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-...

Our ✨Teaching Fellows✨ are all OP alums who bring their passion, STEAM skills, and expertise about the program to new groups of Camp participants each summer. Our Teaching Fellows designed and led two of the art workshops at Camp last week, including this block printing workshop!

Right after you finish this episode you need to go grab a copy of “Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity” edited by Lee and featuring a story from Aysha. It’s really remarkable stuff, we promise you’ll enjoy it immensely!

What can butterfly pea flower tea 🦋 and temperature-sensitive slime 🧪 teach us about the 🪄scientific magic🪄 of light and color? Our Campers found out by conducting their own experiments on Science Day this week! 🌈

Now that it’s been about a month since the release of ‘Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity’… have a links roundup of interviews, press, recorded contributor events, etc! leemandelo.com/f/amplitudes...

Our Camp book club pick this summer is Manu by Kelly Fernández! We're reading and discussing this graphic novel about friendship & finding your place in the world together this month. Thank you to Scholastic for donating copies of Manu for all of our Camp participants!

It's the last day of PRIDE, but the spirit must last all year! Perfect time for a short story. Here are some of my favorite LGBTQ+ anthologies & collections. Tales of derring-do & deepest dread, of far-flung futures & potent pasts, a bounty, an explosion, an embarrassment of riches & true delights!

Our Camp for grades 6–8 starts today, kicking off our 11th summer of programs! Keep up on the latest with what's happening in our programs here. If you're in NYC, save the date for our Summer Showcase on 8/14 at CARA, which is generously hosting us for the third year in a row!

Lee does not miss. Engage with these stories and read AMPLITUDES. TODAY!!

Bimonthly short story report! I had a great time with these anthologies and collections as well as the online magazines Lightspeed and Beneath Ceaseless Skies. It’s a gay ole time for Pride month reading, and I can’t help getting a little Weird for the summer either!

Last night's Book Are Magic event for Amplitudes with Katharine Duckett, Dominique Dickey, Nat X. Ray and Sam J. Miller! It was fabulous 🤩. Cheers to these authors and everyone in our USA Today bestselling anthology! @erewhonbooks.bsky.social @leemandelo.bsky.social

We are floored in the best way: AMPLITUDES: An Anthology of Queer & Trans Futurity is a USA Today Bestselling book! We are THRILLED for @leemandelo.bsky.social, @dianapho.bsky.social, and all of our amazing contributors, and so happy to see queer & trans stories supported now more than ever! 💜

Thank you Books Are Magic for hosting the Amplitudes NYC launch with @sentencebender.bsky.social, @domsdickey.bsky.social, @katharineduckett.bsky.social, and Nat X. Ray!! We had a full house, great discussions, awesome questions, and signed many books! No better time to buy a copy than now! 💜 🏳️‍🌈

Oh hey @leemandelo.bsky.social spotted at the Smith & Sons in Paris! (I already have the ebook edition otherwise this bad boy would have come home with me)

And if you want to know more about AMPLITUDES, check out @pelicanismo.bsky.social’s review of it in @ancillaryreview.bsky.social ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/05/30/s...

FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS IN THE BALTIMORE AREA! Get some queer in your spec fic—come out to the Ivy Bookshop tonight at 6:30 to hear Aysha U. Farah, Dominique Dickey, Venessa Vida Kelley, M. M. Olivas, and yours truly read from our stories in AMPLITUDES! www.eventbrite.com/e/charm-city...

I am so excited about this event, celebrating AMPLITUDES: STORIES OF QUEER & TRANS FUTURITY, edited by @leemandelo.bsky.social ! W me, @megelison.bsky.social @domsdickey.bsky.social @katharineduckett.bsky.social 6/11, in-store & online - register today! www.eventbrite.com/e/in-store-a...

We're partnering w/ Books Are Magic to celebrate AMPLITUDES, edited by @leemandelo.bsky.social! Register now & see @sentencebender.bsky.social, @megelison.bsky.social, @domsdickey.bsky.social, @katharineduckett.bsky.social, & Nat X. Ray on 6/11 in-store & online! www.eventbrite.com/e/in-store-a...

𝘼𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙪𝙙𝙚𝙨: 𝙎𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙌𝙪𝙚𝙚𝙧 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙏𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙨 𝙁𝙪𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙮 - 𝗟𝗲𝗲 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗼 (𝗲𝗱) 4/5⭐ A wealth of amazing talent on offer in this anthology of lgbtqia2s+ authors. Fantastic compilation! visit www.goodreads.com/review/show/... for full review #netgalley #Amplitudes #KensingtonPublishing #ErewhonBooks #booksky

Good news for the ‘Amplitudes’ fans who aren’t near one of the release events: the Books Are Magic event on June 11th will also be livestreamed!! You’ll be able to watch at youtube.com/live/_hEO9Wt...

A vital and necessary anthology! AMPLITUDES is timely, at moments painfully so, rooted in persistent determination, and powerful in its hard-won perseverance. We have always been here and we will always be here, come flood and famine, beyond the atmosphere and in the heart of memory. A must read.

this book is out today and i don't know you but i know it's exactly what you need right now (ecstatic, brutal, brilliant visions of the future) bookshop.org/p/books/ampl...

Happy pub week to Lee Mandelo and AMPLITUDES: Stories of #Queer and #Trans Futurity! These stories will stay with you, and it's an honor to bring out this anthology at a time when readers need tales like these more than ever 🌈 🩵🤍🩷 #AuntieEditor @erewhonbooks.bsky.social @leemandelo.bsky.social