News

Publications

Wondering where to send your latest short SFF masterpiece?

• First of all, don't sleep on Fission, the BSFA's own brand new fiction publication, ed. Allen Stroud. Fission is planned as an annual publication, and our next submissions window will be in late 2020 or early 2021.
• Ralan.com is a fantastic resource. Don't be misled by that gorgeous 90s decor: it's regularly and reliably updated (never change, Ralan!).
• Locus is also a great source of industry news, and contains a lot of reviews of short SFF that might give you ideas of where to explore further. Locus also does a regular year-in-review of major SFF magazines.
• Submission Grinder is a sort of crowdsourced tool where writers can collectively keep track of publication response times. Duotrope is the other big market listing / submission tracker.
• This Facebook group is devoted to posting calls for submissions.
• You might also be interested in the Science Fiction Writers' Association's list of "qualifying markets". There's a note that this list is slated to change in format soon. Qualifying markets must have circulations of 1000+ and pay 8c/word, and meet some other criteria.
• And for just a few quick ideas, here's a recent-ish listicle by Annie Neugebauer, '20 Places to Submit Your Speculative Short Stories.'

Crit circles, workshops, courses, retreats

Looking to be part of a community of writers and develop your craft?

• The BSFA runs the Orbiter writing groups, a series of online workshops, free to BSFA members.
• "Milford is a gathering of authors who write speculative fiction (in its widest sense).  It is not a school for beginners; there are no "teachers" or "students". It is not an elitist in-group. Invitations are extended to any SF author — from relative newcomers to those may only dimly recall what rejection slips look like." Founded in 1956 or 1972, depending how you count it. Elsewhere, of course, there's also Clarion West and Clarion, the Milfords of the USA.
• Arvon residential writing courses and retreats
• Odyssey writing workshops
• And of course the BSFA publishes Focus, our magazine for writers, which is a kind of community in itself
• The Science Fiction Foundation Masterclass is an intensive short course on writing criticism (although of great interest to fiction writers too)
• Nottingham Writers Studio

Local groups

• Birmingham SF Group
• Glasgow Writers' Circle
• Northwrite
• Bristol Writers Group
• North Bristol Writers
• Clockhouse London Writers

There are of course many more. If you've got a special group you'd like to mention, please comment (or email and we'll add it).

We are excited to announce the contents of the inaugural issue of Fission, ed. Allen Stroud:

• 'The Aminals Marched in Two By Two' by Syeda Fatima Muhammad
• 'A Pall of Moondust' by Nick Wood
• 'Lyonesses' by So Mayer
• 'The Lego Calf' by Jon Bilbao (trans. from the Spanish)
• 'The Witch and the Elderman' by Peter Haynes
• 'The Trip' by Michael Crouch
• 'Etaerio' by Rosie Oliver
• 'The First and Last Safe Place' by C. John Arthur
• 'Here' by Gene Rowe
• 'The Blood Between Us' by Katherine Franklin
• 'Wanderlust' by Eugen Bacon & E. Don Harp
• 'Time Keep' by Elad Haber
• 'Power of Attorney' by Louis Evans
• 'I Love Google Maps / Death to Google Part 1' by Paul Beacon

So Mayer's 'Lyonesses' will also be translated into Spanish for Celsius.

For a little more info, see the latest newsletter.

Members of the BSFA and those registered for ConFusion 2021 — this year's Eastercon — should now have received a link to their ballot, plus a digital copy of the Awards Booklet. (If you are a member of the BSFA or ConFusion, but have not received a ballot email, please contact Luke Nicklin, BSFA Membership Officer: membership@bsfa.co.uk).

A physical copy of the awards booklet will be mailed later this month to members of the BSFA, together with Vector #293.

The BSFA Awards will be presented at ConFusion, which will be held online 2-5th April 2021. Voting will close at noon on the day the awards ceremony is held (likely to be Saturday 3 April; watch this space for confirmation).

A physical copy of the awards booklet will be mailed later this month to members of the BSFA, together with Vector #293.

After a flurry of planning activity, we are pleased to launch three calls for submissions for three special themed issues of Vector. All submissions will also be considered for Focus, the BSFA's writing magazine, edited by Dev Agarwal.

• SFF and Class, guest-edited by Nick Hubble
• SFF and Justice, guest-edited by Stewart Hotston
• Greek SFF, guest-edited by Phoenix Alexander

Vector and Focus are also open to general submissions on a rolling basis. For more information, please see the Vector site. 

With the launch of the new website, the BSFA is also pleased to be implementing one of five diversity and anti-racism motions passed by the membership at the last AGM (August 2020).

The BSFA will be partnering with the African Speculation Fiction Society, the Africa Reading Group, the London Chinese Science Fiction Group, Bubble Tea Writers, AfroFutures UK, CoFutures, and potentially other organisations, to make a number of BSFA memberships (initially thirty) freely available to members of these organisations (for UK residents) or at reduced rates (for those living in the EU, Commonwealth, and UN Least Developed Countries). We have chosen these partners in the hope of making BSFA membership more diverse and representative, as well as to strengthen ties and perhaps building toward future collaborations.

BSFA members can participate in our writers groups (Orbiters), receive our print publications (Vector, Focus, Fission, and the BSFA Awards booklet), nominate and vote in the BSFA Awards, and inform the direction of the BSFA by participating at Annual General Meetings. Memberships available through the participating organisations are available both to existing BSFA members who are renewing, and to those joining for the first time.

We recognise that in the case of some partner organisations, "membership" may be quite loosely defined. If you are in any doubt about taking a membership, please feel free to do so. We're leaving it up to applicants' individual judgments, and we won't be filtering or policing in any way.

We are pleased to be joined by many kindred SFF organisations who are placing diversity, decoloniality, and racial justice at the heart of their thinking and policy, e.g.:

• London Science Fiction Research Community
• Science Fiction Writers of America (lots of useful links)
• Science Fiction Research Association
• Decolonising Utopia Resource List

We recognise that the terminology of diversity in particular, while widely recognised and generally signalling good intentions, is also justifiably controversial. Like other umbrella terminology (including PoC, BAME, BIPOC, and VME), it can be useful in building coalitions and in formulating policy to resist systemic racism, but can also erase distinctive identities and histories, or feel alienating, condescending, or exclusionary. It may also implicitly perpetuate the sense of whiteness as a reality that exists independent of the specific histories, politics, and economics that have produced and continue to produce whiteness.

As Saeed et al. (2019) put it: "We will continue to be dissatisfied with these words until we live in a world where race is not something that can shape your life experiences, and then these terms won’t matter at all. But we don’t yet live in that world." Meaning is always plural, and shifts across contexts and over time, so sensitivity, adaptability, and open-mindedness — including a willingness to adopt language while it is useful, and let it go when it's not! — allows imperfect tools to build a better present and a better future.

With this initiative, we are implementing the membership's decision to "offer support-in-kind to BAME fans of science fiction." For more information about the other four recently passed motions, please see this post on the Vector site. We welcome queries and ideas from anyone who would like to get involved. In particular, we are seeking to appoint a Diversity Officer; if you are interested in finding out more about this role, please get in touch with our Chair Allen Stroud at chair@bsfa.co.uk. We are also seeking to appoint several Councillors for a more arms-length role in steering the Association. 

The BSFA will also be establishing a Participation Fund, and will soon be seeking donations to make available even more Community Memberships, as well as to provide financial assistance for convention and conference attendance.

Finally, if you are involved with running an organisation or group that would like to query about Community Memberships, or explore other collaborative initiatives with the BSFA, please get in touch! This includes scholarly, fan, and writers groups in the UK, EU, and around the world.

The British Science Fiction Association is delighted to announce the shortlist of nominees for the 2020 BSFA Awards. The BSFA Awards have been presented annually since 1970. The current categories have been in place since 2001. The awards are voted on by members of the British Science Fiction Association and by the members of the year’s Eastercon, the national science fiction convention, held since 1955. This year Eastercon, ConFusion, will be held online 2nd-5th April 2021, where the winners will be announced.

The BSFA Awards ceremony will be free to attend for all BSFA members, all members of Eastercon, and all shortlisted nominees: details will be released closer to the date. Members of the BSFA will additionally receive a PDF with excerpts of many of the nominated works in advance of the convention, and a physical copy of the Awards Booklet at a later date. If you are not currently a member of the BSFA and are interested in joining, you can do so here.

Best Artwork

Fangorn, Covers of Robot Dreams series, NewCon Press.

Iain Clark, Shipbuilding Over the Clyde, Art for Glasgow in 2024 WorldCon bid.

Ruby Gloom, Cover of Nikhil Singh's Club Ded, Luna Press Publishing.

Sinjin Li, Cover of Eli Lee’s, A Strange and Brilliant Light, Jo Fletcher Books.

Four Black Lives Matter Murals in AR

Nani Walker, Four Black Lives Matter Murals in AR. Using drone photogrammetry, Nani Sahra Walker produced 3-D models of four Black Lives Matter murals as memorials to George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others killed by police. Published by the Los Angeles Times in collaboration with RYOT and reported by Dorany Pineda.

The virtual artworks can be accessed at www.yahoo.com/immersive/blm-murals.html?site=latimes.

Best Short Fiction (under 40,000 words)

• Eugen M. Bacon, Ivory's Story, Newcon Press.
• Anne Charnock, 'All I Asked For,' Fictions, Healthcare and Care Re-Imagined. Edited by Keith Brookes, at Future Care Capital.
• Dilman Dila, 'Red_Bati', Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction From Africa and the African Diaspora, Aurelia Leo. Edited by Zelda Knight and Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki.
• Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, 'Ife-Iyoku, the Tale of Imadeyunuagbon,' Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction From Africa and the African Diaspora, Aurelia Leo. Edited by Zelda Knight and Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki.
• Ida Keogh, 'Infinite Tea in the Demara Cafe,' Londoncentric, Newcon Press. Edited by Ian Whates.
• Tobi Ogundiran, 'Isn't Your Daughter Such a Doll,' Shoreline of Infinity. 

Best Non-Fiction

• Francesca T Barbini (ed.), Ties That Bind: Love in Science Fiction and Fantasy, Luna Press.
• Paul Kincaid, The Unstable Realities of Christopher Priest, Gylphi Press.
• Andrew Milner and J.R. Burgmann, Science Fiction and Climate Change, Liverpool University Press.
• Adam Roberts, It's the End of the World: But What Are We Really Afraid Of?, Elliot & Thompson.
• Jo Lindsay Walton, 'Estranged Entrepreneurs,' Foundation: the International Review of Science Fiction.
• Jo Walton, 'Books in Which No Bad Things Happen,' Tor.com.

Please note that the two non-fiction nominees with similar names, Jo Lindsay Walton and Jo Walton, are two different people.

Best Novel

• Tiffani Angus, Threading the Labyrinth, Unsung Stories.
• Susanna Clarke, Piranesi, Bloomsbury.
• M. John Harrison, The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again, Gollancz.
• N.K. Jemisin, The City We Became, Orbit.
• Gareth L. Powell, Light of Impossible Stars, Titan Books.
• Kim Stanley Robinson, The Ministry for the Future, Orbit.
• Nikhil Singh, Club Ded, Luna Press.
• Adrian Tchaikovsky, The Doors of Eden, Tor.
• Liz Williams, Comet Weather, Newcon Press.
• Nick Wood, Water Must Fall, Newcon Press.

Note that there was a multiple tie for fifth place this year. The committee decided that instead of abbreviating the shortlist, all nominees would be included.

Voting is now open for the BSFA Awards 2020 shortlists in the categories of novel, nonfiction, short fiction, and artwork. BSFA members can vote for their chosen works until 5 February.

The final vote to select the winners will be open to both BSFA members and Eastercon members. Winners will be announced at Eastercon.