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 December, 2023. 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 2023 Otherwise Award will be given in 2024, location to be determined.
To let us know something related to recommendations that doesn’t fit in the form, please email recommendations@otherwiseaward.org.
Anything that you enter in the Author, Title, Publisher, Link, and Additional Comments fields will be publicly visible. If you want to add non-public comments about the work that you’re recommending, email recommendations@otherwiseaward.org.
The 2023 Otherwise Award Recommendations
| Author | Title | Publisher | Comments | Sub Date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leilani Taneus-Miller | Brown Girl | Austin Macauley | Touching account of a young teen damaged by racism. Set in 1980’s. Guaranteed to stir up conversations on race, gender and mental health.goodreads.com/book/show/68001101-brown-g… | 2023-01-19 11:39:50 | |
| D. A Mucci | Ignatius and the Battle at Dinas Affaraon | St. Barts Publishing | Iggy forges a sword from a meteorite–but will it be the weapon to save them? As the obsessive Emperor Mallak plans to kill Iggy for his crystal amulet, Iggy remains entirely focused on becoming a master smith. Well, almost entirely–he is distracted by his crush, Raraesa, and can’t help but hope that she notices his newfound fighting skills (and fighting physique). There’s just one problem: a dark wizard, a Death Knight, and five thousand soldiers have been tasked with hunting him down. Where will he hide? The mysteries of the Nostaw Warrior still haunt Iggy. There must be a repiceason he was given the sword, and he prays it will help him return to his place and time in Pennsylvania–but right now, home seems farther away than ever. Will he find the answers he’s seeking on the Island of Cambria?amazon.com/gp/product/b0bcdhqddl/ | 2023-01-11 16:16:56 | |
| Rem Wigmore | Wolfpack | Queen of Swords Press | Queen of Swords Press is happy to make the book available for the jury.queenofswordspress.com/product/wolfpack/ | 2023-01-08 05:30:00 | |
| Eugen Bacon | Broken Paradise | Luna Press Publishing | A dark fantasy of gods, magic and family—what happens when they break. After falling out with her brothers, Samaki the goddess of water flees to Earth where she must mask her trace by splitting into a quadruplet of magi. A quadruplet is perfect, but all things are never equal. Dissonance arises when the magus Umozi breaks the quadruplet. Only the newness of a child magus can restore balance and save a broken paradise—with the help of a goddess mother.lunapresspublishing.com/product-page/bro… | 2023-01-06 21:47:07 | |
| Joseph A. Schiller | Upon the Arrival of Dawn | Joseph A. Schiller | A darkness grows, threatening the delicate fabric of the Universe. An ominous cloud spreads, bringing an increasing imbalance across the Cosmos. Essences bent on wickedness and ultimate destruction are violently stripping the Energy of Life from innocent terrestrial creatures, bringing Existence to the very brink of collapse. Only one Celestial essence boldly accepts the calling to seek out the source of the encroaching evil and restore Harmony once again to Existence. Azrael, humble servant of Eternity, offspring of Existence, will stop at nothing to protect the Universe, mortal and immortal alike.amazon.com/upon-arrival-dawn-joseph-schi… | 2023-01-01 20:20:16 | |
| Sarah Soh | Juniper Mae: Knight of Tykotech City | Nobrow US Inc./Flying Eye Books | FOR READERS OF THE BROWNSTONE SERIES & HILDA: readers who enjoy middle grade series with an animated feel will cozy up to Juniper Mae EXCITING DEBUT CREATOR: Sarah Soh is a debut creator with a knack for animation-forward illustrations THE FIRST IN AN EPIC THREE BOOK SERIES: a sci-fi series that will keep readers hooked FUN ADVENTURE GRAPHIC NOVEL WITH STRONG FEMALE ENERGETIC PROTAGONIST: Young kids will gravitate toward her liveliness FOR YOUNG SCI-FI FANS LIKE AMULET AND ZITA: STEM lovers will enjoy Juniper Mae, a smart young engineer heroine penguinrandomhouse.com/books/653265/juni… | 2022-12-09 11:49:39 | |
| Al Hess | World Running Down | Angry Robot | ARC available from Al on request Odyssey x Blade Runner, but all the queer joy. Delicious prose, gritty, engaging post-apocalyptic world, and characters you’ll fall for. Hard. Al Hess is a masterful writer. It’s clear from the very beginning that he has the heart of a poet and the imagination of a storyteller. His comfort with structure has him providing us a story with the perfect flow of tension and hope to keep us in our feels as we breathlessly turn each page. He has unique and important things to say about living in a body that doesn’t match who you are, and Valentine’s journey as a trans man is refracted elegantly in Osric’s own fraught relationship with his corporeality. a.co/d/ccxqq4r | 2022-11-29 19:15:17 |