This year, I have three pieces in the short story category, of which I would like to promote two for fiction award eligibility. (Please promote yours, too!)

“A City on its Tentacles” – a slipstream/fantasy/magic realist short story about a mother and a chronically ill child. It appeared in in the inaugural issue of Lackington’s, in February 2014.

“…a gorgeous read that became even complex and powerful for me on reflection” – Vanessa Fogg

“What a gorgeous terrible city, framing Luba — a mother drawn with both delicacy and intensity — and the necessity of choice, the silent persistence of love through it all, and again: necessity, endurance.” – M Sereno

“The story you tell might save someone. A Rose Lemberg story might save you.” – Sofia Samatar

“Stalemate” – a far-future SF story about friendship, art, and loss. This story has just come out in Lackington’s 4, 2014. It has been reviewed twice, once at Tor.com by Amal El-Mohtar, who writes insightfully and kindly about the story in her review column Rich and Strange:

“Stalemate” is a balancing act, musing on responsibility and its limits, the role of art in society, and giving the ages-old argument between individualism and collectivism cosmic scope. There is no vilification of either in the story, which is refreshing: the stalemate of the title is genuine, earnest, and heartfelt throughout.

Paige Kimble has also given the story a positive review in her review column Diamond Dust:

Lemberg proves to be a master of the slow build with this piece which inspired the ‘Institutions’ theme of this issue of Lackington’s. […] The stakes here are extraordinarily high, and while ‘Stalemate’ does have a touch of the morality play style to it, it’s a morality play where there are no absolute correct answers.

I am informed that Rhysling voting for this year’s poetry award closes on 11/20, and I have a poem nominated in the long category, “I will show you a single treasure from the treasures of Shah Niyaz.” It is a Birdverse poem about women’s work and carpets and desert and winds, and I am very proud of it. It is the poem I read at Readercon 2013. Here’s what C.S.E. Cooney had to say about the performance, in her column at Black Gate:

Rose Lemberg […] tore my heart out and gave it wings.
She recited her piece from memory. She cried it out. She embodied it. And it consumed her like a fire. She left me weeping and trembling.

People have been so incredibly kind about my work; I just want to take a moment to thank the editors and the reviewers of my stories and poems for giving them homes and good words. And, as ever, thank you for reading.