Our February link round-up is live!

Organically inclusive reader? Fan of speculative fiction? Want to judge the 2026 Ignyte Awards? Judges compose our longlist before we open up to public voting. Applications are currently open thru 2/14. ignyteawards.fiyahlitmag.com/wanna-judge/

Something affecting us in book publishing world: book club scams! They obviously target desperate authors and while these might be easier to spot for folks in the fiction world, who see lots of scams, these book clubs are now heavily targeting authors of UP books. So be wary!

My February small press column is up! Wasn't sure what to expect picking this one up, but it was a surprisingly hard hitter, and with a lot of interesting things in to have a poke at.

Such a wealth of amazing books here. I challenge you to look through and not find something interesting to review

Locus Awards voting is OPEN! Anyone can vote, and you can write in any eligible titles, editors, publishers, artists, magazines, and more! Even the Hugos usually see only two or three thousand votes, far fewer in some categories - your votes matter!🗳️ poll.voting.locusmag.com

new "favorite" genre of slop-spam is where they awkwardly compliment/recap one of our writers' articles and then tie it to a wildly unrelated product or service

The Ancillary Review of Books anti-billionaire promise:

"The Cruelty is the Point" - for the latest Small Press Dispatch, @chloroformtea.bsky.social looks at tyranny, rebellion, and language in Ben Peek's RED LABYRINTH (@snugglybooks.bsky.social):

Lots of good SF books (and books about speculative fiction & related topics) coming out this spring: check out our latest call for reviews & essays!

Here's more from our Criticism Special Issue! Structural Functionalism and Fantasy Fiction   by O. F. Cieri Link ⬇️ strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...

Check out this review I wrote for the excellent @ancillaryreviewofbooks.org on Jeremy Rosen’s new book on the genre turn of literary fiction, Genre Bending

The Plastic Utility of Genre: @sebsp.bsky.social reviews Jeremy Rosen's GENRE BENDING (@stanfordpress.bsky.social)

So much love for @moonpalacebooks.bsky.social

In the latest episode of A Meal of Thorns, biographer Jon Tattrie (TO LEAVE A WARRIOR BEHIND) joins to talk about Charles R. Saunders' sword-and-soul classic IMARO, and its many lives & afterlives:

📣 It's here: the 2026 @strangehorizons.bsky.social Criticism Special! 💡 A whole week of critical insight, with a new essay and new review every day. A podcast, a roundtable, an *editorial*. 📚 The weird! Anthropology! Non-anglophone SFF! Plus thoughts on fantasy series, adaptations, film and more.

I just finished the works of vermin based on this review. It was an incredible statement of a book and I loved every minute reading it.

I have a chapter on ectogestation and reproductive justice out in this new edited collection on Technology, Health, and Law in Life and Death 👇 www.bloomsbury.com/uk/technolog...

How Do We Live at the End of the World? @rymkechacha.bsky.social reviews Juhea Kim's collection of speculative climate stories, from @eccobooks.bsky.social:

Gems across every category in the @bsfa.bsky.social long list. I’ll note some of the nonfiction. Very good to see Kincaid, @adamroberts.bsky.social and @jsanchez-taylor.bsky.social in long nonfiction. Some other works there I’ve not read but now want to, too.

Reading Awards Longlists to Gratifyingly Find 'Reading Weird Fiction in an Age of Fascism' in an Age of Fascism (Heartfelt thanks to anyone nominating and/or voting and/or just reading the essay. The fascists will lose.)

The SFF Librarian Reviews: Jeremy Brett looks at Rambo's RUMOR HAS IT (@torbooks.bsky.social), Cooney's SAINT DEATH'S HERALD (@solarisbooks.bsky.social), Nolan's HAPPY BAD (Astra House), and THE ESSENTIAL AKUTAGAWA, tr. Medhurst (@tuttlepublishing.bsky.social):

I’ve got another review up at @ancillaryreviewofbooks.org !

It’s a good day to follow @bookcritics.bsky.social. Our finalist lists drop today!

Excited to have a little flash piece about demons and queer precarity in this edition of @havenspec.bsky.social!

This Page Intentionally Left Blank: @pinebeltblues.bsky.social reviews KJ Cerankowski's NOTHING WANTING (@uminnpress.bsky.social)

New entry coming soon(ish), perfect time to read the old ones and see how many times I used the words weird or liminal or unsettling

Happy Friday! Let's love on our creators today. Who is a Black SFF author you wish more people were screaming about? Bonus if they have new work coming out this year 🔥🔥🔥

I haven't read any of these yet, though some are already sitting in my TBR. Tragically, some (e.g. WHERE THERE ARE WOLVES AGAIN and A GRANITE SILENCE) don't seem available in the US yet

since I haven't on bsky that long or that active i feel like i should post some of my stuff every now and then. this one was about the point, and powerlessness, of literary studies ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2022/03/11/c...

I'm fully confident literary magazines will survive the AI apocalypse. There is no better time to become a creative writer. You already have an inside track because most people have never even heard of these things that can never die. We will be here with the cockroaches and Taco Bell

The Other Perspective: @mishagw.bsky.social reviews Theodora Goss's collection LETTERS FROM AN IMAGINARY COUNTRY (@tachyonpub.bsky.social)

So on @withouthistoryband.bsky.social's recommendation, I tracked down the essay "Necessary Golems" by sci-fi critic John Clute this morning. And yeah, people need to read this, cause boy does it feel relevant.

If you're a member of the @horrorwritersassoc.bsky.social, may I suggest you check out @megapolisomancy.bsky.social's "Reading Weird Fiction in an Age of Fascism" for the Short Nonfiction category (and a worth a read either way):

Counterweight is the book that got me into translated SFF last year - what a great discussion by Nat Harrington!

*clears throat* The TENTH ANNIVERSARY edition of @reckoningmag.bsky.social comes out tomorrow. Huge congratulations to @michaeljdeluca.bsky.social on a decade of imagining, working, and collaborating this remarkable magazine--"creative writing on environmental justice-- into existence.

Farah Mendlesohn's Considering The Female Man by Joanna Russ, or, As the Bear Swore - artist Judith Clute. Out March 31, launch at Eastercon @easterconuk.bsky.social. You can pre-order now, paperback and ebook, in the Luna store and all other retailers. #booksfromscotland @effjayem.bsky.social

Check out SFinTranslation.com for reviews, lists of what's out this month, links to SFT on the web, interviews, and lists lists lists and did I mention lists? Also, there's a really big spreadsheet... #sff #translation

Misplaced in Translation: @coimeas.bsky.social looks at the techniques, concerns & connections of Djuna's COUNTERWEIGHT (@pantheonbooks.bsky.social / @vintagebooks.bsky.social, tr. Anton Hur)

best, strongest, most interesting, most influential instances of the LITERARY MANIFESTO? (creative writing student wants to write one; they're reading Puchner and inspired by Wordsworth)

It's online! It's open to anyone, anywhere in the world! We'll be reading the texts below but we'll be diving into the history of romance well beyond them! I'm really excited to have the possibility to run a popular romance course... let's make sure it runs!

For the first 2026 episode of @mealofthorns.bsky.social, @marmercurio.bsky.social is our guest and guide for Richard Marsh's THE BEETLE, a melodramatic Gothic horror-mystery with a lot going on under the carapace:

Turns out Roseanna's favourite novella of the year is really very good in facts that perhaps do not surprise. Gloriously eclectic in form, it threads community and joy through the climate crisis in a way that resonates with many of my favourite works from last year.

I literally just gone done emailing Sean to say how heartened I’ve been by his recent historical focus in the texts he’s been reading. His posts have been productive without being nostalgic - *so* helpful. But here he is skeeting about it and forcing me to make my admiration public. What a flex.

Exclusion Zone of the Mind: Frauke Uhlenbruch reviews Simon Stålenhag’s SUNSET AT ZERO POINT (@sagapressbooks.bsky.social)

Congratulations and good luck to @thehubble101.bsky.social as the next editor of @sffoundation.bsky.social www.sf-foundation.org/fresh-about

Did you know that you, yes YOU, can vote in the Hugo Awards?? @mollytempleton.com breaks down the process, including how to register before the January 31st deadline!

SF people, if you don't have it on your radar: the Eaton Collection at UCR is fantastic institution & resource for scholars, writers, & readers of spec fic. The Virtual Symposium is free to attend, and has a really stellar lineup- take a look and see if there's something you want to come to today!

I'll be moderating a virtual @bookcritics.bsky.social panel on newsletters and arts writing this Thursday evening! Very excited about this one. us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...