A. W. Prihandita | Anselma
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awprihandita.bsky.social
A. W. Prihandita | Anselma
@awprihandita.bsky.social
4.1K followers 1.1K following 1.3K posts
Nebula Award-winning speculative fiction writer. PhD in Language & Rhetoric. Clarion ‘24. Odyssey ‘23. Codex. Stories in Clarkesworld, Uncanny, Cast of Wonders, khōréō, etc. 🇮🇩 Jakarta 🇺🇸 PNW. Rep: @thaisafonso.bsky.social Website: awprihandita.com (she/her)
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awprihandita.bsky.social
We all deserve happiness in dark times 😭
“Kittens for all” in the style of Zohran Mamdani’s yellow-on-blue campaign graphics.
November 8, 2025 at 9:15 PM
awprihandita.bsky.social
Anyway, go read “The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want.”

It really just takes two letters: “No.”
Cover of EMILY M. BENDER & ALEX HANNA’s book, “The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want.”
November 1, 2025 at 2:10 AM
awprihandita.bsky.social
This is a good reminder of an article, and I’d especially like to remember this part.

josebriones.substack.com/p/escaping-d...
Over the last decade, technology companies have quietly trained us to outsource both judgment and action to frictionless algorithms. Meta, Amazon, Google, and TikTok have built environments where we act on impulse, follow prompts, and accept suggestions before we've even asked what we truly desire. Apple Pay, Klarna, and Venmo remove the pause that once made us consider value, turning our pocket machines into spending devices powered by a swipe, a tap, and a blur. The result is the steady erosion of our agency and autonomy. In these systems, we are consumers on autopilot: fed a diet of convenience and stimulation, primed for purchase, and kept just distracted enough to forget we ever had a choice. When you step out of the cycle, you begin to see it for what it is. But you need distance to do so. The culture of immediacy and entertainment has a way of making us comfortable while leaving deeper questions aside. That's why distance is our best friend. A weekend without a phone and a reading list, or shutting down the device at 6 p.m. to engage with family, can remind you of what autonomy feels like. It is choosing a world shaped by your priorities instead of theirs.
October 21, 2025 at 7:15 AM
awprihandita.bsky.social
Sigh and then the tweet under mine on the timeline was this. I’m a bit too sleep deprived and sad to pursue this thought, but… 😔
Post by @vortexegg.com: A thing about authoritarian information environments is that you definitionally no longer can know what is true based on what the authorities say, and everyone eventually adapts to this Quoted and commented on by @kpanyc.bsky.social: Russians have lived with this, with a brief blip, for a century and it leads to a really messed up environment rife with conspiracies, superstition, and choose-your-own-reality culture that makes community solidarity in their own interests basically impossible.
September 24, 2025 at 5:24 PM
awprihandita.bsky.social
I’m going to my first ever Worldcon! I have a panel with Victor Manibo, Van Hoang, & Salinee Goldenberg. Plus, @sarahpinsker.bsky.social is generously sharing her reading slot w/ me. 🥹

I’m also paneling at @concurrentseattle.bsky.social w/ Sam Asher, Lauren Ring, LaShawn Wanak, & David Levine!
A. W. Prihandita’s Worldcon and ConCurrent Schedule Worldcon Reading (with Sarah Pinsker) Friday, Aug 15 6 - 6.30 PM, Room 429 Monsoon Season: The Southeast Asian SFF Wave Saturday, Aug 16 6 - 7 PM, Room 445-446 ConCurrent The Short and Long of It: Short Fiction, Its Mutability, and How to Transform It Thursday, Aug 14, 9 AM ACT Theater/Union Arts Center And, message me if you want to hang out! :)
August 9, 2025 at 8:10 PM
awprihandita.bsky.social
Hello everyone it seems like the news is out. "Negative Scholarship" is a finalist in the 2025 Eugie Award!

Congrats to fellow finalists @carolinemyoachim.bsky.social @maryrobinettekowal.com @goosemixtapes.bsky.social @tammykomoff.bsky.social !! And thank you to @clarkesworldmagazine.com !!
Screenshot from the Eugie Foster Award website. The 2025 Eugie Award finalists: “After We Kill Our Father and Before We Reach the Mainland” by Max Franciscovich (Beneath Ceaseless Skies) “Marginalia” by Mary Robinette Kowal (Uncanny Magazine) “The Midnight Commuter” by Tammy Komoff (Abyss & Apex) “Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being” by A. W. Prihandita (Clarkesworld) “We Will Teach You How to Read | We Will Teach You How to Read” by Caroline M. Yoachim (Lightspeed) Thank you to those who nominated works, including John Joseph Adams, Casey Aimer, Scott H. Andrews, Gautam Bhatia, Bonnie Brunish, Neil Clarke, Lesley Conner, Ellen Datlow, Gavin Grant, Emily Hockaday, Katherine Inskip, Shingai Njeri Kagunda, Mur Lafferty, Trevor Quachri, Lynne M Thomas, Michael Damian Thomas, Sheree Renée Thomas, Elise Tobler, Sean Wallace, Wendy N. Wagner, Eleanor Wood.
June 21, 2025 at 12:01 AM
awprihandita.bsky.social
Went to my PhD graduation today! My Nebula win was mentioned 3x throughout, in different speeches. Very nice of them! 🥹

My program chair praised in her speech how I finished the dissertation & still worked on a Nebula-winning “side project,” & I was like, umm… the diss was the side project. 😆
A closeup selfie in my doctorate cap and gown, which are dark purple velvet with golden trimming. A full body picture of me in my purple regalia, in front of a gothic-style building on campus. I’m holding a balloon with “yay grad!” written on it.
June 12, 2025 at 4:31 AM
awprihandita.bsky.social
Proof of life.

(I look way more put-together here than I actually feel. More soon. Still trying to process. Don’t have words yet other than thank you and I was/am very shocked.)
A selfie with my Nebula trophy, which looks like a transparent block with planets floating in it (so cool!). I’m wearing a green off-the-shoulders velvet dress, kneeling by the hotel room table where the trophy is. Peace sign. ✌️ The Nebula trophy. The writing on it: “Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association. 2024 Nebula Award for Novelette. “Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being.” A. W. Prihandita.
June 8, 2025 at 6:02 AM
awprihandita.bsky.social
I don’t know what kind of natural phenomenon this is, but it looks to me like a circular rainbow and a UFO orb about to land and colonize us. 👀
A close up shot of a circular rainbow surrounding the sun. A more wide angle shot of a circular rainbow surrounding the sun, above a grassy park.
May 6, 2025 at 11:12 PM
awprihandita.bsky.social
*hugs*

Here is the last cat picture my friend donated to me
Tabby cat scratchint itself on a rug with green leaves motif. Butthole almost visible.
March 17, 2025 at 6:56 AM
awprihandita.bsky.social
It's an honor beyond belief to be in the company of such awesome authors!!! @thomasha.bsky.social @christinehanolsy.com @angelaliu.bsky.social @aimeeogdenwrites.com @foxesandroses.bsky.social -- congratulations all! 🥹
It's an honor beyond belief to be in the company of such awesome authors. @thomasha.bsky.social @christinehanolsy.com @angelaliu.bsky.social @aimeeogdenwrites.com @foxesandroses.bsky.social -- congratulations! 🥹
March 13, 2025 at 1:20 AM
awprihandita.bsky.social
My story's nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novelette!!! So happy for my dear Txyzna & Semau!!! 😭🚀🌊

[Not pictured: The way I thought Kate Ristau's call was a spam; I wasn't listening for the 1st few seconds (luckily I picked up lol), the way I ran to the toilet and dry-heaved afterwards.]
A. W. Prihandita's Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being," 2024 Nebula Award Finalist, Best Novelette
March 13, 2025 at 1:20 AM
awprihandita.bsky.social
This isn’t news anymore, but this story won the Clarkesworld Readers’ Poll for best novelette! Thanks everyone who read & voted. 🫶

Weird how a year ago I was like “I don’t think I write the kinda stories Clarkesworld would publish.” Never say never, I guess. 🥹 clarkesworldmagazine.com/clarke_03_25/
The finalists for best novelette or novella are: • "Fractal Karma" by Arula Ratnakar (novella) • "Lucie Loves Neutrons and the Good Samarium" by Thoraiya Dyer (novelette) • "Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being" by A. W. Prihandita (novelette) • "Stars Don't Dream" by Chi Hui, translated by John Chu (novelette) • "The Brotherhood of Montague St. Video" by Thomas Ha (novelette) • "The Indomitable Captain Holli" by Rich Larson (novella) And our winner is "Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being" by A. W. Prihandita.
March 7, 2025 at 1:25 AM
awprihandita.bsky.social
Hugo noms are open! 🚀 I'm eligible for the Hugo & Astounding Awards. I have 5 pubs this year, but I’m cheering esp loudly for my Clarkesworld novelette "Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being"!

Links & full eligibility list: awprihandita.carrd.co
Picture of the magazine cover, a person in a strange astronaut-like suit. Text: I'm in the November 2024 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine! "Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being" (a sci-fi novelette). The pitch: a human “doctor” must treat a very rare alien species using only AI assistance and translation machines. But the corporatization of medical technology and a history of genocide means nothing is as it seems. In what way is knowledge accumulation a form of genocide as devastating as knowledge erasure? A list of tropes and story elements: Far future SF Medical AI (derogatory) Xenotranslation Post-genocide heritage reclamation Academia-induced imposter syndrome Interspecies queerplatonic relationship A planet inspired by the Indonesian archipelago
February 10, 2025 at 11:13 PM
awprihandita.bsky.social
Went on a walk today. I’ve been holding so much anxiety and grief—as I’m sure many do, these days—but this moment was wondrous and did help. (Yes, it was colder than usual, but at least it was sunnier than usual.)
Picture of leaveless trees reflected on the surface of a river. A marsh, with bony trees lit up in orange under the late afternoon sunlight. Lake Union, with Mount Rainier in the background. The lake and the horizon is tinted pink from the setting sun. A man and a dog walk on a field, with leaveless trees in the background. The sky is blue and pink.
January 22, 2025 at 6:35 AM
awprihandita.bsky.social
Happy new year, everyone! 🎉

My focus in the first half of 2025 is to finish my dissertation, ink the PhD, and finish this round of the academic job market. This probably means I’ll be more absent from the writing scene at least until June.

BUT I do allow myself some modest fiction writing goals!
For fiction writing: 1. Awards campaigning and reading! Because I promised myself I would be better at shouting about my works. Because I promised myself they deserve to be read. 2. Full steam ahead on the novel once the dissertation is defended (so, around July. I’m allowed to take June off if I want. The second half of the year will be focused on the novel.) 3. Write one (only one!!!) new short story, but one that combines the theoretical play of “Negative Scholarship” AND the technical rigor of “Memory Hounds.” I will take all the time I need to write it. I will do all I can to make this something I’m proud of. 4. If “Memory Hounds” sells and is published this year, I’ll do all I can to promote it. 5. Revise and send out “Haunted Landscape.” Start sending out more stories completed at Clarion. 6. Make the most out of ICFA and Norwescon! Talk to all the people!
January 1, 2025 at 4:27 PM
awprihandita.bsky.social
I have finally prepared an awards eligibility post! Handwritten! This luddite is going analog!(Paradoxically on an iPad lol.)

Please consider for all the awards! I have SFF and horror. I really want my little alien to be president, but he can’t, so we’ll settle for a Nebula or Hugo or somesuch. 😆🧵
2024 Awards Eligibility A. W. Prihandita Novelette Science fiction. “Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being,” at Clarkesworld. Highly recommended. Please read sad aliens! Short stories Dark fantasy. “My Mother’s Voice and the Shadow,” at Cast of Wonders. Horror. “The Window at My Mother’s Back, the Door in My Belly,” at Ghoulish Tales. For the spooky awards. Contemporary fantasy. “In (Future) Memory of an Absent Father,” at Mysterion. Ecohorror. “The God Who Never Sleeps Dwells Under an Inky Sea,” at Haven Speculative. Thank you so much!
December 16, 2024 at 8:16 PM
awprihandita.bsky.social
New story alert! I have an Indonesia-based contemporary fantasy in the Nov/Dec issue of Mysterion. Try this if you want an offbeat mellow but warm mix of:

🏫 high-school stress
💼 career anxiety
🧑‍🏫 job market-oriented magic system
🏠 family drama
🙏 religious conflict

Link in 🧵, but here's a snippet:
New story in Mysterion November/December 2024. The story title is "In (Future) Memory of an Absent Father," an Indonesia-based contemporary fantasy. The magazine cover is of a black figure with a beak rowing a boat in a river. The authors in this issue include myself, A.W. Prihandita, and Miranda Miller. The issue is edited by Donald S. Crankshaw and Kristin Janz. A snippet from the beginning of the story: Mrs. Suparti walks into the classroom and writes on the whiteboard, “Family History Assignment,” and that’s how I know she’s done teaching Foresight and is now back to Retrospection, coaxing us to feel the past. More than one sigh of disappointment echoes in the classroom. I do not sigh. Foresight is the most coveted Intuition—many of us would spend the whole year chasing only that—but at this point, I’ll take whatever I can get. We are fourteen years old, some of us fifteen, all of us in the ninth grade, the last year of junior high school. This is when those of us who haven’t figured out our Intuition start fidgeting in our seats. We know everyone will stare in pity if we walk into graduation not knowing what we are. Because what will we do in high school, then? Futurists take classes that set them up to be investment bankers, policy makers, climate forecasters—highly respected jobs. Most Presentists are in the service industry, of course, or psychotherapy, them being the best at understanding people’s pressing needs. Antiquists do not have to be historians or archivists, Mrs. Suparti says, but those are the most obvious career paths, if you want them. I don’t know what I want. I don’t know what’s ahead of me. I don’t know my Intuition.
December 12, 2024 at 5:42 PM
awprihandita.bsky.social
Gonna treat the academic job market like the short SFF market.
Me, a writer of short spec fic, when seeing job interview invites: Is this a hold notice?
November 27, 2024 at 5:19 AM
awprihandita.bsky.social
These are the last 2 books I completed. SACRIFICIAL ANIMALS was more horror than PRIVATE RITES, but both are on the literary end of the spectrum, & I enjoyed both more than I thought I would (I’m still so hungover from SACRIFICIAL ANIMALS, if anyone has any recs for something similar).
Julia Armfield’s novel Private Rites. Cover has the silhouette of a woman about to go through a door into a room that’s solid red. The color scheme has green and red dominant colors. The blurb: “Cements her place as one of our best contemporary writers … her prose sparkles” Sacrificial Animals by Kailee Pedersen. The cover has an illustration of a fox in monochrome red, set against a black background. The blurb: “Observant and distinctly unsettling” — Kevin Brockmeier, NYT Bestselling Author.
November 24, 2024 at 6:15 PM
awprihandita.bsky.social
I hope everyone is having a good day!!! I've just forced myself to sit through a 45-min webinar with Sam Al*man, and I'm not feeling very kind right now… but I wanna remind myself I still have a ton of love for the rest of the universe, including you!!! Here is a cute mossy turtle for you. 🥹💜
A closeup shot of a turtle with moss on its back, perched on a log in a muddy lake, under a ray of sunshine.
November 13, 2024 at 10:52 PM
awprihandita.bsky.social
The gall. Absolutely fucking not. I'm not the person to approach for this kinda shit. Blocked. 🤬

Also, if you do AI "art" at all, you deserve to be not only guilt-tripped but guilt-guillotined. Stop feeling so entitled to theft and environmental destruction just so you can have a shiny shitty toy.
A screenshot of a Bluesky account named "AI art in SFFH". 0 followers, 726 following. Bio: Tired of a vocal minority of weak luddites acting tough from behind a keyboard imposing their views with histrionic tantrums? Does tech make you excited instead of whiny? Stand up to guilt- tripping bullies by following this advocacy account!
November 9, 2024 at 9:57 PM
awprihandita.bsky.social
New story day! I'm pleased to present my @clarkesworldmagazine.com debut!

This story began as a spinoff of my PhD dissertation, right when I started to veer toward translation studies. It's been very hard to balance my academic & creative sides, but here, I felt for the first time like I did it. 🥹
Picture of the magazine cover, a person in a strange astronaut-like suit. Text: I'm in this month's issue of Clarkesworld Magazine! "Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being" (a sci-fi novelette). The pitch: a human “doctor” must treat a very rare alien species using only AI assistance and translation machines. But the corporatization of medical technology and a history of genocide means nothing is as it seems. In what way is knowledge accumulation a form of genocide as devastating as knowledge erasure? A list of tropes and story elements: Far future SF Medical AI (derogatory) Xenotranslation Post-genocide heritage reclamation Academia-induced imposter syndrome Interspecies queerplatonic relationship A planet inspired by the Indonesian archipelago A snippet from the story. “There is a” — he paused, or rather, his interpreting machine paused, blurting a second of static noise — “hole in me. Very small, but it is there. I can feel it growing.” “How exactly does this feel?” A pause. He had no face per se, but the liquidy lump that formed his head was more textured than his torso, the way the surface of a vast ocean was more textured than the surface of water in a cup. And now, the waves of his head swirled, tightening in a confused eddy. Semau decided this was his face, the waves a means of expression. Picture of the full table of contents of the issue, with "Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being" highlighted in orange. It's the fourth story on the lineup.
November 1, 2024 at 11:00 PM
awprihandita.bsky.social
My professor brought this all the way from the UK so I could read it 3 months earlier than the US release date! I’m having fun annotating the hell out of it. 😆
October 21, 2024 at 3:58 PM
awprihandita.bsky.social
Received the contributor’s copy of my latest academic publication! (It’s just a co-authored chapter w/in this book lol no biggie.)

I love the cover, but don’t ask me what I wrote about bc tbh I don’t remember, other than it’s about adapting a writing course to better fit marginalized students. 😂
Picture of me holding the book, showing its cover. The title is Rhetorical Ecologies, edited by Sidney I. Dobrin & Madison P. Jones, published by the National Council of Teachers of English. The cover illustration is of colorful plants and corals. Picture of the table of contents. My contribution is titled “Toward Critical Ecological Methodologies: Stories and Praxes of Transformation in a Writing Program,” co-authored with Candice Rai and Nolie Ramsey.
October 1, 2024 at 8:49 PM