Schedule for Capclave 2023

On By A. T. GreenblattIn Convention SightingsLeave a comment

As promised, here’s the second post of the weekend. I’ll be at Capclave on Sept. 29th – Oct 1st. As always, I’m so excited and it’ll be wonderful to meet up with old friends and make new ones.

Here’s my schedule:

  • Rejections Happen – Saturday, Sept 30th @ 10am EST
    • The life of a writer involves hearing many variations of the word “no.” Rejection comes with the territory but that does not make it easier to experience. Panelists discuss coping with rejection, how to continue writing through them, and what you can learn from receiving a no.
    • Panelists: A. T. Greenblatt, Ef Deal, Nate Hoffelder, R. Z. Held, Scott Edelman
  • Author Reading: A.T. Greenblatt – Saturday, Sept 30th @ 12pm EST
    • Don’t know what I’ll read yet. Open to suggestions.
  • Friendships in Science Fiction and Fantasy – Sunday, Sept 30th @ 10am EST
  • Writing Through Adversity – Sunday, Sept 30th @ 11:30am EST
    • Writing is hard enough but writers are also full human beings dealing with obstacles that can make it difficult to maintain a creative practice. From financial and family responsibilities to chronic pain and other mental and physical challenges, panelists talk openly about coping with daily pressures that often interfere with one’s writing life
    • Panelists:  A. T. Greenblatt, R. Z. Held, Samantha Katz, Sarah Avery, Scott Edelman

If you’re going to be at Capclave this year, please come say hi!

New Class Available at the Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers!

On By A. T. GreenblattIn General RamblingsLeave a comment

This is the first of two posts coming this weekend. Also, the first of a series of posts about writing related news over the next few weeks.

I’m excited to share that I’ll be teaching a new class on Oct 14th, 2023 called “Hitting the Road: How to Send Your Characters on a Road Trip.” It will be about 2 hours long and will be held online. There will also be a recorded version available if the timing doesn’t work for you. There’s also scholarships for students.

This is a completely new class for me and while I’ve taught a few classes for Clarion West Online and this summer at the Alpha Writing Workshop for Teens, this will be my first time teaching at The Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers. I love journey stories (if you couldn’t tell from my work) and if you do too, I hope you consider signing up for the class!

New Essay Up at Fantasy Magazine

On By A. T. GreenblattIn Publishing UpdatesLeave a comment

I wanted to put a quick post up today that I have a new essay online at Fantasy Magazine. It’s called “More Than A Journey” and it’s about storytelling that’s shaped by more than one character. I’m thrilled to have a piece in this magazine. I’ve adored Fantasy Magazine’s fiction and essays and I’m heartbroken that they are closing shop in October.

If you read or care about SFF short fiction, please subscribe to some magazines so that this doesn’t happen to others venues. Here’s a list of some you can support.

One last note, I made a mistake on my last post. I’ll be reading at Story Hour tomorrow, August 30th at 7pm PST, NOT Thursday.

Correction: Reading at Story Hour on 8/30!

On By A. T. GreenblattIn General RamblingsLeave a comment

Update: Reading is on Wednesday, 8/30 NOT Thursday 8/31

I hope this blog post finds you well and that these summer months (in the northern hemisphere, at least) has been kind to. you.

It has been an incredible busy season for me. I’ve been working on several writing projects such as a story for this anthology and an essay that is going to be posted online at Fantasy Magazine later this week. I also attended Readercon in July and Fourth Street Fantasy in June. And this year, I was lucky enough to be asked to be a staffer at the Alpha Workshop for Young Writers.

So, yes, I’m both surprised it’s the end of August and also not.

But before the month closes out, I do have one more event. I’ll be doing a live reading this coming Wednesday, August 30th at 7 pm PST for Story Hour! I’ll be reading alongside Jean-Paul Garnier and we will each be sharing a short story. This event will be livestreamed for free over on Zoom and Facebook Live.

Hope you can make it!

Readercon Schedule 2023!

On By A. T. GreenblattIn Convention SightingsLeave a comment

I’m so excited to be going to Readercon in person again this year! This is one of my favorite conventions. On the docket this time, I have one panel, one reading, and one Meet The Prose event.

Here’s the Schedule:


Friday @ 2pm in Salon 4 – Do Short Stories Still Matter? – with John Chu Emma J. Gibbon A. T. Greenblatt (moderator) Nicole D. Sconiers Sheila Williams

Friday @ 10:30pm in Salon 4 – Meet the Prose – Lots of cool people listed for this one.

Saturday @ 3:30pm in Blue Hills – Reading

As always, I hope to see you at one of these events. Or if you run into me in the hallway, please don’t hesitate to say hi.

Theodore Sturgeon Finalist and Other Updates

On By A. T. GreenblattIn General RamblingsLeave a comment

Okay, so how cool is this: “If We Make It Through This Alive” is a finalist for the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award! This story was originally published in Slate Magazine’s Future Tense Fiction and came out in January 2022. I’m thrilled its on a finalist among so many amazing stories and authors. (Seriously, the list of finalists is fantastic this year.)

In other news, I’ve been writing some new things again. Or rather writing and being able to reach “The End” on smaller projects. I’ve spent most of the 2023 working on a longer piece, which is one of the hardest things I’ve ever written and consequently, the going is painfully slow. But I’ve been writing long enough to know that this is my process when I’m pushing the limits of my writing abilities. Stories have minds of their own and they will take as long as they need to sometimes.

Except I had to take a break and tackle some solicited work this summer. Some of which I’m not going to talk about just yet. But I can share that my essay “More Than a Journey: Reflections on Polyvocal Storytelling” will be in a forthcoming issue of Fantasy Magazine (possibly in August). I’m also writing a story for this anthology. Mad science written by disabled and chronically ill authors.

One last thing, I’ll be at Readercon this year! The schedule in not final yet, so I’ll post again when it is.

As always, if you’d like to support a magazine, Strange Horizons is currently running its annual Kickstarter. And my short story recommendation this time is “The Golden Hour” by Jeffery Ford.

Brooklyn’s Books and Booze Reading Tonight!

On By A. T. GreenblattIn General RamblingsLeave a comment

I’m very late in posting this, but I’ve had a tough week for reasons I’m going to avoid talking about for now. But if you’re in the NYC area tonight, I will be reading at the Barrow’s Intense Tasting Room over at Industrial City at 6:30pm! And I’ll be reading with these fantastic writers too:

Kellye Garrett
Kathleen Alcalá
Marilyn Simon Rothstein

This is the new home of the formerly called Rooftop Reading series that was happening at Ample Hill Creamery. I’m sad about the lack of ice cream but I’m very excited to be part of this reading series!

For more information, you can find it here. For tickets, you can find it here.

Maybe I’ll see you there?

New Magic the Gathering Story

On By A. T. GreenblattIn General Ramblings, Publishing UpdatesLeave a comment

I’m a few days late with this announcement, but I’m excited to share that I have a new story up in the Magic the Gathering universe called “Battles in the Fields and in the Mind.” It’s a side story to the main March of the March storyline and I’m thrilled to have had the opportunity to return to Zendikar and continue Nahiri, Akiri, Kaza and Orah’s story, as well as get to know Linvala and Tazri. It’s a grim tale, but it does offer a spark of light.

I hope you enjoy it.

Cover Art by: Zara Alfonso

My short fiction recommendation this time is The Father Provincial of Mare Imbrium by E. Lily Yu

The Speculative Fiction Ecosystem

On By A. T. GreenblattIn General Ramblings1 Comment

I’ve talked about this before, in person and on this blog, and I’m absolutely not the first person to say this, but short fiction is incredibly important to the health of the speculative fiction industry. It is where writers get to explore, experiment, and often get their first publication credits. Which in turn makes them more confident about joining and engaging with the community. Essentially short fiction has been the germination place for many of our favorite writers’ careers. Short stories are also available to readers all around the world because most SFF magazines are free to read online, reaching an audience who might not have access to books. It’s where the conversation in genre is happening in real time, because short fiction is published within months, not years, as it for novels. As Kij Johnson once said “the science fiction and fantasy genre is always in conversation with itself.”

Except, even in the best of times, most magazines barely have enough funds to keep running. According to Neil Clarke of Clarkesworld Magazine less than 10% of readers subscribe to most online magazines. Scott Andrews of Beneath Ceaseless Skies says “Percentage of BCS readers in 2022 who supported the zine financially (subscribers & donors & Patreon supporters) was 0.7%. 99.3% did not. (For anyone who’d like to support us, we would be grateful! Here’s the BCS Patreon that only 0.7% of readers support the magazine.”

These are not the best of times.

A few months ago, Amazon announced that it will be ending it’s Kindle Newsstand Service, and switching to a Spotify-like model of payment. Meaning that publishers will only get a fraction of the income they were once making through the service. Jason Sanford has an excellent and full write up about it here. This doesn’t include the slow, but steady collapse of Twitter, which is how many magazines, writers, and readers talked about and boosted stories they love. Or the influx of AI written stories, which has bogged down editors.

I have been writing short speculative fiction for over ten years now, and have seen several ups and downs in the industry, but this time I’m worried that many beloved venues might close, leaving holes in the industry that will be difficult to fill.

Short fiction is a major component in the foundation of science fiction and fantasy fiction ecosystem and one that desperately needs any support we can give it. So, if you’re able, please consider supporting one or more of these magazines. Listed in no particular order:

Again, if you like my work, please consider buying a subscription or donating a few dollars to one of these publications. Most of them have published my work at some point. More importantly, they have published the work of hundreds of other writers as well.

My short fiction recommendation for the week is Crown Prince by Melissa Mead over at Cast of Wonders. Mead was a prolific short story writer, who like me, had cerebral palsy too. She died far too young in February 2022 and this story has been published posthumously with permission from her family.

ICFA 2023!

On By A. T. GreenblattIn Convention SightingsLeave a comment

Last minute post just to say that I will be attending the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts in Orlando this year. In fact, I’ll be there tomorrow afternoon. This is one of my favorite conferences and I’m excited to see old friends and meet new ones.

I’ll be on one programming item:

What: Author Reading!

When: Friday, March 17 at 2:30-4:00pm

Where: Vista B

With Who: Greg Bechtel, Kelley Eskridge, and Brian Biswas

If you’re going to be there, as always, please don’t hesitate to come say hello to me.

And finally, my short story recommendation for this post is Discreet Services Offered for Women Ridden by Hags by Stephanie Malia Morris over at Beneath Ceaseless Skies. (Go support this magazine if you can.)