Narrator Rebecca Wei Hsieh breathes new life into my novelette, “Vault,” with her rendition at Escape Pod! Part 1 of 2 out now!
Check it out if you’d like to run along a chilly planet in this space exploration story!
“Vault” first appeared in Clarkesworld, Issue 141 in June 2018.
–with thanks to the Escape Pod editors, producer Adam Pracht, host Tina Connolly,
and staff for this shiny, new rendition!
I’m happy to announce that my poems will be forthcoming in Orion’s Belt, Star*Line and Scifaikuest!
The two poems to be published in Orion’s Belt and Star*Line reference birds and bird activities, with a speculative twist. Thanks to these beaky and feathery creatures for their inspiration.
It will be my first time publishing with Orion’s Belt!
I’ll also have poems published in Scifaikuest in the November 2024 print issue, in addition to the upcoming poems in the November 2025 print and online issues. These poems span the gamut, from microscopic to macroscopic, and cover cosmic and extraterrestrial themes, among others.
Happy to announce some sales to poetry markets: my first sale to Dreams and Nightmares (January 2025 issue) and another small scifaiku to appear in Scifaikuest (November 2025 print issue). Yay!
My non-fiction article on terrestrial bees and science fiction is now up on this month’s Clarkesworld Magazine!
Come buzz about with me as I explore smart beehive homes, dancing robot bees–and these charismatic winged insects in fiction, film and games!
Happy to announce that my novelette, “Vault,” first published in Clarkesworld is forthcoming in Escape Pod–with new narration! Yay!
Also, I had a great time chatting and virtual conning at the Nebula Convention! Was happy to meet speculative fiction folk through office hours as well!
Congrats to all the Nebula winners!
Going to be heading into Virtual Balticon to be on a panel on microfiction and micropoetry in a few minutes! (Starts at 4pm EST)
My schedule this virtual Balticon:
-Microfiction and Micropoetry, Fri. May 24, 4pm
-Verses and Victuals, Sat. May 25, 2:30pm (improv spec-poetry cooking show) with
Deborah Davitt
-Introduction to Speculative Poetry, Sat. May 25, 4pm
-Reading, Sat. May 25, 5:30pm
Yay!
Happy to announce that my article, entitled, “Hive Minds and Drones: Bees in Space in Real Life and in Science Fictional Cosmos,” is now live in Clarkesworld!
With a buzz of thanks to Kate Baker and the editorial team!
I’ll be reading poems tonight, Thursday, May 2, at Tompkins County Public Library for the Spring Writes Literary Fest, starting at 6:30pm.
Happy to announce that my dragon poem, “pawns,” is now available to read on Eye to the Telescope, edited by SPFA staff. It’s about the Chinese dragon and xiangqi, Chinese chess. I’m planning on putting up a little blurb that describes the cultural references on the poem in my Patreon soon for certain subscribers.
I’ll be appearing virtually in the Nebula and Balticon conventions this year. More info to come!
Also, now live on Shining Moon podcast is an episode about Speculative Poetry in which I appear as a guest, alongside wonderful poets Daniel Ausema, Brian U. Garrison, Bogi Takács and host Deborah L. Davitt and we have a blast talking poetry and making up lines in the moment!
I read “Nutrition Facts” first published in Uncanny.
Here’s a link to my reading for Story Hour!
It was 10pm where I was and I didn’t manage to wrangle my little foxlet to bed and my Zoom happened to update right before the live recording and then bonk out just as I was trying to log on, so despite appearing (hopefully) poised, I was actually reeling from doing ad-hoc frenzied tech support for myself down to the wire. Perfect timing for a glitch! I was hoping a full hard restart would do the trick and the computer simply would not shut off and turn back on, possibly because my Zoom gave me an error every time I clicked on it without really closing.
Anyway, I did manage to log on and read!
It was wonderful reading with Tashan Mehta –great synergy! We both read mother & daughter stories.
Thanks to Laura, Sam and Daniel for hosting!
I watched a moment of it on FB live just now and saw that the closed captions transcribed “taro congee” as “tarot congee” which is quite apropos, given the robot in the story that dispenses this food is similar to those mechanical fortune tellers in a booth of yore. I like that effect.
The closed captioning also spells my name in different ways in different instances from Shaolin (like the temple) to Charlene… both actually kind of sound like my name, haha.
If you’re looking for another narrative voice reading the same story, check out Joy Piedmont’s excellent narration as part of Uncanny‘s podcast!
D.A. Xiaolin Spires 