It's a day of very big feelings as I learned that I'm a finalist for the World Fantasy Special Award – Non-Professional for Nightmare Magazine on the same day I announced that this is my last year as EIC at Nightmare. www.nightmare-magazine.com/nonfiction/e...

Editorial: August 2026 - Nightmare Magazine

Gardens are pumping out the juiciest tomatoes, corn on the cob is at its peak, and every melon is bulging with sugar water. The days might be the hottest, but with fall on the horizon, the nights are ...

nightmare-magazine.com

HWA Response

"The stinkbug, the newborn cicada, spiderkind’s Magellan, all sunk into a concrete grave, smeared into memory"

The Deadlands@thedeadlands.com · yesterday

"This isn’t funny, the ant thinks as the foot comes down." TODAY, beloveds!! a new poem, just for you Do You Believe There are People Who, Noticing an Insect on the Sidewalk, Step Out of Their Way to Crush It Under Their Feet? by @andrewkozma.net read it here 💀 psychopomp.com/deadlands/is...

Small biz owner? Please sign: "concerned about Amazon's outsized control of our economy, negative impacts to communities, & harmful treatment of small businesses, I signed on to Small Business Rising's TAKE AMAZON TO TRIAL letter to the FTC & states." www.smallbusinessrising.net/amazon-lawsu...

Take Action — Small Business Rising

smallbusinessrising.net

I love it when a museum has an exhibit that's just a lil guy

What an amazing lineup! I can't believe Storyteller: A Tanith Lee Tribute Anthology is one of the finalists in the Best Anthology category! locusmag.com/2026/08/2026...

2026 World Fantasy Awards Finalists

The World Fantasy Awards ballot for works published in 2025 has been announced. The awards will be presented during the 2026 World Fantasy Convention, scheduled for October 22-25, 2026 in Oakland C…

locusmag.com

'You'll choke too' - an aerial embroidery landscape inspired by all the wildfires happening right now... I'm upset every time I smell smoke outside and somehow we have people starting them maliciously too! But we all breathe the same air so they'll choke too (1/2 - see thread for close-ups)

read the full piece here for free: rdcu.be/fxQn1 please. indulge the overthinking spiral. do it :D

Nature Futures@naturefutures.bsky.social · last wk.

This exhibition is like no other you have visited. It is an experience you cannot get anywhere else. It will show you things you’ve never seen. Teach you things you didn’t know you needed to know. It will literally change your mind. #scifi by @priyachand.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/d41...

There are no sure things. If your "ethical" LLM detector tells you a piece of writing is 100% AI-generated, that's some bullshit

priya chand@priyachand.bsky.social · yesterday

ok seriously also like...are you all looking at the accuracy stats these companies are reporting, because they are *wild* and 0 access is being given to the underlying datasets used to make their claims

I HAVE BEEN SUBSIDIZING WALMART AND AMAZON STARVING THEIR EMPLOYEES FOR MY ENTIRE LIFE.

USA TODAY Opinion@usatodayopinion.usatoday.com · 2d ago

Opinion: Mamdani's idea may sound appealing, but it's NYC taxpayers who will take the hit, subsidizing discounts they may never even use.

Looooot of people looking for a tech solution to a human problem here :)

CARTOON OF THE DAY (if you know who made this let us know)

Clarkesworld has recently discovered that their August issue successfully breached containment and gained access to the Internet, where it is presently hacking reader's minds. "Oh no, what will we do? Who knew that stories could be so powerful?" said Neil Clarke, when approached for comment.

Clarkesworld@clarkesworldmagazine.com · 4d ago

The August issue of Clarkesworld is now online and features stories by Ravn J. Silver, Eilis O’Neal, Jordan Alexander, D.A. Xiaolin Spires, E.N. Auslender, Y.M. Pang, and H.H. Pak. clarkesworldmagazine.com/issue_239 Subscribe today at: clarkesworldmagazine.com/subscribe/

Submissions close tomorrow! We’re looking for speculative fiction up to 5,000 words by immigrant and diaspora writers, as well as translations from any language into English. Submission guidelines can be found on our website. Share your work with us before the deadline!

I don’t know the name other oaks gave it because they have gone, so I called this 400 year old tree Grace, because it’s beautiful Grace is dying, so I regularly walk the 10 mile trip to spend time with her Not a word is spoken, but much is said

GOOD NEWS Y'ALL MI Supreme Court looked at the evidence and agreed, 6-1, as I think everyone should: that the MPSC Line 5 tunnel permit approval violates MI envrionmental law. Not done yet. Goes back to the MPSC, we keep going, bc our #GreatLakes are worth it. ♥️💧

Clean Water Action Michigan@cleanwatermi.bsky.social · 5d ago

BIG NEWS - Victory for the Tribes, environmental advocates, and our #GreatLakes today - the Michigan Supreme Court has vacated a key Line 5 oil tunnel permit in a 6-1 decision! Enbridge’s tunnel application now heads back to the MPSC. And we'll keep going until our Straits are safe. #ShutDownLine5

Idea for a writing workshop called "Writing Wrong," where you take a list of things writers shouldn't do and then read examples of writers doing those exact things from books you like.

last call to sign up for my writing magic class at @storystudiochicago.bsky.social! if you're into earth magic, portals, witches, unusual superpowers, and magical creatures, this class is for you. we'll meet online starting next Tuesday, August 4. see you there!

Writing Magic with Ruth Joffre - StoryStudio Chicago

This class is all about magic and how it can shape a story. We’ll explore various magical systems to understand how they work and what impact they can have in our writing.

storystudiochicago.org

Overheard at the Gen Con Writers Symposium: "If you write 'content,' AI can replace your writing. If you make art, AI can't replace you." -- @stormhumbert.bsky.social

I'm still working through this hypothetical, but if it comes down to buying a piece of writing or not based on whether the author can explain what they intended, I may fall on the side of not buying that piece of fiction

Thomas Ha@thomasha.bsky.social · 5d ago

i think people advising that authors are going to be ok because they can explain their creative choices better than a slopper are coming from a good place (and prob mostly right!). but boy do i hate the presumption that writers have to rationally talk through the minutiae of their creative choices.

Pivoting from "would dad approve" to "would a bug approve" makes landscaping a lot more enjoyable

The code for this was partially generated by Claude, which means a heightened risk of bugs. This is a brand new project, therefore it’s not widely used, therefore bugs are even more likely. I also wouldn’t use this until a third party audit exists

Effie Seiberg@effies.bsky.social · 6d ago

Fool AI scrapers with this poisoned font: www.theregister.com/ai-and-ml/20...

It tickles me immensely when Reckoning publishes a really short poem. I'm like "that author got paid $1.75 per word", and that makes me happy. Worth every penny

Catherine Rockwood@martin65.bsky.social · 5d ago

And today's poem at @reckoningmag.bsky.social, by Fatima E. -- "A rubāʿī for the rescued pangolin of Ravi flood." I love this one so. "a stranger’s hands became a shore: gathered him whole." reckoning.press/a-ruba%CA%BF...

I'll be there. With trepidation. Never been on Worldcon programming before! Among other things I have a short fiction chapbook coming out from @fabulistmag.bsky.social and I get to do a preorder launch event with @nmamatas.bsky.social and @brucemcallister.bsky.social

Los Angeles Worldcon@laworldcon.bsky.social · 6d ago

The moment we have all been waiting for is finally here: the full program for #LAconV is now live!

This is what "both sides" journalism has wrought. A complete inability for journalists to simply state clear and obvious facts that are supported by reams of research. This is not a debate. There are not two sides. Bike infrastructure and traffic calming make streets safer.

The War on Cars@thewaroncars.bsky.social · 6d ago

It's not just advocates who say this. Researchers, studies, and data say it. That's why advocates say it. Reporters can just say it, too!

I RTd this months ago and it's still fucken amazing 🔥

Kym Deyn@kymdeyn.bsky.social · 5mo ago

This is a sheer indulgence on my part, but it turns out I never actually shared the poem here, so: 🍃

Always love a good : "Dear Sir, I do hereby humbly submit for your perusal the following manuscript - complete at 9,768 words - 'OgRe fuCCbois! vs. Freddy vs. Predator on TiDdY Planet' for your perusal. I do await your response with bated breath."

There are a lot of brilliant turns of phrase here, but how about "The roses now are molting into thistles" and "What / wilderness can witness peace?"

Reckoning@reckoningmag.bsky.social · 6d ago

The very last poem from IT WAS PARADISE, our special issue on environmental justice in war and conflict edited by @soniasulaiman.bsky.social, is "Nature Knows A Little About Blooming" by Prosper C. Ìféányí. We always like to end on a high note: reckoning.press/nature-knows...

++BREAKING++ The UK and Spanish governments have issued a joint statement overnight: "[We] agreed that this summer’s wildfires demonstrated that climate change was now a national security emergency facing Europe and threatening our way of life." www.gov.uk/government/n...