The latest reviews and mentions of Tachyon titles and authors from around the web

In conjunction with them winning the 2023 Judith A. Markowitz Award for Exceptional New LGBTQ Writers, Emmanuel Henderson on Lambda Literary shared Four Questions with Naseem Jamnia.

How has access to queer literature/queer stories impacted your life as a queer person and shaped you as a queer writer?

When I was growing up, the closest I saw my gender portrayed in stories was with the “girl disguises herself as a boy to do the thing” trope, a la Mulan and Tamora Pierce’s Alanna books. I had to resort to fanfiction to explore queerness in terms of sexuality (and even then, rarely or never saw a portrayal of someone on the asexual spectrum). Much of my own writing growing up explored these issues inadvertently and vaguely, as I did not know what I was exploring at the time. However, once terms like “nonbinary” or understanding of transness outside a binary entered the public lexicon in the last 10-ish years, the wealth of queer literature we’ve seen explicitly including various identities has made a world of difference, helping me to understand and embrace my own various identities, which has since allowed me to live as my truest self. With this clearer understanding, I’ve taken the lack of what I saw growing up to turn into what I wish I had seen and where I wish we can go in the future. I’m grateful so many queer books exist now for kids and adults alike to explore the multiplicity of queer experiences.

Bookshine and Readbows enjoys their first Jane Yolen experience with THE SCARLET CIRCUS.

All of the stories are well-written and the whole collection makes a lovely taster for newcomers to this author’s work. While I hadn’t read any of her stories before, I certainly will be in future!

Anna Davis for RT Book Reviews includes Patricia A. McKillip’s THE FORGOTTEN BEASTS OF ELD among 32 Gripping Epic Fantasy Books To Transport You To Another World.

• The writing is beautiful.
• Plenty of moral questions to leave you thinking.

The June 2023 issue Clarkesworld features a “The Moon Rabbi,” a new short story by David Ebenbach.

“Are there even Jews on the Moon?” I asked.

“I’m on the Moon, Hava,” Ilana said, sitting across from me in my little Earth living room. “Usually,” she added.

“Well, that’s one.” I drank a sip of my coffee and held the mug in front of my chin sort of defensively. And yet, to be honest, I was already feeling an energy building inside me. An excitement.

Or maybe relief?

“No, really—there are more of us than you would think,” Ilana said. “But that’s not even the point.”

“Jews aren’t the point of asking me to be the Moon Rabbi,” I verified.