Shen Tao
LightNews LightNews
banner
dragons.bsky.social
Shen Tao
@dragons.bsky.social
580 followers 170 following 110 posts
Canadian writer based in Seattle, WA
The Poet Empress Jan '26 🌸 Tor Bramble (US) | Gollancz (UK) | preorders available!
https://linktr.ee/ThePoetEmpress
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
dragons.bsky.social
Shen Tao @dragons.bsky.social · 14d
My debut is officially out today!!! (I can’t believe I get to say that)

Thank you to my publishing team, my writing friends, and all the wonderful ARC readers!! Thank you for taking a chance on a debut author!!

#booksky
The Poet Empress by Shen Tao
Reposted by Shen Tao
scryptidgames.bsky.social
Tales from the Cryptids just went live on Backerkit! Back this anthology edited by @brigittewinter.bsky.social with work from @lackingceremony.bsky.social, @sharangbiswas.bsky.social, @shing.bsky.social, @aeosworth.bsky.social, @dragons.bsky.social, and more! www.backerkit.com/c/projects/s...
Tales from the Cryptids: Games, Stories, & Uncanny Ephemera
An anthology of narrative games and other writing that flips the lens on conventional cryptid lore. In this zine, cryptids are beings with vivid lives, goals, and stories of their own to share. Don’t ...
www.backerkit.com
February 2, 2026 at 6:17 PM
dragons.bsky.social
Honored to be picked by a most excellent book club- Go get your Aardvark books now! - Goose approved :)
aardvarkbookclub.bsky.social Aardvark Book Club @aardvarkbookclub.bsky.social · 3d
We love these books. Thank you for coming to our TED Talk.

Signed copies of TRAD WIFE are available on a first-come, first-served basis! Grab this title early release!

#aardvarkbookclub #februarybooks
Trad Wife by Saratoga Schaefer, Love and Other Brain Experiments by Hannah Brohm, The Poet Empress by Shen Tao, Adrift by Will Dean, Superfan by Jenny Tinghui Zhang, & Burn Down Master's House by Clay Crane
February 1, 2026 at 2:53 PM
dragons.bsky.social
My debut is officially out today!!! (I can’t believe I get to say that)

Thank you to my publishing team, my writing friends, and all the wonderful ARC readers!! Thank you for taking a chance on a debut author!!

#booksky
The Poet Empress by Shen Tao
January 21, 2026 at 5:03 AM
dragons.bsky.social
My debut is coming out TOMORROW!!! :)

#booksky
BookPage starred review of The Poet Empress
January 19, 2026 at 8:06 PM
dragons.bsky.social
Thank you so much @seattletimes.com and Jordan Snowden for featuring my debut! The article was so well-written!

www.seattletimes.com/entertainmen...
Poetry is powerful in local author Shen Tao’s debut novel
“The Poet Empress” asks readers to sit with contradiction and to consider the cost of speaking clearly in a world determined to silence certain kinds of truth.
www.seattletimes.com
January 17, 2026 at 8:20 PM
dragons.bsky.social
Thank you so much for having me! I really enjoyed our chat on Long Story Short!
davidgreenwriter.bsky.social David Green @davidgreenwriter.bsky.social · 18d
Just recorded a new episode of Long Story Short with the super talented @dragons.bsky.social talking all about her debut, The Poet Empress, and her journey to publication.

The book - and the podcast - are out soon!
January 16, 2026 at 6:56 PM
Reposted by Shen Tao
reenamccarty.bsky.social
Look at all the beautiful books! I can't believe I get to be part of this debut class.
dragons.bsky.social Shen Tao @dragons.bsky.social · 29d
2026 is our debut year!! Here are some of the SFF authors I have the honor of debuting with early this year. I am really excited about these books so please check them out when you have the chance!

#booksky
Tidespeaker A Barista’s Guide to Love & Larceny A Vow in Vengeance Into the Midnight Wood The Book of Blood & Roses The Poet Empress Godstorm Once Upon A Song February🌷 Heart’s Gambit Queen of Faces The Forest on the Edge of Time The Faithful Dark All We Have Is Time The Iron Garden Sutra Weavingshaw Saltswept The Last Starborn Seer Midnight on the Celestial These Shattered Spires Child of the Dragon A Wish So Deadly Prodigal Tiger Honeysuckle Aicha The Geomagician The Celestial Seas
January 6, 2026 at 6:22 PM
Reposted by Shen Tao
marleyroseteter.bsky.social
IT'S OUR YEAR, GEESE!!! Look at all these incredible first quarter books...including @sadieturner.bsky.social's TIDESPEAKER, which pubs TODAY!
dragons.bsky.social Shen Tao @dragons.bsky.social · 29d
2026 is our debut year!! Here are some of the SFF authors I have the honor of debuting with early this year. I am really excited about these books so please check them out when you have the chance!

#booksky
Tidespeaker A Barista’s Guide to Love & Larceny A Vow in Vengeance Into the Midnight Wood The Book of Blood & Roses The Poet Empress Godstorm Once Upon A Song February🌷 Heart’s Gambit Queen of Faces The Forest on the Edge of Time The Faithful Dark All We Have Is Time The Iron Garden Sutra Weavingshaw Saltswept The Last Starborn Seer Midnight on the Celestial These Shattered Spires Child of the Dragon A Wish So Deadly Prodigal Tiger Honeysuckle Aicha The Geomagician The Celestial Seas
January 6, 2026 at 5:35 PM
dragons.bsky.social
2026 is our debut year!! Here are some of the SFF authors I have the honor of debuting with early this year. I am really excited about these books so please check them out when you have the chance!

#booksky
Tidespeaker A Barista’s Guide to Love & Larceny A Vow in Vengeance Into the Midnight Wood The Book of Blood & Roses The Poet Empress Godstorm Once Upon A Song February🌷 Heart’s Gambit Queen of Faces The Forest on the Edge of Time The Faithful Dark All We Have Is Time The Iron Garden Sutra Weavingshaw Saltswept The Last Starborn Seer Midnight on the Celestial These Shattered Spires Child of the Dragon A Wish So Deadly Prodigal Tiger Honeysuckle Aicha The Geomagician The Celestial Seas
January 6, 2026 at 2:56 PM
dragons.bsky.social
Delightful cryptids!!
scryptidgames.bsky.social Scryptid Games @scryptidgames.bsky.social · 29d
Get ready for Tales from the Cryptids! We are crowdfunding our first anthology in February 2026! Edited by @brigittewinter.bsky.social, this collection of TTRPGs, fiction, poetry, and other uncanny ephemera flips the lens on conventional cryptid lore: tinyurl.com/cryptidtales.
Get Ready for Tales from the Cryptids: Games, Stories, & Uncanny Ephemera
From Scryptid Games - Get Ready for Tales from the Cryptids: Games, Stories, & Uncanny Ephemera
tinyurl.com
January 5, 2026 at 10:58 PM
dragons.bsky.social
Do other writers have a different font for each book they write? My current WIP is an Arial book :p
December 29, 2025 at 4:10 PM
Reposted by Shen Tao
surlyspice.bsky.social
THE POET EMPRESS by shen tao @dragons.bsky.social releases 1/20/26 from bramble @torbooks.bsky.social @macmillanlib.bsky.social #debut #fantasy #epic #love #death #poem #BookSky get your @libraryreads.bsky.social votes in by 12/1!
book cover for the poet empress by shen tao with peach lettering over a lush red and black illustration of an asian style palace bordered in flames with a masked figure towering over it, plus a ribbon of chinese characters winding across it with a tiny woman in a green robe standing on the ribbon
November 26, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Reposted by Shen Tao
authorerinrose.bsky.social
SPARRING PARTNERS is available for request on Netgalley! We so appreciate your early reviews as they help drive sales 😁

🫶🏼 Happy reading!

#2026Debuts #RomanceBooks #BookSky #Netgalley
November 6, 2025 at 5:00 PM
dragons.bsky.social
SO excited about a second starred review for The Poet Empress! A world of thank yous to Library Journal 🥰
DEBUT Famine spreads across the land of Tensha, and young Yin Wei does the only thing she can think of to save her family—become a concubine to Prince Guan Terren. Heir to the Azalea Throne, Terren is a cold man, with poetry magic that he uses for cruelty and death. As Wei navigates the inner machinations of the court, she realizes that she may have to become just as self-serving as Terren to survive. Not only do the other concubines battle each other to secure the spot as future Empress, but Terren deals with attacks on his succession from his honorable older brother, and both Wei and Terren face treachery from other court members. To achieve her goals, Wei must kill Terren—and with one forbidden poem, she can accomplish it. However, the only way to write this poem of death is with love, and she hates everything Terren is. The novel’s unique magic system and character-driven plot create an immersive tale.VERDICT Tao’s debut is an intricate study of court politics and what a young woman will do to survive. Hand to fans of The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang or She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan. DEBUT Famine spreads across the land of Tensha, and young Yin Wei does the only thing she can think of to save her family—become a concubine to Prince Guan Terren. Heir to the Azalea Throne, Terren is a cold man, with poetry magic that he uses for cruelty and death. As Wei navigates the inner machinations of the court, she realizes that she may have to become just as self-serving as Terren to survive. Not only do the other concubines battle each other to secure the spot as future Empress, but Terren deals with attacks on his succession from his honorable older brother, and both Wei and Terren face treachery from other court members. To achieve her goals, Wei must kill Terren—and with one forbidden poem, she can accomplish it. However, the only way to write this poem of death is with love, and she hates everything Terren is. The novel’s unique magic system and character-driven plot create an immersive tale.VERDICT Tao’s debut is an intricate study of court politics and what a young woman will do to survive. Hand to fans of The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang or She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan.
November 6, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Reposted by Shen Tao
kashinggiwa.bsky.social
On a planet damaged by rushed terraforming, a bodyguard-turned-reluctant rebel joins the last dregs of her parents’ failed uprising...

THE KING MUST DIE is out today! If you love stories about found families, revolutions, and second chances, this book’s for you.
Cover for THE KING MUST DIE, illustrated by the amazing Eleonor Piteira.
November 4, 2025 at 5:31 PM
dragons.bsky.social
I'm so happy to say that The Poet Empress got a starred review from @publisherswkly.bsky.social !
Starred review for The Poet Empress from Publishers Weekly with quote "Tao’s prose gleams with poetic precision, and climactic revelations strike with devastating inevitability." The Poet Empress Shen Tao. Bramble, $29.99 (480p) ISBN 978-1-250-40681-1 Tao’s haunting debut immerses readers in a famine-stricken empire where poetry is power. In the final years of the Azalea Dynasty, Yin Wei, a peasant girl desperate to save her starving family, volunteers as concubine to the notoriously cruel Prince Guan Terren. This act of survival pulls her into a labyrinth of palace intrigue and rebellion, where each written word contains magic that can shape a person’s destiny, but where female literacy is illegal. Against the lush backdrop of Tao’s lyrical worldbuilding, which draws from Chinese history and myth to craft a court defined by both beauty and brutality, Wei’s transformation from naive villager to calculating courtesan is expertly rendered. Meanwhile, Terren emerges as a monstrous yet profoundly human prince. Their uneasy bond anchors a story less about romance than the corruptive and redemptive powers of language and ambition. The many political threads become fascinatingly tangled, Tao’s prose gleams with poetic precision, and climactic revelations strike with devastating inevitability. Fans of R.F. Kuang’s The Poppy War and Shelley Parker-Chan’s She Who Became the Sun will be enthralled by this fierce meditation on love, power, and survival through art. Agent: Jennifer Azantian, Azantian Literary. (Jan.) Reviewed on 10/31/2025
November 4, 2025 at 8:20 AM
Reposted by Shen Tao
kashinggiwa.bsky.social
Just 3 days before THE KING MUST DIE comes out! I'm thrilled to share these very kind words from @hanalee.bsky.social, author of the Magebike Courier duology!

Preorder TKMD: www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Ki...
...then grab a free digital poster by Eepz: www.simonandschuster.com/p/the-king-m...
Graphic with blurb snippet from author Hana Lee: “The world of The King Must Die is a shattered, starving place, and yet the scenery and culture are so lush with detail that every description felt like a feast. Fen, the novel’s protagonist, is friendless and alone–but the people she bonds with along the road to revolution are everything an SFF reader hopes for when they hear the words “found family.” ...The King Must Die begins as a whisper and swells into a war cry.”
November 1, 2025 at 11:25 PM
dragons.bsky.social
They are giving away 50 copies of my debut, The Poet Empress, on goodreads! I hope you'll enter 🥰

#booksky #ThePoetEmpress
50 physical copy giveaway of The Poet Empress by Shen Tao on Goodreads, until November 3
October 20, 2025 at 10:36 PM
dragons.bsky.social
The comps! The magic! The social commentary! ❤️
ash-howell.com Ash Howell @ash-howell.com · Oct 8
A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC x HOUSE M.D.

Days before graduation, blood-magic medical student Nettle accidentally girlbosses herself into the middle of a murderous conspiracy. Her best friend has been hiding his radical political activism. And worst of all, she’s *really* broke.

#DVpit #F #A #LGBTQ
October 9, 2025 at 12:09 AM
Reposted by Shen Tao
n-arfaei.bsky.social
A literary NeuroScifi that dives into memory, consciousness and control.

#DVpit #SF #LF #A #IMM #OWN
n-arfaei.bsky.social Nastaran Arfaei @n-arfaei.bsky.social · Oct 8
An anti-technology cult. Missing memories. A corporate offer she can’t refuse.

A neuroscientist tries to untangle her friend’s murder while leading a team that “quenches” emergent sentience in supercomputers.

Severance X A Memory Called Empire X Ishiguro

#DVpit #SF #LF #A #IMM #OWN 💙📚🪐
October 8, 2025 at 11:59 PM
Reposted by Shen Tao
cassandrafarrin.com
Straith has a disarmingly charming narrative voice that takes you somewhere unexpected every time. 💙
straith.ca Straith🍉 - querying a very bi Gawain remix @straith.ca · Oct 8
GREY GARDENS in space:

A fledgling documentarian gets overly entangled with two deposed Imperials in exile on a once-opulent space station.

He must choose: launch his career as a truth-teller, or protect these people from the judgment of a hostile audience.

#DVpit #A #SF #LGBT #TV #novella
October 8, 2025 at 11:17 PM
Reposted by Shen Tao
cassandrafarrin.com
I had the privilege of reading excerpts of this novel as part of the Clarion Novel Workshop. Uniquely voiced and so vibrant! Agent friends, I hope you’ll check this one out!
dalitdiva.bsky.social Thenmozhi Soundararajan/Dalit Diva ✨️is querying✨️ @dalitdiva.bsky.social · Oct 8
WE SANG DOWN THE EMPIRE 85,000 Word #Spaceopera
🛸 Nesamma Abbas, a washed-up alien musician,
🎸 joins a rebel rock band to take down the Human Empire
✨with a martial art of sound ⚡🎶
.😢She must confront her pain,
🧘‍♀️ Master her powers
⚔️ & choose: revolution
❤️ or redemption
#WOC #Asian #SFF #DVpit
October 8, 2025 at 11:09 PM
Reposted by Shen Tao
cassandrafarrin.com
this sounds amazing as hell (complimentary)
jelliclejay.bsky.social jay kang romanus @jelliclejay.bsky.social · Oct 8
SUMMER SONS x CAMP DAMASCUS

BLESSED BE THE FLESH is an adult horror romance about an amnesiac cult escapee and the lonely trucker who picks him off the side of the highway. Remembering his past may destroy him, but what he's forgotten will destroy the world.

#DVpit #A #H #LGBT
A collage with images of sweaty boys almost kissing, a human/bird monster, and a cowboy pulling a horse under an intensely cloudy sky. There are also the words “A love like that made me someone new. Not even because I chose to change, I had no choice in the matter; the feeling swept me up and molded me into someone I didn’t recognize before I could look down and understand just what I had gotten myself into.”
October 8, 2025 at 11:36 PM
Reposted by Shen Tao
cassandrafarrin.com
Utterly in love with this pitch!
mihika-biswas.bsky.social Mihika Biswas @mihika-biswas.bsky.social · Oct 8
A reimagining of the TITANIC in Space🚀🚢

The Sungrazer, a decadent space liner, offers new possibilities for working people like Seren, an aerial silks performer, on a new planet.

But aboard, ambitious CEOs and politicians gamble with the fate of the ship and the lives of many.
#DVPit #SF #A #Asian
October 9, 2025 at 12:06 AM
Reposted by Shen Tao
cassandrafarrin.com
Loving this setting AND the music magic!
rayrx.bsky.social raya 🇱🇧 @rayrx.bsky.social · Oct 8
To save her family from a memory-stealing plague ravaging 1920s Lebanon, Eura enlists the help of a rival village’s prized musician to find a cure. But there are darker forces at play, and they must confront ghosts of their pasts—even if it ends with 1 of them in the realm below.

#MENA #MV #DVPit
October 8, 2025 at 11:41 PM