Akankshya Abismruta

As someone who uses multiverse as a coping mechanism, and ponders on her many selves (and their deaths) often, I am so glad to have read this book. @isabel.kim The woman that you are, the book that this is 🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾

I honestly have a separate list for all Gautam Bhatia recommendations at this point. Idk when I'll read them all, but definitely adding them to TBR. Subscribe to his newsletter folks!!!

Friends! I wrote my first novel! Please buy it! Out October 6th, 2026 Pre order here angryrobotbooks.my.canva.site/compendium-o... @angryrobotbooks.bsky.social

The Strange Horizons Fund Drive 2027 raised $27,407. That's the second most ever and it's enough for us to pay 9c/word for fiction in 2027! We thank everyone for donating, recognising our efforts and continuing to support the SFFH community. We're excited to publish for another year! 🎉

Real talk: We've met our "base goals" but that base number is one I made up that lets us still exist, because my initial number to maintain current operations was too high, and we weren't sure we'd get it in the current economic environment (we haven't. but we could if you gave us money now, maybe?)

As you read, play, watch, listen, and otherwise enjoy new #SpeculativeFiction this year, please recommend works for the Otherwise Award to consider! otherwiseaward.org/award/2026-o... #sff #awards

Thank you to @sarahgailey.bsky.social and The Stone Soup for giving me the space to write about the unique experiences of editing an anarchist SFF magazine -- and why we need your support! stone-soup.ghost.io/guest-featur...

Hot on the heels of its shortlisting for the @ursulakleguin.com Prize, here's Amritesh Mukherjee with a great, heartfelt piece on Mad Sisters of Esi. "Unlike traditional fantasy and sci-fi storytelling, with its tidy laws and ironclad rules, Mad Sisters thrives on chaos."

For those interested, this year's J.R.R. Tolkien Lecture on Fantasy Literature, given by Brandon Sanderson, is now available for viewing online. As are lectures from previous years. Seeing the genre through someone else's eyes is invariably thought-provoking, in my opinion. tolkienlecture.org

72-hour-update: At $12095, we are under $10K away from meeting our base goal, which will allow us to continue publishing in 2027 - and less than $500 away from hitting our next milestone, and unlocking a fantastic essay on worldbuilding! Support us here: www.backerkit.com/c/projects/s...

Amazing that SH is nearly halfway already. Thank you so much to all who’ve donated, can confirm it means a lot. 💜 In fact, another review has been unlocked: @notquitehydepark.bsky.social on @adamroberts.bsky.social’s Short History of Fantasy. Important review of important book. (It’s how we roll.)

Taking a careful look at a problematic fave—its pessimism, its style, its assumptions—@danhartland.bsky.social and @casella.bsky.social discuss John Brunner's 1968 novel STAND ON ZANZIBAR for the latest episode of A Meal of Thorns. Listen wherever you get your podcasts!

Why did we move our @strangehorizons.bsky.social annual fund drive at the last-minute? (1) BackerKit is cool; the cool people are there; come be cool with us (2) Kickstarter randomly started dicking us around. By randomly I mean with AI. They replaced their humans with AI, and the AI was bad.

Yep, yep, yep!

We have hit two of our funding milestones, so our special fund-drive issue is now live: Akanshaya Abismruta reviews Bora Chung’s Red Sword: strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no... And a poem by Marie Brennan: strangehorizons.com/wordpress/po... Our next milestone is close by!

It’s the annual Strange Horizons fund drive! Donate to keep an important mag going and to unlock our special issue. Reviews-wise, *already* unlocked is @akankshya.bsky.social on Bora Chung. Still to come: @notquitehydepark.bsky.social on @adamroberts.bsky.social and March-Russell on Spufford …

We hope you love what we do! Please donate to keep us publishing in 2027! We literally can't do it without you. You can read more about Strange Horizons' journey into the SFFH sphere over on our BackerKit page! And while you're there, don't forget to donate! www.backerkit.com/c/projects/s...

The Strange Horizons Annual Fund Drive to keep us publishing in 2027 is finally here! You can find the fund drive at the link ⬇️ www.backerkit.com/c/projects/s... Some changes have arrived this time around though. Read the thread to learn more.

Reviewers on Reviewing: @chloroformtea.bsky.social discusses positivity, negativity, and criticism with reviewers & bloggers @mollytempleton.com, @runalongwomble.bsky.social, @forestofglory.bsky.social, and @casella.bsky.social

Marie Ndiaye's The Witch lost out on the International Booker Prize last week, to Yáng Shuāng-zǐ's Taiwan Travelogue. Writing for us today, @akankshya.bsky.social has some thoughts on why: "[I]t alienates any reader seeking emotional and psychological depth." But amid frustration, there is matter.

📣 📣The Open Call for submissions to Vol 2 of Between Worlds: The IF Anthology of New Indian SFF is live. 📣📣 Details and submission link in the posts below! 👇🏼

Some of you may know that I curate a huge reading list if Palestinian fantasy, science fiction, and horror. It is not up to date… Please comment if you identify as Palestinian, or if you know of something that should be in the list! Please share for visibility. soniasulaiman.com/readpalestin...

Happy writing news: just signed a contract with Interzone Mag for my novelette, “The Five Languages of Grief,” an SF story at the intersection of imperialism and extraction. It will come out in a future Interzone issue, so watch this space! Couldn’t be happier for it to have found a home here.

If you can, please donate to help one of our regular contributors in this time of need.

A Daniel Hahn translation, must get my hands on it!

Read, read, read everything by Gautam Bhatia, and then some 🩵

Here’s @akankshya.bsky.social on Olga Ravn’s The Wax Child (trans. Martin Aitken for @ndbooks.bsky.social): “Ironically, in this reimagination of social horror, Ravn creatively makes space for (slapstick) comedy.” On witchcraft and society, for @strangehorizons.bsky.social:

The winner of the #2025IgnyteAwards for Outstanding Novel-Adult is THE SENTENCE by @gautambhatia88.bsky.social

Congratulations @soniasulaiman.bsky.social on winning the #2025IgnyteAwards in Outstanding Anthology/Collected Works for THYME TRAVELERS: AN ANTHOLOGY OF PALESTINIAN SPECULATIVE FICTION

On the publication day of the IF Anthology of New Indian SFF, I talk about the conceptualisation and creation of this anthology in the latest issue of the Words for Worlds newsletter: gautambhatia.substack.com/p/words-for-... As always, remember to subscribe if you’d like this fortnightly.

Sometimes I'll say it in what I call a "semi-permeable" space like an unrecorded panel or Instagram stories or a lecture, but for the most part, I find a way to say them. Isn't that what writers are supposed to do? Find a way to say things? If you can't do that, I don't know if you're a writer

It’sss pub day! MAD SISTERS OF ESI is now out in the US and Canada. To celebrate, Alap and I took a series of truly ridiculous photos at Brooklyn Bridge Park. My baby* is now in New York! (*Technically an ARC of my baby. The final is a beautiful, beautiful hardcover.)

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Your opening SH review of the week is of @soniasulaiman.bsky.social Locus finalist, Thyme Travellers. Here’s @akankshya.bsky.social on an anthology of Palestinian SF: “The question of what is Palestinian is beautifully tackled in this anthology … Speculative fiction is here a political act.”