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Chisom Umeh

@izom-chisom.bsky.social
270 followers 83 following 114 posts

writer | entrepreneur | one time poet Words in Omenana. Apex. Clarkesworld. Year's Best African Speculative Fiction 2023

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The Ignyte Awards @theignyteawards.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
The Outstanding Short Story category recognizes speculative works ranging from 2,000-7,499 words. Congratulations to COMMENSALISM, OR THE LABYRINTH'S VESSELS by Albert Nkereuwem (Will This Be a Problem) #2026IgnyteAwards
2026 Ignyte Award Winner for Outstanding Short Story: Commensalism, or The Labyrinth's Vessels by Albert Nkereuwem
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Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I'm late again with this list of my top 10 favorite short spec fic stories from August, but life yadda yadda yadda. Anyway, come check out some great stories. reactormag.com/must-read-sh...
reactormag.com
Must Read Short Speculative Fiction: August 2026 - Reactor
We're starting off spooky season with dark fairy tales, cannibalism, and revenge...
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mandolin mama @mandolinmama.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
. i remember when that happened to me... 💙📚🕊 #reading #books #albertomanguel
"at one magical instant in your early childhood, the page of a book- that string of confused, alien ciphers- shivered into meaning. words spoke to you, gave up their secrets; at that moment, whole universes opened. you became, irrevocably, a reader."
                                                                        -alberto manguel,
                                                                        a history of reading
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Tade "Will Eat Your Heart in the Marketplace" Thompson @tadethompson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
youtu.be
Colin Kaepernick's New AI Comics Scam Is a Disaster
YouTube video by Mystery Treehouse
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Clarkesworld @clarkesworldmagazine.com · 21/09/2026
Updating the "AI" community's own words for short fiction marketing: Short stories won’t replace humans, but humans who read short stories will replace those who don’t. The true power of short stories lies not in replacing humans, but in working alongside us to achieve what neither can do alone.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Thousands of immigrants did the hard, dirty work of clearing rubble and toxic dust and debris from Ground Zero. Many were undocumented laborers sent to work every day with no special PPE, and got cancer as a result. Now some of those same people are living in fear of ICE. www.npr.org/2026/09/11/n...
npr.org
They cleaned up ground zero. Now many are hiding from ICE
After 9/11, thousands of rescue and cleanup crews went to work at ground zero. They were exposed to toxic debris and experienced psychological trauma. Today, many say they live in fear of deportation.
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Reactor Magazine @reactorsff.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
A neurauditor must find out why three artifical minds–a military drone controller, a counseling chatbot, and a dating app–are failing in their jobs. "Audit of the Collapse and Convalescence of Minds" by @renanbernardo.com is out! Art by @mirkoilic.bsky.social Edited by @annvandermeer.bsky.social
reactormag.com
Audit of the Collapse and Convalescence of Minds - Reactor
A neurauditor must find out why three artificial minds--a military drone controller, a counseling chatbot, and a dating app--are failing in their jobs.
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Rachel Cordasco @rachelcordasco.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Thank you for the interview, Jean-Paul!!
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Jen Donohue @authorizedmusings.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
IT IS WICKHILLS DAY CONGRATULATIONS @premeemohamed.com 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉 us.macmillan.com/books/978125...
us.macmillan.com
Wickhills
In the dangerous magical city of Wickhills, a streetwise secret agent is tasked with protecting a foreign defector from his pursuers... even at the threat of...
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Dan Hartland @danhartland.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
📝 We have new editors at SH Reviews! @kateem.bsky.social will be curating a monthly strand of reviews focusing on SFF at least 50 years old. Novelty bias begone! And @ajodasso.bsky.social is moonlighting from Poetry as our new Media Reviews Editor, ensuring films, TV, games get their regular due.
strangehorizons.com
A Note From Reviews
We’re especially happy to announce some new appointments at the Reviews Department.
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Webpuppy45 @webpuppy45.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
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Andrew Liptak @andrewliptak.com · 03/09/2026
I’ve rounded up 17 new SF/F books to check out in the first half of September. Here’s what caught my eye: www.andrewliptak.com/september-20...
andrewliptak.com
17 new sci-fi and fantasy books to read in September 2026
More books than you can shake a stick at
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Mike Chen @mikechenwriter.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
There are many telltale signs of AI video but I find one of the most obvious is the really specific "slow zoom." Something about it just feels off. Maybe film experts can inform why it feels uncanny -- is it because of how crisp everything looks, or how smooth it all is?
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Governor Tim Walz @governorwalz.mn.gov · 05/09/2026
Good news: he lost.
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Rachel Cordasco @rachelcordasco.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Check out Small Planet: The #SFinTranslation Magazine, Issue #2, free to download and enjoy! www.sfintranslation.com?page_id=16933
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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 01/09/2026
Here is the announcement of my category at the Hugos this year, and then me giving my acceptance speech. If for some reason the embed does not take you directly to it, it starts at 2:34:21. You can also watch the whole ceremony, just scrub back. www.youtube.com/live/8AyarB0...
youtube.com
2026 Hugo Awards Presented at LAcon V
YouTube video by LAcon V
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ZamaShort @zamashort.com · 01/09/2026
Happy Publish Day Imraan Coovadia! 'Vast & Cool & Unsympathetic', ZamaShort #17. “Brings to life the trauma and heartache of everyday life in a tech bro’s nightmare company, a tale of many different kinds of love and of hate.” — Geoff Ryman. #AfricanSFF #Africanfuturism #booksky 🪐📚💙
zamashort.com
ZamaShort #17 Vast & Cool & Unsympathetic by Imraan Coovadia
ZamaShort #17
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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 31/08/2026
Hey look what I got
The Hugo for best series
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Renan Bernardo @renanbernardo.com · 28/08/2026
My guest in the Hyperspace today is none other than @premeemohamed.com, who has the audacity of having TWO books coming out between this month and the next! Enjoy! renanbernardo.beehiiv.com/p/into-the-h...
renanbernardo.beehiiv.com
Into the Hyperspace: Premee Mohamed, a magical library, and an underground world
"Both books are fundamentally about power and colonization."
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Ursula K. Le Guin @ursulakleguin.com · 27/08/2026
🌟Shortlisted for the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction🌟 Through the perspective of Maw, who was once human but is now something else, Claire North wrestles with capitalism, collective choice, fascism, gender, freedom, art, and the question of how we decide what—and who—matters.
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Ivor W. Hartmann @ivorhartmann.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
I'm sure @africansfs.bsky.social will put this out here, but in the meantime: Nommo Awards 2026 Shortlist Massive Congrats to everyone nominated and shortlisted! #AfricanSFF #Africanfuturism #booksky 🪐📚💙 ...
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Kevin Rigathi @formerlykevin.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
My sci fi story "If Memory Serves" is a Nommo award nominee in the best short story category! I couldn't be more excited. It's available to read here:
willthisbeaproblem.co.ke
If Memory Serves – Will This Be A Problem?
No Memory For Sisyphus Human rights are constantly evolving. The more we learn, the clearer these rights become to us. Usually, our understanding of human right
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Chisom Umeh @izom-chisom.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Happy to be featured in this latest Omenana issue.
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Dr Stew Hotston (he/him) @stewarthotston.com · 27/08/2026
A review of The End of Everything by M John Harrison - what if our actual world was experienced in the same way we experience truth through social media... #booksky #reviews #Theendofeverything
stewarthotston.com
Review: The End of Everything by M John Harrison
The last book of Harrison's I read was The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again and I hated it. I don't know if it hit at the wrong time for me but I found the mix of realism, kitchen sink occupation and understated weirdness a combination that had me throwing the book across the room. Like, I read all of those individually or combined but whatever, it found no purchase on my soul.
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Dr Stew Hotston (he/him) @stewarthotston.com · 25/08/2026
Hey all, I had this cold war SF novel come out in July. It's about generational trauma, what we do for love, how secret government bureaus get set up in a world where the Cold War ended in 1975 because physics changed suddenly and without warning. I really love it and think you will too
newconpress.co.uk
The Next Enemy Shall Be the Last, Stewart Hotston - Books - The Next Enemy Shall Be the Last
NewCon Press is a multiple award-winning independent publisher specialising in science fiction, fantasy, dark fantasy and horror.
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Joseph Fasano @josephfasano.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Back to school. ❤️
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ZamaShort @zamashort.com · 24/08/2026
All our authors on Bsky! #AfricanSFF #AfricanLit #booksky 🪐📚💙
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Tade "Will Eat Your Heart in the Marketplace" Thompson @tadethompson.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
This is true. This is all true. Make your peace with it if you want to be a writer.
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SARS‑CoV‑2 (COVID-19) @covid19disease.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
🚨 BREAKTHROUGH: Two Canadian Scientists Develop an Inhaled Vaccine Mist That Delivers Immunity Directly to the Lungs, Right Where Viruses Enter Two scientists, Fiona Smaill and Zhou Xing, developed AeroVax, an inhaled vaccine mist designed to reach the lungs in just 2 minutes.
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Jeff VanderMeer @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Annihilation on Collider's list of the top 10 American novels of the past 15 years. collider.com/best-america...
collider.com
The 10 Greatest American Books of the Last 15 Years, Ranked
Pulitzer Prize-winning works like The Underground Railroad and complex gems like The Goldfinch are among the best American books of the last 15 years.
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Neon Hemlock @neonhemlock.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Submissions are now open for speculative novelettes and/or tiny short story collection chapbooks. Word limit: 7,500 to 12,000 words. Limited print run. Will pay $100 and 25 copies. Deadline: October 15th. More info here: neonhemlock.submittable.com/submit/36598...
neonhemlock.submittable.com
Neon Hemlock - Speculative Chapbook/Novelette
Neon Hemlock Press is open to submissions of speculative chapbook manuscripts from August 20 to October 15, 2026. We expect to publish at least one chapbook next year; if the stretch goal in our curre...
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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 20/08/2026
Wait, racists are calling themselves "race realists" now? They didn't clock that just makes them sound even more racist? Well, I suppose not, they're racists, after all.
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Ivor W. Hartmann @ivorhartmann.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Applied African SF: Volume 1 African writers collaborated with scientists to write short stories that could be used in STEM. Digital copy free to download via bit.ly/AppliedAfricanSF. Physical copies will be available to purchase from October 2026. appliedafricansf.com #AfricanSFF #booksky 🪐📚💙
Applied African SF Volume 1, cover image.
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P.A. Cornell (She/Her) @cornellwriter.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
IT’S MY BOOK BIRTHDAY! 🥳 Thank you to everyone who’s pre-ordered this book. If you haven’t yet, I’m not mad. Here’s the order links just in case: www.starsandsabers.com/books/the-as...
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Chuck Wendig @chuckwendig.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Oh hello there. Who's in Men's Health today with an essay about kids and AI? It's me! Also, that art! www.menshealth.com/trending-new...
menshealth.com
The AI Revolution Is Coming for Kids. But Maybe It’s the Parents We Need to Worry About More.
“When I’m online, it’s not kids sharing all the slop. It’s my generation,” writes author Chuck Wendig.
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Chuck Wendig @chuckwendig.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Ahh! It's out, it's out! Beware! Run for the hills! Protect yourselves! THE CALAMITIES has escaped its prison deep in the void and is now appearing on bookshelves in libraries and bookstores everywhere! Shit! Shit!!
terribleminds.com
The Demons! The Demons Are Free! The Calamities Is Out!
The Calamities (Book One of The Fiends) is now out, rampaging through the populace, gamboling about, claws at the ready, teeth sharp, and its countless eyes fixed upon you. So, I do hope you’…
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Wole Talabi | Preorder THE FIST OF MEMORY @wtalabi.com · 18/08/2026
Unboxing copies of my new novel The Fist Of Memory. Its got aliens, assassins and ancestors + some chapters open with quotes from Hagakure: The Book Of The Samurai so I thought it would be cool to open the box with a samurai sword. Fancy, I know. Out in October but you can preorder it right now.
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Chuck Wendig @chuckwendig.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
WTAF
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Nick Walker @nickwalker.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Reading a book about how they built the pyramids but it's taking ages to get to the point.
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Solaris Books @solarisbooks.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
As you explore the work of @clarkeaward.bsky.social winner E. J. Swift @catamaroon.bsky.social , dive into her standalone time travel novel -PARIS ADRIFT! Hallie's bartending gig has taken a turn: there's a time portal in the keg room, & who is the mysterious Chronometrist? Buy geni.us/ParisAdrift
Against a lilac background collaged with watches, the book cover for E. J. Swift's PARIS ADRFIT. The cover design has a pink background with a purple hourglass. There are Paris landmarks amongst the sand at the bottom of the hourglass and a woman falling into the sand in the top half. The white Solaris Nova logo is in the bottom left corner.
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Vajra Chandrasekera @vajra.me · 14/08/2026
it's been a minute since I had new flash fiction out—“The Age of Cancer” is up at @lightspeedmagazine.com! And if you haven't read THE TIME MACHINE by HG Wells, don't worry, the story quotes the relevant paragraph www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-...
lightspeedmagazine.com
The Age of Cancer - Lightspeed Magazine
This is our struggle. We scuttle on the sand before the softly breathing salt-burdened sea with the lichen on the rocks a bright poison green and great white butterflies screaming under a red sky whil...
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Paul McAuley @unlikelyworlds.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Black hole star: the little red dot that 'looks a bit like a star but is 100 billion times brighter'.
news.mit.edu
Astronomers discover a brand-new type of astrophysical object: A black hole star
Astronomers have discovered a “black hole star,” an extremely bright red spot in the early universe that appears to be a new type of astrophysical object. It resembles an enormous star, but its energy...
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The Arthur C. Clarke Award @clarkeaward.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
✨ Our 40th anniversary winner! ✨ When There Are Wolves Again by @catamaroon.bsky.social 🐺 An “ambitious study in the power of long-term hope in the face of climate breakdown” 🌍 If you haven't read it already, this is the book you need right now 👉 uk.bookshop.org/a/14057/9781...
Cover of When There Are Wolves Again, winner of the 2026 Arthur C. Clarke Award science fiction book of the year.
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Vajra Chandrasekera @vajra.me · 09/08/2026
haha hermit-tech.com/blog/ai-mani...
hermit-tech.com
AI Mania Is Eviscerating Global Decisionmaking
The reality of how much damage AI mania is doing to our ability to run institutions effectively.
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VL-ADventitious. @adventitiouswords.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
If she knows who she is, she doesn't know where she is. If she knows where, she doesn't know when. If she knows when... "A Hole in My Heart the Shape of the Multiverse" by @ruthjoffre.bsky.social. A gorgeous tangle of realities. www.adventitious.net/stories/a-ho...
adventitious.net
A Hole in My Heart the Shape of the Multiverse by Ruth Joffre
A woman lost in a house of infinite possibilities searches for the version of herself who’s been brazenly altering histories. By Ruth Joffre.
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Wole Talabi | Preorder THE FIST OF MEMORY @wtalabi.com · 12/08/2026
In which I highlight 5 books where sci-fi flirts with the spiritual, the mystical, the supernatural. Because I think they make for some of science fiction’s most interesting stories. Check it out.
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Chuck Wendig @chuckwendig.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
welp
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Wole Talabi | Preorder THE FIST OF MEMORY @wtalabi.com · 07/08/2026
Eugenia has already said here everything I was going to say about this. One thing I will add is that the lasting thing I gained following this project was a deep hatred for AI slop and LLMs as anyone who has heard me speak on ths subject since knows. I saw how the sausage was made and rejected it.
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Jeff VanderMeer @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Pleased to finally announce... Abdication, the last Southern Reach novel! "There will come the days of the watcher, the drowned woman and the shadow of a man who keeps falling apart with each step, but first comes the moment the birds appear at night from the gaps between the stars, far from home."
Publishers Marketplace Deal Report, August 6, 2026:

Jeff Vandermeer's ABDICATION, the last novel in the Southern Reach series, in which an ornithologist exiled to a remote coast stumbles on a terrifying secret,  a self-proclaimed king pursues a mystery hidden in a strange weather station, and a man who can become a cormorant is tasked with a deadly mission through a future landscape transformed by Area X, for publication in October 2027, in a significant deal, to Jenna Johnson at Farrar, Straus, by Joseph Veltre at the Gersh Agency and Alex Kohner at Yorn Levine (world).
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Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
This is the part that breaks my heart. "Generative AI has broken the sacred contract between professors & students: that the professors are there to teach and the students are there to learn. The understanding has been broken...That’s a very deep part of the grief” www.chronicle.com/article/thes...
chronicle.com
These Professors Are Retiring Early. AI Was the Last Straw.
What is the point of teaching, they ask, if students are just pretending to learn?
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