Five pieces from BCS made the 2022 Recommended Reading List from Locus magazine, the top review source in the field, as compiled by their insightful team of short fiction reviewers and outside editors.

The BCS pieces named to the list:

Short Story:

“Bonsai Starships,” Yoon Ha Lee (BCS #349 – Science-Fantasy Month 6, 02/10/22)

“A Record of Our Meeting with the Grand Faerie Lord of Vast Space and Its Great Mysteries, Revised,” A.T. Greenblatt (BCS #350 – Science-Fantasy Month 6, 03/03/22)

Novelette:

“To Embody a Wildfire Starting,” Iona Datt Sharma (BCS #346, 01/01/22)

“Three Songs to Fill Up the Shadow,” Spencer Ellsworth (BCS #347, 01/13/22)

“Merry in Time,” Kathleen Jennings (BCS #352, 03/24/22)

These alongside many, many other BCS authors for stories appearing in other fine magazines and anthologies.

Congratulations, all!

Beneath Ceaseless Skies hereby recuses the magazine from further nominations or finalist appearances for the Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine.

It has been a wonderful honor for BCS to have been a finalist for Best Semiprozine ten times. We are deeply touched by the respect and appreciation voters showed in nominating us or voting for us. During those years, BCS‘s readership doubled, our submissions expanded, our stories received greater acclaim, and our subscriber and supporter base grew enough to fund increases in our word-count limit for submissions, our author pay rate, and the honorarium we pay our First Readers.

There are many other indie zines, run by dedicated staff and publishing great and important stories, whose work in our opinion deserves a Best Semiprozine finalist and the boost in reach and support it can provide. We want to see them get it.

(BCS has not exceeded the eligibility requirements for Best Semiprozine about revenue. This recusal does not mean our financial situation is any less precarious than it’s always been! We still need the support of our donors and ebook subscribers to fund the magazine and our patrons on the BCS Patreon to fund the author pay rate increase and the honoraria for our First Readers. If you’re already supporting us, THANK YOU. If you’re not and would like to, please consider donating, subscribing, or becoming a Patron.)

Please still consider BCS stories for Hugo nomination when you find them worthy. It’s a great honor for authors and a magazine to have stories voted finalist for the Hugo or any award. Here’s our list of award-eligible BCS stories from 2022 and their award category (Short Story, Novelette, Novella).

(If you still want to nominate part of BCS for a Hugo, Scott (me) is eligible for Best Editor Short Form. In 2022 he was six votes short of making the final ballot. But there are many great editors of pro zines or anthologies who deserve your consideration in that category first.)

For other worthy indie zines to consider for Best Semiprozine, the 2022 Hugo longlist included Mermaids Monthly, Khōréō, Fireside, Diabolical Plots, The Deadlands, GigaNotoSaurus–all unique, important, and worthy.

For BCS readers interested in nominating for this year’s awards, such as the Hugos or Nebulas, here’s a list of our eligible stories from 2022 and which awards category they fit in. Thank you for your interest in our stories!

What BCS Stories are Eligible:
Everything published in 2022, which is BCS #346 through BCS #371.

Here are some of our best-reviewed pieces of 2022 and which category they fit in (short fiction categories for Hugos and Nebulas are the same). For a list of all eligible BCS stories and their categories, see the bottom of this post.

Please DON’T nominate BCS for the Best Semiprozine Hugo. We’re still eligible, but we’ve recused ourself. (Our explanation is here.)

Best Short Story:

“Clay,” Isabel J. Kim (BCS #348, 01/27/22)

“Bonsai Starships,” Yoon Ha Lee (BCS #349 – Science-Fantasy Month 6, 02/10/22)

“Witchbreaker,” Leah Ning (BCS #359, 06/30/22)

“Imagine a Thief with Golden Fire in Their Voice,” Riley Neither (BCS #363, 08/25/22)

“Five Aspects of River and Sky,” Adam R. Shannon (BCS #365, 09/22/22)

“Of the Body,” Eugenia Triantafyllou (BCS #365, 09/22/22)

Best Novelette:

“To Embody a Wildfire Starting,” Iona Datt Sharma (BCS #346, 01/01/22)

“Three Songs to Fill Up the Shadow,” Spencer Ellsworth (BCS #347, 01/13/22)

For information on Hugo nominating, check the Hugo Awards info at Chengdu Worldcon, the 2023 Worldcon. (Last year, Hugo voting opened in Jan. and ended on Mar. 15.) For information on Nebula nominating, see SFWA’s page about Nebula voting. (Nebula nominations for 2023 are currently open.) For other eligible short fiction, we recommend our authors’ stories in other magazines, like the ones listed in our BCS Authors Elsewhere posts.

All Eligible Stories from BCS

Here is the list of BCS stories that are eligible for Hugo and Nebula nominations in 2022, and what official category they are in. Thanks very much for considering our authors and their fiction!

Best Short Story:

“He Stays Among the Commots,” Christopher Rowe (BCS #370, 12/01/22)

“By Hand and By Heart,” Tina Connolly (BCS #370, 12/01/22)

“Forgotten Eyes,” Marie Vibbert (BCS #370, 12/01/22)

“Her Mother, The Storm,” Marie Croke (BCS #370, 12/01/22)

“The Future Without the Past Is No Future At All,” Todd Honeycutt (BCS #369, 11/17/22)

“Tithe the Bones, Sell the Blood,” Auston Habershaw (BCS #368, 11/03/22)

“The Law of Sustenance,” Matt Hornsby (BCS #368, 11/03/22)

“Five Aspects of River and Sky,” Adam R. Shannon (BCS #365, 09/22/22)

“Of the Body,” Eugenia Triantafyllou (BCS #365, 09/22/22)

“Turn To Stone Ourselves,” Marie Croke (BCS #364, 09/08/22)

“Upon The Land,” H.M. Goodchild (BCS #364, 09/08/22)

“Imagine a Thief with Golden Fire in Their Voice,” Riley Neither (BCS #363, 08/25/22)

“The Death Artist,” Adam Breckenridge (BCS #363, 08/25/22)

“Their Eyes the Shape of Orchids,” Eleanna Castroianni (BCS #362, 08/11/22)

“The Shapeshifter’s Lover,” Autumn Canter (BCS #362, 08/11/22)

“Uncounted Leaves of Ends of Camelot,” R.K. Duncan (BCS #361, 07/28/22)

“How to Be a True Woman While Piloting a Steam-Engine Balloon,” Valerie Hunter (BCS #360, 07/14/22)

“Into The Thunder,” Michelle Muenzler (BCS #359, 06/30/22)

“Witchbreaker,” Leah Ning (BCS #359, 06/30/22)

“Different Kinds of Thorn,” Devin Miller (BCS #358, 06/16/22)

“These Hands Only Make Last Meals,” Evan Marcroft (BCS #357, 06/02/22)

“The Mountains of Another World, Where Eagles May Fly Free,” Aimee Ogden (BCS #355, 05/05/22)

“Valor Bones,” Derrick Boden (BCS #354, 04/21/22)

“The Heart in Her Hands,” Robert Minto (BCS #354, 04/21/22)

“Eshat’s Temple,” Alvaro Zinos-Amaro (BCS #353, 04/07/22)

“Ten Fruits and Other Memories of Rialynas,” AnaMaria Curtis (BCS #353, 04/07/22)

“Venturing,” Jonathan Louis Duckworth (BCS #352, 03/24/22)

“A Nickel For The Burlap Man,” Patty Templeton (BCS #351, 03/10/22)

“At the Foot of the Dragon Stair,” Aliette de Bodard (BCS #350 – Science-Fantasy Month 6, 02/24/22)

“It Never Was,” R.Z. Held (BCS #350 – Science-Fantasy Month 6, 03/03/22)

“Empty Appendages,” William Broom (BCS #350 – Science-Fantasy Month 6, 02/24/22)

“Bonsai Starships,” Yoon Ha Lee (BCS #349 – Science-Fantasy Month 6, 02/10/22)

“Rich Growth,” Aliya Whiteley (BCS #349 – Science-Fantasy Month 6, 02/10/22)

“Clay,” Isabel J. Kim (BCS #348, 01/27/22)

“Godmaker,” J.A. Prentice (BCS #348, 01/27/22)

“Chrysalis,” Marie Brennan (BCS #347, 01/13/22)

“Redfin Spine,” Jonathan Olfert (BCS #346, 01/01/22)

Best Novelette:

“Troubling a Star,” Andrew Dykstal (BCS #369, 11/17/22)

“On Magog’s Pond,” Chris Willrich (BCS #367, 10/20/22)

“The Angel Azrael and the War Ghosts,” Peter Darbyshire (BCS #367, 10/20/22)

“Fire and Brimstone in the Twin Cities,” James Morrow (BCS #366, Fourteenth Anniversary Double-Issue, 10/06/22)

“Playing God,” K.J. Parker (BCS #366, Fourteenth Anniversary Double-Issue, 10/13/22)

“The Mountains My Bones, the Rivers My Blood,” Y.M. Pang (BCS #366, Fourteenth Anniversary Double-Issue, 10/13/22)

“But Mayflies on the Water, Gazing at the Sun,” Jennifer DeLeskie (BCS #366, Fourteenth Anniversary Double-Issue, 10/06/22)

“A Once and Future Reckoning,” Rajan Khanna (BCS #361, 07/28/22)

“River of Sons,” Geoffrey W. Cole (BCS #360, 07/14/22)

“Forte,” Samuel Chapman (BCS #358, 06/16/22)

“The Nostalgia Panes,” Aaron Perry (BCS #357, 06/02/22)

“The Splinters of Our Bond,” Marissa Lingen (BCS #356, 05/19/22)

“I Will Sing Your White Bones Home,” Cat Hellisen (BCS #356, 05/19/22)

“Anything You Lose Comes Round in Another Form,” Jennie Evenson (BCS #355, 05/05/22)

“Merry in Time,” Kathleen Jennings (BCS #352, 03/24/22)

“The Angel Azrael Encounters the Revelation Pilgrims and Other Curiosities,” Peter Darbyshire (BCS #351, 03/10/22)

“A Record of Our Meeting with the Grand Faerie Lord of Vast Space and Its Great Mysteries, Revised,” A.T. Greenblatt (BCS #350 – Science-Fantasy Month 6, 03/03/22)

“To People Who’d Never Known Good,” Thomas Ha (BCS #350 – Science-Fantasy Month 6, 02/24/22)

“Burying the Seeds of Spider Gods,” Ted S. Bushman (BCS #349 – Science-Fantasy Month 6, 02/17/22)

“Three Songs to Fill Up the Shadow,” Spencer Ellsworth (BCS #347, 01/13/22)

“To Embody a Wildfire Starting,” Iona Datt Sharma (BCS #346, 01/01/22)

Best Novella:

“Blood Grains Scream in Memories,” Jason Sanford (BCS #349 – Science-Fantasy Month 6, 02/17/22)

Thanks very much for considering us and our stories!

In addition to BCS again named a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine, a bunch of BCS authors had other works voted finalists for the 2022 Hugo Awards, in a fantastic variety of categories!

• P. Djèlí Clark (“A Tale of Woe” in BCS #253) for Best Novel

• Aliette de Bodard (“Court of Birth, Court of Strength” in BCS #261, “The Breath of War” in BCS #142 and podcast BCS 121, and most recently “At the Foot of the Dragon Stair” in BCS #350 and podcast BCS 290) for Best Novella

• Catherynne M. Valente (“The Limitless Perspective of Master Peek, or, the Luminescence of Debauchery” in BCS #200, Special Double-Issue and podcast BCS 178) for Best Novella, Best Novelette, and Best Short Story
  

• Alix E. Harrow (“Do Not Look Back, My Lion” in BCS #270, a finalist for the Hugo Awards) for Best Novella and Best Short Story

• Suzanne Palmer (“Moogh and the Great Trench Kraken” in BCS #181 and podcast BCS 158) for Best Novelette

• Caroline M. Yoachim (“Carnival Nine” in BCS #225 and podcast BCS 196) for Best Novelette

• Fran Wilde (“Ruby, Singing” in BCS #261, Tenth Anniversary Month I and podcast BCS 224) for Best Novelette

• Sarah Pinkser (“Do As I Do, Sing As I Sing” in BCS #246; “The Mountains His Crown” in BCS #195 and podcast BCS 171) for Best Short Story

• Quick Sip Reviews, written by Charles Payseur (“Undercurrents” in BCS #274 and podcast BCS 235; “Rivers Run Free” in BCS #230 and podcast BCS 201) for Best Fanzine

• Jason Sanford (“Blood Grains Speak Through Memories” in BCS #195 – Science-Fantasy Month 3, among others, most recently “Blood Grains Scream in Memories” in BCS #349 – Science-Fantasy Month 6) for Best Fan Writer

• Troy L. Wiggins, Benjamin C. Kinney, Brent C. Lambert, Tina Connolly, C.L. Clark, and Summer Fletcher for their editing work on zines names finalist for Best Semiprozine

Congratulations, all!

Congratulations to all the BCS authors named finalists for the 2021 World Fantasy Awards for their work appearing elsewhere!

• P. Djèlí Clark (“A Tale of Woe” in BCS #253) for Novella

• R.B. Lemberg (“Grandmother-nai-Leylit’s Cloth of Winds” in BCS #175, “Geometries of Belonging” in BCS #183, Seventh Anniversary Double-Issue, and several others set in their Birdverse world) for Novella

• Kay Chronister (“The Warriors, The Mothers, The Drowned” in BCS #174 and podcast BCS 152) for Short Fiction

• Jordan Taylor (“La Orpheline” in BCS #269) for Short Fiction

• C.C. Finlay (“The Hummingbird Temple” in BCS #300, Special Double-Issue) for Special Award–Professional

• Christie Yant (“The Three Feats of Agani” in BCS #100 and podcast BCS 086) for Special Award–Non-Professional

BCS is recognized again this year with one finalist, your Editor-in-Chief/Publisher, me (Scott H. Andrews), for Special Award–Non-Professional.

Congratulations, all! And thanks very much to all who found the magazine worthy.

In addition to the BCS Audio Fiction Podcast named a finalist for the Ignyte Award for Best Fiction Podcast, several BCS authors had other work named finalists for the 2021 Ignyte Awards, presented by FiyahCon.

• P. Djèlí Clark (“A Tale of Woe” in BCS #253) for Best Novella

• R.B. Lemberg (“To Balance the Weight of Khalem” in BCS #300, Special Double-Issue) for Best Novella

• Nghi Vo (“Boiled Bones and Black Eggs” in BCS #275) for Best Novella

• Aliette de Bodard (“Court of Birth, Court of Strength” in BCS #261, “The Breath of War” in BCS #142 and podcast BCS 121, “The Moon Over Red Trees” in BCS #157 and podcast BCS 136, and many others) for Best Novelette

• C.L. Clark (“The Captain and the Quartermaster” in BCS #326 and podcast BCS 275; “Forgive Me, My Love, for the Ice and the Sea” in BCS #296 and podcast BCS 252) for Best Short Story

• Maria Haskins (“It’s Easy to Shoot A Dog” in BCS #260; “The Root Cellar” in BCS #251) for Critics Award

• Charles Payseur (“Undercurrents” in BCS #274 and podcast BCS 235; “Rivers Run Free” in BCS #230 and podcast BCS 201) for Critics Award

• Tamara Jerée (“In Case You’re the One to Devour a Star,” forthcoming in BCS later this year) for Best in Creative Nonfiction

Congratulations, all!

In addition to Yoon Ha Lee’s “The Mermaid Astronaut” from BCS #298 – Science-Fantasy Month 5 voted a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Short Story, a bunch of BCS authors had other works voted finalists for the 2021 Hugo Awards, in a fantastic variety of categories!

• Nghi Vo (“Boiled Bones and Black Eggs” in BCS #275) for Best Novella

• P. Djèlí Clark (“A Tale of Woe” in BCS #253) for Best Novella

• A.T. Greenblatt (“A Place to Grow” in BCS #225; “They Said the Desert” in BCS #199 and podcast BCS 175) for Best Novelette

• Aliette de Bodard (“Court of Birth, Court of Strength” in BCS #261, “The Breath of War” in BCS #142 and podcast BCS 121, “The Moon Over Red Trees” in BCS #157 and podcast BCS 136, and many others) for Best Novelette

• Sarah Pinkser (“Do As I Do, Sing As I Sing” in BCS #246; “The Mountains His Crown” in BCS #195 and podcast BCS 171) for Best Novelette

• Rae Carson (“The Crystal Stair,” as Rae Carson Finlay and co-authored with Charles Coleman Finlay, in BCS #3 and #4) for Best Short Story

• C.C. Finlay (“The Hummingbird Temple” in BCS #300 Special Double-Issue, and “The Crystal Stair”, co-authored with Rae Carson Finlay, in BCS #3 and #4) for Best Editor, Short Form

• Charles Payseur (“Undercurrents” in BCS #274 and podcast BCS 235; “Rivers Run Free” in BCS #230 and podcast BCS 201) for Best Fan Writer

• Jason Sanford (“Blood Grains Speak Through Memories” in BCS #195 – Science-Fantasy Month 3; “The Emotionless, in Love” in BCS #246 – Science-Fantasy Month 4; “Where the World Ends Without Us” in BCS #299 – Science-Fantasy Month 5) for Best Fan Writer

Congratulations, all!

Nine pieces from BCS made the 2020 Recommended Reading List from Locus magazine, the top review source in the field, as compiled by their veteran team of short fiction reviewers including Rich Horton, Jonathan Strahan, Paula Guran, Karen Burnham, and many others.

The BCS pieces named to the list:

Short Story:

“Forgive Me, My Love, for the Ice and the Sea,” C.L. Clark (BCS #296, 01/30/20)

“The Mermaid Astronaut,” Yoon Ha Lee (BCS #298 – Science-Fantasy Month 5, 02/27/20)

“Never a Butterfly, Nor a Moth With Moon-Painted Wings,” Aimee Ogden (BCS #300, Special Double-Issue, 04/02/20)

“Deep in the Drift, Spinning,” Lisa L. Hannett (BCS #312, 09/10/20)

Novelette:

“The Ordeal,” M. Bennardo (BCS #297, 02/13/20)

“The Black-Eyed Goddess of Apple Trees and Farmers’ Wives,” Erin Eisenhour (BCS #308, 07/16/20)

“To Balance the Weight of Khalem,” R.B. Lemberg (BCS #300, Special Double-Issue, 04/02/20)

“Girls with Needles and Frost,” Jenny Rae Rappaport (BCS #315, 10/22/20)

“As The Shore To The Tides, So Blood Calls To Blood,” Karlo Yeager Rodríguez (BCS #301, 04/09/20)

These alongside many, many other BCS authors for stories appearing in other fine magazines and anthologies.

Congratulations, all!

“Do Not Look Back, My Lion” by Alix E. Harrow, in BCS #270, has been voted a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Short Story.

Congratulations, Alix! “Do Not Look Back, My Lion” is a great story of life, family, duty, and parenthood, in a rich fantasy setting.

It is joined on the Hugo ballot by work by a bunch of BCS authors, in categories ranging from Best Novel to Best Novelette to Best Editor, Short Form and Best Fanzine. Congratulations to Caroline for “Carnival Nine” and all the other BCS authors and other finalists.