Today’s Women in SF&F Month guest is Amy Leow! Her debut novel being released on September 10 in the US and September 12 in the UK, The Scarlet Throne, is described as “a dark, heart-thumping political epic fantasy… full of scheming demons, morally grey heroines, talking cats, and cut-throat priests.” I’m thrilled she’s here today to discuss a type of character she loves—and her protagonist in the upcoming first book in The False Goddess Trilogy—in “Villains, Grey Areas, and What Women Can and Cannot Be.” Illustration by Nica Galvez Villains, Grey Areas, and What Women Can and Cannot Be ..read more

Week three of the thirteenth annual Women in SF&F Month starts tomorrow. Thank you so much to all of last week’s guests for another wonderful week of essays! There will be new guest posts on Monday and Wednesday of this week and a book giveaway on Friday. But first, before announcing the schedule, here are last week’s pieces in case you missed any of them. All of the guest posts from April 2024 can be found here, and last week’s guest posts were: “Using Fiction to Empower Girls in STEM” — Amber Chen (Of Jade and Dragons, “Hugging the Buddha’s Feet“) discussed fictional representation of ..read more

Today’s Women in SF&F Month guest is Genoveva Dimova! Both books in The Witch’s Compendium of Monsters, her Bulgarian folklore–inspired fantasy duology described as “The Witcher meets Naomi Novik,” are coming out this year: her debut novel, Foul Days, on June 25 and the sequel, Monstrous Nights, on October 22. I’m delighted she’s here today to discuss her favorite character to write, some influences, and representation of older women in “Female mentors in fantasy.” Cover Artist: Rovina Cai Cover Designer: Jamie Stafford-Hill Female mentors in fantasy People occasionally as ..read more

Today’s Women in SF&F Month guest is Gabriella Buba! Her short fiction includes “Dying Rivers and Broken Hearts” and “A Unified Explanation for Elven Urbanization and Associated Morphological Changes,” and her first novel, Saints of Storm and Sorrow, is being released on June 25. The first installment in a Filipino-inspired epic fantasy duology, The Stormbringer Saga, her book is described as featuring “a bisexual nun hiding a goddess-given gift [who] is unwillingly transformed into a lightning rod for her people’s struggle against colonization.” I’m excited she is here to discuss one of ..read more

Tomorrow marks the start of the second week of the thirteenth annual Women in SF&F Month. Thank you so much to all of last week’s guests for making it an excellent first week! There will be more guest posts on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday this week, too. Before announcing the schedule, here are last week’s essays in case you missed any of them. All of the guest posts from April 2024 can be found here, and last week’s guest posts were: “The WIP of Theseus” — Samantha Mills (The Wings Upon Her Back, “Rabbit Test“) discussed the heart of story and some questions about change and transforma ..read more

Today’s Women in SF&F Month guest is speculative fiction author Eliza Chan! Her short fiction has appeared in The Dark, Fantasy Magazine, PodCastle, and other publications, and her work includes stories selected for the Locus Recommended Reading List (“Weaving in the Bamboo“) and The Best of British Fantasy 2019 (“Joss Papers for Porcelain Ghosts“), as well as a British Fantasy Award finalist (“The Tails That Make You“). Fathomfolk, her fantasy debut novel inspired by East Asian mythology and ocean-related folktales, was released in February, and I’m thrilled she’s here today with “Into t ..read more

Today’s Women in SF&F Month guest is speculative fiction author Premee Mohamed! Her short fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies, including The Book of Witches and Robotic Ambitions: Tales of Mechanical Sentience; in Slate‘s Future Tense Fiction series of stories about science and technology; and in many publications, including Analog, Escape Pod, Fireside, and PodCastle. She is also the author of several longer works, such as the Aurora Award–winning post-apocalyptic novella The Annual Migration of Clouds, the Nebula and World Fantasy Award–winning novella And What Can We ..read more

Women in SF&F Month opens today with a guest post by Nebula and Locus Award–winning author Samantha Mills—and a giveaway of her upcoming science fantasy debut novel, The Wings Upon Her Back! Her short fiction has been published in Strange Horizons, Uncanny Magazine, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and others, and her stories have appeared on the Locus Recommended Reading List and the BSFA Awards longlist. “Rabbit Test,” her most recent short story, won the Nebula Award, the Locus Award, and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, and it was included in The Best American Science Fiction & Fanta ..read more

Though this is later than usual, I once again scoured the internet looking for information on speculative fiction books that are scheduled for release this year and put together a list of works that I wanted to highlight. Just like the last few years, it was hard to keep the number of books featured in this annual post to a somewhat reasonable number given that there is so much coming out that sounds interesting. Yet after finding as much as I could on various titles when looking through descriptions, articles on the book or author, excerpts, and early reviews, I managed to narrow down this ye ..read more

If you’re a longtime visitor of this site, you’re probably aware of just how much I love Patricia A. McKillip’s writing, particularly her novels The Changeling Sea and The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, which are two of my favorite books ever. Given that, I am delighted to have one hardcover copy of the upcoming 50th anniversary edition of The Forgotten Beasts of Eld to give away, courtesy of Tachyon Publications. Available in both hardcover and digital formats on February 29, this new edition of the beloved World Fantasy Award–winning novel contains art by Stephanie Law and an introduction by Marjo ..read more