Mahaila Smith (they/them)
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mahailasmith.ca
Mahaila Smith (they/them)
@mahailasmith.ca
Co-Editor for The Sprawl Mag
Poet
Water-Kin (2024) with Metatron Press
Enter the Hyperreal (2024) with above/ground press
Seed Beetle (2025) with Stelliform Press
Mahailasmith.ca
Pinned
Today is the day! Welcome to the world little beetle :’)
Today we're sending this little beetle out into the world. May it burrow into your hearts, in a nice way.

Congratulations to Mahaila Smith for this beautiful, innovative and tender collection of narrative science fiction poetry!

Now available everywhere!

www.stelliform.press...
Reposted by Mahaila Smith (they/them)
Mortifying and completely preventable.

www.cbc.ca/news/health/...
Canada loses measles elimination status | CBC
www.cbc.ca
November 10, 2025 at 4:36 PM
I got to hear a sneak peek of this audiobook at @canconsffh.bsky.social this year and am so looking forward to the full novel! You can go support it on Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com/projects/sie...
The Heretic's Guide to Homecoming: An Orchestrated Audiobook
Help fund the long-awaited audiobook of this cult-classic fantasy novel, complete with musical accompaniment.
www.kickstarter.com
November 6, 2025 at 6:56 PM
Reposted by Mahaila Smith (they/them)
8K GIVEAWAY!

Win books from @csecooney.bsky.social @voidcricket.bsky.social @emmanewman.bsky.social @natania.bsky.social an early ARC from @authortrmoore.bsky.social & more!

Like, follow, repost and drop a book 📙 in the comments to enter! Ends 23:59 GMT on 13/10/25. Open to UK & IE, CAN & US only.
November 1, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Reposted by Mahaila Smith (they/them)
Policing Black Lives (2nd ed) - Book launch with Robyn Maynard
Time and Place: October 29 at 7:00 pm. SAW Centre, 67 Nicholas
Email: justin.piche@uottawa.ca
Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present
October 29, 2025 at 1:05 PM
So thrilled to share that Water-Kin has won second prize in the Elgin Chapbook award! Congrats to all the nominees and my fellow chapbook authors, Katherine Quevedo and @bugthewriter.bsky.social! You can read Water-Kin for free online here: metatron.press/digipub/wate...
October 2, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Reposted by Mahaila Smith (they/them)
Brit Griffin and I have obsessed about the landscape and history of Cobalt for 30 plus years. We have walked its scarred hills, researched its wild history, written its dark stories.
It's all in her new book The Haunting of Modesto O'Brien.
Join us for a conversation.
Oct. 9
Perfect Books Ottawa.
September 27, 2025 at 11:36 AM
Purple prose ;)
September 26, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Guys!!! I made it!!
Thrilled to see 3 Stelliform authors and lots of friends on the TOC for the Year's Best Canadian F&SF volume 3!

Find these works published by Stelliform in this year's Year's Best:
"Our Time and Space" by @mahaila.bsky.social, and
"Desolation Sounds" by @geoffreywcole.bsky.social

🎉
I need a timeline cleanse. How about a table of contents announcement! That’s right—despite the world being on fire, it’s time to reveal the TOC for Year’s Best Canadian F&SF Volume 3! It was VERY hard to narrow the list down but it's all killer, no filler. The book launches October 14. Enjoy! 1/2
September 18, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Reposted by Mahaila Smith (they/them)
Ladies and gentles, animals and machines, and everyone in-between . . . . we are ONE WEEK away from the launch of NMLCT! I'd love it if you could join me to celebrate!
Wed, Sept 24, 2025
at The Piston
937 Bloor Street West,
from 7 to 10pm
[festivities included]
September 17, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Reposted by Mahaila Smith (they/them)
TO ENTER:
☑️ Post a piece up to 50-100 words to your feed on a public Instagram OR Bluesky account
☑️ Use the hashtag #AugurMicros2025
☑️ Tag @augursociety
☑️ Follow Augur Society on Bluesky and/or Instagram

Read the content policies laid out by the platform and in Augur’s subs guidelines -🔗in bio! 👀
🧵
September 5, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Reposted by Mahaila Smith (they/them)
So happy that the folks in Seattle got to see this excellent poem! Read The New Knights here or in our inaugural issue 🗡️🗡️🗡️
So delighted to share this beautifully illustrated reprint of my poem "The New Knights," in this year's @seattlein2025.org souvenir program (originally printed in the @thesprawl.bsky.social ).
August 26, 2025 at 2:02 AM
I’m very grateful to have a story in this anthology and among such talented conpany!
1/5 Daily(ish) #SmallPress #books mini-thread about Stasis, edited by Libby Graham @okaylib.bsky.social (@bellpressbooks.bsky.social) (who also edits @thesprawl.bsky.social), & related folks. Stasis contrib Harper Walton is also the editor of Carnival... (Buoy Press).

#DSPBposts 💙📚 #BookSky
August 25, 2025 at 11:46 PM
Reposted by Mahaila Smith (they/them)
This is your chance to see @mahaila.bsky.social in #HamOnt!!
Hamilton friends, the first Lit Live of the season is coming up soon featuring many great writers, including our own James Cairns!
August 16, 2025 at 10:43 PM
Come celebrate!
Hamilton folks! Come to the first Lit Live of the season at The Staircase. Hear Mahaila Smith read from SEED BEETLE, and many other wonderful writers read from wonderful works!

Sunday Sept 7-9pm
At The Staircase, 27 Dundurn N, Hamilton
PWYC $10 INCLUDES BEVERAGE
Theme: ✨ Mystery/Clarity/Light✨
August 15, 2025 at 2:52 AM
Reposted by Mahaila Smith (they/them)
TONIGHT! the above/ground press 32nd anniversary reading/launch/party! tickets still available! (and might there even be a new Stuart Ross chapbook on-hand? / @mreid.bsky.social @razovsky.bsky.social @jasonchristie.bsky.social @linarvitvideopoet.bsky.social ;
robmclennan.blogspot.com/2025/07/the-...
the above/ground press 32nd anniversary reading/launch/party! August 7 at RedBird,
celebrating THIRTY-TWO YEARS of continuous activity (and nearly fourteen hundred publications), Ottawa publisher above/ground press presents...
robmclennan.blogspot.com
August 7, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Thanks so much for sharing! It’s so nice to see Seed Beetle in the wild 💚
It is a great day when @stelliform.press orders show up! Origins of Desire in Orchid Fens by @lynnhutchinsonlee.bsky.social and Seed Beetle by @mahaila.bsky.social.
August 5, 2025 at 9:34 PM
“It’s high-concept science fiction, but it all feels painfully relevant to today. Easily one of my favorite books of the year. (I enjoyed the electronic review copy so much I bought it in hard copy.)”

Thank you so much @johnrplatt.bsky.social! I’m so happy you enjoyed Seed Beetle
July 31, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Thanks for the shout out :’)
Since this is getting some uptake, it may not be from a big publisher, but y'all should check out @mahaila.bsky.social 's SEED BEETLE out now from @stelliform.press!!

www.stelliform.press/index.php/pr...
July 31, 2025 at 8:08 AM
I met André Alexis tonight at the All in a Day book club, and truly want to recommend this book! There are so many layers of literary excellence. Stories on parents, childhood, Trinidadian culture, and all slightly uncanny which, he said, was intended to put the reader in the mind of the immigrant.
Reading Other Worlds by André Alexis and it's spectacular. The first, long story "Contrition: An Isekai" is a work of genius, I think. Absolutely perfect in its canny uncanniness and also beautiful evocation of an immigrant experience in such a fresh and insightful way. Funny, deep, compassionate.
July 17, 2025 at 3:26 AM
Thank you @yukondawn.bsky.social for taking the time to read a review Seed Beetle, I truly appreciate it!
"This is a twisty ride, at the level of the line and of the narrative arc."

New review of Mahaila Smith's sci-fi poetry collection Seed Beetle:

reviewsofbooksigotforfreeorcheap.substack.com/p/mahaila-sm...

@stelliform.press
Mahaila Smith's Seed Beetle
Resistance and regrowth
reviewsofbooksigotforfreeorcheap.substack.com
July 13, 2025 at 5:16 PM
My first ever audio-produced story is out today! You can listen to it wherever you get your podcasts :)
Manawaker Studio's Flash Fiction Podcast presents:

“The Tower, The Mother, and Death” by Mahalia Smith (@mahaila.bsky.social)
bit.ly/4ldDQYu

Supported by Patreon patrons: patreon.com/manawaker

#flashfiction #podcast #narratedfiction #speculativefiction #sciencefiction #scifistories #futurefiction
July 10, 2025 at 12:07 PM
Reposted by Mahaila Smith (they/them)
Days 3 and 4 of the June leg of our 'ZZOO' tour were spent in Ottawa: first at the Ottawa Small Press Book Fair's very well attended pre-reading on Friday evening as part of Factory Reading Series ft. MA|DE, Mahaila Smith @mahaila.bsky.social, Manahil Bandukwala @manahil.bsky.social...
July 2, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Reposted by Mahaila Smith (they/them)
READING ALERT: Friday, June 27 | 6 PM

Mahaila Smith & Rhiannon Ng Cheng Hin at L'Euguélionne (1426, rue Beaudry)!
In just under a month I will be launching Seed Beetle in Montreal and you are invited. I will be reading with Rhiannon Ng Cheng Hin at the feminist bookstore, L’Eugélionne, on June 27 at 6 PM! I’m really looking forward to celebrating with everyone 🪲🪲🪲
@stelliform.press @coachhousebooks.bsky.social
June 26, 2025 at 2:58 AM
2 more sleeps!
In just under a month I will be launching Seed Beetle in Montreal and you are invited. I will be reading with Rhiannon Ng Cheng Hin at the feminist bookstore, L’Eugélionne, on June 27 at 6 PM! I’m really looking forward to celebrating with everyone 🪲🪲🪲
@stelliform.press @coachhousebooks.bsky.social
June 25, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Hey Montreal! I can’t wait to check out your feminist bookstore. See you Friday : )
In just under a month I will be launching Seed Beetle in Montreal and you are invited. I will be reading with Rhiannon Ng Cheng Hin at the feminist bookstore, L’Eugélionne, on June 27 at 6 PM! I’m really looking forward to celebrating with everyone 🪲🪲🪲
@stelliform.press @coachhousebooks.bsky.social
June 23, 2025 at 5:44 PM