Updated  and expanded Jan 30.

Dear friends,

This award season, I would like you to consider only one piece  for awards – the Birdverse novella A Portrait of the Desert in Personages of Power  in Beneath Ceaseless Skies  (Part I, Part II), and you can also listen to an absolutely epic podcast/audiobook by C.S.E. Cooney.

“Portrait” is eligible as a Novella for Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy Award.

The trans/bigender narrator, the powerful but very tired Old Royal, meets their match in a dangerous stranger traveling through the sands.

This piece is unabashedly queer, kinky, and non-binary. CWs for power exchange, pain play, advanced discussions of consent, discussions of past abuse and trauma.

Portrait is one of the best things I have ever written. It is the most ambitious thing I’ve published to date, and by far the most nuanced. This novella means a lot to me. I would appreciate your reading and, if you think it is worth noticing, your votes.

It is on multiple award recommendation lists this year:

It is on the SFWA recommended reading list (Novellas)

2018 Nerds of a Feather Hugo Award Longlist

An Incomplete List of Great Reads from Others – Fran Wilde (lists Portrait under Novellas)

Aliette de Bodard’s Awards Consideration/Recommendation Post

Aimee Ogden’s 2017 Reading list (Novellas)

Jason Sanford’s Recommended Reading List (Novellas)

Nin Harris’s Recommendations for 2017

Charles Payseur’s 2017 Recommended Reading list at Quick Sip Reviews).

Maria Haskins’ 2017 Suggested Reading list (Novellas)

 

What others say:

“One of the best novellas of 2017 is “A Portrait of the Desert in Personages of Power” by Rose Lemberg in Beneath Ceaseless Skies. An intricate masterpiece which I will be nominating for the Hugo and Nebula Awards.” – Jason Sanford

“a gorgeous and poetic novella of fallen stars and magic, exploring power, consent, desire, and pain.” A.C. Wise’s My Favorite Novels and Novellas of 2017

“I would recommend Rose Lemberg’s amazing novella, “A Portrait of the Desert in Personages of Power” (Beneath Ceaseless Skies), a masterpiece of worldbuilding that brings together two very different characters with vastly different histories, and tracks the consequences of their meeting–effortlessly rich and romantic, laden with worldbuilding that both feels familiar and strange, this definitely stuck with me long after I’d read it.” – Aliette de Bodard, Book Smugglers

“I have followed Lemberg’s Birdverse series of stories for several years now. I think this is the best one yet. A rich, strange novella of falling stars, millennia-old star-guardians, shapeshifters, lions, and flying carpets.” Vanessa Fogg, It’s a Jumble

“This summer Beneath Ceaseless Skies published [Lemberg’s] story “A Portrait of the Desert in Personages of Power” … I highly recommend it.”  – Ann Leckie

“I may not be able to give this more than five stars on Goodreads … but, in my heart, Rose Lemberg gets all the damn stars in the sky.” – Avery/Book Deviant

“Stunning… this novella is one of my favorite reads…” (Charles Payseur; full review at Quick Sip Reviews)

“This non-binary centered novella has supermages and spies and ghosts and I adore the ways those things are interwoven into a narrative that is so much about consent and kink and trauma.  This is my favorite book that has come out in 2017, the one closest to my heart. I love it dearly. It means the world to me. “-  Xan West

“Lemberg’s prose is spellbinding… Love, transformation, magic, lust, longing, pain and desire – so many threads are woven together in this tale. Breathtaking storytelling.” – Maria Haskins

Thank you very much for considering this piece.