Stelliform Press Awards Eligibility 2021

If you’re nominating for the Hugo, Nebula, or other awards for 2021, consider the two titles we published this year: THE IMPOSSIBLE RESURRECTION OF GRIEF by Octavia Cade, and AFTER THE DRAGONS by Cynthia Zhang. Read more about these books and their reception below.

THE IMPOSSIBLE RESURRECTION OF GRIEF by Octavia Cade
Category: Novella (23,000 words)
Genre: Science Fiction/Horror

Image of the cover of THE IMPOSSIBLE RESURRECTION OF GRIEF on a background of flowers. An excerpt from the Landfall review by Shana Chandra reads: "Cade is warning us through THE IMPOSSIBLE RESURRECTION OF GRIEF that we too will become ghosts if we continue to turn our Earth and seas into a graveyard. In this way, her speculative fiction begins to feel not so speculative." Below a Stelliform Press logo, further text reads "Octavia Cade's THE IMPOSSIBLE RESURRECTION OF GRIEF is eligible for awards in the novella category.

Cade’s novella received a many glowing reviews, one of which was written by Alexander Pyles and published by the Chicago Review of Books.

Novella Synopsis

With the collapse of ecosystems and the extinction of species comes the Grief: an unstoppable melancholia that ends in suicide. When Ruby’s friend, mourning the loss of the Great Barrier Reef, succumbs to the Grief, the letters she leaves behind reveal the hidden world of the resurrected dead. The Tasmanian tiger, brought back from extinction in an isolated facility, is only the first… but rebirth is not always biological, and it comes with a price. As a scientist, Ruby resists the Grief by focusing her research on resilient jellyfish, but she can’t avoid choosing which side she’s on. How can she fight against the dead and the forces behind them when doing so risks her home, her life, and the entire biosphere?

AFTER THE DRAGONS by Cynthia Zhang
Category: Novel (47,000 words)
Genre: Fantasy

The cover of AFTER THE DRAGONS is featured on a background picture of a sunset silhouetting two young men surrounded by flying dragons. Beside a Stelliform Press logo, text reads: "After the Dragons is a soft place to rest, but laid on a solid foundation of a quietly radical concept." The text is an excerpt from the Ancillary Review of Books review by Leah Rachel von Essen.

Cynthia Zhang’s debut novel received a stellar review from Leah Rachel von Essen for The Ancillary Review of Books and was featured on BuzzFeed as one of August’s Best books.

Novella Synopsis

Dragons were fire and terror to the Western world, but in the East they brought life-giving rain. Now, no longer hailed as gods and struggling in the overheated pollution of Beijing, only the Eastern dragons survive. As drought plagues the aquatic creatures, a mysterious disease—shaolong, or “burnt lung”—afflicts the city’s human inhabitants.

Jaded college student Xiang Kaifei scours Beijing streets for abandoned dragons, distracting himself from his diagnosis. Elijah Ahmed, a biracial American medical researcher, is drawn to Beijing by the memory of his grandmother and her death by shaolong. Interest in Beijing’s dragons leads Kai and Eli into an unlikely partnership. With the resources of Kai’s dragon rescue and Eli’s immunology research, can the pair find a cure for shaolong and safety for the dragons? Eli and Kai must confront old ghosts and hard truths if there is any hope for themselves or the dragons they love.

Both novellas are available for purchase here, or wherever books are sold.

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Announcement: Ren Hutchings is Stelliform’s new Editorial Assistant

Graphic with photo of Ren Hutchings. Text reads: Announcing Stelliform Press' New Editorial Assistant, Ren Hutchings.

Ren Hutchings started in September with Stelliform and has provided invaluable insight as we read manuscripts during our open submission period. Ren is eager to take on more responsibility and is stepping into the role of Editorial Assistant.

Ren is an SFF writer, writing mentor and freelance editor. She spent most of the past few years working in game dev while plotting twisty space books. She loves weird mysteries, pop science, elaborate book playlists, and pondering about alternate universes. As a first reader, Ren connected with Stelliform’s environmentally-focused message and the powerful stories their writers are bringing into the world, speaking on themes of hope, action, change and humanity through speculative fiction. Ren’s debut novel, Under Fortunate Stars, will be published by Solaris in May 2022.

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Announcement: Stelliform Acquires Sim Kern’s SEEDS FOR THE SWARM in a 3-book Deal!

We are super excited to announce that we will be bringing you not only Sim Kern’s first full novel, but three of them! The first book, Seeds for the Swarm, will be released in late fall 2022, with books two and three following on a yearly schedule.

Image of a Publishers Marketplace Deal Report. Text reads: Environmental journalist and author of DEPART, DEPART! Sim Kern's SEEDS FOR THE SWARM, in which college students discover a terrible secret about the future climate tech they're researching and turn on the school's billionaire backers, to Selena Middleton at Stelliform Press, in a nice deal, in a three-book deal, for publication in fall of 2022, by Mariah Nichols at D4EO Literary Agency.

We’re delighted to work with them again on this ambitious, radical, and very much needed story. More details to come as we have them.

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Review: Premee Mohamed’s THE ANNUAL MIGRATION OF CLOUDS

Cover of Premee Mohamed's THE ANNUAL MIGRATION OF CLOUDS, featuring a magpie with thin green branches protruding from its body.

In the spirit of previous conversational reviews (see our reviews of Stephen Graham Jones’ The Only Good Indians and Diane Cook’s The New Wilderness), Kristen Shaw and Selena Middleton sat down to chat about Premee Mohamed’s latest novella, a work of climate fiction set in Alberta.

We adored the book (and are hoping for a sequel someday) and we chat at length about the important elements this book is bringing to the climate fiction subgenre. So often climate fiction relies on big gestures and catastrophic collapses. This book is quiet and lovely and terrifying and hopeful. Read everything we have to say about it over at the Ancillary Review of Books, who were kind enough to publish our review.

Read “The Tangible and Ephemeral Intimacies of Climate Fiction: Review of The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed” at the Ancillary Review of Books now.

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Sim Kern’s DEPART, DEPART! is on the Otherwise Award Honor List!

We’re thrilled to share that Sim Kern’s DEPART, DEPART! is on the Otherwise Award (formerly the Tiptree Award) Honor List with many incredible books and stories. Congrats to Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki on his Otherwise win for “Ife-Iyoku, the Tale of Imadeyunuagbon” a novella included in the Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora anthology (which we reviewed here).

2020 Otherwise Award Honor List poster

The Otherwise Award Honor List

The Otherwise Award Honor List is a great place to find pioneering works of speculative fiction addressing gender issues. Be sure to check out the following titles:

  • R.B. Lemberg, The Four Profound Weaves
  • Anya Johanna DeNiro, City of a Thousand Feelings
  • Maggie Tokuda-Hall, The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea
  • Sim Kern, Depart, Depart!
  • Chana Porter, The Seep
  • Isabel Fall, “Helicopter Story”
  • Amy Griswold, “Custom Options Available”
  • Maria Romasco Moore, “The Moon Room”

Read more about the Otherwise Award winner and Honor List on the Otherwise Award site.

Award Nominations for both 2020 Titles

We were especially thrilled to learn of DEPART, DEPART!’s finalist status for the Otherwise Award because this means that both our 2020 titles are now award nominated. In March we announced that Michael J. DeLuca’s NIGHT ROLL was a Crawford Award Finalist. As a new small press, it is absolutely indicative of the quality and importance of these stories, as well as the work we put into our titles, that they have both been recognized by important awards in speculative fiction.

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