Vajra Chandrasekera
@vajra.me
Writer. Revenant. Wrote THE SAINT OF BRIGHT DOORS (2023, Nebula, Ignyte, Crawford, and Locus awards) & RAKESFALL (2024, Le Guin Prize and Otherwise award.) Colombo/New York. https://vajra.me
Pinned
Vajra Chandrasekera
@vajra.me
· Oct 21
RAKESFALL wins the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction
RAKESFALL wins the Le Guin Prize!
vajra.me
I am delighted and honoured to say that my second novel RAKESFALL has won the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction! vajra.me/2025/10/21/r...
Reposted by Vajra Chandrasekera
Very much enjoying being transported by the holiday reading I ordered...
@dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social's 21st Century Yokel & @vajra.me's Ursula Le Guin prize-winning Rakesfall
@dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social's 21st Century Yokel & @vajra.me's Ursula Le Guin prize-winning Rakesfall
December 26, 2025 at 8:59 AM
Very much enjoying being transported by the holiday reading I ordered...
@dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social's 21st Century Yokel & @vajra.me's Ursula Le Guin prize-winning Rakesfall
@dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social's 21st Century Yokel & @vajra.me's Ursula Le Guin prize-winning Rakesfall
Reposted by Vajra Chandrasekera
this book is so good, do not sleep on this deal.
THE SAINT OF BRIGHT DOORS ebook is currently 99p in Amazon UK and will be for the next twelve days! It will also be $2.99 on Amazon US on Dec 31st, which obviously I will remind you about in a week, but just letting you know early. Happy holidays!
@vajra.me 's multi award-winning THE SAINT OF BRIGHT DOORS is part of Amazon UK's 12 days of Kindle deal!
UK readers, prepare to have your minds blown...
"an outstanding, genre-shattering work" - @theguardian.com
Grab it now before the deal ends on 5th January 2026!
UK readers, prepare to have your minds blown...
"an outstanding, genre-shattering work" - @theguardian.com
Grab it now before the deal ends on 5th January 2026!
December 25, 2025 at 10:33 PM
this book is so good, do not sleep on this deal.
THE SAINT OF BRIGHT DOORS ebook is currently 99p in Amazon UK and will be for the next twelve days! It will also be $2.99 on Amazon US on Dec 31st, which obviously I will remind you about in a week, but just letting you know early. Happy holidays!
@vajra.me 's multi award-winning THE SAINT OF BRIGHT DOORS is part of Amazon UK's 12 days of Kindle deal!
UK readers, prepare to have your minds blown...
"an outstanding, genre-shattering work" - @theguardian.com
Grab it now before the deal ends on 5th January 2026!
UK readers, prepare to have your minds blown...
"an outstanding, genre-shattering work" - @theguardian.com
Grab it now before the deal ends on 5th January 2026!
December 25, 2025 at 10:25 PM
THE SAINT OF BRIGHT DOORS ebook is currently 99p in Amazon UK and will be for the next twelve days! It will also be $2.99 on Amazon US on Dec 31st, which obviously I will remind you about in a week, but just letting you know early. Happy holidays!
Reposted by Vajra Chandrasekera
@vajra.me 's multi award-winning THE SAINT OF BRIGHT DOORS is part of Amazon UK's 12 days of Kindle deal!
UK readers, prepare to have your minds blown...
"an outstanding, genre-shattering work" - @theguardian.com
Grab it now before the deal ends on 5th January 2026!
UK readers, prepare to have your minds blown...
"an outstanding, genre-shattering work" - @theguardian.com
Grab it now before the deal ends on 5th January 2026!
December 25, 2025 at 8:13 PM
@vajra.me 's multi award-winning THE SAINT OF BRIGHT DOORS is part of Amazon UK's 12 days of Kindle deal!
UK readers, prepare to have your minds blown...
"an outstanding, genre-shattering work" - @theguardian.com
Grab it now before the deal ends on 5th January 2026!
UK readers, prepare to have your minds blown...
"an outstanding, genre-shattering work" - @theguardian.com
Grab it now before the deal ends on 5th January 2026!
Reposted by Vajra Chandrasekera
there is a genre of person who hates AI in *their* field but sees how it could be useful in *other,* less prestigious, fields; ignore them. they are not trying to save the ship. they are just racing you to the lifeboats
Translators, illustrators, researchers and editors all do creative, human work that is important and cannot be reproduced in part or in whole by AI any more than writers. Their interests are our interests. To legitimize the use of AI to replace them is a failure of principle as much as strategy.
December 24, 2025 at 2:06 PM
there is a genre of person who hates AI in *their* field but sees how it could be useful in *other,* less prestigious, fields; ignore them. they are not trying to save the ship. they are just racing you to the lifeboats
This essay—which is excellent enough that I revisited it a month later—also just got me to watch (via Gillian Rose's recommendation, if third-hand) FANNY AND ALEXANDER (1982), which is both seasonally appropriate and somehow simultaneously heartwarming and chilling.
this is from an essay about Gillian Rose, which a friend once texted me with a pull quote--"jokes so learned only she found them funny" --followed by OMG IT U
I really like Gillian Rose anyway; here is the essay:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
I really like Gillian Rose anyway; here is the essay:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Jenny Turner · What else actually is there? On Gillian Rose
Love’s Work is the ‘existential drama’ of a postwar Jewish British woman philosopher, born in London in 1947, who...
www.lrb.co.uk
December 24, 2025 at 12:41 AM
This essay—which is excellent enough that I revisited it a month later—also just got me to watch (via Gillian Rose's recommendation, if third-hand) FANNY AND ALEXANDER (1982), which is both seasonally appropriate and somehow simultaneously heartwarming and chilling.
Reposted by Vajra Chandrasekera
I am echoing @vajra.me's crucial message here by adding: library and archival workers, historians, professors, this is also us. There is no such thing as an 'ethical' use of aye-eye 🗑️ and I'm gonna need some of my industry colleagues to stop drinking the Kool-Aid on it.
There is no ethical use of AI because the continued existence of the AI industry is directly harmful to (alongside everyone else) the interests of everyone whose labour makes books exist—writers of fiction & nonfiction, illustrators, translators, researchers, editors, everyone.
December 23, 2025 at 7:06 PM
I am echoing @vajra.me's crucial message here by adding: library and archival workers, historians, professors, this is also us. There is no such thing as an 'ethical' use of aye-eye 🗑️ and I'm gonna need some of my industry colleagues to stop drinking the Kool-Aid on it.
The survey is open to non-members (I am not one) and to readers (who here is not &c.) so I encourage you to share your feelings on the matter. Don't assume that everyone already understands that AI is bad or why! I mean, people *should*, but you could say that about a lot of things.
SFWA members and general SFF community:
In this press release, our Board of Directors apologizes for recent events.
Feedback from writers is strongly welcomed in the survey.
SFWA Members: Write to office@sfwa.org to support our Emerging Tech Committee.
www.sfwa.org/2025/12/22/p...
In this press release, our Board of Directors apologizes for recent events.
Feedback from writers is strongly welcomed in the survey.
SFWA Members: Write to office@sfwa.org to support our Emerging Tech Committee.
www.sfwa.org/2025/12/22/p...
December 23, 2025 at 4:53 PM
The survey is open to non-members (I am not one) and to readers (who here is not &c.) so I encourage you to share your feelings on the matter. Don't assume that everyone already understands that AI is bad or why! I mean, people *should*, but you could say that about a lot of things.
I haven't read any of these yet, though some are already sitting in my TBR. Tragically, some (e.g. WHERE THERE ARE WOLVES AGAIN and A GRANITE SILENCE) don't seem available in the US yet
December 22, 2025 at 2:46 PM
I haven't read any of these yet, though some are already sitting in my TBR. Tragically, some (e.g. WHERE THERE ARE WOLVES AGAIN and A GRANITE SILENCE) don't seem available in the US yet
Reposted by Vajra Chandrasekera
ARB's Notable Books of 2025!
ARB’s 2025 Notable Books
At the end of the year, we ask ARB’s contributors to pick just one book that they found really interesting this year: maybe already a best-seller or award-frontrunner, maybe something obscure…
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
December 22, 2025 at 6:30 AM
ARB's Notable Books of 2025!
At the hospital they had a very limited selection of films and a peculiar genre breakdown. There was "science fiction" (the Avatar movies) and "science fiction and fantasy" (the Avatar movies + the Star Wars movies)
'How would it affect [white people's] sense of self, to suddenly understand the unimaginable suffering they have justified and continued to celebrate under the aegis of their undead cannibal god and this beautiful stolen country they’re destroying in His name?' A classic Walter firebreather.
FFC review: AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH (2025), by Walter Chaw (@mangiotto.bsky.social). filmfreakcentral.net/2025/12/avat...
December 22, 2025 at 2:27 PM
At the hospital they had a very limited selection of films and a peculiar genre breakdown. There was "science fiction" (the Avatar movies) and "science fiction and fantasy" (the Avatar movies + the Star Wars movies)
Reposted by Vajra Chandrasekera
Walter Benjamin wrote that the work of translation is “to liberate the language imprisoned in a work" to find the “pure language” of “the unfathomable, the mysterious, the ‘poetic’”. This is all, of course, utterly anathema to AI
As a multiple language speaker it's also frustrating to see people using AI for translation because the English speaking world tends to treat translators like workers for hire instead of co authors of text and this feels like more of it. Translation at the literary level is creative work.
(2/?)
(2/?)
December 22, 2025 at 2:00 AM
Walter Benjamin wrote that the work of translation is “to liberate the language imprisoned in a work" to find the “pure language” of “the unfathomable, the mysterious, the ‘poetic’”. This is all, of course, utterly anathema to AI
Reposted by Vajra Chandrasekera
It's a whole genre it's beautiful
December 21, 2025 at 12:26 AM
It's a whole genre it's beautiful
Reposted by Vajra Chandrasekera
No document will protect you. All they have to do is take it from you and "lose" it; take it from you and say you never gave it to them; claim it's fake ⬇️; make a new rule that you need ANOTHER document. Citizenship is a made-up status that governments decide the rules for. No one is free until all.
Dulce Consuelo Diaz Morales was born in Maryland. She has a valid U.S. birth certificate, medical and immunization records, and sworn affidavits.
Yet, ICE claims her documents are “not authentic” and has held her in immigration detention for days.
Yet, ICE claims her documents are “not authentic” and has held her in immigration detention for days.
Trump Administration Says Maryland Woman's Birth Certificate Is Fake In Dystopian Move
Dulce Consuelo Diaz Morales was arrested on Sunday. ICE won’t release her despite extensive documentation of her citizenship, her attorneys told HuffPost.
www.huffpost.com
December 20, 2025 at 9:12 PM
No document will protect you. All they have to do is take it from you and "lose" it; take it from you and say you never gave it to them; claim it's fake ⬇️; make a new rule that you need ANOTHER document. Citizenship is a made-up status that governments decide the rules for. No one is free until all.
Speaking of AI as a technology being fundamentally fucked even outside of LLMs, especially in medical contexts
December 20, 2025 at 8:19 PM
Speaking of AI as a technology being fundamentally fucked even outside of LLMs, especially in medical contexts
Reposted by Vajra Chandrasekera
“Just when you thought you heard it all, AI systems designed to spot cancer have startled researchers with a baked-in penchant for racism.”
December 20, 2025 at 4:30 PM
“Just when you thought you heard it all, AI systems designed to spot cancer have startled researchers with a baked-in penchant for racism.”
I switched off spell check many years ago (at the time it was mostly because it annoyed me to see names like mine with red underlines) so idk if it's been aishittified lately—is that why it's in the slop discourse or is this just a reach to claim that the slop is inescapable
December 20, 2025 at 6:48 PM
I switched off spell check many years ago (at the time it was mostly because it annoyed me to see names like mine with red underlines) so idk if it's been aishittified lately—is that why it's in the slop discourse or is this just a reach to claim that the slop is inescapable
Reposted by Vajra Chandrasekera
Finally got my hands on this one.
Hold my calls.
If there's an emergency, 911 is well-staffed.
Send food as long as the delivery person doesn't mind me coming straight from the bubble bath to get it, damn the towel, it's reading time.
@vajra.me It's reading time!
Hold my calls.
If there's an emergency, 911 is well-staffed.
Send food as long as the delivery person doesn't mind me coming straight from the bubble bath to get it, damn the towel, it's reading time.
@vajra.me It's reading time!
December 20, 2025 at 6:04 PM
Finally got my hands on this one.
Hold my calls.
If there's an emergency, 911 is well-staffed.
Send food as long as the delivery person doesn't mind me coming straight from the bubble bath to get it, damn the towel, it's reading time.
@vajra.me It's reading time!
Hold my calls.
If there's an emergency, 911 is well-staffed.
Send food as long as the delivery person doesn't mind me coming straight from the bubble bath to get it, damn the towel, it's reading time.
@vajra.me It's reading time!
Reposted by Vajra Chandrasekera
And please also, AGAIN, never forget that they are inherently unethical to use because no one gave permission for their research or writing to be used in it. It is all stolen, and if you're using the plagiarism machine, please keep that in mind.
My friends, I say this with all the love in my heart: Right now might not be the moment for “But we should be TOLERANT and NUANCED about the plagiarism machines!”
Your tolerance and “nuance” will be weaponised by the grifters and their apologists. Please respect yourselves more.
Your tolerance and “nuance” will be weaponised by the grifters and their apologists. Please respect yourselves more.
December 20, 2025 at 3:07 PM
And please also, AGAIN, never forget that they are inherently unethical to use because no one gave permission for their research or writing to be used in it. It is all stolen, and if you're using the plagiarism machine, please keep that in mind.
Reposted by Vajra Chandrasekera
This studio awards-season email is really matching the current mood in a way I’m not sure they intended.
December 19, 2025 at 11:36 PM
This studio awards-season email is really matching the current mood in a way I’m not sure they intended.
Reposted by Vajra Chandrasekera
A speech by Stuart Hall at a protest in support of Walter Rodney in London in 1974.
“the academic” and “the intellectual” are not interchangeable terms: they are not the same thing: they may even be at the opposite ends of the scale. The academic life can actually prevent intellectuals [from] doing serious intellectual work.
www.bostonreview.net/articles/whe...
www.bostonreview.net/articles/whe...
When We Are All Enemies of the State - Boston Review
A recently discovered 1974 speech by Stuart Hall on Walter Rodney—and why fascists fear ideas.
www.bostonreview.net
December 16, 2025 at 3:25 PM
A speech by Stuart Hall at a protest in support of Walter Rodney in London in 1974.
SFWA already backpedaled on this, thankfully, but tbh you can see the reasoning after Robert Jackson Bennett's Hugo win. If some popular authors are already semi-divulged slopmongers and some award-voters already don't care, it must have seemed like the "community" was asking for loopholes
Another Nebula Awards nomination cycle is in full swing, and the addition of poetry and comics, along with the presence of LLMs in industry, required careful consideration.
Read on, and vote well!
We trust our voters & look forward to what they choose to celebrate.
www.sfwa.org/2025/12/19/p...
Read on, and vote well!
We trust our voters & look forward to what they choose to celebrate.
www.sfwa.org/2025/12/19/p...
December 19, 2025 at 10:08 PM
SFWA already backpedaled on this, thankfully, but tbh you can see the reasoning after Robert Jackson Bennett's Hugo win. If some popular authors are already semi-divulged slopmongers and some award-voters already don't care, it must have seemed like the "community" was asking for loopholes
Reposted by Vajra Chandrasekera
This is a truly wild decision to make. It's insulting to all the writers and past winners/nominees.
Another Nebula Awards nomination cycle is in full swing, and the addition of poetry and comics, along with the presence of LLMs in industry, required careful consideration.
Read on, and vote well!
We trust our voters & look forward to what they choose to celebrate.
www.sfwa.org/2025/12/19/p...
Read on, and vote well!
We trust our voters & look forward to what they choose to celebrate.
www.sfwa.org/2025/12/19/p...
December 19, 2025 at 9:00 PM
This is a truly wild decision to make. It's insulting to all the writers and past winners/nominees.
Reposted by Vajra Chandrasekera
Vajra Chandrasekera, author of "Rakesfall" and winner of the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize 2025 shares a nifty piece of advice for speculative fiction writers.
🔮 - #SouthAsian #SpeculativeFiction
🔮 - #SouthAsian #SpeculativeFiction
December 19, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Vajra Chandrasekera, author of "Rakesfall" and winner of the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize 2025 shares a nifty piece of advice for speculative fiction writers.
🔮 - #SouthAsian #SpeculativeFiction
🔮 - #SouthAsian #SpeculativeFiction
Reposted by Vajra Chandrasekera
Vajra Chandrasekera, author of "Rakesfall" and winner of the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize 2025 shares a nifty piece of advice for speculative fiction writers.
🔮 - #SouthAsian #SpeculativeFiction
🔮 - #SouthAsian #SpeculativeFiction
December 19, 2025 at 4:57 PM