Today I am announcing two excellent bits of Birdverse news, and I am very excited about both of them.

First, some of you might remember my long poem, I will show you a single treasure from the treasures of Shah Niyaz, which appeared in Goblin Fruit in Summer 2013. Earlier this year, it was nominated for the Rhysling Award. I am now very happy to announce that it took 3rd place in the Rhyslings , in the long poetry category. I am not a member of SFPA and have not been for some time, so it is especially cool to be honored.

“I will show you a single treasure…” talks of many women who, though pain and joy and struggle, work together to create the greatest treasure ever woven. The poem came to me – like some of my poems do – and I wrote it down. Then,  because the poem wanted to be performed, I went to Readercon. After I returned from Readercon, the poem wanted even more from me.

And so I wrote a Birdverse novelette, “Grandmother-nai-Leylit’s Cloth of Winds,” about very many queer women and trans people and autism and carpets woven of song and wind; the titular Grandmother-nai-Leylit is one of the traders in the poem. I am now very happy to announce that this story will appear in Beneath Ceaseless Skies. I am very proud of this story – its words, its people, its truths. It was difficult to get right; I hope I did.

More stories await – more Birdverse stories in particular. I am looking forward to the future.