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Last week Electric Lit announced the 2nd Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction shortlist and we are thrilled to share that a Stelliform book has been included amongst some seriously formidable titles.

The UKLGPF jurors had this to say about Arboreality:

In looping, linked stories that travel through generations, Campbell explores the effects of climate change on one slice of British Columbia: what might happen as the planet changes, and how regular people might remake their homes by growing together and reconsidering other, gentler ways to live in a drastically reshaped world. 

After announcing the shortlist, the jurors will now deliberate to name the finalists and the overall winner. The awards ceremony will be held online.

Read more about Arboreality here.

Who Else is On the Shortlist?

It is a huge honor to be up for such a prestigious prize and we would be remiss if we didn’t mention the other amazing works that have also been shortlisted for the award. These are:

1. Wolfish by Christiane M. Andrews
2. Spear by Nicola Griffith
3. Ten Planets by Yuri Herrera, translated by Lisa Dillman
4. The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez
5. Brother Alive by Zain Khalid
6. Meet Us by the Roaring Sea by Akil Kumarasamy
7. Geometries of Belonging by R.B. Lemberg
8. Drinking from Graveyard Wells by Yvette Lisa Ndlovu

Don’t Miss Stelliform Press’s 2022 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize Shortlisted Book

This is our second time on the Ursula K. Le Guin Shortlist. In 2022, Cynthia Zhang’s After the Dragons was nominated. If you haven’t read this heartfelt story about climate change in Beijing and two queer men falling in love while running a dragon rescue, be sure to pick up a copy from your favorite indie bookstore or your local library.

Learn more about After the Dragons here.

Hi Newsletter Subscriber,

Sarena Ulibarri’s debut solarpunk novella came out on May 25 and is now available wherever books are sold, including directly from our website where we have discounted ebooks. Tomorrow we will celebrate the launch of this optimistic and nuanced novella with an online launch party.

Come hear Sarena Ulibarri read from Another Life, talk about her experience of writing the novella, and discuss her involvement in solarpunk and other aspects of the solarpunk community. An interview and Q&A will be led by Tory Stephens, Grist’s Climate Fiction Creative Manager, currently running the Imagine 2200 Climate Fiction Writing Contest.

Grab your free tickets by clicking the graphic above or the link below. Discounted books are also available at these links.

Get Tickets at Eventbrite.

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Happy Pride and Indigenous History Month!

In Canada it is both Pride Month and Indigenous History Month. In support of our LGBTQ2S+ and Indigenous authors, and the wider LGBTQ2S+ community, we are holding a book sale for the month of June. 20% of our net sales will go to support 2spirits.org, a charity that provides support and programming for Two Spirit individuals in the Greater Toronto Area.

If you’ve been waiting to grab one of these fabulous books, now is a great time. Your money will go to support three great causes: queer and Indigenous creatives, Two Spirit community support, and a climate and environment focused small press.

Go to the Bookshop

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E.G. Condé’s Sordidez gets a starred review from Publishers Weekly and is chosen as a Fall 2023 Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Top 10 Book

If you missed our excited screaming over the last week, E.G. Condé’s debut queer Latine/Tainofuturist novella Sordidez got some well-deserved recognition when it received a starred review from Publishers Weekly that called the book “brutal, mystical, and deeply felt.” They also included the book in their Top 10 science fiction, fantasy, and horror books to read for fall. Check out that list here. The list also includes Stelliform author Sim Kern with their forthcoming novel from publisher Levine Querido, The Free People’s Village. Climate fiction represent!

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Thank you, Toronto! Plus an Open Submission Call

Finally, I wanted to send a quick note of appreciation to all of you who joined us at Toronto’s Word on the Street. The event is always exciting and one of the highlights of our year as we get to talk to so many of you about our new books and about the press in general.

This year we were especially excited to announce our upcoming open submission call. If you are a writer or know writers who are working on climate or environment focused book projects, please keep us in mind for the fall. We will be open from September to December 2023. Our priorities this year are:

Canadian or permanent resident authors and Global South authors (or members of global majority diasporic communities).

Short book projects. Novellas (17k-40k words) and short novels or collections (~60k) are our sweet spot but we’re open to anything up to 100k.

Check out our flyer below or our submissions page for more information.

Please share our Open Call flyer widely. We’ve posted a graphic to Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Mastodon for easy sharing.

Thanks to all of you who have been such a warm and welcoming support of a small press. We’re excited to start our search for more unique perspectives and creative experiments to bring to readers in the years to come! And we hope to see you at the book launch tomorrow!

Selena @ Stelliform

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Newsletter Quicklinks

1. Sarena Ulibarri’s Another Life Book Launch at Eventbrite
2. Grab a discounted book for Pride and Indigenous History Month
3. Publishers Weekly Starred Review of E.G. Condé’s Sordidez
4. Publishers Weekly Fall 2023 Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Top 10 Book List
5. Check out and share our upcoming call for submissions

We’re having a party and you’re invited! If you’re interested in optimistic climate stories that also contend with the past, if you’re curious about eco-tech just over the horizon, or activism for climate justice, this is a great book and promises to be a wonderful conversation between author Sarena Ulibarri and Grist’s Climate Fiction Creative Manager, Tory Stephens.

Tickets are free for this online event, or you can pick up a book at a discount.

Get your ticket at Eventbrite.

In September and October 2023 we have two exciting new titles coming, both horror or horror adjacent. In September we’re publishing Octavia Cade’s short story collection You Are My Sunshine and Other Stories, a brilliant collection that pulls themes of grief and resilience through several different genres, from horror to solarpunk. In October we will release Tiffany Morris’s Green Fuse Burning, a gripping, strange, and beautiful novella about grappling with grief and unexpected recovery. Read more about both books below.

You Are My Sunshine and Other Stories

Sometimes change can hurt. This collection of short stories traces the growing pains of a new world, beginning with the death throes of our current way of life and ending with a world transformed by science and technology, and by grief, hope, love, and humanity’s will to transform. This is a collection that will both tear you apart and tend to your wounds. Cade’s beautifully-wrought stories are informed by science, tracing the biological and emotional threads that bind us, human and non-human alike. You Are My Sunshine and Other Stories is a promise of what worlds are possible if we allow ourselves to change.

Read more about the book and pre-order here.

Green Fuse Burning

After the death of her estranged father, artist Rita struggles with grief and regret. There was so much she wanted to ask him—about his childhood, their family, and the Mi’kmaq language and culture from which Rita feels disconnected. But when Rita’s girlfriend Molly forges an artist’s residency application on her behalf, winning Rita a week to paint at an isolated cabin, Rita is both furious and intrigued. The residency is located where her father grew up.

On the first night at the cabin, Rita wakes to strange sounds. Was that a body being dragged through the woods? When she questions the locals about the cabin’s history, they are suspicious and unhelpful. Ignoring her unease, Rita gives in to dark visions that emanate from the forest’s lake and the surrounding swamp. She feels its pull, channelling that energy into art like she’s never painted before. But the uncanny visions become more insistent, more intrusive, and Rita discovers that in the swamp’s decay the end of one life is sometimes the beginning of another.

Read more about Green Fuse Burning and pre-order here.

We’re giving away four copies of our upcoming science fiction titles. We have two copies of Sarena Ulibarri’s ANOTHER LIFE and two copies of E.G. Condé’s SORDIDEZ to mail to readers worldwide.

How do I enter the giveaway?

Click through to our google form to enter the giveaway contest.

Like most giveaways, you can enter by completing any of the tasks listed below and using this form to provide proof that you have completed them. The form will accept any number of entries, so you are able to share about the books on social media over the week and record your posts. The contest will close Wednesday April 26 and winners will be announced on Friday April 28. This contest runs in EDT (-4 UTC). At the end of the contest we will draw 4 names from the list and contact via the email provided. Please submit an email you check as we will move on to another name on the list if you don’t respond within 2 days.

Which book do I want?

Are you looking for bright, optimistic science fiction? A clear vision of a better world? A hopeful society that doesn’t discount the darkness of the past? Check out Sarena Ulibarri’s Another Life.

Do you fall in love with lush prose and experimentation with language and structure? Do you have a LAND BACK pin on your backpack? Do you envision a future that has paid for the injustices of colonialism? Check out Sordidez by E.G. Condé.

You can choose one book to win, or sign up to win either.

I want to know more about these books!

Currently, review copies of both books are available free for download. Sarena Ulibarri’s Another Life is on Book Sirens and E.G. Condé’s Sordidez is on Netgalley until the end of the month.

You can also read more about the books and what early readers have to say at the links below:

• Another Life
• Sordidez

We’re excited about our upcoming titles and want you to read them and be excited too! Small presses need reader engagement and excitement to build buzz around their titles. Thank you to all who sign up and help us spread the word about our books. ♥