Locus 2025 Year in Review
2025 wasn’t a great year for me – both reading-wise and life-wise. I didn’t reach my Goodreads goal, complete any reading challenges, or check out as many new authors as I usually do. Much of my time was spent, instead, in the silent, sterilized waiting rooms of hospitals, frantically praying for good news, or adjusting to a new routine of caregiving at home. Naturally, …Read More
NNEDI OKORAFOR was born April 8, 1974 in Cincinnati OH to Nigerian/Igbo immigrant parents. She received a master’s degree in journalism at Michigan State University and a PhD in English at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and later worked as an associate professor at Chicago State University and the State University of New York. She attended the Clarion Writers Workshop in 2001 and, in 2024, she was inducted into …Read More
SFF in 2025: Some Reasons Not to Just Go Back to Bed
I suspect that, like many others, I achieved my annual quota of dystopias and horror stories simply by making the unfortunate choice of being awake during much of 2025. Fortunately or not, little such fiction came my way in terms of reviewing – I did get a lot of publishers’ promo letters urging me to escape the bad …Read More
KAMILAH COLE was born in Jamaica and raised in America. She graduated New York University and now lives in the Pacific Northwest. Her first novel, So Let Them Burn (2024), was shortlisted for a Dragon Award, a Lambda Award, and a Lodestar Award, and a sequel, This Ends in Embers, was published in 2025. Her speculative short fiction was included in the anthology The Secret Romantic’s Book of Magic …Read More
TOM HOLT was born in London, England in 1961. He was first published at age 12 with a book of poems (and was briefly a media sensation). He studied at Oxford University as well as The College of Law in London, and he worked for several years as a solicitor before shifting to writing full-time, often under the pseudonym K.J. Parker.
Holt’s first novel, Expecting Someone Taller, was published …Read More
Crises precipitate change. Before Russia’s despicable invasion of Ukraine, Europe’s transition to zero carbon energy lagged a decade behind schedule. Three years later, Europe has surged well over a decade ahead of schedule in their solar transition, and the process is only accelerating. It turns out that all the intractable obstacles to rapid, total technological transition just melt away when you’re shivering in the dark thanks to the aggression of …Read More
Matthew Kressel, C.W. Rose, Paula Bomer, and Crissa-Jean Chappell read at the Barrow’s Intense Tasting Room in Industry City, Brooklyn NY on October 21, 2025 as part of the Brooklyn Books & Booze Reading series, hosted by Amy Goldschlager.
Photographer: Amy Goldschlager …Read More
BETHANY JACOBSwas born August 31, 1982 in Redlands CA and grew up in San Jose. She went on to earn a PhD in American Literature from the University of Oregon in 2014, where she taught writing and science fiction. She left academia in 2019 to work in educational technology to have more time to write. Her debut novel, These Burning Stars (2023), became a 2024 Philip K. Dick Award …Read More
DAVE HUTCHINSON was born in 1960 in Sheffield, South Yorkshire in England. He attended the University of Nottingham and went on to write for The Dundee Courier and The Weekly News as a journalist for many years.
Hutchinson’s earliest published fiction was his collection Thumbprints (1979), and he has written more than fifty short fiction pieces since, some published in collections such as Torn Air (1980), As the Crow …Read More
EDEN ROYCE was born August 5, 1973 in Pennsylvania and grew up in Charleston SC. She currently lives in Southeast England with her husband and cat.
Royce has published over 50 short stories, starting with 9 Mystery Rose (2010). She received a Diverse Worlds Grant in 2016. Root Magic (2021), her middle-grade debut, won an Ignyte Award, a Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, and a Walter Award Honor, and was a …Read More
JOSEPH HILLSTRÖM KINGwas born June 4, 1972 in Bangor, Maine, son of writers Stephen & Tabitha King. He attended Vassar College, earning a degree in English in 1995. He married Leanora Legrand in 1998 (divorced 2010), and they have three children. In 2015, he married editor Gillian Redfearn, and they have twins.
He chose to write under the pen name Joe Hill to obscure the connection to his famous …Read More
Who are we to blame for enshittification? That is, who is at fault for the pandemic of platform decay, in which the platforms we depend on, where we congregate, trade, perform, sell, buy, connect, love, argue, and mobilize are all turning into piles of shit, all at once?
50 years of neoliberal canon says that we have to blame consumers. You, me, and everyone we know cast ballots in an …Read More
Cristina Bencina is an award-winning artist and illustrator living in Aurora, Colorado. Born on Long Island, New York, she studied illustration and received her BFA at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.
Cristina has worked on a wide range of projects including wraparound dust jackets, book covers, interior narrative book illustrations, portraiture, album covers, advertising illustrations, conceptual artwork, and more. She has happily worked with many self-published …Read More
Steven Van Patten, Nicholas Kaufmann, Auston Habershaw, and Mimi Mondal read at the Barrow’s Intense Tasting Room in Industry City, Brooklyn NY on August 19, 2025 as part of the Brooklyn Books & Booze Reading series, hosted by Randee Dawn.
The September 17, 2025 event featured readers Kailee Pedersen, Randee Dawn, Liz Gotauco, David Mack.
For information about upcoming events, visit their website.
Photographer: Randee Dawn …Read More
DANIEL H. WILSONwas born in Tulsa OK in 1978, a Cherokee citizen. He grew up in North Tulsa and went to the University of Tulsa for a B.S. in Computer Science, and then Carnegie Mellon University, where he received a PhD in Robotics and Master’s degrees in Machine Learning and Robotics. He now lives in Portland OR with his family.
Wilson’s earliest works were humorous science nerd non-fiction: How …Read More
KEN LIUwas born in China and grew up in the US. He was an English major at Harvard and, after graduation, worked in technology for several years, including time at Microsoft as an engineer and at a startup in Cambridge. He attended Harvard Law School. After practicing law for a number of years and a stint as a litigation consultant, he now writes full-time.
His first story, The Carthaginian …Read More
CLARION
The Clarion workshopran from June 6-August 19, 2025 in La Jolla CA. Their 2025 faculty included Elizabeth Bear, Premee Mohamed, Cadwell Turnbull, Annalee Newitz, Jedediah Berry, Gennarose Nethercott, and Jac Jamc (faculty director).
ALPHA WORKSHOP FOR YOUNG WRITERS
The 2025Alpha Workshop for Young Writersworkshopran from July 16-July 27, 2025 at the University of Pittsburgh in Greenburg PA. Their lecturers were Mark Oshiro, Cassandra Khaw, Marie Brennan, and Lee Mandelo. …Read More
Ra Page is the CEO and Founder of Comma Press, as well as the founder of the Northern Fiction Alliance (a support mechanism for indie presses in the North). He has edited or overseen all of Comma’s titles (some 150+ titles to date), including award winning anthologies like The New Uncanny (winner of the 2008 Shirley Jackson Award) as well as anthologies for other publishers, such as The City …Read More
YUME KITASEI was born October 14, 1987 in New York City and grew up in New York and Tokyo. She graduated from Stuyvesant High School and Princeton University. Her first work of genre interest was Super (2019). Her novels include debut The Deep Sky (2023), a post-climate-apocalypse murder mystery set in space, and The Stardust Grail (2024), an anticolonial space heist. She has also published short fiction in New …Read More
Gen Con Writers Symposium was held July 30 – August 3, 2025 at the Indianapolis Marriott Downtown as part of the larger Gen Con gaming convention. John Scalzi was the guest of honor, Nilah Magruder was a special guest, and Naomi Novik was a featured guest. Organized by Maurice Broaddus, along with project manager Olivia Sailor, head of operations Matt Jarchow, head of communications Gini Koch, and others, the event …Read More
CADWELL WILBUR TURNBULL, JR.was born August 12, 1987, in Chevy Chase MD and moved to his parents’ home island of Saint Thomas in the US Virgin Islands when he was a month old. He grew up there, then moved to Pittsburgh PA to attend La Roche University, where he earned a degree in Professional Writing. After graduating he returned to St. Thomas for a year, where he worked as …Read More
Readercon 34 was held July 17-20, 2025, in Burlington MA at the Boston Marriott Burlington. Guests of honor were authors Cecilia Tan and P. Djèlí Clark; Charles R. Saunders was the memorial guest of honor. Readercon 34 had a total of 653 registrations with 510 warm bodies on Friday, 610 on Saturday, and 585 on Sunday, compared to 2024’s 700 members and peak of 596 warm bodies. The focus …Read More
Mike Allen, Martin Cahill, Taran Hunt, and Ilana C. Myer read at the Barrow’s Intense Tasting Room in Industry City, Brooklyn NY on July 15, 2025 as part of the Brooklyn Books & Booze Reading series, hosted by Randee Dawn.
Photographer: Randee Dawn
While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time or recurring donation. We rely on reader donations to keep the magazine and …Read More
Science fiction’s superpower isn’t thinking up new technologies – it’s thinking up new social arrangements for technology. What the gadget does is nowhere near as important as who the gadget does it for and who it does it to. Your car can use a cutting-edge computer vision system to alert you when you’re drifting out of your lane – or it can use that same system to narc you out …Read More
The Sycamore Hill Writers Conference was held at the Wildacres Retreat in Little Switzerland NC, June 14-20, 2025.
Photographer: Abigail Varne
While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time or recurring donation. We rely on reader donations to keep the magazine and site going, and would like to keep the site paywall free, but WE NEED YOUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT to continue quality coverage of …Read More
MICHAEL BLANK was born in Odesa, Ukraine, and emigrated to the US in 1990. He earned a BFA from the School of Visual Arts in 2001. His illustrations appeared in Soman Chainani’s The School for Good and Evil: Ever Never Handbook (HarperCollins, 2016). Since then, he has focused on personal work, exploring themes of darkness, light, and the cyclicality of life – often using animals depicting complex feelings. His …Read More
StokerCon, sponsored by the Horror Writers Association (HWA), was held June 12–15, 2025 both virtually and in person at the Hilton Stamford Hotel in Stamford CT. Guests of honor were Scott Edelman, Paula Guran, Adam Nevill, Joyce Carol Oates, Gaby Triana, and Tim Waggoner. The Stoker Awards were hosted by Kevin Wetmore Jr., and this year’s Lifetime Achievement Awards recipients were David Cronenberg and Del & Sue Howison. The …Read More
ALEXANDER BOLDIZARwas born in Košice, Czechoslovakia, in 1971, and escaped with his family through Yugoslavia in 1979. After six months in an Austrian refugee camp, they gained asylum in Canada. He became a Canadian citizen in 1983. After high school in Ottawa, he attended McGill University, graduating in 1994. He went on to Harvard Law School, where he was the first postindependence Slovak citizen to graduate with a Juris …Read More
The 2025 Locus Awards were held on June 21, online and in-person at Nile Hall in Oakland CA. Author Gail Carriger emceed the ceremony, with authors Tochi Onyebuchi and Sarah Gailey as guests of honor and keynote speakers, joined by featured local author Kemi Ashing-Giwa and featured local artist Stephanie Law. The awards ceremony wrapped up the Locus Awards Weekend, a larger celebration including readings, panels, and conversation running …Read More
Westercon 77/BayCon 2025 was held July 4-7, 2025 in person at the Santa Clara Marriott in Santa Clara CA. Alyc Helms & Marie Brennan (who write together as M.A. Carrick), LaWana Richmond, J.K. Woodward, Sasha Graham, Spotted Giraffe, and Catherine Mary Stewart were guests of honor, Audrey T. Williams was poet-in-residence, and Stacy Meyn and Tracy Newby were community guests. The theme was ”A Convenient Parallel Dimension.”
Programming included …Read More
SILVIA MORENO-GARCIAwas born April 25, 1981 in Baja California, Mexico, and grew up in various places throughout the country. She attended Endicott College in Massachusetts, where she studied communications, then returned to Mexico, where she married her husband; they immigrated to Canada and have two children. She studied journalism in Canada and earned a Master’s in Science and Technology Studies from the University of British Columbia.
Moreno-Garcia and Paula …Read More
The 11th annual Bay Area Book Festival took place from May 31 – June 1, 2025 in downtown Berkeley CA. Free to the public and staffed by a host of volunteers, the festival included interviews, panels, readings, and events for adults, teens, and children on a range of topics across the literary spectrum. Over 250 writers participated on 11 stages, with authors of genre interest including Isabel Allende, Christopher Moore, …Read More
