Sara S. Messenger サラ
@smessenger.bsky.social
writer. Nebula Award Winner. work in Year's Best Fantasy, Strange Horizons, more. wrote a cyberpunk masochist clown story in Apex Mag.
website: https://sarasmessenger.com/
website: https://sarasmessenger.com/
Reposted by Sara S. Messenger サラ
Did you read my post from last week about how contract woes caused me to withdraw an accepted story from F&SF, ending my 54-year quest to be published in that magazine? But wait (as the saying goes) — there's more! Scroll down at the link for an update. www.scottedelman.com/wordpress/20...
A dream denied: My 54-year quest to publish a short story in F&SF ‹ Scott Edelman
www.scottedelman.com
November 18, 2025 at 12:42 PM
Did you read my post from last week about how contract woes caused me to withdraw an accepted story from F&SF, ending my 54-year quest to be published in that magazine? But wait (as the saying goes) — there's more! Scroll down at the link for an update. www.scottedelman.com/wordpress/20...
Reposted by Sara S. Messenger サラ
Alice Wong taught us that disabled people don’t just leave memories behind—they leave infrastructure. Lineages of care. Methods of collectivity, survival. She named the connective tissue that holds our communities together, even across death, even across the losses that come too fast and too often.
November 16, 2025 at 12:08 AM
Alice Wong taught us that disabled people don’t just leave memories behind—they leave infrastructure. Lineages of care. Methods of collectivity, survival. She named the connective tissue that holds our communities together, even across death, even across the losses that come too fast and too often.
@indrapramitdas.bsky.social do dm me!! i sent you something via your author website form but not sure if it went thru : )
November 13, 2025 at 5:16 PM
@indrapramitdas.bsky.social do dm me!! i sent you something via your author website form but not sure if it went thru : )
Reposted by Sara S. Messenger サラ
If you want to start a newsletter and don't want to use Substack because they currently platform/sponsor Nazis: consider using the free and open-sourced alternative that has been around for over a decade.
I'll personally walk you through it.
I'll personally walk you through it.
The Alternative to Medium/Substack - Sharpie Posts
Stop using closed-sourced solutions and move towards free and open-sources options that scale better, especially for indie creators.
sharpiepls.com
November 8, 2025 at 3:03 PM
If you want to start a newsletter and don't want to use Substack because they currently platform/sponsor Nazis: consider using the free and open-sourced alternative that has been around for over a decade.
I'll personally walk you through it.
I'll personally walk you through it.
Reposted by Sara S. Messenger サラ
Acceptance announcement! My first cowritten short story, with @srinivassimo.bsky.social
You are sweet damp roadkill. You are also a mountain lion. You are also the ravenous car.
You are sweet damp roadkill. You are also a mountain lion. You are also the ravenous car.
July 2025 acceptances (cont'd):
"We Burst Across the Theoretical Gore"
by Sara S. Messenger and Simo Srinivas
@smessenger.bsky.social
@srinivassimo.bsky.social
"The Peace Found in the Balloon Hole"
by Lyra Meurer
"The Time Keeper"
by Ali Faye Miller
"The Monster's Wife"
by Stewart Moore
"We Burst Across the Theoretical Gore"
by Sara S. Messenger and Simo Srinivas
@smessenger.bsky.social
@srinivassimo.bsky.social
"The Peace Found in the Balloon Hole"
by Lyra Meurer
"The Time Keeper"
by Ali Faye Miller
"The Monster's Wife"
by Stewart Moore
October 27, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Acceptance announcement! My first cowritten short story, with @srinivassimo.bsky.social
You are sweet damp roadkill. You are also a mountain lion. You are also the ravenous car.
You are sweet damp roadkill. You are also a mountain lion. You are also the ravenous car.
Reposted by Sara S. Messenger サラ
After hundreds of hours of reading and research, my 2025 Starter Guide to transfeminine literature is finally live!
No matter your experience level, there's a book for you! 🏳️⚧️📚 #transbooks
The list covers a vast range of genres. There are 78 handcrafted recs on this list, and I've read all but two.
No matter your experience level, there's a book for you! 🏳️⚧️📚 #transbooks
The list covers a vast range of genres. There are 78 handcrafted recs on this list, and I've read all but two.
Start Here (2025 Edition)
Are you questioning your gender and searching for fiction that’ll help you figure out what a transition might look like? Are you a trans woman or a femmeby who’s never seen herself on the tradition…
thetransfemininereview.com
November 7, 2025 at 2:11 AM
After hundreds of hours of reading and research, my 2025 Starter Guide to transfeminine literature is finally live!
No matter your experience level, there's a book for you! 🏳️⚧️📚 #transbooks
The list covers a vast range of genres. There are 78 handcrafted recs on this list, and I've read all but two.
No matter your experience level, there's a book for you! 🏳️⚧️📚 #transbooks
The list covers a vast range of genres. There are 78 handcrafted recs on this list, and I've read all but two.
Reposted by Sara S. Messenger サラ
SHIVERS - I NEED YOU. YOU CAN KEEP ME ON THIS EARTH. BE VIGILANT. I LOVE YOU.
October 28, 2025 at 1:04 AM
SHIVERS - I NEED YOU. YOU CAN KEEP ME ON THIS EARTH. BE VIGILANT. I LOVE YOU.
Reposted by Sara S. Messenger サラ
🥩🚗⛰️🐈 Wooooo go team!
October 27, 2025 at 4:52 PM
🥩🚗⛰️🐈 Wooooo go team!
Acceptance announcement! My first cowritten short story, with @srinivassimo.bsky.social
You are sweet damp roadkill. You are also a mountain lion. You are also the ravenous car.
You are sweet damp roadkill. You are also a mountain lion. You are also the ravenous car.
July 2025 acceptances (cont'd):
"We Burst Across the Theoretical Gore"
by Sara S. Messenger and Simo Srinivas
@smessenger.bsky.social
@srinivassimo.bsky.social
"The Peace Found in the Balloon Hole"
by Lyra Meurer
"The Time Keeper"
by Ali Faye Miller
"The Monster's Wife"
by Stewart Moore
"We Burst Across the Theoretical Gore"
by Sara S. Messenger and Simo Srinivas
@smessenger.bsky.social
@srinivassimo.bsky.social
"The Peace Found in the Balloon Hole"
by Lyra Meurer
"The Time Keeper"
by Ali Faye Miller
"The Monster's Wife"
by Stewart Moore
October 27, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Acceptance announcement! My first cowritten short story, with @srinivassimo.bsky.social
You are sweet damp roadkill. You are also a mountain lion. You are also the ravenous car.
You are sweet damp roadkill. You are also a mountain lion. You are also the ravenous car.
Reposted by Sara S. Messenger サラ
July 2025 acceptances (cont'd):
"We Burst Across the Theoretical Gore"
by Sara S. Messenger and Simo Srinivas
@smessenger.bsky.social
@srinivassimo.bsky.social
"The Peace Found in the Balloon Hole"
by Lyra Meurer
"The Time Keeper"
by Ali Faye Miller
"The Monster's Wife"
by Stewart Moore
"We Burst Across the Theoretical Gore"
by Sara S. Messenger and Simo Srinivas
@smessenger.bsky.social
@srinivassimo.bsky.social
"The Peace Found in the Balloon Hole"
by Lyra Meurer
"The Time Keeper"
by Ali Faye Miller
"The Monster's Wife"
by Stewart Moore
October 27, 2025 at 12:34 PM
July 2025 acceptances (cont'd):
"We Burst Across the Theoretical Gore"
by Sara S. Messenger and Simo Srinivas
@smessenger.bsky.social
@srinivassimo.bsky.social
"The Peace Found in the Balloon Hole"
by Lyra Meurer
"The Time Keeper"
by Ali Faye Miller
"The Monster's Wife"
by Stewart Moore
"We Burst Across the Theoretical Gore"
by Sara S. Messenger and Simo Srinivas
@smessenger.bsky.social
@srinivassimo.bsky.social
"The Peace Found in the Balloon Hole"
by Lyra Meurer
"The Time Keeper"
by Ali Faye Miller
"The Monster's Wife"
by Stewart Moore
Reposted by Sara S. Messenger サラ
SFF folks: Archita Mittra is one of ours—you know her Ignyte Award-nominated critical writing in @locusmag.bsky.social, @strangehorizons.bsky.social, and @reactorsff.bsky.social, and her short fiction, most recently in @lightspeedmagazine.com. She needs our help. gofund.me/cd9b937c2
Donate to Help Archita and Her Mom Rebuild Their Lives, organized by tehseen baweja
Hey Everyone! My name is Tehseen and I publish an online magazine called T… tehseen baweja needs your support for Help Archita and Her Mom Rebuild Their Lives
gofund.me
October 22, 2025 at 2:39 PM
SFF folks: Archita Mittra is one of ours—you know her Ignyte Award-nominated critical writing in @locusmag.bsky.social, @strangehorizons.bsky.social, and @reactorsff.bsky.social, and her short fiction, most recently in @lightspeedmagazine.com. She needs our help. gofund.me/cd9b937c2
Reposted by Sara S. Messenger サラ
This masochistic clown story by Sara S. Messenger is a cracking read. I always pop when unions and strikes are part of a story, especially when it's not overly-didactic. Also Sara is a real one for using her bio to encourage support for Palestinian liberation.
The Clown Watches the Clown - Apex Magazine
I dress up as a clown and let people beat me up in the alley behind the cybermotel. The first man who ever did this to me, he was my best friend.
apex-magazine.com
September 12, 2024 at 7:54 PM
This masochistic clown story by Sara S. Messenger is a cracking read. I always pop when unions and strikes are part of a story, especially when it's not overly-didactic. Also Sara is a real one for using her bio to encourage support for Palestinian liberation.
Reposted by Sara S. Messenger サラ
Okay, friends, after toiling in the code mines, I've decided to save up for a proper tool to help me with dialogue in Unity! This is the tool that was used to make games such as Disco Elysium. If you want to help me in my game dev journey, here is my tip jar: ko-fi.com/soniasulaima...
Buy SoniaSulaiman a Coffee
Sonia is writing speculative fiction inspired by Palestinian folklore. Leave her a tip to support her work!
ko-fi.com
October 16, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Okay, friends, after toiling in the code mines, I've decided to save up for a proper tool to help me with dialogue in Unity! This is the tool that was used to make games such as Disco Elysium. If you want to help me in my game dev journey, here is my tip jar: ko-fi.com/soniasulaima...
Reposted by Sara S. Messenger サラ
Palestinian children like 8 yo Islam, injured by shrapnel, have been forced to endure hell for 2 yrs of Israel's genocide. Islam's family's lost contact with his father, & Islam & his mother take care of his little siblings. Please help by sharing & donating ($50 raised, no donations for 5 days):
October 13, 2025 at 12:43 PM
Palestinian children like 8 yo Islam, injured by shrapnel, have been forced to endure hell for 2 yrs of Israel's genocide. Islam's family's lost contact with his father, & Islam & his mother take care of his little siblings. Please help by sharing & donating ($50 raised, no donations for 5 days):
Reposted by Sara S. Messenger サラ
Palestinian children like Lubna's son Nasser, who has chronic health problems, have been starved & sickened for 2 yrs of Israel's genocidal famine & destruction. Please help by sharing & donating Lubna afford food & medicine for Nasser, whose condition is deteriorating & donations have slowed:
October 10, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Palestinian children like Lubna's son Nasser, who has chronic health problems, have been starved & sickened for 2 yrs of Israel's genocidal famine & destruction. Please help by sharing & donating Lubna afford food & medicine for Nasser, whose condition is deteriorating & donations have slowed:
Reposted by Sara S. Messenger サラ
Please help the Nashwan family survive the aftermath of 2 years of Israel's genocidal famine & invasion by sharing & donating to cover the costs of food, healthcare, shelter, they're starving & exhausted:
October 10, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Please help the Nashwan family survive the aftermath of 2 years of Israel's genocidal famine & invasion by sharing & donating to cover the costs of food, healthcare, shelter, they're starving & exhausted:
Reposted by Sara S. Messenger サラ
Oh wow Fargo Tbakhi!!!
SFF people also take notice that an author who writes SFF (published in places like @apexmag.bsky.social @fiyahlitmag.bsky.social @strangehorizons.bsky.social) is on the longlist for the National Book Award for Poetry, this is not very common!
SFF people also take notice that an author who writes SFF (published in places like @apexmag.bsky.social @fiyahlitmag.bsky.social @strangehorizons.bsky.social) is on the longlist for the National Book Award for Poetry, this is not very common!
National Book Award for Poetry 2025 longlist announced - www.nationalbook.org/2025-nationa...
2025 National Book Awards Longlist for Poetry
The ten contenders for the National Book Award for Poetry
www.nationalbook.org
September 12, 2025 at 12:24 PM
Oh wow Fargo Tbakhi!!!
SFF people also take notice that an author who writes SFF (published in places like @apexmag.bsky.social @fiyahlitmag.bsky.social @strangehorizons.bsky.social) is on the longlist for the National Book Award for Poetry, this is not very common!
SFF people also take notice that an author who writes SFF (published in places like @apexmag.bsky.social @fiyahlitmag.bsky.social @strangehorizons.bsky.social) is on the longlist for the National Book Award for Poetry, this is not very common!
Reposted by Sara S. Messenger サラ
Attention #AcademicSky Everyone is talking about books, but thousands of academic journals were also pirated and are entitled to up to $3,000 *per pirated volume!!!* if editors submit titles to join the suit. Incredible opportunity for underfunded journals to get some $$! #SkyStorians #MedievalSky
September 7, 2025 at 6:39 AM
Attention #AcademicSky Everyone is talking about books, but thousands of academic journals were also pirated and are entitled to up to $3,000 *per pirated volume!!!* if editors submit titles to join the suit. Incredible opportunity for underfunded journals to get some $$! #SkyStorians #MedievalSky
Reposted by Sara S. Messenger サラ
A bit I missed in the Authors Guild explainer earlier is that they say the settlement goes to both beneficial and legal copyright owners, so the publishers may get some of the money. So publishers who neglected to register (ie did not staff properly to make that happen) screwed themselves, too.
What Authors Need to Know About the $1.5 Billion Anthropic Settlement - The Authors Guild
Today, Anthropic agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle claims that it downloaded pirated books to train its AI systems—the largest U.S. copyright settlement in history. The parties in Bartz v Anthropic...
authorsguild.org
September 6, 2025 at 3:59 AM
A bit I missed in the Authors Guild explainer earlier is that they say the settlement goes to both beneficial and legal copyright owners, so the publishers may get some of the money. So publishers who neglected to register (ie did not staff properly to make that happen) screwed themselves, too.
Reposted by Sara S. Messenger サラ
Many authors have searched The Atlantic's LibGen database of pirated titles to see if they are listed there. However, I've uncovered that authors of short fiction aren't always discoverable there.
Here's how I discovered more of my short fiction in the list. 1/
www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
Here's how I discovered more of my short fiction in the list. 1/
www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
Search LibGen, the Pirated-Books Database That Meta Used to Train AI
Millions of books and scientific papers are captured in the collection’s current iteration.
www.theatlantic.com
September 1, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Many authors have searched The Atlantic's LibGen database of pirated titles to see if they are listed there. However, I've uncovered that authors of short fiction aren't always discoverable there.
Here's how I discovered more of my short fiction in the list. 1/
www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
Here's how I discovered more of my short fiction in the list. 1/
www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
Reposted by Sara S. Messenger サラ
For context that's a third the price the RIAA expected a single human to pay for just downloading 24 songs a decade ago (after cutting the ruling down from $1.5m, or $62,000 per song), and that's not adjusting for inflation:
September 5, 2025 at 7:33 PM
For context that's a third the price the RIAA expected a single human to pay for just downloading 24 songs a decade ago (after cutting the ruling down from $1.5m, or $62,000 per song), and that's not adjusting for inflation:
Reposted by Sara S. Messenger サラ
It a night of hell in Gaza, just one night but it dragged us through ages of terror, with strikes every five minutes as if time itself had turned into an enemy, as if the ticking clock carried rockets in its tail, an endless death sweeping through everything.
🔗 tinyurl.com/3sem5b4p
🔗 tinyurl.com/3sem5b4p
September 5, 2025 at 8:44 PM
It a night of hell in Gaza, just one night but it dragged us through ages of terror, with strikes every five minutes as if time itself had turned into an enemy, as if the ticking clock carried rockets in its tail, an endless death sweeping through everything.
🔗 tinyurl.com/3sem5b4p
🔗 tinyurl.com/3sem5b4p
Reposted by Sara S. Messenger サラ
The single biggest money earner in my entire career is a 5,000 word short story published in Asimov's in 2011 that was never nominated for any award except the Amazon Readers' Poll
It's literally made me more money than any of my novels have.
Protect your rights.
It's literally made me more money than any of my novels have.
Protect your rights.
September 4, 2025 at 7:28 PM
The single biggest money earner in my entire career is a 5,000 word short story published in Asimov's in 2011 that was never nominated for any award except the Amazon Readers' Poll
It's literally made me more money than any of my novels have.
Protect your rights.
It's literally made me more money than any of my novels have.
Protect your rights.
Reposted by Sara S. Messenger サラ
If you're a newer writer considering signing a predatory contract because you feel like it will help your career long term to publish in a "prestige" market and "It's only a short story," I beg you to reconsider.
September 4, 2025 at 7:28 PM
If you're a newer writer considering signing a predatory contract because you feel like it will help your career long term to publish in a "prestige" market and "It's only a short story," I beg you to reconsider.