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We’ve had a busy month with the release of Sordidez and exciting news about a couple exciting awards.

E.G. Condé’s Sordidez at the LA Review of Books

Taryne Jade Taylor has penned an extensive review of Condé’s novella, which situates the book within the history of a Latinx speculative fiction canon. The review also argues for the importance of dialogue between specific branches of Indigenous Futurism, such as the Taínofuturism which Condé is helping to found and the Mesofuturism with which it dialogues in the novella.

The review spent some time on the front page of the LA Review of Books website and how can be found here:

Taínofuturism, the Hope for a Better Future: On E. G. Condé’s “Sordidez” by Taryne Jade Taylor.

An Award Nomination for The House of Drought and a Win for Arboreality

Our 2022 novellas have already made a great showing on this year’s award ballots and now we get to add two more to the list. We’re thrilled to share that Dennis Mombauer’s The House of Drought has been nominated for a World Fantasy Award.

Find the full final ballot at Tor.com.

Rebecca Campbell’s Arboreality, which has already been nominated for a Philip K. Dick Award, an Ursula K. Le Guin Prize, and a Utopia Award, secured a win for Best Cover Art. The win goes to our fabulous cover artist Rachel Yu Lobbenberg. Find the full list of winners at the CSFFA website.

We are grateful to voters and judges for considering Stelliform’s work, and to the readers who make this whole endeavor possible.

Ok, we couldn’t swing events across the whole world, but Sordidez is coming to live events in the US, Canada, and Germany. From August to November 2023, E.G. Condé is travelling to bookstores and other venues to talk with special guests and audiences about his Taínofuturist science fiction novella Sordidez. An updated calendar of events, with links to RSVP at several bookstores, follows.

August

August 1

Online Book Launch with Malka Older. 7pm EST.
Tickets are free and all are welcome to join this online book discussion. Discounted paperback and ebooks are also available.

August 31

Porter Square Books. 7pm EST.
With Shingai Njeri Kagunda.
Porter Square Books
25 White St, Cambridge, MA 02140
https://www.portersquarebooks.com/event/e-g-cond%C3%A9-author-sordidez-conversation-shingai-njeri-kagunda

September

September 5

Keene State College.
More information about several Keene State Events is to come.

September 7

Word Up Books – Librería Comunitaria. 7pm EST.
With Victor Manibo.
2113 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10032
https://www.wordupbooks.com/events

September 8

Making Worlds Bookstore and Social Center. 6pm EST.
210 South 45th Street, Philadelphia PA 19104
https://www.makingworldsbooks.org/

September 9

Iffy Books (Solarpunk AF). 7pm EST.
319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA 19107
https://iffybooks.net/

September 10

Little District Books. 6:30pm EST.
Barrack’s Row, 737 8th St SE, Washington, DC 20005
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/reading-qa-and-signing-with-eg-conde-author-of-sordidez-tickets-663385944217

September 13

Red Emma’s Bookstore & Worker Cooperative. 7pm EST.
With Karlo Yeager Rodriguez.
3128 Greenmount Avenue, Baltimore, MD
https://redemmas.org/

September 14

Letters Bookshop. 7pm EST.
116 W Main St, Durham, NC 27701
https://www.lettersbookshop.com/

September 27

Büchergilde Bookstore & Gallery (with Live Stream). 7:30pm CET/12:30pm EST.
An d. Staufenmauer 9, 60311, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
https://buechergilde-frankfurt.buchhandlung.de/shop/

November

November 15

Another Story Bookshop. 7pm EST.
315 Roncesvalles Ave, Toronto ON, Canada
https://anotherstory.ca/

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.

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

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!

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

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.