Congratulations to Vajra Chandrasekera (@vajra.me), recipient of the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction for Rakesfall! Chandrasekera's book was chosen by authors Matt Bell, Indra Das, Kelly Link, Sequoia Nagamatsu, and Rebecca Roanhorse.

Well they, burned the Apple Man down in FLX tonight. And they, burned his barrels too.

My novelette “The Third Movement of Time,” is now free to read in @bcsmagazine.bsky.social ! "Winter observes her frustration at Gorgós's irrational behavior and, within it, a particle of jealousy..." www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/the-...

Live in BCS #442: "Pools of Light at the Center of the World" @willmcmahon36.bsky.social "...and the singing of the insects reminded him of another villain in the story of his exile, which was the lute player, from whose clicking mandibles had come..." www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/pool...

📣 NEW CRITICAL FRIENDS! In a new ep of the @strangehorizons.bsky.social SFF criticism podcast, I talk with @redfernjon.bsky.social and Nileena Sunil about books that might be longer, and others that could be shorter. How to read a text that offers too little, or too much, stuff? Some ideas.

Over 2 million people across Italy have rallied in more than 100 cities for a one-day general strike.

My story “Pools of Light at the Center of the World,” a 2800-word sentence about a shipwrecked Andalusian merchant losing his mind in a field, is now free to read in @bcsmagazine.bsky.social! Check it out. www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/pool...

Too bad this Asian pear tree lost a limb, but it worked out for me. I’ve heard mixed things about making perry from them, but figure I’ll give it a try.

My story “Pools of Light at the Center of the World,” a 2800-word sentence about a shipwrecked Andalusian merchant losing his mind in a field, is now free to read in @bcsmagazine.bsky.social! Check it out. www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/pool...

New Issue: BCS #442 Seventeenth Anniversary Double-Issue, with stories by James Morrow and @willmcmahon36.bsky.social today, @patricksamphire.bsky.social and @rjtaylor.bsky.social next week (but in the ebook now), McMahon podcast, art Bruce Brenneise: www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/issues/issue...

Italy's largest union, with over 5.5 million workers, has called a general strike for Friday in solidarity with the Global Sumud Flotilla. And smaller Italian unions have said they will join CGIL's general strike.

“Israeli Forces Kill 198 Palestinians in Gaza Over Three Days” It’s a genocide. Daily endless massacres, largely ignored in the West.

New cover art, starting with BCS #442 Seventeenth Anniversary Double-Issue this Thurs, with stories by James Morrow @patricksamphire.bsky.social @rjtaylor.bsky.social @willmcmahon36.bsky.social: "Arbor" by Bruce Brenneise. www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/artwork/arbor/

Five-ish gallons of last year’s ciderkin (second pressing cider from rehydrated pomace, low ABV). Let it sit because it was bland, but malolactic fermentation has since added a nice tang. Going to bottle some as-is, then do a gallon with sumac and a gallon with goldenrod and aster. All foraged here.

Really enjoyed this article digging into the evolutionary and geological development of the modern apple family (and the call for cider-makers to explore a diversity of Pomme fruits!).

My story “Pools of Light at the Center of the World,” a 2800-word sentence about a shipwrecked medieval Andalusian merchant, is out today in @bcsmagazine.bsky.social for subscribers and via @weightlessbooks.bsky.social. Check it out!

Fists up for the IILF! Big thanks to @donfoolery.com, @parkeriswriting.bsky.social, and everyone who came out for our September reading!

Irrealists: join us TONIGHT at Liquid State Brewing in downtown Ithaca for readings by @donfoolery.com and @parkeriswriting.bsky.social! Onward!

August Reader Spotlight: Edmundo Paz-Soldán read his moving short story “Artificial” from the anthology LATINX RISING (Ohio State University Press, 2020).

My story “A Fallen Angel Rings the Doorbell” is out today in The Sunday Morning Transport. It’s about letting yourself be messy, and letting yourself be loved. Here’s a free 60-day subscription if you need it: www.sundaymorningtransport.com/smt2024

Divest from the "Novel That Wishes It Were a Screenplay" industrial complex NOW

First pressing day of the season. The recently foraged apples and pears still need to sweat a while in the barn, but it’s been a week for the ~3 bushels from the USDA Geneva Station, so step one is washing and quartering (or halving for crabs). Cracked a bottle of last year’s cider to ease my way.

August Reader Spotlight: @lilianacolanzi.bsky.social captivated the audience with two stories from her collection YOU GLOW IN THE DARK (tr. Chris Andrews for New Directions, 2024), “The Cave” and “The Greenest Eyes.”

Some urban foraging over the past few days. Apples, crab apples, and pears. Destined for cider and perry.

Some urban foraging over the past few days. Apples, crab apples, and pears. Destined for cider and perry.

The union representing the musicians from Jimmy Kimmel’s band releases a statement calling the FCC’s pressure on Disney “state censorship.”

The following is a statement from the WGA on ABC’s decision to pull ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’

Toured the USDA apple and grape germplasm repository in Geneva, NY today. Thousands of varieties each, preserved as a living library. The taking was free, so we gathered about three bushels of apples for a special “Geneva Medley” cider (several species and dozens of varieties). High acid and tannin!

Irrealists: Our next reading will be on Monday, September 22nd from 7-9pm at Liquid State, featuring @donfoolery.com and @parkeriswriting.bsky.social! Join us for good fiction, good beer, and good company.

YOU, HUMAN: Vol. 2 – BOOKBUB! You, Human, Vol. 2 is a BookBub deal for a limited time, now only $0.99. The first volume is also discounted at this time. Also available in hardcover, trade paperback, and eBook wherever books are sold. Amazon: eBook | trade paperback | hardcover Barnes &…

Toured the USDA apple and grape germplasm repository in Geneva, NY today. Thousands of varieties each, preserved as a living library. The taking was free, so we gathered about three bushels of apples for a special “Geneva Medley” cider (several species and dozens of varieties). High acid and tannin!

August reader spotlight: @spires.bsky.social (and her young assistant) gave the crowd an excerpt of her upcoming novella ELLIPSES, forthcoming from Infinivox, about a field biologist discovering life on an alien planet.

Cider of the day: Kitchen Sink from Rose Hill Farm (Red Hook, NY). A wild ferment, unfiltered and bottled pet-nat with high carbonation, this one has strong acid, good tannin, and a really nice bright flavor with notes of citrus and tropical fruit.

The Ithaca Irrealist Liberation Front has already stated our revolutionary position on the literary/genre discourse of the day.

Hello, translated spec fic readers! We apparently had some kind of secret settings update that locked our signatory page, but it should be fixed now! See who's onboard, sign with the link at the top if you haven't already, and share widely: translatedhugo.org/signatories/

I’ve made an update to this situation. open.substack.com/pub/pacornel...

What MRM has put P.A. through is absurd. There are terrific editorial teams working at the three big print SFF mags, but as long as the publisher finds it reasonable to treat authors this way, I won't be submitting to any of the publications they own.

Has anyone written on the Christian spiritual/theological roots of science fiction? E.g. mind/body dualism, human exceptionalism and universality, apocalypse and salvation, promised lands, etc? Search terms are confounded by SF about religion, which is also interesting but not what I’m looking for.

My Nebula Finalist short story "The Witch Trap" is now free to read in The Dark! The entire issue is stunning and I'm so pleased to have a place in it! www.thedarkmagazine.com/the-witch-tr...

Has anyone written on the Christian spiritual/theological roots of science fiction? E.g. mind/body dualism, human exceptionalism and universality, apocalypse and salvation, promised lands, etc? Search terms are confounded by SF about religion, which is also interesting but not what I’m looking for.

Picked up Lester the Border Leicester ram from a farm in Vermont and drove him five hours back to New York! He’s not currently thrilled but I think he’ll be happy when he’s out of quarantine and on pasture. Breeding this fall for spring lambs.

Picked up Lester the Border Leicester ram from a farm in Vermont and drove him five hours back to New York! He’s not currently thrilled but I think he’ll be happy when he’s out of quarantine and on pasture. Breeding this fall for spring lambs.

Well, Eloise finally got a woodchuck.

⏰ SAVE THE DATE and sign up! Toronto Troublemakers School: Saturday, October 18: labornotes.org/events/2025/...

If you are in the Ithaca area (or interested in traveling) and would also like to have a great time reading with us, sign up here! forms.gle/9orzjfv9R6QK...

Can’t even mistreat workers anymore, because of ewoc. @organizeworkers.bsky.social

Enjoy this vignette about crab apples published in the New York Times on this day in 1946 along with a photo of one of my crab apple trees in Upstate New York today. These are bound for cider this fall.

If you're a translator pissed off about the impacts of AI, our members in the NWU Translators Organizing Committee are building collective power among literary translators as workers whose creative labor deserves to be materially valued. Check them out! nwu.org/chapters/toc

The latest issue of McSweeney’s is literally an embroidered book. @kateheartfield.com

We had a great reading this week, featuring @spires.bsky.social, @lilianacolanzi.bsky.social, and Edmundo Paz-Soldán! Look forward to reader spotlights in the coming days. The IILF marches on!