Soon to be launched, my debut novel ‘Azanian Bridges’ via the excellent NewCon Press. You can read the opening chapter via Books Live SA here. Two reviews of ‘AZANIAN BRIDGES‘ have come out to date, the first on the SFBook Review site here.  Yes, ‘Azanian Bridges is the kind of science fiction we need…!’ (Not surprising I’d agree, of course!) The second is by Dr. Mark Bould here.

Given the centrality of a current existing apartheid within the narrative counterfactual, I have also felt it ethically necessary to share author royalties with the organisation LongStoryShort, which is aimed at increasing exposure of, as well as developing black writing within, South Africa.

Also out soon is the new Short Story Day Africa anthology ‘Water‘ with a great list of authors, lead by winning submission from Cat Hellisen. As a reader for this, I was gobsmacked by the quality of general submissions, so all stories that made the final cut are of a very high standard.

Recently out are the African Monsters anthology, reviewed here by Joanne Hall here and I have a linked article about ‘The Tokoloshe‘ on the Fox Spirit (publisher’s site). There will also be a launch and signing at Forbidden Planet in London on March 3rd.

Also out is Tade Thompson and my novella ‘The Last Pantheon‘ in AfroSF2, reviewed twice by Locus. Firstly, by Lois Tilton in their online site – and then Karen Burnham within the magazine itself.  Finally, the ever excellent Bookshy reviews the anthology  and will be loading a linked article exploring Tade and my experiences around collaborating on this novella.

As for Tade, he goes from strength to strength in his writing – ROSEWATER sounds like a fascinating upcoming novel, to be published this year by Apex Books. His debut novel from last year, Making Wolf, is still making waves – it is on the short list for a Golden Tentacle award, winners to be announced March 7th Go Tade!

Vincent Sammy, who provided the wonderful artwork for Azanian Bridges, has been shortlisted for a BSFA Award as Best Illustration, for his work on ‘Songbird’ (Interzone 257). The Nebula Awards short list has been announced too – and a powerful list it is too, congrats to all!

So to 2016 then, a year, I hope, for gains. May yours be happy and large!

But, inevitably, there will be some losses too…

May yours be small and bearable…

Nick Wood

Feb 2016