Award Eligibility Post for 2022

 

The year is drawing to its close, and it’s that time when writers make posts about their award eligibilities for the year. I had four stories published in 2022, and my first poetry publication as well. I would be honored if you took a look at any of them.

 

Eligible Stories

“An Address to the Newest Disciples of the Lost Words” in Lightspeed Magazine, January 2022 (3357 words). 

A story about a magical language that can say all things. About the power and limits of words. And it’s also almost all I want to say about writing. Stefan Rudnicki gives a marvelous narration (his voice is an exact match for my character’s!) on the accompanying podcast, so give that a listen if you can.

 

“Before We Drown” in The Future Fire, January 2022 (flash fiction, ~1000 words).

A little flash piece about memory and the light between storms. 


“Once on a Midsummer’s Night” In GigaNotoSaurus, February 2022 (~7500 words).

An epic fairy tale fantasy about a dead garden that comes to life once in a lifetime. A story about love, power, revenge, and redemption.


“The Bones Beneath” in Podcastle Magazine, June 2022 (5659 words).

A story about two little girls, about friendship and magic and friendship betrayed. About a society that descends into frenzied paranoia amid authoritarianism, and the terrible things that happen. And about the bones that refuse to lie quiet. This is perhaps the darkest thing I’ve written yet, and yes, it’s inspired by real-world events and history—far too many real-life inspirations. You can read and/or listen to the beautiful narration by Tatiana Grey.  

 

Eligible Poem

“Blood, Roses, Song” in Haven Speculative, July 2022

A dark fantasy narrative poem that mashes up various fairy tales—Rapunzel, Jack-and-the-Beanstalk, and more. I very rarely write poetry, but I spent a long time wrestling with this idea as a story, and it was only as a poem that it worked. It’s my first poem publication ever, so I’m rather proud of it.

 

Thank you to everyone who reads or has read any of my work this year!

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On memoir and things I have no experience of—A review of "Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life" by William Finnegan

I know nothing about surfing. I've never stood on a board. I've never even seen surfing done in real life (I've spent most of my life in the American Midwest. And even when I lived in Los Angeles for college, I somehow never met any surfers). Yet it came into my head to write a story that involved surfing. So I read a lot. I was interested in big-wave surfing, so I read Susan Casey's book, "The Wave." I read a lot of journalistic accounts. I watched videos online. And eventually, probably inevitably, I stumbled upon a two-part article in The New Yorker. The article is titled " Playing Doc's Games" by William Finnegan, and it was published in 1992. It is famous among surfers. The surf magazine The Inertia called it " possibly the greatest surf story ever" and a writer at The Surfer described it as "the best written piece (all 39,000 words of it) ever penned about surf culture."  I am not a surfer. Yet Wi
Read more

Short fiction recs! Oct-Nov 2023

Some stories that I read and loved, from October through November.    Fantasy “Four Words Written on My Skin” by Jenn Reese in Uncanny Magazine When the Fae stole my wife, I followed them into the dark woods to win her back.   A short but achingly sharp and lovely piece about finding what’s been lost. The Fae stole the narrator’s wife, but the narrator has been losing Jess for a long time, before the Fae ever appeared. What follows is a confrontation with the narrator’s own responsibility for that loss, for the distance that’s grown between them. And, at the end, a glimmer of hope—the decision to choose to love. Beautifully told.     “Six Versions of my Brother Found Under the Bridge,” by Eugenia Triantafyllou in Uncanny Magazine Technically it was built on top of a river that had been dredged and filled in some fifty years ago which made the ground under the bridge degraded and pretty dangerous. But rumor had it—and by rumor Olga meant Maria’s oldest cousin who had be
Read more

Short fiction recs! June-July 2024

So many beautiful, strange stories I’ve read this summer so far. Here are only a few. Strange Tales of Beauty and Horror “Markets of the Otherworld” by Rati Mehrotra in Uncanny Magazine In the Market of Illusions, I writhed on the cobblestoned street that wound between the gilded stalls, gasping for air, convinced I was a goldfish. Someone dragged me to a fountain and pushed me in, breaking the spell and—a minor point, except the water was ice cold—drenching me to the skin.   In the Cat Market, I was pursued by a large white Persian and coerced into signing away a month of my life in return for the privilege of petting her. In my dreams, I still run my fingers through her thick, beautiful fur while she leans against me and hums in pleasure. Worth it, I tell myself, even as I wonder which month of life has been taken from me.   An absolutely gorgeous, magical, and at times melancholy tale of a woman traveling through the enchanting markets of other worlds. A story that’s al
Read more