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Chisom Umeh

@izom-chisom.bsky.social

170 followers 34 following 29 posts

writer | entrepreneur | one time poet Words in Omenana. Apex. Clarkesworld. Year's Best African Speculative Fiction 2023

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Chisom Umeh @izom-chisom.bsky.social · Aug 22

Honored to have been shortlisted this year in the short story category for my @clarkesworldmagazine.com story, "From Across Time."

Thanks to all who nominated my work. I'm immensely grateful 🙏

Wole Talabi @wtalabi.bsky.social · Aug 19

Major congratulations to all the Nommo award nominees for 2025! It was an honor to be able to make the announcement virtually at Seattle worldcon. I've read almost all the nominated stories and they represent some of the best of African speculative fiction. You should definitely check them out!

Harare Review of Books @hararereview.bsky.social · Aug 19

2025 Nommo Awards Finalists 🎉 www.africansfs.com/nommo-awards...

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Dashing David @dashingdavid.bsky.social · 9d

This game looks so damn good #FF7R #FF7

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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 18d

I'm at the part of the book tour where I have no idea what day of the week it is, I just know what city I'm supposed to be in. Today is Boiseday, and tomorrow is Denverday

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Amal El-Mohtar @amalelmohtar.com · 20d

just absolutely furious with @alixeharrow.bsky.social for being such a goddamn genius

"the contradictory heart of what prose does, which is to waste the reader’s time as efficiently and sexily as possible...a reader gives you their time, and you tell them, word by word, how to spend it."

y E s

on purple prose

so i love a metaphor! sue me! or...come see me on tour?

buttondown.com

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Dean Willetts @deanscomics.bsky.social · 23d

Marvel Team-Up 22 🕷️ 🏹

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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 23d

Considering how right he was about us going all in on his version of Second Life, imagine how right he'll be about this

CNN @cnn.com · 23d

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has told analysts that people without smart glasses may one day be at a "significant cognitive disadvantage" compared to those who do use the tech: https://cnn.it/47L2Y5a

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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 25d

Makes sense, Hollywood is Mordor and he's been there and back again

www.latimes.com/entertainmen...

'Lord of the Rings' star Sean Astin elected SAG-AFTRA president

Astin, who was also in 'Rudy' and 'The Goonies,' will succeed Fran Drescher, who decided not to run for reelection.

www.latimes.com

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Clarkesworld @clarkesworldmagazine.com · Sep 1

The September issue of Clarkesworld features fiction by Claire Jia-Wen, Sheri Singerling, Louis Inglis Hall, Alexander Jablokov, David McGillveray, Koji A. Dae, and Robert Falco.

Online now at:
clarkesworldmagazine.com/issue_228

Subscribe at:
clarkesworldmagazine.com/subscribe/

Cover art by Ninja Jo features a robot with an inverted egg-shape head low to the chest against a dark reddish background with a bright yellow almost circular outline directly behind the robot. The title of the piece is "The Key" and there is a lighted keyhole pattern on the robot's chest. Bottom of image fades into darkness, so you can't see it's hands or lower body.

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Grist @grist.org · 27d

African Climate Fiction.

To Rescue a Self
Eketi tries to find her voice.

#Africa #African #Nigeria #Ghana #Kenya #SouthAfrica
#Ethiopia #Egypt #Congo #Tanzania #Solarpunk #ClimateFiction #Fiction

grist.org/climate-fict...

To Rescue a Self

Climate fiction: At the Green Nigeria Youths Fellowship, Eketi tries to find her voice.

grist.org

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Tade Thompson @tadethompson.bsky.social · 27d

In actual fact, nature wants to kill you and take your energy back into the ecosystem.

But don't worry. It's not just you. Nature wants to kill everything almost as soon as it births them.

Nature just wants to keep energy moving, so there's no pint getting misty-eyed about the dewy moors.

Martyn @martynpedler.com · 27d

"Nature writing has long had a problem with the way it presents illness. Nature writing only wants to admit illness into its pages if it is to show nature performing a miraculous cure."

Nature is Not Going to Cure You: On Raynor Winn’s Fabricated Memoir

Like many writers, I have been following the unfolding revelations about Raynor Winn and The Salt Path with great interest, and a degree of self-interest. I am a memoirist and nature writer, and I …

lithub.com

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Christopher R. Muscato @chrisrmuscato.bsky.social · 27d

#RightsCon26 extended deadline for panel submissions- September 19 11:59pm PST.

Also a chance to talk with other RightsCon panelists and program directors during a special officer hours session Sept. 16 7am PST (dm me for zoom link)

#humanrights #digitalrights

www.rightscon.org/your-guide-t...

Your guide to a successful RightsCon proposal

This guide offers an overview of the five steps to a successful session proposal, and explains how we evaluate and build the RightsCon program.

www.rightscon.org

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Amal El-Mohtar @amalelmohtar.com · 28d

Simply the best slide I have ever seen in a powerpoint presentation care of @premeemohamed.com’s talk at @banffcentre.bsky.social re: Putting the Science in Science Fiction

Text mounted on a screen reads as follows:

WHAT IS SCIENCE FICTION?

1. DOESN'T MATTER
2. WHO CARES
3. MARKETING DEPARTMENT'S PROBLEM
4. NOT YOURS

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John Wiswell @wiswell.bsky.social · 29d

Unveiling the cover for THE DRAGON HAS SOME COMPLAINTS!

Garrodigh is a curmudgeonly three-headed dragon who pretends to be tame so he can eat for free at the local dragon-riding academy. Unfortunately, the rider he's assigned to is... a lot.

Coming Summer 2026 from DAW (US) and Arcadia (UK)!

A cover illustrated by James Fenner. A woman with long red hair and padded clothing sits on the ground, petting the head of a smiling serpentine dragon. But the dragon has more than one head! On the left, a second giant dragon head emerges, frowning, looking at her while wearing a monocle. On the right, a third giant dragon head emerges, jaws wide, screaming in anger. The text is teal, contrasting sharply against the red and maroon of the creatures. The text on the cover reads "THE DRAGON HAS SOME COMPLAINTS. JOHN WISWELL, author of the Nebula and Locus Award-winning SOMEONE YOU CAN BUILD A NEST IN."

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Tade Thompson @tadethompson.bsky.social · Sep 8

Cross posting two bits of advice for a newbie writer:

1. Read like a writer (sometimes).

Find out why you like the writing you like, and see if there's anything you can adopt from that writer.

This needs a level of intentionality that's not there when you're just reading for pleasure.

1/

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Thomas Ha @thomasha.bsky.social · Sep 3

did a breakdown

A picture of Uncertain Sons and a lot of arrows from words that say a variation of short stories pointing at the book

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Ken Bardsley @kenbar.bsky.social · Sep 1

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Vajra Chandrasekera @vajra.me · Sep 1

I'm very happy to be one of this year's Guests of Honour, alongside Sheree Renée Thomas, Anna Martino, and Trick Weeks! Flights of Foundry is free, online, and a good time. You should totally come

Dream Foundry @dreamfoundry.bsky.social · Sep 1

It's finally September! Do you know what that means???

Flights of Foundry is THIS MONTH.

Register: flights-of-foundry.o...

Let's gooooo! 🪽🪽🪽

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Chisom Umeh @izom-chisom.bsky.social · Sep 1

Post a random picture or else everything will go bad in September 🙂

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emblasteon @emblasteon.bsky.social · Aug 23

She is so beautiful to me

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Isabel J. Kim @isabel.kim · Aug 23

new newsletter up—this one covers book preorder stuff and my worldcon postmortem :3

ijknewsletter.beehiiv.com/p/iz-a-newsl...

Iz a Newsletter #6

Book preorder announcement (wow!!! yay!!!) and worldcon postmortem

ijknewsletter.beehiiv.com

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Brendel @brendelbored.bsky.social · Aug 19

This is in the replies and it demonstrates a real issue which is if you find profundity from an AI, you’re responding to something profound a human being wrote that was vacuumed up and what ends up happening is you thank AI and not only don’t thank the person, you have no idea they were involved

Michael Love@elkmovie.bsky.social • 6m
I thought this sounded familiar and it turns out it literally just found an old George RR
Martin quote and wrote a short story out of it:
George R.R. Martin > Quotes > Quotable Quote (?)
"I think there are two types of writers, the architects and the gardeners.
The architects plan everything ahead of time, like an architect building a house. They know how many rooms are going to be in the house, what kind of roof they're going to have, where the wires are going to run, what kind of plumbing there's going to be. They have the whole thing
designed and blueprinted out before they even nail the first board up. The gardeners dig a hole, drop in a seed and water it. They kind of know what seed it is, they know if planted a fantasy seed or mystery seed or whatever. But as the plant comes up and they water it, they don't know how many branches it's going to have, they find out as it grows. And I'm much more a gardener than an architect."
ALT
- George R.R. Martin

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Vajra Chandrasekera @vajra.me · Aug 22

Congrats Nommo nominees!!!

Harare Review of Books @hararereview.bsky.social · Aug 19

2025 Nommo Awards Finalists 🎉 www.africansfs.com/nommo-awards...

2025 Nommo Awards Finalists

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL NOMINEES

www.africansfs.com

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The Continent @thecontinent.org · Aug 8

Wrap battle: Amateur Dambe fighters, hands roped up for striking, face off in Abuja, Nigeria. Once a highlight of harvest festivals in the Sahel, Dambe is now a league sport with big prizes and bigger crowds.

Photo: Olympia Maismont/AFP

Dambe fighters engage in a bout during an amateur match in the Dei-Dei neighbourhood in Abuja. Dambe is a centuries-old combat sport rooted in the traditions of the Hausa people of Northern Nigeria. Traditionally practiced by the butcher class, known as Yan dambe, the sport features fighters with one hand wrapped in cloth and rope for striking, while the other remains free for defence. Kicks are allowed, and a match is won when an opponent touches the ground with any body part other than the feet. Once a highlight of harvest festivals and rural entertainment across the Sahel—including Chad and Niger—Dambe has evolved into an urban spectacle. Today, weekly matches in cities like Abuja draw large crowds, with organised leagues introducing formal rules, weight classes, and prize money. (Photo by OLYMPIA DE MAISMONT / AFP)

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DAW Books @dawbooks.bsky.social · Aug 20

🎉 We are thrilled to share that Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon by @wtalabi.bsky.social is shortlisted for the 2025 Aldiss Award 🎉

buff.ly/X6MvXau

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Vajra Chandrasekera @vajra.me · Aug 22

a sign of unhealthy change in fandom culture imo that this evidently deep sense of dissatisfaction with ASOIAF manifests as these middle management ass threats rather than, say, a thriving fanfic landscape of competing fix-its

Tom of the Dead @calmtomb.bsky.social · Aug 22

Counterpoint. George R. R. Martin should purposely not finish these books and have a stipulation in his will that no one else can do so after he dies.

Fans Have a Point — George R.R. Martin Should Let This Acclaimed Fantasy Author Finish 'Winds of Winter' Instead

George R.R. Martin is taking forever to finish Winds of Winter, so why not hand it to fellow fantasy author Brandon Sanderson?

collider.com

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David Roberts @volts.wtf · Aug 22

Cheap Chinese solar panels are fueling a bottom-up energy revolution in Africa.

Africa Is Buying a Record Number of Chinese Solar Panels

Energy-starved countries on the continent have reluctantly turned to coal and gas for decades. Cheap Chinese solar panels are now finally changing the calculus.

www.wired.com

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