Ancillary Review of Books
@ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
culture, power, speculation
https://ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/AncillaryReview
https://ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/AncillaryReview
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Hello readers! We have a lot of big plans for next year. Some highlights you can expect: Dan Hartland’s Snap! Criticism column, where he takes a recent work of critical non-fiction and a speculativ…
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
Hey readers! Another plug for our Patreon and Bookshop- we would really appreciate your support as we move towards becoming a paying venue. Plus, our Bookshop is a great way to fill out your TBR for the end of the year. Re-shares appreciated!
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2024/11/24/a...
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2024/11/24/a...
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CONTINGENT PHILOSOPHERS! (Contractually, not metaphysically). I’ve been a big fan of @contingent-mag.bsky.social for a while. This year they’re letting philosophy piggyback one of their institutions: the year-end list of books and articles written by non tenured/permanent academics in that year.
Publications by Non-Tenure-Track Historians
Since we began publishing in 2019, Contingent has published end-of-year lists of books and articles by non-tenure-track historians released in the past calendar year. To submit something for inclusion...
contingentmagazine.org
November 26, 2025 at 9:33 AM
CONTINGENT PHILOSOPHERS! (Contractually, not metaphysically). I’ve been a big fan of @contingent-mag.bsky.social for a while. This year they’re letting philosophy piggyback one of their institutions: the year-end list of books and articles written by non tenured/permanent academics in that year.
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So excited to read this new series, especially having come up against serious barriers to finding SFF in translation this year!
In the first entry in a new series that re-examines overlooked SFF in translation, @coimeas.bsky.social draws our attention to language, gender, and more in Elia Barceló’s NATURAL CONSEQUENCES, tr. Andrea Bell & Yolanda Molina-Gavilán (Vanderbilt University Press)
Misplaced In Translation: Review of Elia Barceló’s Natural Consequences
Nat Harrington Under Review:Natural Consequences. Elia Barceló, translated by Andrea Bell and Yolanda Molina-Gavilán. Vanderbilt University Press, 2021 [1994]. I begin this column with a simple but…
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
October 30, 2025 at 2:04 PM
So excited to read this new series, especially having come up against serious barriers to finding SFF in translation this year!
Reposted by Ancillary Review of Books
surprisingly everyone including myself, I wrote things this year!
December 9, 2025 at 11:36 PM
surprisingly everyone including myself, I wrote things this year!
Reposted by Ancillary Review of Books
Top 10 Books of 2025 featuring @thelincoln.bsky.social, @rjbennett.bsky.social, @jonathanreeder.bsky.social, @ginnytkmr.bsky.social, and more! speculativeshelf.com/2025/12/02/top-10-books-of-2025/
December 9, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Top 10 Books of 2025 featuring @thelincoln.bsky.social, @rjbennett.bsky.social, @jonathanreeder.bsky.social, @ginnytkmr.bsky.social, and more! speculativeshelf.com/2025/12/02/top-10-books-of-2025/
more of this, please
(stealing this idea for next year)
(stealing this idea for next year)
Another list!! This time, old books we at Lit Hub read in 2025! I'm here to pitch Sarah Orne Jewett, Thornton Wilder, Robin Hobb, Emma Bull (h/t @kellylink.bsky.social), and Todd Grimson! Plus lots of other great old (new-old, somewhat-old, old-old) reads!
lithub.com/the-29-best-...
lithub.com/the-29-best-...
The 29 Best (Old) Books We Read in 2025
It is the hallowed tradition of every cultural publication under the sun to, come December, curate a list of their favorite books of the year. (No shade, we did it too.) But at Literary Hub, we als…
lithub.com
December 9, 2025 at 5:11 PM
more of this, please
(stealing this idea for next year)
(stealing this idea for next year)
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This is not a drill. @yaffasutopia.bsky.social is fascinating a workshop series about organizing toward freedom. fnd.us/d2dO71?ref=s...
Organizing to a Living Utopia
Please support us by making a contribution!
fnd.us
December 9, 2025 at 1:46 PM
This is not a drill. @yaffasutopia.bsky.social is fascinating a workshop series about organizing toward freedom. fnd.us/d2dO71?ref=s...
ARB puts up a call for reviews every month, but: at the end of each year, we find ourselves looking at a *long* list of speculative fiction & related non-fiction that we'd love to cover! Do your part to fight recency bias, and claim one of these!
2025 Reviews: Last Call
The Ancillary Review of Books does focus on newly-released works as they are published. However, we very much want to fight recency bias in book coverage, and the idea that books just vanish if the…
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
December 8, 2025 at 10:10 PM
ARB puts up a call for reviews every month, but: at the end of each year, we find ourselves looking at a *long* list of speculative fiction & related non-fiction that we'd love to cover! Do your part to fight recency bias, and claim one of these!
Reposted by Ancillary Review of Books
if you are among the few staff critics reviewing books, films, music, art, &c, it is your professional duty to take a chance on things. Attend a random screening, pick up a self-published book, follow whims and offer full-throated generous praise for anything that makes an impression on a shoestring
December 8, 2025 at 7:29 PM
if you are among the few staff critics reviewing books, films, music, art, &c, it is your professional duty to take a chance on things. Attend a random screening, pick up a self-published book, follow whims and offer full-throated generous praise for anything that makes an impression on a shoestring
Reposted by Ancillary Review of Books
reading a pair of wintry wonder tales on @storyhour.bsky.social this Wednesday with the great @ashsmash.bsky.social... join us! www.storyhour2020.com
December 8, 2025 at 2:14 PM
reading a pair of wintry wonder tales on @storyhour.bsky.social this Wednesday with the great @ashsmash.bsky.social... join us! www.storyhour2020.com
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ARB has posted our AI Policy for reviews, essays, and material being covered. We have not had an issue with this to date, but because there is a lot of strange AI usage floating around, and because we encourage new critics to pitch us, we wanted to clarify:
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/ai-policy/
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/ai-policy/
AI Policy
On submissions of AI-generated reviews & essays: ARB has no interest in running articles created by any form of AI. Besides its economic, environmental, and moral harms, generative AI simply ha…
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
March 6, 2025 at 1:15 PM
ARB has posted our AI Policy for reviews, essays, and material being covered. We have not had an issue with this to date, but because there is a lot of strange AI usage floating around, and because we encourage new critics to pitch us, we wanted to clarify:
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/ai-policy/
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/ai-policy/
Reposted by Ancillary Review of Books
Academic & critical SFF folks: does anyone know if Fantastika Journal still exists? I went hunting for an article and found that their website is totally down; no movement on their socials for a while.
December 6, 2025 at 4:05 AM
Academic & critical SFF folks: does anyone know if Fantastika Journal still exists? I went hunting for an article and found that their website is totally down; no movement on their socials for a while.
Reposted by Ancillary Review of Books
We still have some talk spaces for next year's Romancing the Gothic online talk series.
A reminder that Romancing the Gothic is explicitly trans-inclusive and our programme next year will be celebrating that in numerous talks. Join us.
romancingthegothic.com/2025/09/02/r...
A reminder that Romancing the Gothic is explicitly trans-inclusive and our programme next year will be celebrating that in numerous talks. Join us.
romancingthegothic.com/2025/09/02/r...
Romancing the Gothic 2026 Talk Series – Call for Papers
In 2026, our annual conference will be celebrating the 200th anniversary of Ann Radcliffe’s final, posthumous, publications. An early Gothic writer, Radcliffe was known to some as the ‘…
romancingthegothic.com
December 6, 2025 at 12:20 PM
We still have some talk spaces for next year's Romancing the Gothic online talk series.
A reminder that Romancing the Gothic is explicitly trans-inclusive and our programme next year will be celebrating that in numerous talks. Join us.
romancingthegothic.com/2025/09/02/r...
A reminder that Romancing the Gothic is explicitly trans-inclusive and our programme next year will be celebrating that in numerous talks. Join us.
romancingthegothic.com/2025/09/02/r...
Reposted by Ancillary Review of Books
there should be about 5 to 6 times as many magazines as there currently are for criticism and they should all pay on average 2 to 3 times as much as they currently do, and it should be easier to write for them. without that i think american literary culture is gonna continue to feel weirdly stagnant
December 6, 2025 at 2:05 AM
there should be about 5 to 6 times as many magazines as there currently are for criticism and they should all pay on average 2 to 3 times as much as they currently do, and it should be easier to write for them. without that i think american literary culture is gonna continue to feel weirdly stagnant
Reposted by Ancillary Review of Books
Are there any fan artists who can do (Western) TV cartoon characters reasonably true-to-style who want to donate a little mischievous labor to some Canadian creative industry workers in a union fight against corporate greed? If so, send me a message and I can give you details!
December 5, 2025 at 11:28 PM
Are there any fan artists who can do (Western) TV cartoon characters reasonably true-to-style who want to donate a little mischievous labor to some Canadian creative industry workers in a union fight against corporate greed? If so, send me a message and I can give you details!
Reposted by Ancillary Review of Books
For fun I thought I'd post the art corner next to my desk. There's a lot of art throughout the apartment, but these are my particular selection that stay right next to me - and a rare feature of my own art (the embroidery)
December 5, 2025 at 5:00 PM
For fun I thought I'd post the art corner next to my desk. There's a lot of art throughout the apartment, but these are my particular selection that stay right next to me - and a rare feature of my own art (the embroidery)
Reposted by Ancillary Review of Books
The CFP for #CRSF2026 is now live on our blog crsfhome.home.blog!
The theme for this year's conference is Systems and Entanglement 🪢
We're so excited to see everyone's abstracts and proposals!
The theme for this year's conference is Systems and Entanglement 🪢
We're so excited to see everyone's abstracts and proposals!
December 5, 2025 at 3:31 PM
The CFP for #CRSF2026 is now live on our blog crsfhome.home.blog!
The theme for this year's conference is Systems and Entanglement 🪢
We're so excited to see everyone's abstracts and proposals!
The theme for this year's conference is Systems and Entanglement 🪢
We're so excited to see everyone's abstracts and proposals!
Reposted by Ancillary Review of Books
What's the best book *review* you wrote, read, edited, or published this year? I'm rounding them up again for Lit Hub.
(Must have a 2025 pub date, no exceptions.)
(Must have a 2025 pub date, no exceptions.)
December 4, 2025 at 9:39 PM
What's the best book *review* you wrote, read, edited, or published this year? I'm rounding them up again for Lit Hub.
(Must have a 2025 pub date, no exceptions.)
(Must have a 2025 pub date, no exceptions.)
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A week from today, I'll be at Buffalo's @eveninghouse.bsky.social in conversation with @casella.bsky.social of @ancillaryreviewofbooks.org and @mealofthorns.bsky.social. Excited to talk Tell Me Yours, horror fiction, and all things Western New York.
Last event of the year. Come through! 🕯️❄️
Last event of the year. Come through! 🕯️❄️
December 4, 2025 at 3:25 PM
A week from today, I'll be at Buffalo's @eveninghouse.bsky.social in conversation with @casella.bsky.social of @ancillaryreviewofbooks.org and @mealofthorns.bsky.social. Excited to talk Tell Me Yours, horror fiction, and all things Western New York.
Last event of the year. Come through! 🕯️❄️
Last event of the year. Come through! 🕯️❄️
Hey ARB readers! A quick announcement: December is going to be a quieter publishing month for us, but only because we're working on some big changes for next year. More details here:
Upcoming Changes at ARB
Hello readers! I hope you’ve been enjoying the Ancillary Review of Books and A Meal of Thorns; 2025 has been a great year for us! We’ve published a lot of reviews and essays, welcomed cool new writ…
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
December 4, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Hey ARB readers! A quick announcement: December is going to be a quieter publishing month for us, but only because we're working on some big changes for next year. More details here:
Reposted by Ancillary Review of Books
Zines in SF/F that are nonprofits AFAIK and thus worthy of your support on this Giving Tuesday. (Pls add others you know of!)
BCS
@strangehorizons.bsky.social
@reckoningmag.bsky.social
@escapepod.org @podcastle.org @pseudopod.org
BCS
@strangehorizons.bsky.social
@reckoningmag.bsky.social
@escapepod.org @podcastle.org @pseudopod.org
December 2, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Zines in SF/F that are nonprofits AFAIK and thus worthy of your support on this Giving Tuesday. (Pls add others you know of!)
BCS
@strangehorizons.bsky.social
@reckoningmag.bsky.social
@escapepod.org @podcastle.org @pseudopod.org
BCS
@strangehorizons.bsky.social
@reckoningmag.bsky.social
@escapepod.org @podcastle.org @pseudopod.org
Reposted by Ancillary Review of Books
Friends: if you or someone you know is interested in reviewing our edited collection Postpolitics and the Aesthetic Imagination (see 👇) for a journal, please let me know! An arrangement can possibly be made!
www.upress.umn.edu/978151791918...
www.upress.umn.edu/978151791918...
Postpolitics and the Aesthetic Imagination
Igniting political power through the lens of art and the imaginationPostpolitics and the Aesthetic Imagination investigates the erosion of meaningful politic...
www.upress.umn.edu
December 1, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Friends: if you or someone you know is interested in reviewing our edited collection Postpolitics and the Aesthetic Imagination (see 👇) for a journal, please let me know! An arrangement can possibly be made!
www.upress.umn.edu/978151791918...
www.upress.umn.edu/978151791918...
Listen along to our latest critical bookclub, wherein Cameron Kunzelman and Jake Casella Brookins discuss Ned Beauman's VENOMOUS LUMPSUCKER (@sohopress.bsky.social), a near-future climate novel packed with ideas!
Academic, critic, and prolific podcaster @ckunzelman.bsky.social joins for a far-ranging discussion about how cli-fi, sci-fi, and personal & political connections to the environment intersect in Ned Beauman's @clarkeaward.bsky.social-winning VENOMOUS LUMPSUCKER. Bonus hog sighting.
A Meal of Thorns 38- VENOMOUS LUMPSUCKER with Cameron Kunzelman
Academic, critic, and prolific podcaster Cameron Kunzelman joins for a far-ranging discussion about how climate fiction, science fiction, and personal and political connections to the environment i…
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
December 1, 2025 at 9:11 PM
Listen along to our latest critical bookclub, wherein Cameron Kunzelman and Jake Casella Brookins discuss Ned Beauman's VENOMOUS LUMPSUCKER (@sohopress.bsky.social), a near-future climate novel packed with ideas!
Reposted by Ancillary Review of Books
Heads up: City Tech (CUNY) is having their free annual science fiction symposium tomorrow. I’m going to try to attend from 2 PM on. Hope to see some of you there! openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/scienceficti...
Science Fiction at City Tech | Teaching, Researching, and Archiving Sci-Fi at the New York City College of Technology, CUNY
openlab.citytech.cuny.edu
December 1, 2025 at 8:43 PM
Heads up: City Tech (CUNY) is having their free annual science fiction symposium tomorrow. I’m going to try to attend from 2 PM on. Hope to see some of you there! openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/scienceficti...
Congratulations to all the winners and finalists, and especially to @alexyquest.bsky.social!
Congratulations to the 2025 Small Spec Book Awards winners!
✨BETTER LIVING THROUGH ALCHEMY by @evanjpeterson.bsky.social (@slgable.bsky.social)
✨YOU WILL SPEAK FOR THE DEAD by @rabusby.bsky.social (@stelliform.press)
✨EMPRESS OF DUST by @alexyquest.bsky.social (@wctracy.bsky.social)
#SSBA #SSBA2025
✨BETTER LIVING THROUGH ALCHEMY by @evanjpeterson.bsky.social (@slgable.bsky.social)
✨YOU WILL SPEAK FOR THE DEAD by @rabusby.bsky.social (@stelliform.press)
✨EMPRESS OF DUST by @alexyquest.bsky.social (@wctracy.bsky.social)
#SSBA #SSBA2025
December 1, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Congratulations to all the winners and finalists, and especially to @alexyquest.bsky.social!