We are thrilled to hear that THREE Reactor stories have been selected by @olivieblake.bsky.social and @johnjosephadams.com for The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2026!! We've included links to the Reactor stories below. Congratulations to everyone!! 🎉

Congratulations to the Clarion West alumni and instructors recognized by the Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy (BASFF) for 2026! Give them a follow: @isabelcanas.bsky.social @somtoihezue.bsky.social @wenyilee.bsky.social @kristinaten.bsky.social @cadwellturnbull.bsky.social (1/2)

Wonderful reviews here for new books by @tanaudel.bsky.social, @wenyilee.bsky.social, and me:

announcing WHERE RIVERS MADE THE GODS, my sapphic fantasy sequel in which a spirit medium meets the vessel of a fire goddess--and the dead girl on her altar. this one's haunted, angry, more spicy, more about love & more about resurrection :) out April 6, 2027 from @torbooks.bsky.social <3

March standout #3: The Name Ziya by @wenyilee.bsky.social

"When They Burned The Butterfly" by @wenyilee.bsky.social was not a book that instantly hooked me, but as I went it sunk in, a slow burn beneath the skin until, maybe moreso than any other book, it became an incandescent inferno at its ending that transformed it from good to something so much more.

And… Anathema’s Kickstarter is live! Please read, donate & share to increase our reach! We’re excited to bring more speculative fiction, poetry and nonfiction by queer writers of color into the world! Our fundraiser is scheduled to run through the end of May: www.kickstarter.com/projects/ana...

This. The dream of the 90s is dead. Cheap rent enables every kind of creative work and nothing else can substitute for it.

ICYMI: I have a short story in @wenyilee.bsky.social’s YA horror anthology, THE KIDS CAME BACK WRONG! It’s the last day of deer season in Whitepoint, Virginia, and Shrike + his boyfriend Possum (pictured below ✨) are about to have a very, very bloody morning. I can’t wait to share more!

that BUTTERFLY "moves with the energy of a bar fight. It is fast, brutal, and intimate.... The magic feels like it is bleeding out of the cracks in the pavement... Lee is interested in the idea that feminine rage is a resource. It can be hoarded, stolen, or used to burn the whole city down." ❤️

incredibly honored & excited to have a story in this!! 💚💚

hehehehe 👀💕🪾

Announcing new deals for @wenyilee.bsky.social @nikkishannonsmith.bsky.social @jburbank.bsky.social @jessicakhoury.bsky.social + more buff.ly/MSPItep

I'm editing THE KIDS CAME BACK WRONG, a YA horror anthology for fans of Weapons & Stranger Things!!!! A class goes missing on a trip to the woods. 13 of the kids return, changed in ways they can't describe. 13 kids, 13 authors, 1 interconnected story. @bloomsburybooksus.bsky.social, Fall 2027 🌲💚

Today's great news: Amplitudes was selected for the @otherwiseaward.org longlist!! Extending my deepest gratitude to the committee and all the contributors who made the book possible 🖤

A few months ago I pitched Reactor an article about SFF around the world focused on translations, and @cxorlando.bsky.social came up with the loveliest idea to expand it into a column. We start this month with Hiroko Oyamada's The Factory, a great little novel about the irreality of office jobs.

the WHEN THEY BURNED THE BUTTERFLY paperback will come with a bonus story set in 1961 about a mother, her fire goddess, her sworn sisters, her feral 5 year old daughter, and the most consequential fire in singapore's history. and it's 25% off now at B&N!

#DEAL ALERT! Calling all one-clickers because WHEN THEY BURNED THE BUTTERFLY @wenyilee.bsky.social is on #sale on #Kindle US for today only! amzn.to/40Q5iTF #WhenTheyBurnedtheButterfly #TheButterflyDuet #ad #amazoncom

a book's content may upset you, it may disturb you, it may haunt you or disgust you - it is allowed to do that. this is distinct from content provoking a trauma response, which so many of us reasonably want to take the care to avoid. I fear some people are muddying these two things together.

Trans Rights Readathon is here again, so why not pick up Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity from @erewhonbooks.bsky.social? 22 stories from a broad range of contributors, all "grounded in the political realities of the present yet imagining alternate possibilities for the future." 🖤

This book is exceptional and you should read it if you like dark fantasy!!

We're thrilled to see @wenyilee.bsky.social's novelette, "The Name Ziya," make the list! You can read it here:

There's so many great stories here! Congratulations to the Best Novelette finalists including Clarion West alumni @somtoihezue.bsky.social, @wenyilee.bsky.social, and @foxesandroses.bsky.social!

this was such a good, good story.

I'm a Nebula finalist!!!!! "The Name Ziya" is a story I wrote at 22 for my Clarion West application but also to grapple my own thorny relationship with cultural names & assimilation. It took 3 years to publish; I am so proud it's my first award nom and so so thrilled to share space on this list 🥲

the sff magazine space isn't perfect but i prefer it much more to my lit fic friends paying submission fees and still barely getting paid for their work

Some recent book-mail featuring new work from @mariawrites.bsky.social @amalelmohtar.com @wenyilee.bsky.social and Cameron Sullivan! No greater joy than seeing friends’ books arrive tbh

❤️

I know it’s difficult right now, but I insist that you seek and enjoy beautiful things, even if it seems frivolous or irresponsible in the face of overwhelming horror. I want you to feed yourself artistically, spiritually, and literally, because you can’t Do The Work when you’re starving.

Here's ep. 390C: Wen-yi Lee chats about WHEN THEY BURNED THE BUTTERFLY, the first book in THE BUTTERFLY DUET and a fierce, glamorous sapphic fantasy reimagining the secret societies of postcolonial Singapore. @wenyilee.bsky.social @torbooks.bsky.social turnthepage.blubrry.net/2026/02/19/t...

finished, and greatly liked "When They Burned the Butterfly" by @wenyilee.bsky.social hard to express how good it is. a dying romance between terrible people during the twilight of Singapore's Chinese criminal gangs. incredibly courageous, passionate, and precise. us.macmillan.com/books/978125...

NEW VIDEO ALERT! Today on Bar Cart Bookshelf we're talking about WHEN THEY BURNED THE BUTTERFLY by Wen-yi Lee. A fantasy set in 70s Singapore, skillfully explores the solidarity of crime, the intersections of queer femininities, & a nation in transition. Plus fire! Our drink is the Madam Butterfly.

ICYMI! Reading for the Uncanny Magazine Poll? Try the short story "Red, Scuttle When the Ships Come Down" by Wen-yi Lee @wenyilee.bsky.social! You can read it here! buff.ly/VxV8OYv

Fiction Standout #3: When They Burned the Butterfly by @wenyilee.bsky.social is a story about loss and love and finding your place. It's also a story about anger and revenge. It is well-grounded in its setting, and has multiple queer characters. Not a happy read, but a good one.

It's time to finally talk about my favourite books of 2025, so I made a list, without any kind of order, that pretty much covers it. It may be great to fill your TBR! You can check it here: jamreads.com/articles/my-... 💙📚

"The girls' journey parallels that of their city in beautiful, bloody, haunting ways... this unity between self, place and history... seared When They Burned the Butterfly into my mind and made it my favorite book of 2025." to be read & seen; thank you @grimdarkmagazine.bsky.social ❤️

my novelette The Name Ziya: "jaw-droppingly sharp passages on cultural appropriation, and yet the tale somehow maintains the uncomfortable balance between the lead hating a society that takes so much and yet loving the life it gives her" ❤️ and such amazing recs on the rest of the list!

it's roundup season ✨️ thank you @cxorlando.bsky.social for pubbing my cannibalism essay, included on this list! reactormag.com/tender-is-th...

this fantasy dark academia story is one of my favourites i've ever written and you can read it here with a lot of other writers i love!!

everything everywhere all at once because i went in blind & on a whim with my cousin after cocktails and by the end of it we were both just stricken & sobbing

I'm seeing people posting their 2025 award eligibility, so here's mine. Please consider if any story touches your heart. Thank you! 🙏🏼

Our first release of 2025 will be @kerstinhall.bsky.social 's ASUNDER! 🏆 A Finalist for the Nebula & Locus Awards, 🖤 A Reactor Reviewer's Choice Best Book of 2024 📙 A New York Public Library Best-Of Pick SABRIEL meets WITCH KING in this deliciously dark fantasy! Preorder https://geni.us/asunder

“I’m dying.” His tone was matter-of-fact and his expression perfectly serious, but Karys had the feeling he might be making fun of her—exaggerating, or telling a strange sort of joke at her expense. Her mistrust mounted as she scrutinised his face. “You talk a lot for a dying man,” she said.

resurfacing the dark academia fantasy novelette i published earlier this year, about identity, assimilation & pursuit in a colonial institution ❤️ reactormag.com/the-name-ziy...

Announcing a BRAND NEW Gilded Age fantasy of ballrooms, bargains, and bloodshed from the one and only @nghivo.bsky.social!! The Scarlet Ball commences October 2026 🩸

Not only is this superb historical SFF, but @wenyilee.bsky.social also writes magnificent critical articles!? This essay is such a good introduction to the present media fascination with cannibalism & consumerism 🥀 reactormag.com/tender-is-th...

you can take the girl out of the gothic but you can't take the gothic out of the girl! thank you @mollytempleton.com ❤️

When They Burned the Butterfly, by @wenyilee.bsky.social (pub by @torbooks.bsky.social), is a great love letter to Singapore, a historical inspired fantasy that you will enjoy if you like sapphic romance, street gangs and grey characters. Full thoughts: jamreads.com/reviews/when... 💙📚

I expect nothing less from the brilliant @amalelmohtar.com, but this is gorgeous and heartbreaking in every way. You all should read it. Free Palestine.

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-...