Welcome to the Speculative Literature Foundation!

The Speculative Literature Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting literary quality in speculative fiction. We encourage promising new writers, assist established writers, facilitate the work of quality magazines and small presses in the genre, and work to promote a greater public appreciation of speculative fiction. Our mission is to promote literary quality in speculative fiction through our grants, programming, and more!

The SLF serves the speculative literature community through support from people like you. We’re a 501(c)3, and all donations are tax-deductible in the U.S. You can make a one time donation or become a member to receive cool perks like discounts for our courses and events, access to our bi-monthly writer’s encouragement letter, yearly anthology, and more!

The A.C. Bose Grant Is Open for Submissions

Award: $1,000 USD

Submissions: Jan. 1 - Jan. 31, 2024

Winner Announced: March 15, 2024

The A.C. Bose Grant annually provides $1,000 to South Asian or Desi diaspora writers developing speculative fiction.

Upcoming Deep Dish Thursday April 4

Date: Thursday, April 4, 2024

Time: 7-8:30pm CDT

Location: Volumes Books, Wicker Park – 1373 N Milwaukee, Chicago, IL

Featured Readers: Alexis Silas and Brendan Detzner

Rapid-fire Readers: Alex Kingsley, Aurelius Raines II, Jeremy John, and Chris Pence

Upcoming workshop: Writing the SFF Novelette

This workshop will focus on idea generation, structure, and editing with an emphasis on the novelette, as well as elements of craft that can be applied to fiction of any length.

Date: Saturday, April 13, 2024

Class Time: 10:00am – 12:30 CDT

Sessions: 1

Location: Zoom (online)

Instructor: Alec Nevala-Lee

Price: $60 (with discounted rates for SLF members)

Learn more and register here.

Deep Dish Weekly Spotlight: Jim Cherry

Jim Cherry grew up in Chicago in the 60’s. It was a time of cool, blue splash-downs and revolution was in the air. Although, he missed out on all the cool things. He spent my time reading his grandmother’s collection of first editions of Twain, Dickens, Conrad, Conan-Doyle and having backyard adventures of his own. At 12 he decided he wanted to be a writer. In college he went to school for filmmaking but realized it was just an excuse to write. In his 20’s he sought out experience and adventures, he lived in Los Angeles, visited New Orleans, Mexico, France, and Germany, usually when he didn’t have the money. All the while writing. He’s written the novels Becoming AngelThe Last Stage, a book of short stories, Stranger Souls, and he did some time as a rock journalist which resulted in the compilation of articles The Doors Examined.

Ep. 63 of MRAH Out Now: "OKPsyche with Anya Johanna DeNiro"

Joining Mary Anne and Ben on this episode is Anya Johanna DeNiro, a trans woman and writer who recently published her novel, OKPsyche. The book follows the story of an unnamed trans woman on an epic journey to find the place where she belongs. Mary Anne and Ben discuss DeNiro’s inspirations for OkPsyche, its genre-bending elements, and the second-person POV.

New Portolan Project Addition: K. Tempest Bradford

“They were essentially recreating the day [September 11th] because they started at whatever time in the morning everything kicked off…and I was like whoa, y’all are doing some heavy ritual magic here. So, I started thinking about that and I started thinking about ways to get into that, the thinking around rituals around death and how we deal with it, especially when it’s a mass death event…”

– K. Tempest Bradford

We recently charted an interview we had with Bradford, an award-winning teacher and media critic who writes speculative fiction steeped in Black Girl Magic. She’s the author of the Nebula nominated Ruby Finley vs. the Interstellar Invasion and over a dozen short stories.

Check out our Deep Dive with Bradford on ritual magic, grief, memory, structure, travel research, and more.

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Donate

Our mission is to promote literary quality in speculative fiction through our grants, programming, and more.

The SLF is made possible by the kind contributions of those who believe in our mission—people like you. We’re a 501(c)3, and all donations are tax-deductible in the U.S. 

For gifts over $1,000, gifts of stock, or to explore funding a grant, please contact our Development Director, Margaret Frey, and she’ll be happy to assist you. We encourage you to apply for matching funds from your employer if possible!

If you’d prefer not to use PayPal, we can also accept donations through our local community foundation.

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