PONY UP, PEOPLE

If you have ever emailed a writer to let them know you enjoyed something they wrote, you are among the noblest and best and most saintly in this entire world, and I hope you sleep really well tonight.

CLARKESWORLD DEADASS STARTED MY CAREER AND PUBLISHES SOME OF THE BEST SHORT SFF OUT THERE EVERYONE GO SUBSCRIBE TO IT RIGHT NOW!! or else.

We just published a guest blog post from Joe Stech @thinkweirder.com: The Information Theory Behind Why AI Writing Sucks. Check it out! pangram.com/blog/joe-ste...

Checking off my “getting paid for my writing with a silver coin like it is 2000 years ago” box for an anthology payment by @thinkweirder.com i am unironically so thrilled about this

Maya Angelou on the joys of being edited

Big news! ARB's first fundraiser is officially live! We're shooting for the very modest goal of $1k, with lots of stretch goals in mind. Your support is of course appreciated, and any help in spreading the word would be wonderful!

this is a great book, everyone should buy it right now for 99 cents

CHILDREN OF STRIFE BY @aptshadow.bsky.social IS OUT TODAY! I'm only a few pages in but the collection of villains on this spaceship is already worth the cost of admission

This interview with @adapalmer.bsky.social was an incredible treat! Best podcast episode I've listened to in a while. youtu.be/PAIhVfGbREA?...

I just finished "Slow Gods" by Claire North via a recommendation by @aptshadow.bsky.social, and I loved it. Beyond the cultural richness of the far future setting, I think there's something very appealing about the juxtaposition of real-feeling technology set against an element of the numinous

I did this last year and I'm trying to make it an annual Thing, so here are a few short fiction writers in their first two years of publishing worth considering for Astounding Award nomination! I'm highlighting a work I loved from each of them (it's hard to keep it to just one, but c'est la vie)

🚨New episode ‼️ Brilliant author David Goodman @davegoodman.bsky.social takes us on a paratextual tour of Excession by Iain M Banks! linktr.ee/stetpodcasts Dave helps us understand why paratext is sometimes the best tool for conveying intricate relationships in a novel. 💙📚 #podcasts

My wife and I did the Mallory Cave hike above NCAR today, check out this section of "trail" that turned out to be a class 4 slab! I wouldn't have believed it was part of the trail if that plaque wasn't there. The view from the top was incredible.

Thoughtful conversation on @mealofthorns.bsky.social about Egan's Diaspora, I loved how they differentiated between the sort of superficial engineering projects+big guns pop culture hard SF and the mind-expanding concept-driven hard SF that Egan writes: ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2026/02/09/a...

the only anthology that might pay you in silver coins

Calling all concept-driven science fiction short stories (and novelettes) published in 2025! I'm looking for bangers I might have missed that fit this brief: compellingsciencefiction.com/posts/call-f... If you can share this with your favorite SF author/publisher/editor, I'd be grateful!

I just finished "Death of the Author" by @nnedi.bsky.social, and I LOVED it. This book had an utterly unique combination of technology, family, the confluence of Nigerian and American culture, and writing life. As a rock climber, I really enjoyed the side character "Hugo", who reminded me strongly

Readers' poll closes tomorrow!

sure whatever this novel about the mall is actually about american cultural imperialism and how cultural victory is achieved by the cancerous replication of your tropes across other cultures until everywhere on earth looks like you

I have vowed that if I ever win a Hugo, I will get a tattoo. If you like any of the works below, or just want to see me get ink, give me a nod on your ballot.

It's time for your periodic reminder that we count on subscriptions to keep the lights on. clarkesworldmagazine.com/subscribe/ Thank you.

I don't ONLY read science fiction (just mostly). Here are some of my favorite books from 2025! Incredible reads by @aptshadow.bsky.social, Robert Jackson Bennett, Cory Doctorow, @doriskgoodwin.bsky.social, and @brandonsanderson.com compellingsciencefiction.com/posts/favori...

After finishing Echopraxia, this is the first thing I see in the "Notes and References" section: "I am naked as I type this. I was naked writing the whole damn book." Bravo, Peter Watts. Superbly played.

My latest @clarkesworldmagazine.com story ‘Three Fortunes on Alcestis…’ is out today! It’s available to read for free online right here: clarkesworldmagazine.com/hall_02_26/ It’s about a tyrant and a soldier and a baby. With bonus fortune-telling and bonus bad-tempered alien goats.

Oh hey, is there a new Morag and Seamus story out? There is! Check out a cozy post-apocalyptic take on the legend of Tam Lin here: clarkesworldmagazine.com/moore_02_26/

I've noticed a microgenre shift in SF over the last year - or possibly just in the books I've come across. Specifically, a bit of a boom in big concept space opera books working in the Banks/Hamilton ideaspace. Meaning SF that simultaneously delivers a strong action storyline against a backdrop

I feel that this is an appropriate first bluesky post: compellingsciencefiction.com/posts/the-bu... This is the level of seriousness you can expect from me going forward