Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield Silver Under Nightfall by Rin Chupeco Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin Dying for You by Jenny Frame Harsh Reality by Elle E. Ire What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher BOYS, BEASTS & MEN by Sam J. Miller Bite Me! (You Know I Like It) by Fae Quin Cougar Woods by Tiana Warner All the White Spaces by Ally Wilkes
They’re bright, they’re colorful, and they’re doing the meaningful work of ensnaring a potential reader’s eye. These are the boldest and most original book covers of the year, as selected by BookPage’s designer.
Samuel R. Delany Fellowship recipient Naseem Jamnia’s fantastic debut novella THE BRUISING OF QILWA elicits rave reviews from Jo Ladzinski on their Jo Writers Fantasy blog and at More Books Please. Publishers Weekly reports that in her keynote speech for Children’s Institute 10, Charlie Jane Anders gave the book a shout out.
Dense, nuanced, with characters who are trying their best in a complex cultural and political framework that ponders what trying one’s best on behalf of themselves and those around them.
Overall, this was a fantastic way to be inclusive and tell a unique story. However, I think authors should note how to handle pronouns from book. This was fantastic, and I would love to read more from Naseem Jamnia!
In addition to sharing anecdotes and writing advice, Anders boosted other SFF authors. She directed attendees to her Goodreads site and recommended Maggie Tokuda-Hall (The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea), Naseem Jamnia (THE BRUISING OF QILWA), Neil Cochrane (The Story of the Hundred Promises), and Megan Giddings (The Women Could Fly). Her talk, both genuine and generous, received a standing ovation from the audience.
In an interview with PEN AMERICA, Rivers Solomon mentioned Lemberg and THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES when asked “Which writers working today are you most excited by?”
I love R.B Lemberg, whose novella THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES is forthcoming from Tachyon in 2020. Lyrical and unflinching.
On METAFILTER, Lemberg is mentioned several times in the conversations titled “3 months drinking from the firehose of trans literature/art/poetry/music.” In the beginning post, user protondonor list works by trans people in the order that they finished reading them. Interestingly enough the list begins with Lemberg’s “Grandmother-nai-Leylit’s Cloth of Winds” and finishes with Lemberg’s “The Desert Glassmaker and the Jeweler of Berevyar.”
Coming up next year, I’ve read ARC’s of Lemberg’s THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES, Daniel Ortberg (now Lavery)’s Something That May Shock and Discredit You, and Julian Jarboe’s Everyone on the Moon is Essential Personnel, and so I can say with confidence that 2020 is gonna be a GREAT year for transmasc writing.
