K. ANCRUM is an author of speculative contemporary young-adult fiction. She is best known for the Lambda Award-winning Icarus and the National Book Award-nominated The Corruption of Hollis Brown. K. is a Chicago native who is passionate about reflective representation in young adult fiction and exploring the edges of what is possible within her chosen genre. She currently writes most of her work in the lush gardens of the …Read More
JUSTINE NORTON-KERTSON is an author from Oregon. Their pilot teleplay horror series, Red Flag, was a 2025 Outstanding Screenwriters Competition semi-finalist, and they’re a winner of the 2026 Cai Emmons Short Fiction Contest. Their work has appeared in Utopia Science Fiction Magazine, Rulerless, Jupiter Review, Sley House, and the anthologies Solarpunk Creatures and Of Dread, Decay, and Doom. They’ve also edited anthologies including Bioluminescent: A Lunarpunk Anthology, and 2022 …Read More
TANANARIVE DUE was born in Tallahassee FL, daughter of civil rights lawyer John D. Due, Jr. and leading civil rights activist Patricia Stephens Due. She grew up in Miami and attended Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism before getting her MA in English from Leeds University, where she studied Nigerian literature. She worked as a journalist for the Miami Herald after college, wrote full-time for 15 years, and then …Read More
Louis Evans, Teel James Glenn, Alex Shvartsman, and Catherine Stine read at Barrow’s Intense Tasting Room in Industry City, Brooklyn NY on August 18, 2026 as part of the Brooklyn Books & Booze Reading series, hosted by Randee Dawn.
ELLEN DATLOW has been editing SF/F/H short fiction for more than four decades. She currently acquires short stories and novellas for Reactor, Tordotcom, and Nightfire. She’s edited about 100 anthologies, including The Best Horror of the Year annual series, and most recently the Shirley Jackson Award-winning Night and Day. Forthcoming are All Hallows Eve and Lovecraft’s Brood. She’s won multiple awards and was named recipient of the 2007 Karl …Read More
MICAIAH JOHNSON is a Sunday Times bestselling author. Her novels have been named best of the year by New York Times, best of the decade by NPR, and best of the 21st century by Book Riot.
What’s the perfect horror book you would give your younger self?
It’s such an obvious option, but I would have killed to read The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones when I …Read More
CHARLES R. COOKE is an author based in North Shore, Texas, where heat, industry, and proximity to questionable decisions tend to sharpen perspective. He writes character-driven crime fiction that lives between violence and restraint, loyalty and self-preservation, and the small moments people insist do not matter until everything depends on them.
Cooke has spent decades thinking about these characters. Not casually. Deliberately. The kind that follows you through notebooks, …Read More
STEPHEN EDWIN KING was born September 21, 1947 in Portland ME and raised by his mother in Maine, Indiana, and Connecticut. He attended Lisbon Falls High School and then the University of Maine at Orono, where he wrote for the school newspaper and graduated with a bachelor’s in English. He taught high school English at Hampden Academy in Maine while writing in his spare time, and later taught creative …Read More
CASSANDRA KHAW is the USA Today bestselling and Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Library at Hellebore, Nothing But Blackened Teeth, The Salt Grows Heavy, Breakable Things, and coauthor of The Dead Take the A Train with Richard Kadrey. They are an award-winning game writer.
I blame this essay on the trailer for the Wicker, which if you don’t know, is about a middle-aged woman who gets a basketmaker …Read More
TITHI LUADTHONG, also known as Grandfailure, is a freelance illustrator and concept artist based in Thailand. His work focuses primarily on science fiction and fantasy, including book covers, publishing, board games, and other commercial illustration. His art often emphasizes vast environments, atmosphere, and visual storytelling through landscapes and imagined worlds. He is particularly drawn to scenes where small human figures are placed against enormous environments, creating a strong sense …Read More
DMITRI LINCOLN MEHLHORN is an attorney, entrepreneur, investor, and Democratic activist. He is known for his work on public policy, political strategy, philanthropy, and efforts to strengthen democratic institutions and has contributed commentary to publications including The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, and The New Republic.
Drawing on philosophers such as Karl Popper, Hannah Arendt, and Carl Sagan, Dmitri also writes science fiction to stress-test the century ahead: the …Read More
Yoon Ha Lee: I’ve been meaning to read C.J. Cherryh’s Heavy Time and Hellburners for the very first time. I have copies but kept putting it off because reading Cherryh not only requires all my brain cells, but I want to be able to sink into Alliance-Union and life circumstances precluded it. My introduction to Cherryh was Exile’s Gate in 10th grade off an English teacher’s bookshelf – …Read More
JAMES ISLINGTON was born in 1981. He is the author of the Licanius Trilogy, beginning with the originally self-published fantasy novel The Shadow of What Was Lost (2014) and continuing with An Echo of Things to Come (2017) and The Light of All That Falls (2019), all collected in a 2026 omnibus. The Will of the Many (2023), first in the Hierarchy series, won an Aurealis Award and saw …Read More
Black Dingo (Flame Tree 10/26) by Eugen Bacon. Afro irrealism is a wonderfully odd and imaginative genre that eludes expectations and boundaries. I’m looking forward to Eugen Bacon’s curated vision in this collection. I expect it to be weird and unexpected in all the right ways!
–Maya C. James
I’m looking forward to Matt Hill’s new novel, Wrecks (Dead Ink 8/26). Hill’s last novel, …Read More
Chinelo Onwualu is a Nigerian writer, editor, and journalist living in Toronto. She teaches creative writing at the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies. She’s the co-host of Griots and Galaxies, a podcast about African Speculative fiction and the people who write it. She’s also co-founder of Omenana, a magazine of African Speculative Fiction. She was chief spokesperson for the African Speculative Fiction Society. And she was a …Read More
Asimov’s editor Sheila Williams’ journey back from her serious health issues continues slowly apace. As Medicare will no longer cover her rehab, her daughters have launched a GoFundMe to help support their parents’ move into a longer-term care facility. As editor of Asimov’s, Sheila has long understood that editing a science fiction magazine is not simply a matter of finding good stories, but of finding writers, and sometimes, helping them …Read More
GARTH NIX was born July 19, 1963 in Melbourne, Australia and grew up in Canberra. He joined the Army Reserve at 17 and served as a part-time soldier for five years. At 19, he began writing, and sold first story Sam, Cars and the Cuckoo (1983) within the year. He attended the Canberra College of Advanced Education (now the University of Canberra) and received a BA in professional writing …Read More
Tricia Narwani is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Del Rey Books. She has worked with authors including Pierce Brown, Wesley Chu, Saara El-Arifi, Heather Fawcett, Kevin Hearne, Bryan Lee O’Malley, Josh Malerman, China Miéville, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Ava Reid, Chuck Wendig, Kiersten White, and Heather Walter. She lives in Brooklyn with a very large collection of vinyl records and one very small cat.
What makes a book a Fall Book …Read More
With overflowing warrens of books festooned with decorations and copious spreads of cake and charcuterie, Dark Carnival held its 50th anniversary celebration on August 1, 2026. The event drew genre aficionados both new and old to congratulate its longtime proprietor, Jack Rems, on a half-century of independent business. Since 1976, Dark Carnival, the second-oldest genre bookstore in the US, has accumulated an incomparable selection of science fiction, fantasy, horror, …Read More
It’s one thing to be anti-AI in the sense of believing that AI-generated slop, disinformation and deepfakes are bad; that AI companies that hope to con your boss into firing you and replacing you with AI that can’t do your job are bad; that betting the economy on AI is bad; that betting the human-habitable planet Earth on AI is bad; that running roughshod over local environmental rules and seizing …Read More
Claire North: If I’ve got two weeks without a care in the world, then as I luxuriate upon a lounger in a floppy straw hat, listening to the wind through the trees, you bet I’ve got a pile of books to get through. Near the top, I’d love to tick off Gardens of the Sun by Paul McAuley, ‘cos it’s been on my TBR forever and he’s a stand-out British …Read More
Gen Con Writers Symposium was held July 30 – August 2, 2026 at the Indianapolis Marriott Downtown as part of the massive Gen Con gaming convention. Steven Barnes & Tananarive Due were special guests, with Justina Ireland and Kwame Mbalia as featured guests. Organized by Maurice Broaddus, along with project manager Olivia Sailor, head of operations Matt Jarchow, head of communications Gini Koch, and others, the event saw approximately …Read More
CLARION
The Clarion workshopran from June 28-August 8, 2026 in La Jolla CA. Their 2026 faculty included Sarah Pinsker, Grady Hendrix, Erin Roberts, Abbey Mei Otis, Andy Duncan, Elizabeth Hand, and Jac Jemc (faculty director).
ALPHA WORKSHOP FOR YOUNG WRITERS
The 2026Alpha Workshop for Young Writersran from July 15-26, 2026 at the University of Pittsburgh in Greenburg PA. Their lecturers were Mark Oshiro, Max Gladstone, Ayana Gray, and Scott H. …Read More
Richmond-Upon-Thames is a charming borough of South West London, famous for its riverside and the mixture of artists and rock stars it routinely attracts. These days, it is familiar to many Americans from the Apple TV show Ted Lasso, who will be delighted to know it is just as charming and quirky as it appears on screen.
It therefore seemed like a good idea to hold a miniconvention there. …Read More
German fans organised a terrifically thoughtful Eurocon / MetropolCon in Berlin, that had a fabulous atmosphere, a very strong professional attendance, and attracted 960 members, under the motto Everything is running smoothly.
The venue Silent Green is a repurposed crematorium in Wedding, one stop from Berlin Hauptbahnhof. The classic Kuppelhalle is a beautifully ornate space, while the majority of rooms are predominantly modern and underground. Relaxation also occurred …Read More
The Sycamore Hill Writers Conference was held at the Wildacres Retreat on June 13-19, 2026.
#noinsta …Read More
Readercon 35 was held July 9-12, 2026 in Burlington MA at the Boston Marriott Burlington. Guests of honor were authors P. Djèlí Clark and David Gerrold; Mike Resnick was the memorial guest of honor. Readercon 35 had a total of 711 member registrations, 667 printed badges, and 608 warm bodies on Sunday, compared to 2025’s 653 registrations and peak count of 610 warm bodies. The focus of Readercon is …Read More
ANAND GANDHI is a defining voice in contemporary Indian cinema. His philosophical triptych Ship of Theseus and mythological horror Tumbbad are among the most celebrated films of their generation. His work has won honors at the international film festivals of Toronto, Venice, Transylvania, Tokyo, and Hong Kong.
ZAIN MEMON is an acclaimed game designer. His bestselling board games SHASN and AZADI are played in over 70 countries. His work …Read More
JAMES PATRICK KELLY was born April 11, 1951 in Mineola NY. He earned a BA in English Literature at the University of Notre Dame in 1972 and attended the Clarion Writers’ Workshop in 1974 and ’76. He began writing full time in 1977. In 2005 he joined the Stonecoast Creative Writing MFA program as an adjunct, where he taught for 15 years. He writes a column in Asimov’s Science …Read More
Victor Manibo and Sam Rebelein read at the KGB Bar in New York NY on July 8, 2026 as part of the Fantastic Fiction at KGB Reading series, hosted by Ellen Datlow and Matthew Kressel. …Read More
Westercon 78/BayCon 42 was held July 3-6, 2026 in person at the Santa Clara Marriott in Santa Clara CA. Charlie Jane Anders, Annalee Newitz, Jenay the Kitchen Witch, and Desmond Crisis were guests of honor; Kevin Roche was featured guest (science); and Sumiko Saulson was poet-in-residence. The theme for the 42nd anniversary was The Answer , in homage to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Programming included an array …Read More
CHLOE GONG was born December 16, 1998 in Shanghai, China. Her family immigrated to New Zealand when she was two years old and she now lives in New York City. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2021 with a double major in English and international relations. In 2020, she published her debut novel These Violent Delights. She went on to write sequel Our Violent Ends, Foul Lady …Read More
