✨ Announcing our Institute Book Club pick! ✨ This summer, our Institute participants will read and discuss Margaret Killjoy’s (@margaret.bsky.social) fantasy novel The Sapling Cage. Thank you to The Center for Fiction for helping us obtain copies for all of our students!

Now that Camp is in session, it’s time to save the date for our Summer Showcase!  For the 4th year in a row, the Center for Art, Research, and Alliances is generously hosting our showcase at 225 West 13th Street. Join us at 5:30 PM on 8/13 if you’re local, or follow us for live updates!

Every summer, our Camp participants read one book together. This year’s Book Club pick is Anzu and the Realm of Darkness, written & illustrated by Mai K. Nguyen (@ohmaipie.bsky.social)!   Thank you to Viking Books for Young Readers (@vikingbooks.bsky.social) for providing copies to all our Campers!

Our free, monthlong Summer Camp for middle schoolers kicks off NEXT WEEK! Through our unique STEM and arts-based curriculum, students will explore urban planning, architecture, coding, science, storytelling, and so much more. Watch this space for updates from Camp!

It's Pride! It's a rainbow stack! I've been posting one a week this month because I have so many wonderful queer books on my shelves to celebrate. Which of these have you read?

Virtual Conference Announcement! The Society for Disability Studies is excited to announce our call for papers, themed Here and There, Then and Now: Disability Studies at the End of the World. sites.google.com/DisStudies.o...

A year ago today I was chatting with @leemandelo.bsky.social about AMPLITUDES. And there’s no better time than now to snag a copy of this landmark anthology!! I think about it alllll the time!

The #2026IgnyteAwards finalists for Outstanding Anthology/Collected Works (2/5): Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity: ED. @leemandelo.bsky.social

Member of @authorsabb.bsky.social @jerroldconnors.bsky.social came through in the best way and assembled this for us all! Know thine shitty bills!

Pre-gaming Pride Month with a Queer Anthologies rec post! I used to not enjoy short stories because I get too attached to characters and have a hard time letting them go in such a short time, but I've read five of these and really like short stories and anthologies now! (2/2)

This is your periodic reminder that word of mouth moves more books than any formal advertising! I invite you to rec something you've recently enjoyed -- preference for the stuff that's *not* already extremely well-known and talked about everywhere.

This article captures the Hampshire College I knew. R.I.P. www.currentaffairs.org/news/hampshi...

Thank you to everyone who gave!!! This is an incredible outcome 💜

We only have one more day to raise $50K for our free programs—and it’s our biggest match day ever! For the next 24 hours, two generous donors, Jeffrey C. and Tyler H., will match every dollar raised up to $6K.  Donate now! https://f.mtr.cool/zpzccvjkqm

Every little bit counts as we get closer to our annual fundraising goal! Can you give $5 or $10 today to support young women and trans and nonbinary youth in STEM and the arts in Brooklyn?

At the Octavia Project, we’re committed to serving NYC youth from middle school through high school and into adulthood. Help us raise $50K by 3/31 to bring new opportunities and spaces to young adult women and trans and nonbinary youth in NYC! https://www.octaviaproject.org/support/

🚨Our priority deadline for our high school Summer Institute is approaching🚨 The Octavia Project Summer Institute is a ✨free summer enrichment program✨ for young women and trans and nonbinary youth ages 14-19. Learn more: https://www.octaviaproject.org/join-the-octavia-project-summer-institute/

For over a decade, teens in our five-week Summer Institute have asked how we can build more just and joyous futures through workshops & field trips in STEAM and creative writing. Help us raise $50K by 3/31 for our free programs for Brooklyn youth! Donate now: https://www.octaviaproject.org/support/

At the OP, the future is speaking. Through our free STEAM programs—like our Spring Studio Lab w/@brooklynmuseum.org—young creators in Brooklyn are mapping out radical possibilities for our world. Help us raise $50K by 3/31 to uplift their voices! Donate here: https://www.octaviaproject.org/support/

I don’t usually campaign for awards, but this year I’ve decided to go for broke for a Fan Writer Hugo Award. Yay me! 1/

Also my review of Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity edited by Lee Mandelo, a powerful, often joyful anthology of work about a community under siege. locusmag.com/review/ampli... 6/

From the wonderous fantasy to mind-expanding sci-fi, from the depths of horror to the magical realms of the speculative, we're proud to have an expansive list of SFF fiction eligible this year for awards consideration! @dianapho.bsky.social @viengsamai.bsky.social

2025 Books We Loved: Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity by Lee Mandelo locusmag.com/2025/12...

Ten highlights from my reading year! Short fiction has really dominated my mind in 2025, along with the Eternal Champion, blood-soaked operas redolent with perfume, and the Saints of Night. Plus some ecology, of course! Here's to another year of great reads!!

Thanks as always to the critics and reviewers who wrote so generously about Amplitudes!

Enthusiastically thumbs-upping everything on this list, and am also delighted for Amplitudes to be in such good company (ps: the recommended-for notes did make me snort laugh)

Thanks to Library Journal for shouting out Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity as one of their “Stellar Selections: Best Books of 2025!” @erewhonbooks.bsky.social www.libraryjournal.com/story/Stella...

Yolo often stands with his little back toes crossed, which I find ridiculously cute! You can see vultures don't have bulky feet and talons built for grasping/carrying like other raptors. Their more chicken-like feet are meant for bracing on food to pull at it with their powerful beaks, instead.

An update from the team at @erewhonbooks.bsky.social! While yesterday’s all-retailer ebook sale for Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity only lasted for 24 hours, the $3.99 price will continue to be available until Nov. 30th on Kindle. Apologies for the confusion, everyone 🖤

'Tis the season for eligibility posts! As you're reading for awards this year, I'd love for you to consider my short story "pocket futures in the present past" & the other works in Amplitudes, edited by @leemandelo.bsky.social.

For #transawarenessweek, a bump for Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity! Featuring contributors from across the globe, including both familiar and fresh voices, it gathers 22 speculative stories about queer and trans futures—and I hope at least one of them will hit for you 🖤

Already trying to figure out what to propose as a couples' Halloween costume for next year, since my wife will only agree if the ensemble does not a) require her to wear make-up or wigs and b) allows her to mostly wear own clothes. This year's Beaker and Dr. Bunsen Honeydew may be hard to top.

🎉 We're thrilled to share that we've received funding from the Stonewall Community Foundation 🎉 The Stonewall Community Foundation funds work that makes differences on issues affecting LGBTQ+ lives. As queer and trans youth face additional challenges, the Octavia Project is deepening supports.

Since it’s up on the @locusmag.bsky.social site now, I do wanna shout out this review of ‘Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity’ by @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social—what a joy it was to see the anthology described thusly 🥹🥹 locusmag.com/review/ampli...

Our fundraiser ends today! If you have $10 or $20 to put toward leadership opportunities for young women and trans and nonbinary youth in Brooklyn, now's your chance to make a gift. donorbox.org/build-our-yo...

📣 We have 4 more days to reach our $6,000 goal by 8/29! Together, we can launch our Youth Advisory Board and center the voices of OP alumni! Join us in supporting young leaders like our Teaching Fellows. 👆 Make a gift today and support this critical work through the link in our bio 👆

📣 We're halfway to the $6K we need to fund our new Youth Advisory Board! This leadership initiative will center the voices of OP alumni, including Fellows like Xylon. Ready to support the next generation? Help us make our goal by 8/29! https://donorbox.org/build-our-youth-advisory-board

Last night, we celebrated a new generation of OP alumni at our Summer Showcase! To keep serving them year-round, we're launching our Youth Advisory Board this fall. Can you help us raise $6K by 8/29 for our alumni leadership initiative? https://donorbox.org/build-our-youth-advisory-board

If you're in or around NYC, come out to the @octaviaproject.bsky.social's Summer Showcase! It's going to be a lot of fun (and psst, there's an afterparty--DM me for details).

Our Institute participants became community scientists this week at Billion Oyster Project! They gained experience supporting NYC's best “ecosystem engineers”: the oysters that boost ecological resilience by fostering biodiversity, filtering water, & acting as natural storm barriers.

Our Institute participants are building new worlds with guidance from @nkjemisin.bsky.social! Through the lens of mythmaking, students examined what our collective stories communicate about power and social roles. How can we subvert existing myths and craft new narratives?

We’re continuing our explorations of the city around us with urban planning workshops at the Institute. Through sharing real and speculative stories about the impact of rising temperatures on on urban environments, we’re working together to imagine cities of the future. 🌇

At the OP, New York City is our classroom! Last week, guest teachers in architecture and urban planning helped Camp participants discover the ✨everyday magic✨ present in their communities with generative mapping exercises, model building, and observations of public spaces.

Speculative fiction lets us enter realms beyond our own world. On a field trip to the Museum of Arts and Design, our Campers visited the "Empathic Universe" of artist Saya Woolfalk, who uses fantastical worldbuilding techniques to bring new beings & immersive landscapes to life.

Today is the perfect day to pick up your next favorite book! Check out some titles we're so excited to have on the shelves (Queer nature! Apocalyptic horror! MELISSA FEBOS!)

$250,000 is a lot of money. But last quarter we had more than 450,000 page views; $1 for each of them- the cost of a fairly old-timey newspaper -would have us more than covered. If you enjoy our articles, chip in the cost of a coffee, or $10, or $15. Help us to keep offering the coverage you value.

We’re just one month away from our Summer Showcase! Every year, we celebrate the work of our participants with their friends, family, and OP community. If you're in NYC, RSVP here to join us on 8/14 at 5:30 PM at CARA: https://www.cara-nyc.org/program/events/octavia-project-summer-showcase-2025

📖 2025 Releases with Nonbinary Characters

The editor of “Amplitudes” discusses gathering diverse queer and trans voices to upend publishing trends and reimagine community. electricliterature.com/lee-mandelo-...