"Every turn of the page is a creepy as fuck critical success D20 roll. Winkler warmed my nerd heart while draining its blood." --Sequoia Nagamatsu
I'm out of my work meeting! I'm posting some other blurbs from writers that took time out of their hectic lives to read THE SHIP OF DEATH. Thank you @sequoian.bsky.social!
From disaster response to information sciences, here are some topics the staff of Scientific American will be watching in the new year
"I hate short stories" and then they bring up something they were forced to read for AP English class in high school.
Made beet linguine from scratch + cashew risotto w/ giant scallops and wrote 8 letters of rec -- tomorrow? I have a full day date with Lego after ripping open the present I know I'm getting.
You had me at sad. Magical mosaic made me preemptively take out my wallet.
If I'm reading these minifigs correctly, it looks like Matthew was included-- guess it would be too macabre for Lego to include his car. I was def that kid who lined up their figures while watching a show and knocked them down when they got injured or killed.
Def excited to hear that this Downton Abbey Lego set got the green light for later in 2026 . . . and I'm def putting the Mr. Bates minifig in the drawer to replicate his multiple season legal troubles. And then throwing Anna in the drawer. And practicing my Maggie Smith voice. 😂
Also, now my house smells like Pier 1 Imports from the 90s with all the essential oils I sprayed around the foundation.
Driving mouse I caught to the wealthier Minneapolis lake neighborhood. You can't live with me, but I can maybe give you a better life with the 1% 😂
Ever wonder how bookstores decide what books to stock out of the "Fifty thousand new books a year [published] in the United States"*? A bookstore buyer explains:
* 50k is just traditionally published books
countercraft.substack.com/p/interview-...
Low cholesterol for me but not for thee is how this is going to play out.
Twin Cities folks! Reminder that its one of the big book events of the year tomorrow and this conversation in particular looks like fire 🔥 . . . already armed with both of these books for some fresh author ink.
If you blame migrants collectively for the horrible actions of a few but do not hold white people collectively responsible when white people commit heinous crimes, that's racism. Just saying.
I have a really expensive Starfleet jacket that I keep meaning to get hemmed (sleeves are way too long), so I guess I'm an admiral in need of a tailor 🤣
Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera, with the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction sticker on the cover
Vajra Chandrasekera, photo by Sanjeewa Weerasinghe. The author sits at a white table, arms resting in front of him, wearing a tan jacket and a white shirt.
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.
The eight books shortlisted for the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction are in a stack, with a note on top that reads "Prize winner announcement 10.21.25 9 am PDT." The books are North Continent Ribbon by Ursula Whitcher; Remember You Will Die by Eden Robins; The City in Glass by Nghi Vo; The Sapling Cage by Margaret Killjoy; The West Passage by Jared Pechaček; Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera; Archangels of Funk by Andrea Hairston; and Blackheart Man by Nalo Hopkinson.
On Tuesday, October 21st—Ursula's birthday—we'll announce the recipient of the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction! Join Theo Downes-Le Guin and guest host Ebon Moss-Bachrach on YouTube for a live announcement at 9 am PDT.
The announcement will happen here: www.youtube.com/@ursula.k.le...
A photograph of Eden Robins' novel Remember You Will Die, which rests on a black metal shelf next to a small glass vase full of greenery: red berries, green and white flowers, and a shaggy sprig of foliage.
“Profoundly mistrustful of her own legacy, Dante Pellegrino would have hated this belated obituary. But then again, such remembrances are not for the dead at all. They are for the living—the living now and the living to come. Remember us, we whisper into the ears of the future. Our mistakes have made you possible.” from Remember You Will Die by Eden Robins
🌟 Shortlisted for the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction 🌟 Remember You Will Die traces the lives of artists, activists, scientists, and more as they intersect with the existence of a yearning AI. Eden Robins weaves a polyphonic narrative that is intergenerational, art-filled, and subversive.
A copy of The City in Glass by Nghi Vo sits on a black shelf next to a small vase holding four brightly colored flowers. One of them is an orange very close to the orange of the flames on the book cover, which depicts an archway with two statues, behind which a city is in flames.
“She had been given nothing. She had taken it, and it was hers to neglect and destroy if she so chose. Her family had learned that much from watching the humans that swarmed the world, that love could be a destructive thing. The angels understood love as destruction. She had chosen a different way to love Azril, and this destruction had nothing to do with her.” from The City in Glass by Nghi Vo
🌟 Shortlisted for the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction 🌟 Nghi Vo’s latest novel, The City in Glass, is a story about deeply understanding and loving a place, and about the difficult, necessary, meaningful work required to rebuild when one’s world is irrevocably broken.
Vajra Chandrasekera (@vajra.me) introduces his second novel, Rakesfall, which is is shortlisted for the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction.
For more about this year's shortlist: www.ursulakleguin.com/prize25
When a faculty member at another institution mentions that one of your short stories was important to them when they were an undergraduate . . . guess I'm gonna turn into dust now?
I cannot tell you how much the “Thank you for your attention to this matter” thing drives me around the freaking bend.
Doing laps in the Mall of America with the seniors with zero crowds is actually kind of lovely 😂
Really fascinated at how much the evolution of criticism and how much the communities in which a writer rises (not to mention privilege and certain "badges" for entry in certain spheres) influences how much we see certain writers as SFF or something else, which is of course not just an either/or.
The last time we saw a Downton movie we were the only ones under 60 in the theater 😂 The grannies clapped at the end.
Schedule today of this 40-something writer/professor: Writing + morning coffee —> Reading Tin House workshop stories -> Downton Abbey movie (we’ve been rewatching the series in prep) —> MFA mentee zoom —> Department service prep —> Prob workshop stories —> MN Lake exercise + reading
Books by @sentencebender.bsky.social , @tochitruestory.bsky.social , @nnedi.bsky.social, @saadzhossain.bsky.social , and @sequoian.bsky.social (whose book on this list is AMAZING!)
bookriot.com/books-marryi...
This is a very 2010s Facebook style update and I'm all for it.
