Vajra Chandrasekera
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Vajra Chandrasekera
@vajra.me
14K followers 3.6K following 5.5K posts
Writer. Revenant. Wrote THE SAINT OF BRIGHT DOORS (2023, Nebula, Ignyte, Crawford, and Locus awards) & RAKESFALL (2024, Le Guin Prize and Otherwise award.) Colombo/New York. https://vajra.me
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Vajra Chandrasekera @vajra.me · Oct 21
I am delighted and honoured to say that my second novel RAKESFALL has won the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction! vajra.me/2025/10/21/r...
RAKESFALL wins the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction
RAKESFALL wins the Le Guin Prize!
vajra.me
Reposted by Vajra Chandrasekera
danglinghemmie.bsky.social
any time i see someone interacting with chatgpt
November 24, 2025 at 10:19 PM
Reposted by Vajra Chandrasekera
divyampersaud.com
Meet the bleak drop in support with hope and boldness. Six families & a camp rely on that hope and boldness.

This is a material lifeline for medicine, food, and shelter in ongoing famine, displacement, blockade on aid, unceased fire.

Simple.
Keep Hope Alive: a Gaza Giving Circle
We are a team of volunteers in the US and UK, led by two sisters passionate about helping our friends on the ground keep their families and neighbors alive with food, water, & shelter. We saw that their...
chuffed.org
November 24, 2025 at 2:00 AM
vajra.me
just watched CIGARETTE BURNS the other day and he was so visceral in it
bloody-disgusting.com Bloody Disgusting @bloody-disgusting.com · 2d
Udo Kier has passed away at 81. A singular screen presence, Kier had a long history in the horror genre, starring in films including Mark of the Devil, Andy Warhol's Frankenstein, Blood for Dracula, Blade, Feardotcom, Rob Zombie's Halloween, and Dario Argento's Mother of Tears.
Black and white photo of Udo Kier in a suit
November 24, 2025 at 2:00 AM
Reposted by Vajra Chandrasekera
thedeadlands.com
sunday promotionday

reminder that issue 40, fiction guest-edited by @vajra.me and custom front and back cover by @carlydraws.bsky.social with many wonderful pieces in between is

AVAILABLE 4 READING

6 stories posted on our website
3 poems
1 nonfiction

get the ePub/print @ Patreon

OR READ ONLINE👇
The Deadlands - Issue 40 | Psychopomp
Guest edited by Vajra Chandrasekera, including the work of: Malena Salazar Maciá, Belle Biscotti, Testimony Odey, Shana Ross, Erin Ulm, Matthew Wollin, Laila Amado, Jason Pearce, R.B. Lemberg, Kat Sed...
psychopomp.com
November 23, 2025 at 10:07 AM
Reposted by Vajra Chandrasekera
lesmillemondes.bsky.social
Avec une première édition en 2022, le prix Ursula K. Le Guin de la fiction (Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction) récompense chaque année une œuvre de littérature de l’imaginaire écrite en anglais. Le lauréat de cette année est Rakesfall de Vajra Chandrasekera !
Le Prix Ursula K. Le Guin de la fiction 2025
Avec une première édition en 2022, le prix Ursula K. Le Guin de la fiction (Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction) récompense chaque année une œuvre de littérature de l’imaginaire écrite en anglais. Le lauréat de cette année est Rakesfall de Vajra Chandrasekera !
lesmillemondes.com
November 23, 2025 at 8:30 AM
Reposted by Vajra Chandrasekera
indrapramitdas.bsky.social
You too can watch La Jetée (a masterpiece, & under 30 minutes) here:
November 22, 2025 at 12:33 PM
Reposted by Vajra Chandrasekera
willthisbeaproblem.bsky.social
Spotlight: 2025 Nommo Award winners

The ASFS announced this year’s winners at the Aké Arts & Book Festival in Lagos. The awards celebrate exceptional talent in African speculative fiction across four categories.

#AfricanSFF 🪐📚💙
A promotional graphic set in a dark brown background with wavy line patterns. At the centre, inside a circular frame, bold text reads “Spotlight: 2025 Nommo Award Winners Announced.” The WTBAP logo appears at the top, the African Speculative Fiction Society logo appears in the centre, and a website link is placed at the bottom. The overall design highlights a spotlight theme. Brown textured background with the heading “Spotlight: 2025 Nommo Awards” on an orange banner. The main text reads: The African Speculative Fiction Society (ASFS) announced the winners of the 2025 Nommo Awards at the opening ceremony of the Aké Arts and Book Festival in Lagos. Since their debut in 2017, the Nommo Awards have celebrated speculative fiction by Africans for Africans, recognising the stories we tell and how we choose to tell them across four categories. The awardees include Motswana speculative fiction writer and poet Tlotlo Tsamaase, who received the Ilube Award for Best Speculative Fiction for Womb City; Nigerian author Suyi Davies Okungbowa, who won the Nommo Award for Best Speculative Fiction Novella for Lost Ark Dreaming; Nigerian fiction writer and poet Chisom Umeh, who won the Nommo Award for Best Speculative Fiction Short Story for From Across Time; and Nigerian creators John Uche and Francis Goodluck, who jointly won the Nommo Award for Best Speculative Fiction Graphic Novel for Celestial Eyes. This year’s shortlist featured writers and artists from across the continent and the diaspora, showcasing the range and brilliance of African storytelling on a global stage. It was first announced at the Seattle Worldcon, with the final winners selected by ASFS members. Our warmest congratulations to this year’s winners and finalists! The WTBAP logo appears at the top, and a website link is placed at the bottom.
November 22, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Reposted by Vajra Chandrasekera
indrapramitdas.bsky.social
ICYMI, I get royalties for this, if you want to help out a freelancing writer in the heat death of online promo.
indrapramitdas.bsky.social Indrapramit Das @indrapramitdas.bsky.social · Aug 3
My Lambda Award-winning debut novel THE DEVOURERS, a dark, queer, mythic realist tale about sex, love, violence, & shapeshifting, has finally surpassed 20k sales. Those may be rookie numbers to many authors, but for me, it's a big deal, even if not big money. Sincerest gratitude to my readers 🖤
The Devourers by Indra Das: 9781101967539 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
For readers of Margaret Atwood, China Miéville, and David Mitchell comes a striking debut novel by a storyteller of keen insight and captivating imagination. LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD WINNER •...
www.penguinrandomhouse.com
November 22, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Reposted by Vajra Chandrasekera
franckboulegue.bsky.social
Last weekend, Marisa and I recorded the bonus episode of AFTERIMAGES, with nine wonderful guests: @ramseycampbell.bsky.social, @byzantienne.bsky.social, @ceruleancynic.bsky.social , @harleypeyton.bsky.social , Jen Fawkes, @vajra.me, @peteratkins.bsky.social, Stephen Volk & @wmboyle4.bsky.social.
November 20, 2025 at 2:19 PM
Reposted by Vajra Chandrasekera
walaal.blacksky.app
i see i forgot to include the link to the Fargo's essay where i got this great analysis of the words 'terrorist' and 'terrorism' and why they cannot be 'recuperated' and 'weaponized' by anyone on the left.

proteanmag.com/2023/12/08/n...
November 20, 2025 at 1:18 AM
vajra.me
electrons
olivia.science Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 7d
I laughed at loud. These people are so pathetic; our enemies are numbskulls. They will kill us all and still not know hs physics.

COWEN: The stupidest question possible: Why don’t we just make more GPUs?

ALTMAN: Because we need to make more electrons.

conversationswithtyler.com/episodes/sam...
COWEN: The stupidest question possible: Why don’t we just make more GPUs? ALTMAN: Because we need to make more electrons. COWEN: What’s stopping that? What’s the ultimate binding constraint? ALTMAN: We’re working on it really hard. COWEN: If you could have more of one thing to have more compute, what would the one thing be? ALTMAN: Electrons.
November 19, 2025 at 11:25 AM
Reposted by Vajra Chandrasekera
miguelpeck.bsky.social
Having won the Ursula K. Le Guin 2025 Prize for Fiction, I’m really excited to read Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera. The Saint of Bright Doors was one of my all time fave reads of 2023 and if you haven’t read it yet, I urge you to give it a go.

@vajra.me
#Rakesfall #BookSky
November 19, 2025 at 10:29 AM
vajra.me
Absolutely egregious from the people who bought the three oldest magazines in SFF and are attempting to convert them into a giant funnel of monetizable IP
cornellwriter.bsky.social P.A. Cornell (She/Her) @cornellwriter.bsky.social · 7d
This postscript is so telling of what trying to negotiate with MRM is like. Massive respect for Scott in sticking to his principles and not allowing them to bully or gaslight him into signing. I'm disgusted that this is still happening to authors. No market is worth this.
scottedelman.bsky.social Scott Edelman @scottedelman.bsky.social · 8d
Did you read my post from last week about how contract woes caused me to withdraw an accepted story from F&SF, ending my 54-year quest to be published in that magazine? But wait (as the saying goes) — there's more! Scroll down at the link for an update. www.scottedelman.com/wordpress/20...
November 19, 2025 at 12:43 AM
Reposted by Vajra Chandrasekera
cornellwriter.bsky.social
This postscript is so telling of what trying to negotiate with MRM is like. Massive respect for Scott in sticking to his principles and not allowing them to bully or gaslight him into signing. I'm disgusted that this is still happening to authors. No market is worth this.
scottedelman.bsky.social Scott Edelman @scottedelman.bsky.social · 8d
Did you read my post from last week about how contract woes caused me to withdraw an accepted story from F&SF, ending my 54-year quest to be published in that magazine? But wait (as the saying goes) — there's more! Scroll down at the link for an update. www.scottedelman.com/wordpress/20...
A dream denied: My 54-year quest to publish a short story in F&SF ‹ Scott Edelman
www.scottedelman.com
November 18, 2025 at 4:05 PM
vajra.me
bsky getting about as bot-heavy as twitter at this point
November 18, 2025 at 6:59 PM
Reposted by Vajra Chandrasekera
omgjulia.bsky.social
I’ve only just now seen this, and she still hasn’t reached her goal. What she’s going through is awful. Please help if you can.
indrapramitdas.bsky.social Indrapramit Das @indrapramitdas.bsky.social · Oct 19
Fellow Calcuttan writer/editor Archita Mittra is in desperate need of financial help. She recently lost her father, her home was damaged in the recent rains, & her mother's in hospital. They don't have insurance, & she's a freelancer. I can vouch for her. Please share widely & donate:
Donate to Help Archita and Her Mom Rebuild Their Lives, organized by tehseen baweja
Hey Everyone! My name is Tehseen and I publish an online magazine called T… tehseen baweja needs your support for Help Archita and Her Mom Rebuild Their Lives
www.gofundme.com
November 18, 2025 at 11:24 AM
Reposted by Vajra Chandrasekera
chaosbogey.bsky.social
this is from an essay about Gillian Rose, which a friend once texted me with a pull quote--"jokes so learned only she found them funny" --followed by OMG IT U

I really like Gillian Rose anyway; here is the essay:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Jenny Turner · What else actually is there? On Gillian Rose
Love’s Work is the ‘existential drama’ of a postwar Jewish British woman philosopher, born in London in 1947, who...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 17, 2025 at 10:43 PM
vajra.me
haha
November 17, 2025 at 10:59 AM
Reposted by Vajra Chandrasekera
jsanchez-taylor.bsky.social
OMG! My first review for Dispelling Fantasies! Huge thank you to @danhartland.bsky.social for bringing my thoughts about genre into such a brilliant, nuanced conversation ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/11/12/s...
Snap! Criticism: Sanchez-Taylor and Onyebuchi
Dan Hartland What should you read if you want to understand what you’re reading? Gang, this column would of course advise that you read criticism. But there are other, and less eccentric, answers. …
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
November 12, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Reposted by Vajra Chandrasekera
danhartland.bsky.social
🫰SNAP!🫰

My latest column for the excellent @ancillaryreviewofbooks.org, on Tochy Onyebuchi, Joy Sanchez-Taylor, and what to read to understand what you’re reading.

How might we fill the “imagination gap” in our fictions?
Snap! Criticism: Sanchez-Taylor and Onyebuchi
Dan Hartland What should you read if you want to understand what you’re reading? Gang, this column would of course advise that you read criticism. But there are other, and less eccentric, answers. …
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
November 12, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Reposted by Vajra Chandrasekera
chrismclaren.com
I got #83 of this 500 a while back, and I'm surprised that there are still any of them left, honestly.

The book is so good I assumed they would vanish instantly. The fact that they haven't means you still have a chance to get one!
vajra.me Vajra Chandrasekera @vajra.me · 13d
You can still get a copy of the limited special edition of THE SAINT OF BRIGHT DOORS from Inkstone btw! Signed, numbered, sprayed edges and other fancy touches. Excellent gift for the bookish people in your life (if I do say so so myself) inkstonebooks.com/product/sain...
The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera - Limited Edition - Inkstone Books
Signed & Numbered First Edition of The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera, with sprayed edges and case foiling.
inkstonebooks.com
November 14, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Reposted by Vajra Chandrasekera
tootru.bsky.social
my birthday is not for another 6 months, but if anyone wants the early bird prize...
vajra.me Vajra Chandrasekera @vajra.me · 13d
You can still get a copy of the limited special edition of THE SAINT OF BRIGHT DOORS from Inkstone btw! Signed, numbered, sprayed edges and other fancy touches. Excellent gift for the bookish people in your life (if I do say so so myself) inkstonebooks.com/product/sain...
The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera - Limited Edition - Inkstone Books
Signed & Numbered First Edition of The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera, with sprayed edges and case foiling.
inkstonebooks.com
November 14, 2025 at 3:51 AM
Reposted by Vajra Chandrasekera
mariannedhe.bsky.social
good news; I have ordered one of these splendid texts for the bookish people in my life*

*me
vajra.me Vajra Chandrasekera @vajra.me · 13d
You can still get a copy of the limited special edition of THE SAINT OF BRIGHT DOORS from Inkstone btw! Signed, numbered, sprayed edges and other fancy touches. Excellent gift for the bookish people in your life (if I do say so so myself) inkstonebooks.com/product/sain...
The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera - Limited Edition - Inkstone Books
Signed & Numbered First Edition of The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera, with sprayed edges and case foiling.
inkstonebooks.com
November 13, 2025 at 11:11 PM
Reposted by Vajra Chandrasekera
wiswell.bsky.social
Since everyone has Frankenstein on the brain: more people should read Ahmed Sadaawi's Frankenstein in Baghdad.
November 9, 2025 at 11:21 AM
vajra.me
tbh a lot of the LLM marketing makes more sense if you think about them as a technology developed and hyped by people taught to read this way, and who therefore do genuinely struggle to read or write at their email jobs
November 13, 2025 at 11:59 AM