The Ignyte Awards Committee has announced the winners of the 2024 Ignyte Awards, which “seek to celebrate the vibrancy and diversity of the current and future landscapes of science fiction, fantasy, and horror by recognizing incredible feats in storytelling and outstanding efforts toward inclusivity of the genre.”
Outstanding Novel: Adult
WINNER: The Saint of Bright Doors, Vajra Chandrasekera (Tordotcom)
Ledia Xhoga, Keith R.A. DeCandido, Katherine Silva, Catherynne M. Valente read at the Barrow’s Intense Tasting Room in Industry City, Brooklyn NY on October 15, 2024 as part of the Brooklyn Books & Booze Reading series, hosted by Randee Dawn.
While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time or recurring donation. We rely on reader donations to keep the magazine and site going, and ...Read More
Read moreIn September 2024, Lavie Tidhar and Jared Shurin launched a free new weekly newsletter called Shelfies. Each week they feature a photo of a bookshelf from an author, artist, collector, or book lover, along with a brief essay “discussing some of their most treasured or interesting books.” Contributors so far include Jeffrey Alan Love, Cheryl S. Ntumy, George E. Osborn, Kieron Smith, and Kaaron Warren. For more, or to sign ...Read More
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Les Sentiers de recouvrance by Émilie Querbalec (Albin Michel Imaginaire) won the 2024 Prix Julia Verlanger.
The award is presented by the Foundation de France, and is awarded to “a science fiction work of adventure, fantasy or fantastique.” The award was created by Jean-Pierre Verlanger in memory of his wife, who wrote under the pseudonym Gilles Thomas.
The award was announced on November 3, 2024, during the Nantes Utopiales Festival. ...Read More
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The six-title shortlist for the 2024 Booker Prize has been announced, with works of genre interest including James by Percival Everett (Mantle) and Orbital by Samantha Harvey (Jonathan Cape)
The £50,000 prize is “open to works by writers of any nationality, written in English and published in the UK or Ireland.” This year’s judges are Sara Collins, Justine Jordan, Yiyun Li, Nitin Sawhney, and chair Edmund de Waal.
Shortlisted authors
Publishers Weekly has announced its list of the best books of 2024, divided into 13 categories.
The Book of Love by Kelly Link (Random House) and James by Percival Everett (Doubleday) were on the overall Top 10 list.
The best books in the SF/Fantasy/Horror category are:
Author Phil Rickman, 74, died October 29, 2024. Rickman was a journalist and a prolific author of crime and supernatural fiction, best known for the Merrily Watkins mystery series, adapted into a TV series in 2015.
Philip Rickman was born in Lancashire and lived in Wales. He was a reporter for Wales Today in the 1980s, and worked in radio broadcasting for over two decades, hosting literature show Phil the ...Read More
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Artist Greg Hildebrandt, 85, died October 31, 2024.
He frequently collaborated with his identical twin brother Tim (1939-2006) as “The Brothers Hildebrandt,” achieving fame for their illustrations of works by J.R.R. Tolkien, frequently featured in calendars. They also illustrated a 1975 edition of Tolkien’s Smith of Wootton Major and Farmer Giles of Ham.
Gregory J. Hildebrandt was born January 23, 1939 in Detroit MI. Both Hildebrandts joined the Army ...Read More
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The 13 finalists for the Barnes and Noble Book of the Year 2024 have been announced, and include historical novel The Women by Kristin Hannah (St. Martin’s), who sometimes writes fantasy; Huckleberry Finn reimagining James by Percival Everett (Knopf), who also writes SF; and fantasy novel Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell (Random House Children’s Books).
Shortlisted titles are nominated by Barnes and Noble booksellers. The winner will be announced on ...Read More
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The Saltire Society announced the 2024 Scotland’s National Book Award shortlist during a livestreamed event in Edinburgh’s Old Town on October 30, 2024. Titles of genre interest follow.
Fiction Book of the Year
Fiction Book First Book of the Year
For more information, including the full shortlists, see the Saltire Society’s
Reactor compiled a list of “The Most Iconic Speculative Fiction Books of the 21st Century” in various categories.
Works in Translation
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) has announced the results of its special election.
President: Kate Ristau
Secretary: Steven D. Brewer
The newly elected officers and directors-at-large will serve on the SFWA Board from November 1st, 2024, through June 30th, 2025.
Kate Ristau – President Anthony Eichenlaub – Vice President Jonathan Brazee – CFO Steven D. Brewer – Secretary Christine Taylor-Butler – Director-at-Large Phoebe Barton – Director-at-Large Noah ...Read More
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Actor and literacy advocate LeVar Burton was one of 19 recipients of the National Humanities Medals. The 2022 and 2023 medals were presented by President Biden on Monday, October 21, 2024, in a private ceremony at the White House.
The recipients include writers, historians, educators, and filmmakers. Presentation of the medals was followed by a reception “with remarks by President Biden, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, National Endowment for the ...Read More
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Diana Pho has been promoted to editorial director at Erewhon Books. Pho posted on social media,
Marking my upcoming 2-year anniversary at the company, I’m so, so thrilled to announce that I have been promoted…. Grateful to have the support from the Erewhon and Kensington Publishing teams as we level up!
Pho joined the company as executive editor in 2022. This promotion follows the departure of publisher Sarah Guan earlier ...Read More
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Updated 10/29/24 to add ASFS statement and 10/31/24 to add Ekpeki statement.
Multiple allegations of unethical and unprofessional behavior on the part of Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki have recently come to light, including in this report by author and editor Erin Cairns, and through comments by other industry professionals on social media. From Erin Cairns’ report: “I am reporting Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki for unethical practices. He submitted a story entirely written ...Read More
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Carlos Hernandez, Edward Zuckerman, Rob Cameron, A.C. Wise read at the Barrow’s Intense Tasting Room in Industry City, Brooklyn NY on September 17, 2024 as part of the Brooklyn Books & Booze Reading series, hosted by Randee Dawn.
While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time or recurring donation. We rely on reader donations to keep the magazine and site going, and would like ...Read More
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Winners for the 2024 Geffen Awards for best science fiction and fantasy published in Hebrew were announced by the Israeli Society for Science Fiction and Fantasy at Icon, held October 20-22, 2024 in Tel Aviv Israel.
Best Translated Fantasy Book
Best Translated Science Fiction Book
Light Bringer Project and Omega Sci-Fi have announced that the Roswell and New Suns Climate Fiction awards are on indefinite hiatus.
Omega Sci-Fi is celebrating their 10th anniversary this year, and will continue their two youth competitions, The Tomorrow Prize and The Green Feather Award. Submissions for both awards are open through February 14, 2025.
This year’s competition will come to a close during the Celebrity Readings and Honors event ...Read More
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Finalists for the 2023 Kitschies, awarded for “the year’s most progressive, intelligent and entertaining fiction that contains elements of the speculative or fantastic,” have been announced.
The directors of the award have announced that this, their 15th year, will “be the final year of the prize, citing the increased time-commitment required both of the prize’s administrators and its judges. They note, however, that this year’s diverse lists make the perfect ...Read More
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It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over by Anne de Marcken (New Directions) is the winner of the third Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction, which includes a $25,000 cash prize, given “to a writer for a single work of imaginative fiction” and presented by the Ursula K. Le Guin Literary Trust.
The judges called the book
a work of quietly detonative imagination. Written in the guise of a ...Read More
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The winner for the Endeavour Award was announced at OryCon 44, held October 18-20, 2024, in Portland OR.
The prize recognizes “a distinguished science fiction or fantasy book written by a Pacific Northwest author
The World Fantasy Awards winners for works published in 2023 were presented during the 2024 World Fantasy Convention, held October 17-20, 2024 in Niagara Falls NY.
The Life Achievement Awards, presented annually to individuals who have demonstrated outstanding service to the fantasy field, went to Ginjer Buchanan and Jo Fletcher.
The World Fantasy Awards winners are:
Best Novel
A museum dedicated to science fiction author Cixin Liu has opened in Yangquan, China. Ceremonies were held on October 13, 2024, as part of Yangquan’s second annual Liu Cixin Hometown Science Fiction Culture Week.
Liu, author of The Three-Body Problem, The Wandering Earth, and other influential works, took to the stage with local officials. In his commemorative speech (reported here), he said, “I hope that science fiction can bring ...Read More
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The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) sent a message to members on October 15, 2024, announcing that Russell Davis is being brought in for “a transitional leadership position.” Interim President Anthony W. Eichenlaub said
Recent resignations prove to us how much we’ve come to depend on our staff while also highlighting flaws in the structure of our organization. SFWA must change as it rebuilds… [Davis] knows SFWA well, ...Read More
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Seattle Worldcon 2025 has announced a short story writing contest with separate categories for adult and young adult writers.
The winners in each category will be recognized at the convention, receive free memberships to the convention, and have their stories published in an upcoming anthology by Grim Oak Press. Stories must draw inspiration from our Worldcon theme: Building Yesterday’s Future – For Everyone.
The theme “was selected to invoke nostalgia
VIDA CRUZ-BORJA is now represented by Stevie Finegan of Zeno Agency Ltd.
SCOTT WESTERFELD & JUSTINE LARBALESTIER sold adult novel The Mortons – “The Secret History meets The Sopranos meets Saltburn,” – and a second book to Jeramie Orton at Pamela Dorman Books at auction via Jill Grinberg of Jill Grinberg Literary Management. UK rights sold to Rosa Schierenberg at Viking UK in a ...Read More
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The winners of the 2024 Prix Utopiales and the 2024 Prix Utopiales Jeunesse have been announced. The prizes recognize work in the fantastic genres published or translated into French.
Prix Utopiales (Adult Literature)
The Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association has announced the winners of its annual prize for poetry. Poems were judged in three categories, listed below.
Dwarf Category (10 or fewer lines):
Strange Horizons has announced the launch of a year-long podcast series, SH@25, in celebration of their 25th anniversary.
SH@25 will feature “interviews with authors, artists, poets, and former staff of Strange Horizons, charting the magazine’s 25 year trajectory from being founded in September 2000 to winning a Hugo in August 2024, as well as looking ahead at its future.” The project will be led by podcast editor Kat Kourbeti and ...Read More
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The British Fantasy Society (BFS) has announced the winners of the 2024 British Fantasy Awards.
Best Fantasy Novel (the Robert Holdstock Award)
Best Horror Novel (the August Derleth
Longtime Barnes & Noble head LEONARD RIGGIO, 83, died August 27, 2024 in Manhattan. He had Alzheimer’s.
Leonard Stephen Riggio was born February 28, 1941 in New York, and attended Brooklyn Technical High School. After graduating in 1958, he took night classes at NYU for a while before dropping out. He founded a small bookshop, the Student Book Exchange, in 1965. In 1971, he purchased New York bookshop Barnes ...Read More
Read moreWriter and publishing professional Zoe Kaplan, 28, died October 9, 2024 of complications from diabetes.
Kaplan began publishing short fiction of genre interest with “Pink Marble” in 2021, and published several other stories in magazines and anthologies. She also worked in publishing, spending time at Tor before joining Simon & Schuster in 2021, first as a member of the production team, and later as a managing editorial associate, working extensively ...Read More
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