The Canadian Science Fiction & Fantasy Association has announced this year’s Aurora Award ballot for works done in 2019 by Canadians. Numerous SF Canada members are included in the ballot in various categories — members are indicated by *** in the list below: Best Novel Haunting The Haunted by E. C. Bell, Tyche Books The Gossamer Mage by Julie E. Czerneda, DAW Books A Brightness Long Ago by Guy Gavriel Kay, Viking Canada The Quantum Garden by Derek Künsken, Solaris Books Jade War by Fonda Lee, Orbit Books Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia***, Del Rey Best Young Adult Novel W ..read more

SF Canada member C.J. Lavigne has just released her first novel, the urban fantasy In Veritas, published with NeWest Press. “Things that are and are not, she thinks, and the dog is a snake.” In this fantastic and fantastical debut, C.J. Lavigne concocts a wondrous realm overlaying a city that brims with civic workers and pigeons. Led by her synesthesia, Verity Richards discovers a hidden world inside an old Ottawa theatre. Within the timeworn walls live people who should not exist—people whose very survival is threatened by science, technology, and natural law. Verity must submerge herself in ..read more

In light of the impact of COVID-19 on our community of writers across Canada, SF Canada and Canadian Authors have jointly decided to offer a series of webinars at no charge to all writers, whether or not they are members of either organization. These six webinars are:   The End Is Just the Beginning Lynn Duncan Congratulations! After months (years?) of diligent effort, you have finally completed your manuscript. You celebrate briefly before it sinks in—you have no idea what to do next. Should you hire an editor? Should you approach an agent? How do you find a publisher? What is hybrid ..read more

Climate change (and how it relates to the pandemic) is on everyone’s mind these days, and trends in speculative fiction have quickly reflected that. Climate fiction, also called Cli-Fi, is a subgenre of Eco-Fiction in that it involves the direct or indirect effects of climate change in an ecologically focused story. SF Canada member Holly Schofield’s short stories about climate change usually take the optimistic approach. Her first cli-fi story was published way back in 2013 in Perihelion. In “Hurry Up and Wait”, an apocalypse survivor is initially happy that he finally is being left alone by ..read more

Congratulations to Colleen Anderson and Lisa Timpf! Each year, nominees for the Rhysling Award are selected by the membership of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. Winning works are regularly reprinted in the Nebula Awards Anthology from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc., and are considered in the SF/F/H fields to be the equivalent in poetry of the awards given for prose work — achievement awards given to poets by the writing peers of their own field of literature. Colleen’s poem, “The Storm Witch“, appeared in the Winter Solstice issue of Eternal Haunted Summer an ..read more

Background photo by Faris Mohammed [via Unsplash] SF Canada member Rebecca Diem’s latest article for Tor.com, Hopepunk and the New Science of Stress, examines the growing speculative fiction genre of hopepunk. When I first saw encountered the term “hopepunk,” I felt an immediate sense of recognition. To me, it described the state of joyful protest I aspire to: Knowing enough about the world to be absolutely furious, but choosing optimism anyway. Rebecca discusses new research into stress which may “help us to understand the positive aspects of stress and how our bodies respond to hardship.” A ..read more

SF Canada member Sally McBride’s latest story, “The Emperor of the Half-Garden”, appears in Volume 1 of The HOZ Journal of Speculative Literature (edited by Nihls Andersen and Erika Steeves with guest poetry editor Jon Parsons). Writers and poets from around the world conjure fractured dimensions, cast dark nightmares and offer alternatives to the apocalypse as they navigate to the very edges of time and back. Delving into themes of post-humanity, future-shock, and the consequences of climate change, these short stories and poems fearlessly explore what it means to be human. Alternately dark ..read more

SF member Krista D. Ball has just released the third book in her Collaborator space opera series, Rebel, following Traitor and Fugitive. Trust is the rarest of commodities. From the moment she stepped onboard Liberty’s Pleasure, Rebecca St. Martin knew something was off. Before she could sound the alarm, she was kidnapped and pulled into a conspiracy that made her question every single relationship she’d made. Even as Rebecca questioned, she looked around at her co-captives and decided it didn’t matter. She wouldn’t let anyone harm these people for one minute longer than necessary. They had n ..read more

Issue #13 of Polar Borealis, edited by SF Canada member Richard Graeme Cameron, is now out. This Canadian online science fiction magazine enters its fourth year with a bang! Read fiction and poetry by SF Canada members Lisa Timpf, Melissa Yuan-Innes, Geoffrey Hart, and Jean-Louis Trudel, along with many other fine writers. Submissions are open until the end of February — new unpublished Canadian writers are especially encouraged to submit. Authors are paid. Download this and past issues as a .pdf for free at Polar Borealis and show your support via the GoFundMe. (cover art by Lily Blaze ..read more

Age of Water, the new podcast produced by SF Canada member Nina Munteanu and writer/technologist Claudiu Murgan interviews scientists, journalists, writers, academia and innovators who share their knowledge and opinions about the real state of the environment and what committed individuals and groups are doing to make a difference. They talk about the problems and they talk about the solutions. We are now living in the Age of Water. Water is the new “gold”, with individuals, corporations and countries positioning themselves around this precious resource. Many already struggle with scarcity and ..read more