Most of the books and stories that Otherwise Award jurors read to pick a winner are nominated by authors and readers. We need your suggestions. If you’ve read a work of science fiction or fantasy that explores or expands our notions of gender, please tell us about it by filling out the recommendation form below. If you have more than one, just fill out the form again with a new recommendation and repeat the process until you’ve told us about them all.
Recommendations close on the 1st of December, 2021. Because recommendations are accepted from everyone, and haven’t been reviewed by the jury, we request that nominated creators not publicize their appearance on this list: if you win, or your work shows up on an honor list or long list, please publicize to your heart’s content!
The 2021 Otherwise Award will be given in 2022, location to be determined.
To let us know something related to recommendations that doesn’t fit in the form, please email recommendations@otherwiseaward.org.
Recommendations are Closed
The current Recommendations for the Otherwise Award can be found here:
2025 Otherwise Award Recommendations
The 2021 Otherwise Award Recommendations
| Author | Title | Publisher | Comments | Sub Date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Renato Tranquilino | Fate of a Distant Future | 8Letters Bookstore and Publishing | He represents a small but growing market of Filipino sci-fi. He hopes to inspire Filipino youth to further embrace the science fiction genre in the Philippines.8lettersbooks.com/shop/fateofadistantfut… | 2021-12-15 20:08:41 | |
| Calder Szewczak | The Offset | Angry Robot | As a carbon offset for your own life, you must pick one of your parents to die on your eighteenth birthday. A horrifying look at what it means to reproduce in a climate catastrophe, The Offset explores issues of gender, class, sexuality and antinatalism in a uniquely polemical setting.angryrobotbooks.com/books/the-offset/ | 2021-12-11 04:48:12 | |
| Shola von Reinhold | Lote | Jacaranda | 2021-12-05 15:15:29 | ||
| Shannon Blair | Dawn's Light | NineStar Press | amazon.com/dawns-light-duskblade-book-1-… | 2021-12-01 18:17:31 | |
| Mari Ness | Dancing in Silver Lands | Neon Hemlock | neonhemlock.com/books/dancing-in-silver-… | 2021-12-01 17:59:10 | |
| Caroline M. Yoachim | Colors of the Immortal Palette | Uncanny Magazine | A novelette that explores the intersection of gender, race, and art history.uncannymagazine.com/article/colors-of-th… | 2021-12-01 13:39:58 | |
| D.M. Rasch | "The Queer Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: The classic tale and an anthology of twists, retellings, and sequels | Independently published | A tragic tale of transformation and toxic masculinity.amazon.com/gp/product/1711590053/ref=dbs… | 2021-11-26 15:35:07 | |
| D.M. Rasch | "At the Movies" in Fix the World: twelve sci-fi writers save the future | Other Worlds Ink | An engaging short story about a character outside the gender binary navigating the challenges of futuristic law enforcement and blended family dynamics.amazon.com/fix-world-twelve-sci-fi-write… | 2021-11-26 15:14:16 | |
| Claire Oshetsky | Chouette | HarperCollins (Ecco) | Tiny is pregnant. Her husband is delighted. “You think this baby is going to be like you, but it’s not like you at all,” she warns him. “This baby is an owl-baby.” Arresting, darkly funny, and unsettling, Chouette is a brilliant exploration of ambition, sacrifice, perceptions of ability, and the ferocity of motherly love. PDF available upon request through email.harpercollins.com/products/chouette-clai… | 2021-11-23 14:10:26 | |
| Rivers Solomon | Sorrowland | Macmillan | us.macmillan.com/books/9780374266776/sor… | 2021-11-23 13:21:29 | |
| Xiran Jay Zhao | Iron Widow | Penguin Random House | penguinrandomhouse.com/books/659753/iron… | 2021-11-23 13:20:24 | |
| Oghenechovwe EkpekiSomto O. IhezuePemi AgudaRussell NicholsTamara JeréeTobias S. BuckellInegbenoise O. OsagieChinelo OnwualuMoustapha Mbacké DiopMarian Denise MooreMichelle MellonC.L. ClarkTobi OgundiranEugen BaconCraig Laurence GidneyMakena OnjerikaTlotlo TsamaaseT.L. HuchuYvette Lisa NdlovuDerek LubangakeneSuyi Davies OkungbowaShingai Njeri KagundaWC DunlapZZ ClaybourneSheree Renée ThomasDilman Dila | Year's Best African Speculative Fiction anthology (2020) | Jembefola Press | The first ever Year's Best African Speculative Fiction anthologyjembefola.com/the-years-best-african-spe… | 2021-11-18 13:36:04 | |
| Subodhana Wijeyeratne | Skeleton Valley | Scarlet Leaf Review | I love how he explores the gendered dimensions of migration and creating a new home while keeping the traditions of the old ways.scarletleafreview.com/short-stories28/ca… | 2021-11-18 12:15:06 | |
| J.W. Galliger | The Terminal Code | New Degree Press | amazon.com/dp/b09dtf9c95 | 2021-11-18 10:38:23 | |
| KM Merritt | Trust and Treason | Blue Fyre Press | amazon.com/dp/1951009193/ | 2021-11-17 18:50:51 | |
| KM Merritt | Death and Devotion | Blue Fyre Press | amazon.com/dp/1951009177/ | 2021-11-17 18:49:15 | |
| KM Merritt | Magic and Misrule | Blue Fyre Press | amazon.com/dp/1951009142/ | 2021-11-17 18:45:53 | |
| Sarah Day | Keeping House | Pseudopod | This is a wonderful, feminist dark fantasy about the insidious way domestic labor divides along gender lines. pseudopod.org/2021/03/05/pseudopod-747-k… | 2021-11-16 17:05:04 | |
| Lucy Holland | Sistersong | Pan Macmillan | Explores gender and identity in the most beautiful way. It’s a strong part of the story, but also feels subtle. A stunning historical light-fantasy. British folklore retold. Compelling leads. A story of what family and love of our homes means, regardless of gender or sexuality. linktr.ee/silvanhistorian | 2021-11-16 14:45:35 | |
| Estelle Rodgers | As Far As They Could Go | Owl Hollow Press | This is the first story in the "Frontiers" anthology, just released at the end of October. The whole story is available to read on-line. I feel this story gives an interesting commentary on gender because the two main characters (Sam and Lou) do not have explicitly stated genders. By allowing the reader to completely decide for themselves who they "think" the characters are, it shows how gender is a construct and has no measurable effect on a story when the story is not specifically about gender. Freeing the characters of the binary notion of "female" or "male" allows the reader to experience the story with less bias. amazon.com/gp/product/1945654902?ref_=db… | 2021-11-16 08:55:39 | |
| Mike Brooks | The Splinter King | This is the second book in Brooks's The God King Chronicles. In this one, more time is spent in the country where there are seven genders and two key characters drive the plot forward. One protagonist is actively exploring their own identity. We get to experience a community where gender isn't a binary concept, and where visitors have to learn to fit in.goodreads.com/en/book/show/56897861-the-… | 2021-11-15 11:17:28 | ||
| Marina Lostetter | Activation Degredation | Harper Voyager | harpercollins.com/products/activation-de… | 2021-11-15 10:13:26 | |
| Richard Kadrey | King Bullet | Harper Voyager | harpercollins.com/products/king-bullet-r… | 2021-11-15 10:12:35 | |
| Kim BoyoungSophia BowmanSung Ryu | I'm Waiting For You | Harper Voyager | the additional authors are the translatorsharpercollins.com/products/im-waiting-fo… | 2021-11-15 10:11:43 | |
| Becky Chambers | The Galaxy, and the Ground Within | Harper Voyager | harpercollins.com/products/the-galaxy-an… | 2021-11-15 10:09:27 | |
| Nicky Drayden | Escaping Exodus: Symbiosis | Harper Voyager | harpercollins.com/products/escaping-exod… | 2021-11-15 10:08:13 | |
| T Frohock | Song With Teeth | Harper Voyager | 2021-11-15 10:07:05 | ||
| Mike Brooks | The Black Coast | Rebellion Publishing Ltd | Mike Brooks created a fantasy world where there is an entire society whose language not only incorporates gender neutral pronouns, but also considers gendering a person without knowing their gender to be a grave breach of etiquette. He then juxtaposes this society against a traditionally patriarchal society in such a way as to highlight the systemic misogyny of the latter.books.google.com/books/about/the_black_c… | 2021-11-15 10:03:19 | |
| Ryka Aoki | Light from Uncommon Stars | Tor | 2021-11-15 10:01:27 | ||
| Everina Maxwell | Winter's Orbit | Tor Books | YEAH BABY!!!!! Really fun stuff with the future of gender & sexuality across space empires going on here. | 2021-11-10 17:51:48 | |
| Marjorie Liu | The Tangleroot Palace: Stories | Tachyon Publications | 2021-11-04 14:28:15 | ||
| Elly Bangs | Unity | Tachyon Publications | 2021-11-04 13:30:44 | ||
| Shannon Fay | Innate Magic | 47North | amazon.com/innate-magic-marrowbone-spell… | 2021-11-04 10:19:33 | |
| C. T. Rwizi | Requiem Moon | 47North | amazon.com/requiem-moon-scarlet-odyssey-… | 2021-11-04 10:17:41 | |
| Oghenechovwe Ekpeki | O² Arena | Galaxy's Edge | It's a climate fiction novelette set in futuristic Nigeria. It is free to read on the magazine website, and feel free to reach out for a free copy if it's no longer online. galaxysedge.com/ | 2021-11-01 15:42:09 | |
| dave ring | Unfettered Hexes: Queer Tales of Insatiable Darkness | Neon Hemlock Press | Unfettered Hexes: Queer Tales of Insatiable Darkness is a speculative anthology edited by dave ring telling stories about queer witches, the knife edge between the sacred and the profane, and infinite darkness.neonhemlock.com/books/unfettered-hexes-q… | 2021-10-30 07:16:17 | |
| Shingai Njeri Kagunda | & This is How to Stay Alive | Neon Hemlock Press | In & This is How to Stay Alive by Shingai Njeri Kagunda, Nyokabi’s world unravels after her brother Baraka’s death by suicide. When an eccentric auntie gives Nyokabi a potion that sends her back in time to when Baraka was still alive, it becomes her only goal to keep him that way. Nyokabi learns that storytellers may be the carriers of time, but defying the past comes with its own repercussions.neonhemlock.com/books/-this-is-how-to-st… | 2021-10-30 07:15:03 | |
| Wendy N. Wagner | The Secret Skin | Neon Hemlock Press | The Secret Skin by Wendy N. Wagner is a sawmill gothic that begins with June Vogel’s return to Storm Break, her family’s estate. Things in the great house aren’t what they used to be. Doors slam in the night. Faucets turn on, untouched. Something is always watching, whatever June does. And when her brother returns with his new bride, deceit and betrayal threaten to destroy everything she loves.neonhemlock.com/books/the-secret-skin | 2021-10-30 07:13:39 | |
| Premee Mohamed | And What Can We Offer You Tonight | Neon Hemlock Press | In a far future city, where you can fall to a government cull for a single mistake, And What Can We Offer You Tonight by Premee Mohamed tells the story of Jewel, established courtesan in a luxurious House. Jewel’s world is shaken when her friend is murdered by a client, but somehow comes back to life. To get revenge, they will both have to confront the limits of loyalty, guilt, and justice.neonhemlock.com/books/and-what-can-we-of… | 2021-10-30 07:10:31 | |
| Charles PayseurC.L. Clark | We’re Here: The Best Queer Speculative Fiction 2020 edited by CL Clark & Charles Payseur | Neon Hemlock Press | "Clark (The Unbroken) and Payseur (The Burning Day) present a diverse, well-crafted anthology of queer speculative fiction, bringing together 16 stories from both established and emerging authors.... There’s a wide range of genres and voices on offer, but all are thematically united by explorations of transformation and movement. This promising start to a new anthology series will appeal to any reader of contemporary short SFF, queer or otherwise, and reinforces Neon Hemlock’s spot at the apex of queer speculative fiction publishing." --Publishers Weeklyneonhemlock.com/books/were-here-the-best… | 2021-10-30 07:09:15 | |
| E. Catherine Tobler | The Necessity of Stars | Neon Hemlock Press | Plagued by the creeping loss of her memory, diplomat Bréone Hemmerli continues to negotiate peace in an increasingly climate-devastated world. The Necessity of Stars by E. Catherine Tobler brings the alien Tura to Bréone’s Normandy garden, a place removed from the world’s ruin. Within the garden’s shadows, Tura will show Bréone a way forward, even if she can’t remember it.neonhemlock.com/books/the-necessity-of-s… | 2021-10-30 07:04:07 | |
| Sarah Lahey | Gravity Is Heartless | She Writes Press | Book 1 in the Heartless Series, Gravity Is Heartless, won a Gold Independent Publishers Award, the 2021 American Fiction Award for Science Fiction and was a finalist in the International Book Award Finalist in LGBTQ, and the American Book Fest Finalist LGBTQ. | 2021-10-28 12:06:07 | |
| Sarah Lahey | Nostalgia Is Heartless | She Writes Press | This is Book 2 in the Heartless Series published October 2021, Book 1 Gravity Is Heartless, won a Gold Independent Publishers Award, the 2021 American Fiction Award for Science Fiction and was a finalist in the International Book Award Finalist in LGBTQ, and the American Book Fest Finalist LGBTQ. This book follows includes the same LGBTQ characters. | 2021-10-28 12:04:54 | |
| Monica Byrne | The Actual Star | Harper Voyager | David Mitchell’s "Cloud Atlas" meets Octavia Butler’s Earthseed series, as acclaimed author Monica Byrne ("The Girl in the Road") spins a brilliant generational saga spanning two thousand years, from the collapse of the ancient Maya to a modern-day tourist to a post-apocalyptic utopia. | 2021-10-28 11:44:15 | |
| Valerie San Filippo | “Housekeeper” | F(r)iction | frictionlit.org/housekeeper/ | 2021-10-26 06:31:17 | |
| Margaret Jameson | “The Women” | F(r)iction | frictionlit.org/the-women/ | 2021-10-26 06:30:17 | |
| Jen L. Hanson | Sensored Souls: The Secret Life of a Mind-Hacking Neuroscientist | White Wave Books | Persephone, a neuroscientist, battles the patriarchal aspects of her profession…following the head, and not her heart. She has always trusted “systems” and “authority,” building her research upon her father’s. When he disappears, her mother, a computer scientist, also tells Persephone to follow logic. Persephone journeys to a secret art gallery in Shanghai. There she encounters a collective of glowing glass sculptures. One is Jude, housing the brain of a former chessmaster. A pivotal non-binary character, Jude helps Persephone unify her head (masculine) with her heart (feminine) to move forward. Jude represents intellect—the non-binary bridge of ‘mind,’ connecting instinctual understanding with intuitive evolution. Other characters: A tribal elder symbolizes feminine nature, the earth, and the physical ‘body.’ A monk, a symbol of the universal masculine, represents cultivated intuition and the ‘spirit.’ Instinct, intelligence and intuition create complete gender—body, mind and spirit.amazon.com/author/jenlhanson | 2021-10-23 21:37:13 | |
| Alix E. Harrow | The Once and Future Witches | Redbook/Orbit | interesting alternate history (Sisters Grimm & U S burning of witches in 1893) & use of children's rhymes, who is counted as witch (midwife, etc) interesting, women's fight for vote, women of color, etc. | 2021-10-14 10:43:42 | |
| Eugen Bacon | Danged Black Thing | Transit Lounge Publishing | An electronic copy or print copy of this collection is available to all jurors on request. Please email details to: The publisher: info@transitlounge.com.au About the collection: Danged Black Thing is an extraordinary collection of stories about love and migration, gender and class, patriarchy and womanhood, from a remarkable and original voice. Traversing the West and Africa, they celebrate the author’s own hybridity with breathtaking sensuousness and lyricism. Simbiyu wins a scholarship to study in Australia, but cannot leave behind a world of walking barefoot, orange sun and his longing for a ‘once pillow-soft mother’. In his past, a darkness rose from the river, and something nameless and mystical continues to envelop his life. In ‘A Taste of Unguja’ sweet taarab music, full of want, seeps into a mother’s life on the streets of Melbourne. transitlounge.com.au/shop/danged-black-t… | 2021-10-13 22:23:24 | |
| Alison Holt | Duchess Rampant | Denabi Publishing | amazon.com/duchess-rampant-seven-realms-… | 2021-10-08 14:10:48 | |
| Shelley Parker-Chan | She Who Became The Sun | Tor Books | The main character in this novel is a girl who pretends to be a boy in order to survive. She is convinced that she needs to stay in character all the time to fool higher powers into believing she is her brother and giving her his fate, so her own self-image becomes, she eventually realizes, somewhere in between. There are other gender and sexuality non-conforming characters as well, and they continually struggle with and think about the performance of gender-- What does it mean to be masculine or feminine? How can we be perceived as one or the other? How does that relate to one's true self? These themes seem to perfectly embody what the Otherwise Award is about, so I think it would be a great choice. | 2021-09-30 05:52:13 | |
| J M Briscoe | The Girl With The Green Eyes | BAD PRESS iNK | As a debut novelist J M Briscoe is extraordinarily accomplished, accessible and engaging in format, which she uses to present readers with challenging content. In Bella, her central character she has created a magnetic protagonist with the power to both attract and repulse everyone around her to an obsessive degree, including readers, while entangling her in both a drama of mother-daughter angst, and a fast paced speculative science based thriller. She achieves an unusual mix where strong, enigmatic characters, creepy undertones and different themes mean she appeal to a wide range of readers. But she is determined to encourage those readers to read outside their comfort zones. Using a sci-fi genre she explores concepts both bizarre, such as supernatural children and animal/human hybrids, and lofty such as what it means to be human.amazon.co.uk/girl-green-eyes-take-back-e… | 2021-09-19 03:34:14 | |
| Lino Arruda | Monstrans: Experimenting with Horrormones | self-published | “Monstrans: experimenting with horrormones” is a beautifully illustrated graphic novel with strong autobiographical overtones. The book presents three stories tangled in disabled, lesbian and transmasculine experiences that are tied together by monstrous figures. otherwiseaward.org/award/2021-otherwise-… | 2021-09-18 11:46:05 | |
| A.R. Capetta | The Heartbreak Bakery | Candlewick Press | Teenage baker Syd (no pronouns please) sends ripples of heartbreak through Austin’s queer community when a batch of post-being-dumped brownies turns out to be magical—and makes everyone who eats them break up.candlewick.com/cat.asp?browse=title&… | 2021-09-15 11:52:19 | |
| Eugen BaconSeb Doubinsky | The Failing Name | Fantasy Magazine | An afrofrancophone collaboration that is also a migrant story.fantasy-magazine.com/fm/fiction/the-fail… | 2021-09-11 14:55:18 | |
| M. L. Krishnan | Bride, Knife, Flaming Horse | Apparition Lit | apparitionlit.com/bride-knife-flaming-ho… | 2021-09-08 05:57:39 | |
| Hailey Piper | Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy | The Seventh Terrace | the-seventh-terrace.com/unfortunate-elem… | 2021-09-06 15:12:36 | |
| Zachary Tanner | Oskar Submerges | CoronaSamizdat Press | Oskar Submerges is non-binary high-camp intergalactic erotica. The book is a groundbreaking sci-fi utopia that re-imagines a world free from gender oppression in a liberated cosmological celebration of the human spirit!! | 2021-09-01 15:59:28 | |
| Susan English | Callisto 2.0 - A novel of the future | self-published | She had to travel beyond the planet to discover her true self. Will she find the courage to walk through the doorway to a new future? Shambhala Space Station, 2097. Solitary physicist Callisto is recruited to work on faster-than-light technology at the women-only research station orbiting Earth’s moon. Calli blossoms in the utopian female community that shows her love and acceptance for the first time in her life. But when a twisted conspiracy, a disingenuous affair, and a disastrous betrayal test her place in this unique environment, the brilliant scientist must dig deep to find her moment of truth. Will Calli embrace her destiny in an unexplored cosmos? books2read.com/u/me9pbe | 2021-08-31 14:45:15 | |
| David Moles | The Metric | Asimov's, May/June 2021 | In this story, none of the humans have specified genders. That's not unheard-of. But (a) most of the other stories I've read with nongendered protagonists are written in first person, while this is in third person; and (b) most such stories have only one or two nongendered characters, while this has half a dozen; and (c) most such stories call attention in one way or another to the lack of character gender, while this handles it so subtly that I could easily imagine a reader entirely missing it. Also, this story doesn’t use workarounds like singular "they"; I don't think there are any singular pronouns (other than "it" for some objects and sentient-machine characters) in the whole 15,000-word story. Does this story explore and expand our ideas of gender as such? Maybe. Is it really impressive? Definitely. | 2021-08-29 19:51:00 | |
| Rem Wigmore | Foxhunt | Queen of Swords Press | Foxhunt is a queer solarpunk/climate fiction novel set in humanity's far future. The protagonist is a pan trans woman and all other characters are gender fluid, nonbinary or transgender. I'm nominating it because it's still rarer than it should be to see a far future sf novel that includes trans and queer people and because most sfnal work depicting trans characters by trans authors is still relegated to the indie and small presses. I also think that the hopeful aspect of this novel, suggesting that we will get through this, it a pretty important idea, especially right now.queenofswordspress.com/product/foxhunt/ | 2021-08-23 16:15:30 | |
| Blue Neustifter | Unknown Number | Unknown Number is the story of a physicist searching the multiverse a version of themselves that took a different path. Presented as a series of text messages, Neustifter explores identity, compassion, and the fantastic lengths we'll go to in order to find "proof". twitter.com/azure_husky/status/142017793… | 2021-07-28 09:13:36 | ||
| Sean Avery Medlin | 808s & Otherworlds: Memories, Remixes, & Mythologies | Two Dollar Radio | 808s & Otherworlds: Memories, Remixes, & Mythologies announces a bold and incendiary new voice in Sean Avery Medlin. Against the backdrop of the Phoenix suburbs where they were raised, Medlin interrogates the effects of media misrepresentation on the performance of Black masculinity. Through storytelling rhymes and vulnerable narratives in conversation with both contemporary Hip-Hop culture and systemic anti-Blackness, 808s & Otherworlds pieces together a speculative reality where Blackfolk are simultaneously superhuman and dehumanized. From the gut-wrenchingly real stories of young lovers unmythed by segregation or former classmates appropriating Black culture, to the fantastic settings of Hip-Hop songs and comic characters, Medlin weaves a tapestry of worlds and otherworlds while composing a love letter to family and self, told to an undeniably energetic beat.twodollarradio.com/products/808s-and-oth… | 2021-07-09 09:01:26 | |
| Zara Miller | I am Cecilia | New Degree Press | amazon.com/gp/product/b094519d7t | 2021-07-05 15:31:09 | |
| J.S. Breukelaar | The Bridge | Meerkat Press | This book has a science-fiction element of the story in that a cult leader, misogynist, The ‘Father’, has a belief that females are responsible for the fall of man, and has created a hybrid being that cannot reproduce. He has the power to not only create his Mades, but then to ‘unmake’ them – a disturbing metaphor for women being seen as somehow dangerous and in need of controlling, objects to be used, abused and disposed of. The story ultimately has multiple examples of women and mades finding the strength to take back control! | 2021-06-28 11:16:12 | |
| PJ Manney | (CON)SCIENCE | 47NORTH | (CON)SCIENCE is the thrilling conclusion to the Philip K. Dick Award nominated trilogy, and combines advanced technologies with a fast-paced plot, and brings the entire series together to really explore what it means to be human. PJ Manney herself is a positive futurist, serving on the board of directors at Humanity+, and predicting events and technologies such as Russian influences on American politics and Elon Musk’s Neuralink years ahead of time. Manney consults for various organizations about the future of humanity and technology, including artificial intelligence, robotics, and cyborgs, and she’s published her thoughts in Boing Boing, Live Science, and Tor.com. | 2021-06-25 14:00:29 | |
| K-Ming Chang | Bestiary | One World | 2021-06-22 13:16:58 | ||
| Alice Albinia | Cwen | Serpent's Tail | Shades of Gwyneth Jones and Sarah Hallserpentstail.com/work/cwen/ | 2021-06-19 14:06:54 | |
| Manish Srivastava | Trading Armour for a Flower | Notion Press | This is mind blowing poetry book that reflects men and women equally. I am a life coach and have recommended this book to many coaching clients. Men have come back saying that they felt understood and as if the book was written especially for that very man. Women have come back saying they discovered something new about men, about their own being, their womengood and their sexualityamazon.com/trading-armour-flower-rise-ma… | 2021-06-16 21:20:39 | |
| Karin Tidbeck | The Memory Theater | Pantheon | A brilliant and powerful novel! One worth considering for the Otherwise Award.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/605247/the-… | 2021-06-10 08:44:19 | |
| Benjamin Rosenbaum | The Unraveling | Erewhon Books | An amazing “far-future comedy of manners and social unrest” that expands my ideas about gender in remarkable ways. The society portrayed has only two genders, but they are not any of the genders that we're familiar with.erewhonbooks.com/books/the-unraveling-be… | 2021-06-08 09:55:58 | |
| Cristina BacchilegaJennifer Orme | Inviting Interruptions: Wonder Tales in the Twenty-First Century | Wayne State University Press | Inviting Interruptions: Wonder Tales in the Twenty-First Century anthologizes contemporary stories, comics, and visual texts that intervene in a range of ways to challenge the popular perception of fairy tales as narratives offering heteronormative happy endings that support status-quo values. The materials collected in Inviting Interruptions address the many ways intersectional issues play out in terms of identity markers, such as race, ethnicity, class, and disability, and the forces that affect identity, such as non-normative sexualities, addiction, abuses of power, and forms of internalized self-hatred caused by any number of external pressures. But we also find celebration, whimsy, and beauty in these same texts—qualities intended to extend readers’ enjoyment of and pleasure in the genre. Edited by Cristina Bacchilega and Jennifer Orme, the book is organized in two sections. "Inviting Interruptions" considers the invitation as an offer that must bewsupress.wayne.edu/books/detail/inviting… | 2021-06-07 06:19:16 | |
| Kathy O'Shea | "So Much More than a Headache: Understanding Migraine through Literature" | Kent State University Press | This book addresses the many stigmas attached with migraine disease, often still seen as a "woman's disease," going back to the Victorian times when diagnosed with hysteria. Its invisibility is also explored through a multitude of authors-poets, fiction and non-fiction writers, and dramatists, with many very recognizable names. The book captures the entire migraine experiences and deconstructs the myth that "it's just a headache." in ways that only literature can. Prominent Rochester NY Headache Specialist Dr. Joseph Mann reviewed the book, saying, “Not only a wonderful resource for sufferers but also of great benefit for their families, friends, treating physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and medical students.” amazon.com/much-more-than-headache-under… | 2021-05-29 06:22:23 | |
| Cate Pearce | Traitors of the Black Crown | Hansen House Books | The main character, Raena Schinen, disguises her gender and switches back and forth. Other characters respond to her gender in their POV and receive it positively. The book features a F/F romance in a second-world fantasy setting. hansenhousebooks.com | 2021-05-20 14:23:10 | |
| JEAN GILL | Arrows Tipped with Honey | The 13th Sign | Winner of a Royal Dragonfly Award Eco-fantasy that explores gender roles and challenges social conventions through shifter characters and non-stereotypical young adults . Mielitta, the bee-shifter, sees and judges human values differently through bee eyes, including concepts of individual rights, love and sexuality. 'Jean Gill's Natural Forces series offer a rich, strange, and alluring adventure that buzzes with intrigue and nature.' The Booklife Prize 2020amazon.com/gp/product/b084wzp9lw | 2021-05-11 22:54:56 | |
| Various VariousSelma CarvahloFernando A. TorresMitr Teymoorian Ali SaidMichael Harris CohenStephanie WilderspinCatherine RudolphMubanga KalimamukwentoDeborah GreenTimi Odueso | Aiden Shaw's Penis & Other Stories of Censorship from Around the World | Nobrow (US) Inc./Flying Eye Books | Aiden Shaw’s Penis & Other Stories of Censorship from Around the World (Oct.) is an illustrated collection of short stories that explore the theme of censorship in all its complexity. To compile the book, Nobrow created an open call for stories, using preliminary readers. By inviting submissions from authors worldwide, Nobrow ensured that the pieces not only represent a broad range of lived experiences and viewpoints but also offer a kaleidoscopic rather than myopic perspective on the subject of censorship. The book includes contributions from writers in Cape Town, South Africa; Chile; Iran; Manchester, England; Nigeria; the U.S.; and Zambia. Guardian journalist Coco Khan helped judge the submissions to the contest. -PUBLISHERS WEEKLYdropbox.com/s/su4vxte3r94mvtu/aiden%20sh… | 2021-05-10 11:31:30 | |
| Martha Riva Palacio | Biography of Algae | Strange Horizons | Beautiful poetic story about searching for life in other planets while trying to figure out life on Earth. strangehorizons.com/fiction/biography-of… | 2021-04-24 06:58:55 | |
| Callum Angus | A Natural History of Transition | Metonymy Press | The publisher's page was working last night but isn't today. I don't know the author (https://www.calangus.com/contact) or the press personally, just reading a copy they sent the book shop and loving it and thinking it might be a good fit — perhaps some of the stories more than others but I hope at least 2 people on the jury read it. Thanks again for all the work here!metonymypress.com/shop/print-books/a-nat… | 2021-04-21 07:16:54 | |
| Seth Dickinson | The Tyrant Baru Cormorant | 2021-04-06 09:52:49 | |||
| Art Holland | Pairing Mode | in the Erato anthology from the New Smut Project | This romance between a female-identifying android and a nonbinary, autistic human pushes back against the tradition in which the characters who nonbinary or autistic readers find most relatable are presented as nonhuman--instead, the human core of this story, Adebayo, has those traits, and an adorable love story besides. | 2021-04-05 06:09:30 | |
| Alex Freeman | "Spark" | in the Erato anthology from the New Smut Project | "Spark" is a flash fiction in which a fugitive with pyrotechnic powers and their companion consummate their relationship in a moment of refuge. Neither character is gendered, and the world and situation are sketched in evocative suggestions through dialogue and description, making art of blank space and requiring the reader to participate in telling the story while recognizing their own assumptions about what that story might be. | 2021-04-05 06:05:40 | |
| Jennifer BrodyJules Rivera (illustrator) | 200 | Turner | Thank you for considering 200 for the Otherwise Award! This is the newest and boldest graphic novel from Jennifer Brody and Jules Rivera. 200 is set in a future where death and disease have been cured...at a cost. When people turn 200, they must take a test to achieve immortality or be euthanized. After losing her husband to the test, Eva Thorne isn’t an optimist and isn’t interested in immortality, until she discovers the love of her life might be alive after all. Please contact marketing@turnerpublishing.com to request a copy of the graphic novel. | 2021-03-15 12:51:18 | |
| Bishakh Som | Apsara Engine | The Feminist Press | feministpress.org/books-a-m/apsara-engin… | 2021-03-13 01:32:54 | |
| Karen D. Badger | A Shadow in Love | Badger Bliss Books (Indie pubisher) | I am an established Lesfic writer with fifteen published books (including this new one - A Shadow in Love). There are three award winners and one award finalist among them (see http://www.karendbadger.com for more information). This new book, A Shadow in Love, is my first attempt at Lesbian Sci-Fi Romance. The idea for this book came from my wife's and my last visit to Sedona, Arizona where we spent a significant amount of time hiking the vortex trails in the unique desert town. I appreciate the opportunity to submit this new release for consideration for the Otherwise Award. Thank you!amazon.com/shadow-love-karen-d-badger-eb… | 2021-02-18 06:51:52 | |
| Nino Cipri | FINNA | Tor.com | us.macmillan.com/books/9781250245724 | 2021-02-16 11:44:46 | |
| François Vigneault | TITAN | Oni Press | "With their purposeful giantness comes an egalitarian regime, at least among their own. Female Titans are quite respected rather than sexualized or scantily clad (as with R. Crumb’s “Ideal Woman,” or in the film Attack of the 50 Foot Woman). Titans are all big brutes, and their size connotes sheer dominance and unfuckwithable power (think Amazons or the giant women of Steven Universe)... If you’re looking for a hard sci-fi space-colony love story featuring giant ladies, then TITAN is the book for you. But maybe that’s not specifically what you’re after – in that case read TITAN for a pointed adventure that is incredibly deep and complex, telling more story in its 500-some trichromatic panels than could be told in 500 pages of text." —Natalia Yanchak, Montreal Review of Bookssimonandschuster.ca/books/titan/francois… | 2021-02-01 22:17:16 | |
| Aiden Thomas | Cemetery Boys | 2021-01-25 11:39:37 | |||
| C.L. Polk | The Midnight Bargain | Erewhon | 2020-12-16 08:41:24 | ||
| Lauren Dixon | Welcome to the Bitch Bubble | Hydra House Books | In these sixteen stories, Lauren Dixon dives with headlong fearlessness into the blood and guts beneath the clean white façade of patriarchy. She is a sheela-na-gig birthing yetis and luchadors and girls who won’t die, zombies and killers and days of the week: an orgy of vagical surrealism that cuts to the bone and seeds hope in the wounds for the future.hydrahousebooks.com/catalog/welcome-to-t… | 2020-11-30 23:07:54 | |
| Ava Kelly | Aegis Alight 2020 Collection | Self-published | Aegis Alight (2020 Collection) is a collection of twelve stories published in each month of 2020. These are stories of other worlds, other places. Stories of creatures helping, of cryptids descending from otherness to join those in need. Eight of the stories feature transgender or nonbinary characters.avakellyfiction.com/aegis-alight-2020/ | 2020-11-30 05:33:47 | |
| Ava Kelly | Bound Ares | Other Worlds Ink | Part of the Innovation anthology. A story about redefining war, taking it from an external conflict to internal struggles, focused on self-acceptance. Trans woman MC. otherworldsink.com/book/innovation/ | 2020-11-30 05:31:45 | |
| Anna-Marie McLemore | Dark and Deepest Red | Feiwel and Friends | 2020-11-26 11:17:50 | ||
| Lydia RogueCharlie Jane AndersAva KellyJuliet KempRafi KleimanTucker LiebermanNathan Alling LongEther NepenthesM. Darusha WehmLane FoxMarcus Woodman | Trans-Galactic Bike Ride: Feminist Bicycle Science Fiction Stories of Transgender and Nonbinary Adventurers | Microcosm Publishing | An anthology of sci-fi and fantasy stories written by trans authors for trans readers. microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/books/10… | 2020-11-24 15:33:58 | |
| Kuniko Tsurita | The Sky is Blue with a Single Cloud | Drawn & Quarterly | The Sky is Blue with a Single Cloud is the first English translation of the visionary feminist Garo cartoonist, Kuniko Tsurita. Alternative manga, with Garo magazine as its cultural vanguard, was an almost exclusively male domain, until Tsurita became a regular contributor to the magazine in the mid-1960s. An essay by editors Ryan Holmberg and Mitsuhiro Asakawa at the end of the book explores Tsurita’s important role in gekiga’s history. Tsurita was at the forefront of feminist artistry in Garo and also eons before her time in terms of narrative experimentation, concepts of gender fluidity, and existential exploration. In works like “Max” and “The Sky is Blue with a Single Cloud,” her leading characters exhibit a kind of gender non-conformity otherwise unrepresented in 1960s alternative manga or beyond. Gender fluidity is perhaps the most striking element of her work.drawnandquarterly.com/sky-blue-single-cl… | 2020-11-24 12:52:54 | |
| Ameko Kaeruda | Sexiled: My Sexist Party Leader Kicked Me Out, So I Teamed Up With a Mythical Sorceress! | J-Novel Club | Tanya Artemiciov is a talented Mage-class adventurer who just got kicked out of her party by a sexist scumbag. So what's a girl to do? Go to the wasteland and blow stuff up of course! One small problem though: she inadvertently frees a mythical Sorceress named Laplace who was sealed away for the past 300 years... Surprise! Turns out this so-called "wicked" Sorceress is actually pretty cool. Laplace wants to start a party of her own, Tanya wants revenge, and the solution is obvious: team up. It's time to kick ass, kiss girls, and dismantle the patriarchy!amazon.com/dp/b07vvyj5gc/ | 2020-11-22 16:45:41 | |
| SJ Whitby | Cute Mutants Vol 1: Mutant Pride | 2020-11-22 15:52:49 | |||
| Kanyinsola Olorunnisola | Abija, the Architect of Mayhem | Myles Ojabo | Published in the "Black Skin, No Mask" anthology, this story is set in a futuristic Africa where magic and science co-exist. It narrates the story of a double jailbreak with a mind-bending twist revealing the devastating consequences of queerphobia in society.amazon.com/black-skin-no-mask-anthology-… | 2020-11-20 04:40:00 | |
| Michael J. DeLuca | Night Roll | Stelliform Press | A new mother and climate refugee contends with the fae spirits of Detroit while finding her place in a resurging, post-industrial community and raising a gender neutral child.stelliform.press/index.php/books/#nightr… | 2020-11-16 12:16:10 | |
| Andrea Hairston | Master of Poisons | Tor.com | Master of Poisons is brilliant, lush fantasy work of a kind not seen enough in the genre. The world-building is extravagantly beautiful. The multi-layered story is African-inspired, folkloric, and full of brilliantly rendered, indigenous science. Exploring alternate senses of gender in a secondary world, the book contains a delicious wealth of diverse and wonderful female and non-binary characters to follow and love. Author, Andrea Hairston has delivered an innovative and beautiful masterwork!publishing.tor.com/masterofpoisons-andre… | 2020-11-13 21:38:32 | |
| C. T. Rwizi | Scarlet Odyssey | 47North | The author writes, "In Scarlet Odyssey, I wanted to explore how societies often place arbitrary gender restrictions on roles that, in and of themselves, often have nothing to do with gender. I decided to use magic as the vehicle for this exploration. The main character, Salo, is a young man whose affinity with magic, considered womanly in his society, puts him on the outs with his clan and his hypermasculine father, brothers and uncles. Now, I didn’t want to fall into the stereotype that only gay men choose roles traditionally associated with femininity; this is simply not true. But I felt compelled to extend my exploration of gender roles into an exploration of sexuality, and I also wanted to write a character I’d personally never read before: a gay kid from an African-inspired setting.”amazon.com/scarlet-odyssey-c-t-rwizi-ebo… | 2020-11-10 11:36:52 | |
| Victoria Lee | The Electric Heir | Skyscape | amazon.com/electric-heir-feverwake-book-… | 2020-11-10 11:32:50 | |
| Elwin Cotman | Dance on Saturday: Stories | Small Beer Press | For the collection and particularly the title story, "Dance on Saturday" and "Among the Zoologists." | 2020-11-05 17:27:57 | |
| Anya Johanna DeNiro | A Voyage to Queensthroat | Strange Horizons | strangehorizons.com/fiction/a-voyage-to-… | 2020-10-30 23:17:33 | |
| Bogi Takács | Transcendent 4: The Year's Best Transgender Speculative Fiction | Lethe | This one wasn't considered last year because I was on the jury - Bogi. | 2020-10-29 17:36:25 | |
| R.B. Lemberg | To Balance the Weight of Khalem | Beneath Ceaseless Skies | beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/to-b… | 2020-10-29 16:26:46 | |
| Bogi Takács | Algorithmic Shapeshifting | Aqueduct | It wasn't eligible last year because I was on the jury. Thank you! - Bogi. | 2020-10-29 16:02:31 | |
| Bogi Takács | Power to Yield | Clarkesworld | Content notices here: https://twitter.com/bogiperson/status/1278427958382866434 - Bogi.clarkesworldmagazine.com/takacs_07_20/ | 2020-10-29 16:00:34 | |
| Bogi Takács | The Trans Space Octopus Congregation | Lethe | It wasn't eligible last year because I was on the jury - Bogi. | 2020-10-29 15:59:11 | |
| Niki Smith | The Deep & Dark Blue | Little, Brown Young Readers | lbyr.com/titles/niki-smith/the-deep-dark… | 2020-10-27 05:37:41 | |
| Brittany Eldridge | Healing The Light Within Me My inner child | lulu.com | smile.amazon.com/healing-light-within-me… | 2020-10-26 10:46:41 | |
| ASHLEY RHODES-COURTER | SAM IS MY SISTER | Albert Whitman | Ashley Rhodes-Courter is a New York Times Bestselling author, speaker, and proud parent of a young trans child. She serves on the Parents for Transgender Equality Council with the Human Rights Campaign. Book summary: Evan loves being big brother to Sam and Finn. They do everything together―go fishing, climb trees, and play astronauts. But lately, Evan notices that he and Sam don’t look like brothers anymore. Sam wants to have long hair, and even asks to wear a dress on the first day of school. As time goes by, Evan comes to understand why Sam wants to look like a girl―because Sam is a girl. Sam is transgender. Based on one family’s real-life experiences, this is a heartwarming story of a girl named Sam and the brothers who love and support her.rhodes-courter.com | 2020-10-26 08:41:06 | |
| dave ring | Glitter + Ashes: Queer Tales of a World That Wouldn't Die | Neon Hemlock Press | https://www.neonhemlock.com/books/glitterandashes | 2020-10-22 13:25:39 | |
| Caitlin Starling | Yellow Jessamine | Neon Hemlock Press | https://www.neonhemlock.com/books/yellow-jessamine | 2020-10-22 13:24:49 | |
| Eboni Dunbar | Stone and Steel | Neon Hemlock Press | https://www.neonhemlock.com/books/stone-and-steel | 2020-10-22 13:24:14 | |
| M. L. Krishnan | Girl Clothes | Sonora Review | A beautifully narrated story about bodies, sexuality and defiance.sonorareview.com/2020/04/13/girl-clothes… | 2020-10-18 14:59:20 | |
| Tessa Gratton | Night Shine | Simon and Schuster | 2020-10-15 08:29:13 | ||
| James Austine | Into The Space | Zed Blossom | Hard working and creative indeed, James Austine is one of the best authors who creates best and unimaginable fictions of all times. Beyond imagination, James wrote Into The Space (Fantasy by genre) with the interest of readers, and not by his hobic career. Plots, settings and everything shows that indeed he has a passion for writing. With a phrasing title, Author Of 20 Books and known to others as 'The Men', James is a Creative Director, Author, Editor, Talent Finder, Designer, and Writer. As a professional editor and publishers, James wrote this story not only for his personal benefits, but benefits for the entire writing industry. For sure for the betterment of fictions, especially under Fantasy genre. I we hope you will consider it for the 2020 Otherwise Awards. Thank you for organising such platforms that promotes Authors.zedblossom.com/product/into-the-space-ja… | 2020-10-13 17:08:36 | |
| Amara Lynn | Tundras, Travelers, and Other Travesties | self published | books2read.com/tundras | 2020-10-13 16:38:20 |