
altermag.com
The Ignyte Awards@theignyteawards.bsky.social · last wk.The #2026IgnyteAwards for Creative Nonfiction recognizes works related to the field of speculative fiction. Congratulations to @gautambhatia88.bsky.social and THE SECRET HISTORY OF INDIAN SCIENCE FICTION
IT’S HERE! And YOU’RE GONNA LOVE IT. (If you love sapphic vampires and eldritch whales and ravenous wolves and strange miracles and heartbreak and hunger and desire and duty and devotion—) In all seriousness: thank you to our authors and our readers for being one of the best parts of my life 🧡
OTHERSIDE@othersidespec.bsky.social · 2w agoISSUE 3 IS HERE! And completely free to read! We're SO excited for you to read this issue 🧡 It's bleak and beautiful and heartbreaking... and, as always, spectacularly queer. Give it a read, tell a friend, help us spread the word! Read it here: othersidespec.com/issues/issue-3/
this was so gorgeously told and SUCH a good read/listen during work!! very topical and had a delightful weirdness to it 🙂↕️
ayida shonibar@ayidashonibar.bsky.social · 2w agoWhat a gorgeous, eerie narration by @shwetaadhyam.bsky.social!! ✨️ I'm incredibly grateful to PseudoPod, @tenebrouspress.bsky.social, and @shortwavebooks.bsky.social / @aijiang.bsky.social / @christinogle.bsky.social for giving this Faustian story about student loans such wonderful homes. 🖤
This is a wonderful story for you to check out today!
PseudoPod 🎙️@pseudopod.org · 3w ago“Green flows from your imagination onto the page, bleeding viridescent liquid through the intermediary of your brush." An Inordinate Amount of Interest by Ayida Shonibar Narrator: Shweta Adhyam Host: Alasdair Stuart Audio: Graeme Dunlop C/W: exploitation, violence, reference to misgendering
We continue back to school season with a marvellously original take on the dangers of making deals with dangerous entities…
PseudoPod 🎙️@pseudopod.org · 3w ago“Green flows from your imagination onto the page, bleeding viridescent liquid through the intermediary of your brush." An Inordinate Amount of Interest by Ayida Shonibar Narrator: Shweta Adhyam Host: Alasdair Stuart Audio: Graeme Dunlop C/W: exploitation, violence, reference to misgendering
Very grateful to have my weird flash piece about the stories that make us who we are—literally, figuratively, physiologically—included in this month's issue of Small Wonders! This piece is close to my heart (🫀), and it means so much to me that both SW and @apexmag.bsky.social have given it space.
Small Wonders@smallwondersmag.com · 3w agoWe end this month with ayida shonibar's story about the threads of the past, how they can be weaved into personal stories of supremacy and conquest, and what happens when those threads fray.
Lovely story by @ayidashonibar.bsky.social in Small Wonders! smallwondersmag.com/piece/herita...
Heritage, or This Body of Folklore - Small Wonders
You’re woven together with threads that stretch back for centuries, fingers of your forefathers tugging and tweaking the shape of you into place.
smallwondersmag.com
Very grateful to have my weird flash piece about the stories that make us who we are—literally, figuratively, physiologically—included in this month's issue of Small Wonders! This piece is close to my heart (🫀), and it means so much to me that both SW and @apexmag.bsky.social have given it space.
Small Wonders@smallwondersmag.com · 3w agoWe end this month with ayida shonibar's story about the threads of the past, how they can be weaved into personal stories of supremacy and conquest, and what happens when those threads fray.
What a gorgeous, eerie narration by @shwetaadhyam.bsky.social!! ✨️ I'm incredibly grateful to PseudoPod, @tenebrouspress.bsky.social, and @shortwavebooks.bsky.social / @aijiang.bsky.social / @christinogle.bsky.social for giving this Faustian story about student loans such wonderful homes. 🖤
PseudoPod 🎙️@pseudopod.org · 3w ago“Green flows from your imagination onto the page, bleeding viridescent liquid through the intermediary of your brush." An Inordinate Amount of Interest by Ayida Shonibar Narrator: Shweta Adhyam Host: Alasdair Stuart Audio: Graeme Dunlop C/W: exploitation, violence, reference to misgendering
New micro story out with the incredible @fracturedlit.bsky.social: fracturedlit.com/i-should-lik... Thank you to @tommydeanwriter.bsky.social for the opportunity to share!
When I tell folks I work on a virtual convention, they get an image of like maybe 16 hours, spread out over two days. Perhaps two dozen speakers. All about writing. They don't get FoF. They don't understand 60 continuous hours of programming, 243 program items, 168 speakers, 8 program tracks.
Flights of Foundry@flightsoffoundry.bsky.social · 3w agoWe set prices to accomodate folks from all walks of life. The fact that we have a free-to-attend tier doesn't mean the event is at ALL free to put on, though, and even the $60 ticket is a steal considering all the content each year. Donations are life for us! flights-of-foundry.org/donate/
This story made me cry (complimentary)!!! It doesn't shy away from the painful, messy consequences of loneliness and hurt and understandable mistrust, and I so appreciated seeing that explicitly explored on the page. ❤️🩹
gwendolyn hicks@prioryruins.bsky.social · 3w agoi have a very gay novelette out in @thefuturefire.bsky.social 🌧️ a goatherd travels to the edge of the world as she knows it, searching for missing rain, but what she comes upon instead is a lonesome woman in a lighthouse. i hope you enjoy “A Word, and Its Keeping”: futurefire.net/2026.77/fict...
Looking forward to Flights of Foundry this weekend!! It's an online convention for all things speculative and one of my favourite events. ✨️ I'll be participating in a fungus panel, running a speculative fungal workshop, and moderating a panel on hope through creativity. 🍄🌱 Hope to see you there!
Dream Foundry@dreamfoundry.bsky.social · 4w agoCheck out the Flights of Foundry program! flights-of-foundry.o...
“The worst place ever I’ve been in my life.” That’s how Sakariye Abdi Mohamed described the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, where he and a handful of other Somali immigrants are being held by ICE. He and 11 other men were reportedly not told they were being taken to the notorious military base.
The Trump administration is imprisoning Somali immigrants in Gitmo
“Nobody tell us that we’re going to Guantanamo Bay.”
motherjones.com
seeing all these artists sacrifice money for what they believe in is really quite moving.
This is so fucking true. I NEVER thought I'd see people in my lifetime of all stripes wearing keffiyehs in public and risking their careers for Palestinian liberation. I couldn't imagine this. Ever. It's moving, it's beautiful, it's unbelievable. And yet it's real.
mady castigan✨ 🏳️⚧️@mady.cat · 4w agosolidarity is a beautiful thing to witness. ten years ago if you told a Palestinian that multiple artists would drop out of a career-changing tour in solidarity with their people against genocide, they would not believe you. never give up hope in any struggle for liberation, never stop fighting.
Looking forward to Flights of Foundry this weekend!! It's an online convention for all things speculative and one of my favourite events. ✨️ I'll be participating in a fungus panel, running a speculative fungal workshop, and moderating a panel on hope through creativity. 🍄🌱 Hope to see you there!
Dream Foundry@dreamfoundry.bsky.social · 4w agoCheck out the Flights of Foundry program! flights-of-foundry.o...
NEW SARA AND SIMO STORY IN @diabolicalplots.com!!! My first cowritten short story... grotesque chatter between a car and a cougar and roadkill. hazardous POVs. If you like your prose kaleidoscopic, you should read 🤑🤑 we did it @srinivassimo.bsky.social! www.diabolicalplots.com/dp-fiction-1...
DP FICTION #138B: “We Burst Across the Theoretical Gore” by Sara S. Messenger and Simo Srinivas – Diabolical Plots
diabolicalplots.com
Now finally free to read at @adventitiouswords.bsky.social! www.adventitious.net/stories/a-ga...
P.A. Cornell (She/Her)@cornellwriter.bsky.social · 3mo agoBtw this is the story I withdrew from Analog after 7 months of negotiations. Thrilled to finally see it published, as I’m so proud of this one. But why take my word for it? Take it from the man himself, while he was still trying to convince me to sign his contract (at least we agreed on one thing):
Back to our regularly scheduled resistance, we bring you I am My Art by Ayida Shonibar where love and art can topple empires. I think what I enjoyed about this piece, alongside the fantastic imagery is that love is the baseline here regardless of everything else. #resist
ayida shonibar@ayidashonibar.bsky.social · 2mo agoMy flash piece—on crafting the statues of colonisers and toppling them—is now free to read! I'm so honoured and delighted to have this story first published in the Luminescent Machinations anthology by @neonhemlock.bsky.social and now shared through Flash Fiction Online's iconic RESIST anthology!!
Less than $500 until QUIET HOURS is funded. I know that you want to get fucked up by Queer Community horror sooner rather than later, so consider backing the kickstarter if you haven’t www.kickstarter.com/projects/dav...
The Neon Hemlock Novella Series | Volume Seven
Novellas and a short story collection from “the apex of queer speculative fiction publishing” —Publishers Weekly
kickstarter.com
My heart has been with Black British academics all day. It's my friend's story to tell, but one of the most horrific stories I know about a Black doctorate's journey was over in the UK. The United States is its own "rough beast." But they, they're dealing with the beast's mother. My God.
The only conversation worth having is how Black people are overpoliced & over-punished & held to different standards in all aspects of life. That there is an outrage when Black people transgress that isn’t there when their non-Black counterparts do.
I’m not trying to hear about plagiarism from people who can’t get anything done without AI. You’re disqualified on this one. That plagiarism is bad is supposed to be a settled social belief. AI use muddies the whole thing.
Our Issue 3 TOC is HERE and it is AMAZING 🪐 🗡️ Seven pieces of original fiction, four poems, two reprints, and a special guest essay come together in an issue full of desperation and longing. We can't wait for you to read it in September! More details in the 🧵(1/7)
