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This is a post about awards eligibility—the nonfiction type. This category tends to get less than half the initial nominations of, say, best novel or short story, but it is worth some thought. After all, it is nonfiction that makes sense of and binds together the individual fictions we create, read, and live.

Strange Horizons publishes nonfiction regularly, in the form of articles, reviews, columns, interviews, and roundtables. Based on your clicking habits, dear readers, here is a reminder of what you paid the most attention to in 2019 from the SH nonfiction team:

Variations on a Name: the -punks of Our Times, by Jaymee Goh: Jaymee sets out a genealogy of SFF sub-genres that have spun off the original steampunk. She takes us on a whistle-stop tour of a range of traditions that displace Eurocentric conceptions of speculative fiction.

Always Open, the Eureka Hotel, by Jamey Hatley: Jamey's essay about a road trip through the American deep South defies easy description or classification; readers may find it somewhat reminiscent of Colson Whitehead's Underground Railroad, with Jamey's (real-life) Eureka hotel playing the part of the Underground Railroad.

The State of Play of Brazilian SFF, by Jana Bianchi: In 2019, Strange Horizons ran a special edition on Brazilian SFF. The issue was anchored by this essay by Jana Bianchi, that takes readers through the pasts, presents, and (hopeful) futures of Brazilian SFF.

Orcs, Britons, and the Martial Race Myth, Part I: A Species Built for Racial Terror, by James Mendez Hodes: Tolkien's Lord of the Rings has long been critiqued through the lens of race. In this essay, Hodes advances a fresh critique: he marshals evidence to argue that the inspiration for Orcs appears to come from stereotypes about Mongols, and the Mongol Empire.

And on the Reviews front, we have:

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James, reviewed by Gautam Bhatia, which features a discussion of the novel's relationship to the white fantasy paradigm.

Abigail Nussbaum's review of Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Moon, which took Robinson to task for reducing China to a component in his worldbuilding.

Samira Nadkarni's review of Wynonna Series 3, which discussed, among other things, the show's inability to develop narrative arcs for their characters of colour while providing them for white characters.

Nibedita Sen's review of Tasha Suri's Empire of Sand, which they particularly admired for 'how thoroughly it interrogates hierarchies of power and tradition without ever demonizing the people involved.'



Gautam Bhatia is an Indian speculative fiction writer, and the co-ordinating editor of Strange Horizons. He is the author of the science fiction duology, The Wall (HarperCollins India, 2020) and The Horizon (HarperCollins India, 2021). Both novels featured on Locus Magazine's year-end recommended reading list, and The Wall was shortlisted for the Valley of Words Award for English-language fiction. His short stories have appeared in The Gollancz Book of South Asian Science Fiction and LiveMint magazine. He is based in New Delhi, India.
Current Issue
18 Mar 2024

Welcome New Fiction Editor! 
Strange Horizons
We are very happy to welcome Dante Luiz as a new fiction editor on the team! Dante is a Ignyte Award winning author, and has been with Strange Horizons working as an Art Director for the past several years. We’re stoked to bring him on to the fiction side and have him bring his wonderful insight and skill to the fiction team.
The Cyborg’s Side of the Story 
in my defence, juggling biological and artificial, i tripped over my shoelace, and spilled my lungs empty of the innocence that was, before guilt.
Aviary 
the birds, / who carry with them / the many names of the dead
Feeder Fish 
Day in and day out, the rough waters of the Pacific slam themselves against the protrusion of sandstone the locals refer to as Morro Rock. White streaks of bird shit bleed down the rock, a testament to the rare birds of prey that nest in its pocked face overlooking the bay.
Monday: Twice Lived by Joma West 
Wednesday: Overlap: The Lives of a Former Time Jumper by N. Joseph Glass 
Issue 11 Mar 2024
Issue 4 Mar 2024
Issue 26 Feb 2024
Issue 19 Feb 2024
Issue 12 Feb 2024
Issue 5 Feb 2024
Issue 29 Jan 2024
Issue 15 Jan 2024
Issue 8 Jan 2024
Issue 1 Jan 2024
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