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Octavia

@octavia-cade.bsky.social

3.1K followers 3.6K following 190 posts

New Zealand writer, PhD science communication! Seven time SJV winner. Author of The Stone Wētā, The Impossible Resurrection of Grief, and You Are My Sunshine and Other Stories. Robert Burns Fellow for 2025 at Otago University.

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Octavia @octavia-cade.bsky.social · 23d

Andi's work is fantastic, especially their cosy fantasies! And that's such a beautiful cover... I can't wait to read it.

Andi @andiwrites.bsky.social · 23d

Spellcasting On is out now!

Cosy sapphic romance with yarn 🧶 and magic ✨.

Available now on all the usual platforms:

buy.bookfunnel.com/psfdv1soqy

purple cover of Spellcasting On by Andi R. Christopher. It has a range of elements including a witch's hat, a heart shaped ball of yarn with a crochet hook, hammers, and violets.

Octavia @octavia-cade.bsky.social · Aug 31

It's the NZ bird version of Wordle!!! birdle.nz

From Forest and Bird.

Octavia @octavia-cade.bsky.social · Jul 20

I have a new story out! The Barrens, which is body horror and swarming sea urchins, is in the new issue of @3lobedmag.com! It's wonderful to be in Three-Lobed Burning Eye again, especially alongside @acwise.bsky.social, @ecatherine.com, and @mariness.bsky.social.

www.3lobedmag.com/issue45/3lbe....

3LBE Magazine - The Barrens by Octavia Cade

The first body found belonged to a stranger. That made it easier to forget, after the first fascinating horror, even if the circumstances were gruesome.

www.3lobedmag.com

Octavia @octavia-cade.bsky.social · Jul 20

Weird speculative ecology is the most fun thing to write! Thanks, A.J.

Octavia @octavia-cade.bsky.social · Jul 20

Thank you! I'm so excited, I can hardly wait.

Reposted by Octavia

A.C. Wise @acwise.bsky.social · Jul 15

The latest issue of @3lobedmag.com is out today. It contains a new short story by yours truly, along with several other fabulous folks like @octavia-cade.bsky.social, @mariness.bsky.social and @ecatherine.com. I can't wait to read the other stories in the issue!

www.3lobedmag.com/issue45/

3LBE Magazine - Issue 45: Contents

A magazine of speculative fiction, horror, fantasy, and science fiction. Issue 45 features stories by Christi Nogle, Octavia Cade, A.C. Wise, Mari Ness, E. Catherine Tobler, and Avra Margariti.

www.3lobedmag.com

Octavia @octavia-cade.bsky.social · Jul 20

Oh thank you! That was such a fun anthology to be in... so many great stories in there. My personal favourite was "The Exuberant Vitality of Hatchling Habitats" by D.A. Xiaolin Spires, but they're all so good!

Octavia @octavia-cade.bsky.social · Jul 20

As far as I'm concerned, Saturn and his alligator friends can have all my photo opportunities!!!

Octavia @octavia-cade.bsky.social · Jul 15

NZ writers, the Ursula Bethell residency at the University of Canterbury is open for applications. Closing date is August 3rd! jobs.canterbury.ac.nz/jobdetails/a...

Octavia @octavia-cade.bsky.social · Jul 15

There's a Dunedin artist who makes sculptures out of skulls and bone - I was at his museum of natural mysteries a little while back. Bruce Mahalski - you might like his stuff, you seem to be on the same wavelength!

mahalski.org

Octavia @octavia-cade.bsky.social · Jul 15

Thank you! It's a fantastic piece of science/animal history, I can't believe I get to write about it.

Octavia @octavia-cade.bsky.social · Jul 15

Thanks! It really is, I'm so happy to get it.

Octavia @octavia-cade.bsky.social · Jul 15

It does, doesn't it?! I couldn't resist applying with the Saturn story, so yay alligators!

Octavia @octavia-cade.bsky.social · Jul 15

Thank you! I still can't believe I get to go.

Octavia @octavia-cade.bsky.social · Jul 14

CNZ sends an artist to Berlin every year, alternating between writers and visual artists. It's an amazing opportunity, and I'm so lucky to get it.

(Also, I have discovered that Berlin's Natural History Museum has a T. rex. I can hardly wait. 2026 is going to be a very reptilian year.)

Octavia @octavia-cade.bsky.social · Jul 14

Weird and horrifying being right up my alley, I read about Saturn several years back and thought of the Berlin residency. "One day, when I apply for that..."

One day I did apply, and Saturn came through for me.

Octavia @octavia-cade.bsky.social · Jul 14

I'll be writing a fabulist novel about Saturn the alligator, who escaped the bombing of Berlin Zoo in 1943 and roamed the city for three years before being recaptured and sent to live in Moscow Zoo.

Can you imagine, living in a war-torn city, turning a corner, and ALLIGATOR?! Weird. Horrifying.

Octavia @octavia-cade.bsky.social · Jul 14

I can finally announce it! I'm happy to say that I'll be spending next year in Berlin, thanks to Creative New Zealand awarding me the Berlin Writer's Residency.

I'm so grateful to our national arts funding body for the opportunity. Thank you CNZ!!!

creativenz.govt.nz/news-and-blo...

Octavia @octavia-cade.bsky.social · Apr 19

And congratulations to all the winners and nominees! I'm so pleased to see that NZ speculative fiction is continuing to do well - we produce some amazing work here, and it's always fun to share it.

Octavia @octavia-cade.bsky.social · Apr 19

Oh yay! My article "Fact, Fiction, and Feeling: Ecological Grief in a Changing World", published by @clarkesworldmagazine.com, has just won Best Production/Publication at this year's Sir Julius Vogel Awards!

Thank you to everyone who voted!

clarkesworldmagazine.com/cade_10_24/

Octavia @octavia-cade.bsky.social · Apr 7

You know, I was so gobsmacked that I didn't even think to ask! A question for a follow-up email, perhaps!

I hope it will be on display again soon.

Octavia @octavia-cade.bsky.social · Apr 7

It was super kind of them both to offer me a tour of the museum collections. I'm really grateful. Thank you very much, Tūhura Otago Museum. I have lots of new story ideas now!

Octavia @octavia-cade.bsky.social · Apr 7

I've written about them before, of course, in my book The Impossible Resurrection of Grief, from @stelliform.press, in which the thylacines are resurrected, but I've never seen one in the flesh before.

I was beyond thrilled. Not allowed to touch it, of course, but I was able to get so close up!

Octavia @octavia-cade.bsky.social · Apr 7

I've seen a thylacine!!! Thanks to curators Moira and Kane, I got a behind-the-stage look at the Otago Museum collections yesterday. There was a cave bear skull and moa bones and lots of wonderful things, but the big surprise was the stuffed thylacine!

@stelliform.press

Octavia @octavia-cade.bsky.social · Apr 7

This is a fantastic book - if you like short stories about science and the lives of scientists, you should give it a go!

Dan Hartland @danhartland.bsky.social · Apr 7

The first review of this week at @strangehorizons.bsky.social is from @octavia-cade.bsky.social, of Pippa Goldschmidt’s BSFA-shortlisted collection from @goldsf.bsky.social.

“I didn’t quite shove all the other reviewers out of the way to get to this, but it was a near thing.”

On lives in science:

Schrödinger’s Wife (and Other Possibilities) by Pippa Goldschmidt

If there’s a repeated theme in Schrödinger’s Wife (and Other Possibilities) it’s how the practice of science mirrors the life of its practitioners.

www.strangehorizons.com