Library Journal: “Offer Carrick’s excellent duology starter to fans of Leigh Bardugo’s The Familiar or anyone looking for a new historical fantasy series.”
May 182026
May 142026
Publishers Weekly: Underdogs abound in this scrappy, series-launching historical fantasy from Carrick (the Rook and Rose trilogy), the pseudonym for Marie Brennan and Alyc Helms. The authors pit a displaced human and the faerie changeling left in her stead against a Spanish colonial empire bent on conquering both the New World and the faerie realm of the Sea Beyond. The human protagonist, called the Hungry Girl for her need to eat regularly, unlike her fae captors, was sent to the faeries for protection from an uncaring father and now serves as a jester for a capricious faerie queen in exile. Then the Spanish conquistadors arrive, using their religion to break the magic of the Sea Beyond and claim its treasures. The fae protagonist, Estevan, left in Hungry Girl’s place and raised in the human world, seeks to stop this invasion by uncovering the source of the conquistadors’ power. Because time is out of joint between the two realms, the dual narrative becomes slippery and occasionally hard to grasp. Bridging the story lines is Diego, a mortalizado, or faerie enslaved by humans whose immortality has been removed by baptism, whose appearance as old or young helps keep the timeline straight. Carrick makes both the mundane world and the danger-filled fantasy realm of the Sea Beyond vivid. There’s a warmhearted center to this sweeping, mirrored fantasy that’s sure to draw readers in.
May 122026
Kirkus: Two veteran authors join forces under a pseudonym to launch a series about a wildly unlikely amateur sleuth.
Mo Ellery never wanted to get involved in detection. All she wanted was to hold on to her live-in boyfriend and keep her job at a Chicago marketing agency. After losing both within a few minutes of each other (the losses are connected, but you’ll never guess how), she moves to downscale Buffalo Park and takes the only job she can get, as a crossing guard near a city school. A driver with a car full of poodles constantly harasses her until the whole crew gets swallowed up in a sinkhole that opens beneath her eyes, leaving him dead and the poodles in urgent need of adoption. Scared of being called out by the police, Mo reluctantly agrees to take custody of the late Cran Johnston’s show dogs—Jean Valjean, Louis XIV, and Jacques Cousteau—with the idea of fobbing them off on Tond Johnston, Cran’s brother and heir, or on Benny, the dog trainer Cran had just fired, or, really, on pretty much anyone. Along the way she gets sucked into investigating not one but two maybe-murders. Working with Marlowe Golden, a pink-haired 12-year-old who shifts smartly from giving Mo a hard time about crossing the street to installing herself as Mo’s sidekick, she follows a series of hunches that cast suspicion on nearly everyone in Chicago, from Alderman Merle Carey to Tasha, his hot assistant, who quickly becomes Mo’s new lover. The frantic pace will make many readers accept a plot that’s even crazier than the protagonist.
Move over, Ellery Queen. There’s a new Ellery in town, and she puts a whole new spin on being a queen.
May 082026
Congratulations to all the DMLA authors named as finalists in the 2026 Hugo Awards!
Best Novel
- A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett (Del Rey; Hodderscape)
Best Novelette
- “Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy” by Martha Wells (Reactor, July 10, 2025)
Best Short Story
- “In My Country” by Thomas Ha (Clarkesworld, Issue 223)
Best Series
- The Chronicles of Osreth by Katherine Addison (Tor US; Solaris UK; Subterranean)
- White Space by Elizabeth Bear (Saga Press; Gollancz)
Best Related Work
- Inventing the Renaissance by Ada Palmer (University of Chicago Press US, Head of Zeus UK)
Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form
- Murderbot: “All Systems Red”, written by Paul Weitz & Chris Weitz, directed by Roseanne Liang, based on the book All Systems Red by Martha Wells (Apple TV)
- Murderbot: “The Perimeter”, written Chris Weitz & Paul Weitz, directed by Paul Weitz, based on the book All Systems Red by Martha Wells (Apple TV)
Best Semiprozine
- The Deadlands, publisher Sean Markey, editor in chief E. Catherine Tobler, poetry editor Nicasio Andres Reed, nonfiction editor David Gilmore, necromancer Amanda Downum, art director Cory Skerry, copy editors Laura Blackwell and Annika Barranti Klein, proofreader Josephine Stewart, designer Christine M. Scott, and social media skeleton Felicia Martínez
May 072026
Locus: “A rich and provocative exploration of how and why we relate to art at all — and how it informs the ways we relate to each other.”
May 062026
The 2026 Locus Award Finalists were announced and we’re thrilled to see so many DMLA authors included!
SCIENCE FICTION NOVELS
- The Folded Sky, Elizabeth Bear (Saga; Gollancz)
FANTASY NOVELS
- The Tomb of Dragons, Katherine Addison (Tor; Solaris UK)
- A Drop of Corruption, Robert Jackson Bennett (Del Rey; Hodderscape)
- Queen Demon, Martha Wells (Tor)
HORROR NOVELS
- The Library at Hellebore, Cassandra Khaw (Nightfire; Titan UK)
FIRST NOVELS
- A Song of Legends Lost, M.H. Ayinde (Orbit UK; Saga)
NOVELLAS
- The Orb of Cairado, Katherine Addison (Subterranean)
NOVELETTES
- “The Witch and the Wyrm“, Elizabeth Bear (Reactor 2/26/25)
- “Uncertain Sons“, Thomas Ha (Uncertain Sons)
SHORT STORIES
- “In My Country“, Thomas Ha (Clarkesworld 4/25)
COLLECTION
- Uncertain Sons and Other Stories, Thomas Ha (Undertow)
- One Message Remains, Premee Mohamed (Psychopomp)
Apr 302026
Audio rights to Robert McCammon’s SHOPPE OF OLDE CURIOSITIES, a short story collection, to Louise Quayle at Audible by Katie Shea Boutillier at Donald Maass Literary Agency, for Cameron McClure (World English).
Apr 302026
Catalan rights to Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction winner Vajra Chandrasekera’s RAKESFALL, to Chronos, by Elena Rodríguez at International Editors & Yáñez Co’ S.L. in association with Michael Curry.
Czech rights to Katherine Addison’s THE GRIEF OF STONES to Dobrovsky, by Nada Popovic at Prava I Prevodi, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier for Cameron McClure.
French rights to Seamus Sullivan’s DAEDALUS IS DEAD to Elysande, by Sarah Dray at Anna Jarota Agency, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier for Cameron McClure.
Portuguese (Brazil) rights to New York Times bestselling author Martha Wells’ WITCH KING and QUEEN DEMON, the first two books in the Rising World trilogy, to Editora Alta Books, by Cristina Purchio at International Editors’ Co. in association with Michael Curry for Jennifer Jackson.
Portuguese rights to Melissa K. Roehrich’s Legacy series, to Guerra & Paz, in a two-book deal, by Elena Rodriguez at International Editors & Yanez, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier.
Spanish rights to Robert Jackson Bennett’s THE DIVINE CITIES SERIES to Hidra, in a three-book deal, by Elena Rodriguez at International Editors & Yanez, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier for Cameron McClure.
Spanish rights to Nebula Award finalist Kerstin Hall’s ASUNDER to Duermevela, by Elena Rodríguez at International Editors & Yáñez Co’ S.L. in association with Michael Curry for Jennifer Jackson.
Apr 292026
Historian at University of Chicago and award-winning author of INVENTING THE RENAISSANCE Ada Palmer’s untitled book on censorship, unpacking our many false assumptions about what it is and how it operates, and providing a roadmap for thoughtful resistance, based in part on a museum exhibit and series of films exploring censorship during information revolutions, to Dan Gerstle at Norton, in a pre-empt, for World excluding the UK, by Cameron McClure.
Apr 272026
Booklist: “…one of his very best: a story that pulls readers deeply in with a consuming dread that becomes almost unbearable. Truly a magnificent work of horror fiction.”