Black Hole Heart and Other Stories by K.A. Teryna releases today!
This is a fabulous collection by the author I consider to be the best speculative short story writer working presently in the Russian language. Do not miss out! Order today.
Also out today is my friend Ken Liu’s first new novel in several years. All That We See or Seem is a near-future mystery, but I would describe it as modern cyberpunk that has shed all the conventions of the 1980s. Treat yourself to both books!
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Acceptances & Publications | Tagged: All That We See or Seem, Black Hole Heart, Fairwood Press, K.A. Teryna, ken liu | 
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Posted by Alex Shvartsman
Cross-posted from the UFO10 Kickstarter campaign update – please support this project here!)
Today is International Translation Day! Celebrate this by watching a dubbed TV show, reading a translated novel, or simply using common expressions such as “ravages of time” which wouldn’t exist were it not for a decision made by a literary translator centuries ago (though few people realize this.)
As a professional translator, sharing works from outside of the Anglosphere is very important to me. For over five years I edited Future Science Fiction Digest which focused on translated stories and other stories written in primarily non-English speaking countries. The archives are still free to read at the above link.
UFO10 will include at least one translation — “Opacity” by Leo Kaganov, which I translated from Russian. Leo’s stories have previously appeared in Clarkesworld and Asimov’s (also in my translation.)
An entire book of short stories I translated (plus one translated by my friend Anatoly Belilovsky) is coming out from Fairwood Press this October! Black Hole Heart and Other Stories by K.A. Teryna is fabulous; her stories remind me of Borges, Le Guin, and Link. It’s not a part of this Kickstarter campaign but I encourage you to check it out. You can sample some of the stories online for free, here and here.
Strange Horizons just published a wonderful review of the collection.
The collection can be preordered at the publisher’s website or on Amazon, B&N, and all the usual places.
International Translator Day is also the perfect time to launch the Kickstarter campaign for the full-cast audiobook of Tales of the Wandering Mists by Oleg Veretskiy.
This enchanting children’s book for all ages was written by a Ukrainian author who is currently fighting on the front lines to protect his country. It’s the first book in the trilogy and I really appreciate Pierce Press for working to support him and to bring Ukrianian literature to Anglophone readers. I had the privilege of blurbing this book and this is what I wrote:
“Mists blends the wild imagination of Alice’s journey to Wonderland with the melancholy wisdom of The Little Prince to create an altogether unique narrative.”
The audiobook samples sound fantastic! Please support their campaign here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/piercepress/tales-of-the-wandering-mists-audiobook
Leave a Comment » | Acceptances & Publications, Publishing | Tagged: Black Hole Heart, K.A. Teryna, Oleg Vertskiy, Pierce Press, strange horizons, Tales of the Wandering Mists | Permalink
Posted by Alex Shvartsman
I don’t know why, but I haven’t had many stories appear on podcasts lately. Which is a shame since I so love listening to audiobooks and narrated fiction. In a bid to correct this, there are two fabulous narrations that are up on StarShipSofa now!
“Golf to the Death,” originally from Galaxy’s Edge, is a humorous SF golf story. I really enjoyed making fun of golf, because it’s easy and because golf fans have a sense of humor about their sport as opposed to some of the other fans of ludicrous sports (I’m looking at you, baseball.)
“The Errata” by K.A. Teryna was translated by me into English and originally appeared at Asimov’s. It’s an excellent story and the narration here really elevates it.
Give both of them a listen!
Comments Off on Podcasts! Two stories at StarShipSofa | Acceptances & Publications | Tagged: humor, K.A. Teryna, podcast, StarShipSofa, translation | Permalink
Posted by Alex Shvartsman
BSFA posted the short list for their annual awards and “Songs of the Snow Whale” written by K.A. Teryna and translated from Russian by me is a finalist this year! I’m super excited for the recognition this story is receiving. Huge thanks to Ann Vandermeer who acquired it for Reactor!
K.A. Teryna’s English language short story collection will be released late this year and I expect we’ll be able to share the very cool cover in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!
Meantime, you can read “Songs of the Snow Whale” here:
https://reactormag.com/songs-of-the-snow-whale-k-a-teryna/
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Posted by Alex Shvartsman
My latest translation is live and free to read online!
https://reactormag.com/songs-of-the-snow-whale-k-a-teryna/
At the edge of the world, on the island of R’evava in the Arctic Ocean, a blizzard rages outside as five people gathered in a small weather station pass the time telling each other stories while they wait for a break in the storm
Comments Off on “Songs of the Snow Whale” by K.A. Teryna at Reactor | Acceptances & Publications | Tagged: K.A. Teryna, russian translation, translation | Permalink
Posted by Alex Shvartsman
Fairwood Press will publish Black Hole Heart and Other Stories by K.A. Teryna in late 2025! This is a collection of truly awesome short stories many of which have never been available online as they appeared in print digests like Asimov’s and F&SF or anthologies like The Best of World SF 3.
I’m very proud and honored to have translated these stories and K.A. Teryna is one of my favorite authors in any language. If you aren’t already familiar with her work check out a few of the pieces available on the web. I bet you’ll be lining up to preorder this collection after you read them!
Black Hole Heart
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/black-hole-heart/
Copy Cat
http://strangehorizons.com/fiction/copy-cat/
Untilted
http://samovar.strangehorizons.com/2017/09/24/untilted/
Comments Off on Translation Book Sale: Black Hole Heart and Other Stories | Publishing | Tagged: Fairwood Press, K.A. Teryna, short story collection, translation | Permalink
Posted by Alex Shvartsman
We now have a cover for the anthology of stories about artificial minds interacting with art. The stories and the art are created by humans (the cover is drawn and designed by the spectacular K.A. Teryna!)
Typeface and the blurb below may not be finalized yet, but this is close enough to share!
The Digital Aesthete
Human Musings on the Intersection of Art and AI
Edited by Alex Shvartsman
Stories that explore the relationship between artificial intelligence and art, written by top science fiction authors from across the globe. Read the tales of robot painters, AI poets, and electronic gallery curators; dystopias where human artists must eke out an existence in societies where AI generates most of the content, and utopias where artificial minds help unlock and enhance human creativity.
Featuring fiction by authors from USA, UK, China, Russia, Ukraine, Nigeria, Madagascar, Argentina, Chile, Czech Republic, and Sri Lanka.
This book will be released on November 14, digitally distributed by UFO Publishing while the paperbacks are distributed by Arc Manor / CAEZIK SF & Fantasy.
There are several ways you can preorder this book. Our preference is that you do so via our Kickstarter campaign (which ends in just a few days) for the KAKISTOCRACY audiobook. The Digital Aesthete is available as an add-on in print and ebook formats but you can grab just that if that’s what you want.
Alternatives are to order direct from UFO Publishing here: (Ebook) / (Print)
Paperback is also available for preorder on Amazon, B&N, Bookshop, and your favorite local bookstore!
Comments Off on The Digital Aesthete Cover Reveal! | Publishing | Tagged: AI, Cover reveal, K.A. Teryna, the digital aesthete | Permalink
Posted by Alex Shvartsman
I’ve got a couple of translations in the March-April issues of Analog and Asimov’s which are about to go on sale next week.
“The Errata” by K.A. Teryna imagines a life on an ark ship very early in its journey (still in our solar system!) This story was commissioned by the Future Affairs Administration which involved K.A. Teryna writing it quickly and then me translating it equally fast, so that a relay translation could be performed from English to Mandarin Chinese. As usual, K.A. delivered a great story and Asimov’s snapped up the first English rights. Bonus: there’s also a cat!
“Incommunicado” by Andrej Kokoulin is a cool space opera adventure where the protagonist must race across the galaxy to reconnect with his lost love. This story reminded me of the best of Soviet-era sci-fi and is refreshingly optimistic. Its appearance in Analog is Kokoulin second English-language publication. My translation of his dark yarn “The Slave” was published in F&SF a few years back.
4 Comments | Acceptances & Publications | Tagged: Andrej Kokoulin, K.A. Teryna, translation | Permalink
Posted by Alex Shvartsman
My translation of K.A. Teryna’s 11,000+ word novelette “The Farctory” was published this week in The Best of World SF 2 edited by Lavie Tidhar. This is an original, previously unpublished in translation story, and one of the longest among Teryna’s works. l like to describe it as an M.C. Escher painting in a written form. 🙂
I earned a prestigious RusTRANS grant from the University of Exeter to translate this story back in 2020 and Lavie picked up the completed translation for this anthology, which has already earned a starred review from Publishers Weekly.
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Posted by Alex Shvartsman
I have two new story and a translation out this week!
“Lajos and his Bees” by K.A. Teryna is out in the November/December issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. It’s an excellent secondary-world fantasy and it found a great home in this storied publication.
My own story, “Winner Takes All” is part of the new anthology of space westerns, out today from Baen books. Gunfight on Europa Station (edited by David Boop) ebook is available now while the paperbacks have been temporarily delayed and should be releasing soon.
Last but not least, “The Going Rate” is a funny and snarky short story in the current issue of Galaxy’s Edge which is temporarily FREE to read online. It’ll only remain free for a couple of months, so don’t wait to read it.
Here’s a brief sample:
The reckoning was overdue, and if it took dark magic to serve Alfred his just desserts, so be it. Besides, the book on witchcraft Karen had been reading was due back at the library on the following Tuesday. Before her rational side could take over, she grabbed the paperback, flipped to the earmarked page, and marched into her empty garage.
Karen quickly discovered that spell books were similar to cookbooks in that the recipe always required ingredients an average person would never keep in their pantry. Armed with her years of experience cooking with dried bouillon cubes instead of homemade chicken stock, Karen was certain she could cast a perfectly serviceable spell by working with reasonable substitutions.
Since she was neither an old-timey schoolteacher nor a hopscotch-playing preteen, Karen owned zero pieces of chalk. She also didn’t relish ruining a perfectly serviceable garage floor, and so Karen found a disused dry-erase board, placed it onto the ground, and drew the pentagram with an erasable pink marker.
Karen paused to admire her handiwork, then winced as she read the next paragraph from her book. Who could possibly be expected to possess a flask of virgin blood collected during the vernal equinox, even if the recipe called for only a small flask? After some deliberation, she poured two fingers of room-temperature Bloody Mary mix into five souvenir NASCAR shot glasses and placed one at each point of the pentagram.
Comments Off on Three New Publications | Acceptances & Publications | Tagged: David Boop, F&SF, Gunfight at Europa Station, K.A. Teryna, translation | Permalink
Posted by Alex Shvartsman
Alex Shvartsman's Speculative Fiction 