Strange Horizons will be open to general fiction submissions for 48 hours beginning January 19th, 2026 at 3 p.m. UTC and ending January 21st, 2026 at 3 p.m. UTC. There will be no cap. See our fiction submission guidelines for more information on how to submit: strangehorizons.com/submit/ficti...

If we can't comprehensively define dark academia, we can at least try to figure out the vibe: @chloroformtea.bsky.social is back on the show to discuss Donna Tartt's THE SECRET HISTORY, with many forays against its more speculative inheritors & borrowers!

The next instalment of my 101 TTRPGs, where I revealI am a bad person, and a terrible GM, with awful recollection of details. My 98, 99, and 100th favourite TTRPGs ever...revealed!

Very sad that I felt I had no choice but to resign from The Infinite Monkey Cage - a victory for the transphobes and other bigots - I did it because so much of the media has chosen to believe the kind and empathetic people are a fiction - they are real and so often unrepresented.

I'm 42 today. As is tradition, here's a free zine about the books I read in 2025: erinking.itch.io/notable-book...

You nibble on ONE prime minister and suddenly everyone is “Oh look at the prime minister eaters” ignoring all the national leaders who were never eaten at all!

For everyone nominating for next year's SFFH awards: ARB's 2025 Awards Eligibility

vigorously seconded! Renay does an *incredible* job of curating commentary, reviews, fun videos, fan art, good podcast episodes. it's a stunning act of service to the SFF community but it's also just a really fuckin fun read every week.

For your general consideration....we published eight novellas this year. Three issues of Baffling. And a short story collection by Christopher Caldwell. (Plus we are sneaking out AT LEAST two more anthologies, an issue of Baffling, and a chapbook by Izzy Wasserstein before the end of the year.)

there's no problem you can read your way out of that you can't also read your way into. it's a communication method not a holy virtue

this is so reductive lol

A review! By a me! Of a very interesting book indeed.

Graphic Novel Review: The One Hand and The Six Fingers, by V, Campbell, Watters, Kumar, Loughridge, Bidikar and Muller The Left hand can't know what the Right hand is doing says @stewarthotston.com (one of the new members of the flock) at the blog: www.nerds-feather.com/2025/12/grap...

And we're done! Final discussion of The Fellowship of the Ring is here, along with some round up thoughts about the book and the process as a whole. I've had a great time doing this, and I've found it incredibly worthwhile.

Intergalactic Mixtape is live! It was Podcast Week, with lots of pods dropping episodes. Plus, some excellent essays and a banging interview between Ann Leckie and Arkady Martine from @speculativeinsight.bsky.social.

Final Stretch Goal revealed! 14 days to go! Wanna be part of it? www.kickstarter.com/projects/lum...

I spent three days last week putting together an eligibility MEGA POST for @strangehorizons.bsky.social, with all the people and work within it that's eligible for awards in 2026. I hope you'll check it out, click on some things, and consider putting your faves forward 🥹 Thank you, and here's to 26!

Hey ARB readers! A quick announcement: December is going to be a quieter publishing month for us, but only because we're working on some big changes for next year. More details here:

In the past 48 hours both Girl Guiding and the Women’s Institute (WI) have announced changed membership policies. After seeking legal advice, they felt left with no option but to exclude trans girls and women from membership.

This is the deep frustration. Both that the legal argument feels so transparently nonsense but that it is backed up by such money that it doesn't make a difference. But also that with a simple bit of legislation this government could make it irrelevant but they won't because they lack the decency.

Okay I have one more.

As an England fan pretty happy with the World Cup draw. For all the current form would have preferred not Wales in the pool but we really ought to win. Then on current form Rnd of 16: Italy Qtrs: Winner of Australia v Japan Semi: Winner of Ireland v Argentina Feels a reasonable route as they go.

"I spoke to one 80-year-old woman who has been in our organisation for decades, who said it was one of the greatest experiences of her life, and the only place in her 80 years where she’s been treated as a woman with respect.” What does this do for women's rights?

Zines in SF/F that are nonprofits AFAIK and thus worthy of your support on this Giving Tuesday. (Pls add others you know of!) BCS @strangehorizons.bsky.social @reckoningmag.bsky.social @escapepod.org @podcastle.org @pseudopod.org

ITV set to beat TNT Sports to Nations Championship rights www.thetimes.com/article/3233...

Calls for Reviews & Essays: March 2026 ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/12/02/c...

Really enjoying this episode on journeys in Tolkien. One of the key things we've lingered on in the close read of Fellowship I've been doing with @chloroformtea.bsky.social has been its focus on the practicalities and realities of travel even as the book shifts from the domestic to the epic.

“What does that lack of magic lead to? Why is it important to the story, a story that could have been told as literary realism or as secondary world fantasy outside of Yf where there is magic? The answer is: because it creates the conditions for urban fantasy.” wmhenrymorris.com/nonfiction/M...

Eleven years ago, I wrote to Tom Stoppard to ask about this coup de théâtre from 1949. It took me down an unexpected rabbit hole - in memory of Stoppard, here's what I found.

New Contributor Profile: Eddie Clark Meet @dreddieclark.bsky.social www.nerds-feather.com/2025/12/cont...

the Michelin man is kinda like a Greek god in the sense that he presides over tires and which restaurants are good

Stoppard's stage directions for the desk clutter in Arcadia lives rent free in my head. A playwright and director who truly understood all parts of a theatre production working together to make magic. Rest in peace.

Well fuck, Leopoldstadt always did feel like a final act on stage but I hoped he'd have many years to enjoy a retirement. Both dazzling wit and cleverness throughout his plays but with real heart at the core, you often had to work to keep up but the work was amply rewarded.

Intergalactic Mixtape is always great but particularly enjoyed this article from @readingtheend.bsky.social this time. Whether through awards shortlists, picking up more translated fiction or otherwise there's gems to find when you step outside your comfort zone even if your hit rate drops.

Happy Friday, SF readers. Some fresh links to ponder over the weekend: ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/11/28/w...

Three weeks ago I marked nine years on Testosterone. I didn't celebrate it then because I was in the middle of a multi-month battle to be allowed to stay on it, despite not producing my own hormones and simply wanting to remain on the exact prescription I'd had for nine years without any problems.

I have been able to regain access to my necessary medication (and thankfully was able to avoid going without during my fight for it). But I know many people who are having the exact same fight right now. Including people who've been settled on hormones even longer than I.

If you think that the current state of trans healthcare in the UK is because of concern or caution, I'd encourage you to think again. It's not medically informed, it's a reactionary response to transphobic bigotry whipped up into a frenzy over the past few years. And it costs lives.

In this week’s @strangehorizons.bsky.social, one of my favourite pieces I’ve edited this year — on orientalism from Star Trek to Game of Thrones. Photon Torpedoes Break the Space Muqarnas: SFF Audiovisuals and Anti-Muslim Violence,” by Tanvir Ahmed — strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...

Today's Love Letter is a stunning meditation on birdwatching and the loss of a friendship, from the one and only @amalelmohtar.com stone-soup.ghost.io/love-letter-...

New Quinns Quest review is a boxed RPG special! 📦✨ I dunno folks, I think running RPGs out of 400 page hardback books might be dumb and bad

@evilhat.bsky.social have a sale in everything in their catalog celebrating their 20th anniversary, including City Of Red Waters, my blood-soaked colonial alternate setting for Blades In The Dark evilhat.com/product/city... www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/4... Huge congrats to EH team on 20 years!🎉

You know that feeling of a game making you want to immediately design something? THAT.

Well sucks to hear from an enjoying watching the Red Roses pov but what a way to go out. As John Mitchell puts it: “I personally believe that we are losing arguably the best right winger in world rugby at the peak of her powers, but we fully respect her decision to move on to a new chapter.”

The idea of publishing a book of collected blog posts and including some of the comments is kind of amazing if weird. Including only a selection of the comments from an argument of which all the comments are on, presumably, your side but we get none of the disagreement heads into bizarre.

We Choose Every Day: Hebe Stanton reviews Claire North's SLOW GODS (@orbitbooks.bsky.social)

The Two Towers: Trick-Taking Game follows up on last year's Fellowship trick-taker, and like that inaugural release it's an innovative and excellent adaptation of Tolkien's fantasy novel. My review: spacebiff.com/2025/11/20/t...

New Contributors We are excited to announce that Nerds of a Feather is growing. Today we welcome five new writers to the flock. You’ll be seeing much more from them in the coming weeks and months, \here is a quick introduction to who they are: www.nerds-feather.com/2025/11/new-...

Intergalactic Mixtape is live! I read some fab essays this week. Bring on ~reflection season~