Tag: poetry

2024 Award Eligibility & Year in Review

December 15, 2024

It’s that time of year again. No, not talking about Christmas (though, early Merry Christmas to those who celebrate). It’s award eligibility season!

In 2024, I published three short stories and will have one poem forthcoming in the tail end of the year:

  • “Blood and Desert Dreams” (short story) in Beneath Ceaseless Skies: Kahna’s blood is poison, fatal to anyone who touches just one drop. Raised in the household of the ambitious Lady Darya, Kahna is trained as an assassin, using her unique power to eliminate Lady Darya’s enemies. Kahna is more than willing to anything for Lady Darya, but as the weight of her crimes pile up, Kahna’s world—and mind—begin to fracture. Read online.
  • “The Last Fugu House of Shimonoseki” (short story) in F(r)iction: Ayami is Shimonoseki’s last fugu chef. In a world where virtual reality has taken over, real life experiences—from natural wonders to historical architecture to fine dining—have become obsolete. Now, on the closing day of Sushi Maekawa, Ayami must make her final meals of deadly pufferfish and figure out what is next for her life and career. Read online.
  • “House of Jade Lions” (short story) in Other: the 2024 speculative fiction anthology: A noble family is trapped in a nightmarish house by (maybe) the decorative jade lions hanging from the ceilings. In the House of Jade Lions, Eldest Sister dangles from the balcony, Mother kills Father every evening, and the narrator is shrinking into a doll. The narrator reflects on all that led them here, including Mother’s ambition and his own wish for the family to stay unchanging forever. Get the book.
  • “Cthulhu on the Shores of Osaka” (poem) in Invitation: A One-Shot Anthology of Speculative Fiction: This one’s not out yet, but TDotSpec is endeavouring to have the anthology out before end of the year. I will update the post with the link to the anthology as soon as it’s released. As for the contents… well, the title is self-explanatory. (EDIT: Invitation was released December 29, 2024. Get the book: Amazon.com, Amazon.ca)

Awards and How to Support

Some awards I am eligible for:

  • The Hugo Awards: Nominations will open in early 2025. To nominate, a person would need to purchase a membership to the World Science Fiction Society before January 31, 2025, or to have been a member during Glasgow Worldcon in 2024. After nominations close, voting will be open to all members of Seattle Worldcon in 2025. My short stories are eligible for the Best Short Story category, and my poem will be eligible for Best Poem—a special category in the 2025 Seattle Worldcon.
  • The Nebula Awards: Full, Associate, and Senior Members of Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) can nominate and vote for the Nebula Awards. My short stories are eligible for the Short Story category.
  • The Aurora Awards: Award for the best Canadian science fiction and fantasy of the year. Members of the Canadian Science Fiction & Fantasy Association are allowed to nominate and vote. My short stories are eligible for the Best Short Story category, and my poem will be eligible for Best Poem/Song.

What you can do to support:

  • If you would like to participate in the Hugo Awards: Become a member of the World Science Fiction Society. You don’t need to attend Worldcon to be a member; basic membership grants you the right to nominate if purchased before end of January 2025, and the right to vote.
  • If you are a member of Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America: Nominate my short stories.
  • If you are Canadian: Become a member of the Canadian Science Fiction & Fantasy Association to nominate and vote. As a side note, membership gets you access to digital copies of the works on the shortlists, so think of it as getting an ultra-affordable ebook package.

2024 in Review

2024 has been a year of novelty and reconnection. I ventured into things I hadn’t done before, or resumed activities I’d let fall by the wayside. These include:

  • Ran a successful Kickstarter for my fantasy short story collection, All the Broken Blades
  • Started my newsletter.
  • Opened my Instagram account and resumed being active on Twitter / X
  • Reunited with my love for photography and photo-editing
  • Began updating this blog again regularly

It’s been an adventurous year. Next year, hopefully, will bring even bigger and better things. In the meantime, I will continue working on proofreading and book creation for All the Broken Blades.

“The Cosmos Chronicler” out now in Polar Borealis

April 7, 2018

Polar Borealis #6 available now! (Art by Jean-Pierre Normand)

My SFF poem “The Cosmos Chronicler” is out now in Polar Borealis #6 (April/May 2018 issue). This is, to sound all pretentious, my first piece of published creative writing. (Seriously, never even published in a school journal before.) Issue #6 is available as a free PDF download. And you can find all Polar Borealis issues here.

When I wrote it during undergrad, “The Cosmos Chronicler” started as a rhyming poem. My alma mater offered two astronomy classes for math-challenged art students: one about the sun and solar system, the other about galaxies and the universe. Being a big dreamer, a fantasy writer, and–most importantly–a full-time student who must consider how courses fit into her schedule, I chose the latter.

I discovered my poem actually aligned nicely with some images and concepts from astronomy. And to squeeze them in, I would not be able to keep the rhyme scheme. So I rewrote the poem as freeverse. I didn’t submit it anywhere though–back then I only submitted short stories. Though I’ve been writing poetry since forever, I only recently started submitting it. Thankfully, this poem found a home.

A cursory look through the Polar Borealis website will tell you that editor R. Graeme Cameron is very passionate about promoting new Canadian authors of science fiction and fantasy. If you like the magazine, the issue, or the stories or poems in the other issues, you can donate to Polar Borealis to contribute to future issues. Graeme explains it much better there than I can possibly do here.

Finally, before I end this too-long-for-a-short-poem blog post: I want to give a shout-out to Lena Ng, my friend, writing group buddy, and sparring-partner-in-vicious-critique. She has a story in the same issue, and I highly recommend it. It’s called “Kittens Crawling.” Sounds adorable, doesn’t it…?

 

“The Cosmos Chronicler” forthcoming in Polar Borealis

March 16, 2018

Polar Borealis Magazine

My poem “The Cosmos Chronicler” will appear in Polar Borealis #6. The issue is scheduled for a spring 2018 release, and will be available as a free PDF download. Appearing in the same issue will be my friend Lena Ng, which makes this extra special.

Another thing that makes it special: Assuming (hoping, praying) all goes according to schedule, this will be my first published piece of either story or poetry.

The full impact hasn’t quite hit me. Maybe it will when it’s out. The past several months have been wonderful… and very, very strange. I went from ten years of rejections to several acceptances within a few months (idea for a future blog post: that rejection mountain). Not that I’m complaining—I know full well how incredible this is. It just feels surreal, more “is this really happening?” and less “this-is-happening-and-I’m-going-to-run-around-screaming!”

It may be a little odd, that my first publication will be a poem. But it’s fitting. Generally, I think of myself as a storyteller more than a poet. Telling stories is something I’ve done for as long as I can remember. Poetry I started doing in a more normal way, the way most kids start: with school assignments. (Some I went completely overboard for. Such as writing seven-page epics before I got out of elementary school. How and why did I do that? I can barely write an epic now.)

However, if you were to ask me which I started writing first, poetry or prose… I wouldn’t be able to tell you. Until I was ten I didn’t write my stories down. I’m not sure which came first: my poem about Christmas fairies or my Anne of Green Gables rip-off first chapter (Hey, I was ten!). So in a way poetry influenced me to write things rather than just imagine them.

Now I shall climb out of the nostalgia tunnel. More announcements soon, for short stories!