Fusion Fragment Monthly - June 2023
The Latest from Fusion Fragment HQ
Fusion Fragment #17 Release Date: FF#17 arrives on June 23rd and has an incredible table of contents!
Awards for FFers: Congrats to Mahmud El Sayed (FF#12), who won the 2023 Future World Prize for his novel What the Crew Wants! The finalists for the 2023 Sturgeon Awards were recently released, and the list includes two stories by FFers! Maria Dong (FF#2, FF#4, FF#8, FF#13) is nominated for "In the Beginning of Me, I Was a Bird" which appeared in Lightspeed, while A.D. Sui (FF#19) is nominated for "Toronto Isn't Real and Other Metropolitan Anomalies" which appeared in Augur.
We're Here: The Best Queer Fiction 2022: The TOC for the Best Queer Fiction of 2022 was announced last month and I'm thrilled to have two FF stories included! Amy Nagopaleen's "We'll Always Have Enceladus" (FF#13) and Anja Hendrikse Liu's "The Planned Obsolescence of the Human Body" (FF#11) will both be reprinted! Also included is FFer M.S. Dean's (FF#17) story "Drowning Songs" which appeared in Anathema.
Book Sale Announcement: Congrats to FFer Mary G. Thompson (FF#16) on the sale of her novel The Word to Page Street YA!
May Published Works by FFers
Congrats to FF staffer Zachary Rosenberg on the release of his debut novella, Hungers as Old as This Land, a horror/western out now from Brigids Gate Press!
I love seeing an FF reprint, and May saw "Hindbrain" by Lindz McLeod (FF#12) reprinted in MetaStellar!
But that's not all! Check out all this other great work FFers had published in May:
"A Truth So Loyal and Vicious" by Fatima Taqvi in F&SF
"Blood for a Stranger" by Timothy Mudie in Lightspeed
"Death Comes for the Sworn Virgins" by Avra Margariti in Strange Horizons
"More human" by Marisca Pichette in Nature: Futures
"On Planetary Palliative Care" by Thomas Ha in IZ Digital
"Only Kings and Doves" by M.S. Dean in Beneath Ceaseless Skies
"Permissions" by Christi Nogle in Dark Matter Magazine
"Rynnden has invited you to a scheduled meeting" by Pauline Barmby in Nature: Futures
"Thank Mother For Your Life" by Mary G. Thompson in Apex Magazine
"The Whisper of That Blood" by Maria Haskins in Beneath Ceaseless Skies
"The witches are without work" by Angelia Liu in Strange Horizons
"War Doesn't Know What It Wants" by Lindsey Godfrey Eccles on Podcastle
Recommendations from FF HQ
My favourite book read in May was Meg Howrey's The Wanderers. It follows three astronauts who spend 17 months in a simulated trip to Mars, as part of the preparation for the real journey they'll undertake if they can all hold it together during the simulation. It's a fascinating read that focuses its energies on the psychology of its main characters, as well as that of the families they've been separate from.
I also went back to the movie theater for the first time in three years (they got me with a free pass and the knowledge that a Saturday afternoon showing of BlackBerry was almost empty seeing as how it was up against Guardians of the Galaxy). Anyway, BlackBerry was a tense and hilarious (and very Canadian) look back at the journey of Research In Motion.
Obligatory Photo of Associate Editor Henry
An action shot of Henry fulfilling his duties during the May reading period.
Signoff Video
