Octavia
@octavia-cade.bsky.social
New Zealand writer, PhD science communication! Seven time SJV winner. Author of The Stone Wētā, The Impossible Resurrection of Grief, and You Are My Sunshine and Other Stories. Robert Burns Fellow for 2025 at Otago University.
The cover's out! Happy to say that I've got a chapter on how libraries explore the Necrocene and ecological grief in "Libraries, Archives, and Collective Grief", edited by @librarianchef.bsky.social and @kpalex91.bsky.social. Out from Bristol Uni Press next year!
November 13, 2025 at 1:06 AM
The cover's out! Happy to say that I've got a chapter on how libraries explore the Necrocene and ecological grief in "Libraries, Archives, and Collective Grief", edited by @librarianchef.bsky.social and @kpalex91.bsky.social. Out from Bristol Uni Press next year!
Andi's work is fantastic, especially their cosy fantasies! And that's such a beautiful cover... I can't wait to read it.
Spellcasting On is out now!
Cosy sapphic romance with yarn 🧶 and magic ✨.
Available now on all the usual platforms:
buy.bookfunnel.com/psfdv1soqy
Cosy sapphic romance with yarn 🧶 and magic ✨.
Available now on all the usual platforms:
buy.bookfunnel.com/psfdv1soqy
September 16, 2025 at 5:24 AM
Andi's work is fantastic, especially their cosy fantasies! And that's such a beautiful cover... I can't wait to read it.
August 31, 2025 at 9:43 PM
I have a new story out! The Barrens, which is body horror and swarming sea urchins, is in the new issue of @3lobedmag.com! It's wonderful to be in Three-Lobed Burning Eye again, especially alongside @acwise.bsky.social, @ecatherine.com, and @mariness.bsky.social.
www.3lobedmag.com/issue45/3lbe....
www.3lobedmag.com/issue45/3lbe....
3LBE Magazine - The Barrens by Octavia Cade
The first body found belonged to a stranger. That made it easier to forget, after the first fascinating horror, even if the circumstances were gruesome.
www.3lobedmag.com
July 20, 2025 at 7:50 AM
I have a new story out! The Barrens, which is body horror and swarming sea urchins, is in the new issue of @3lobedmag.com! It's wonderful to be in Three-Lobed Burning Eye again, especially alongside @acwise.bsky.social, @ecatherine.com, and @mariness.bsky.social.
www.3lobedmag.com/issue45/3lbe....
www.3lobedmag.com/issue45/3lbe....
Reposted by Octavia
The latest issue of @3lobedmag.com is out today. It contains a new short story by yours truly, along with several other fabulous folks like @octavia-cade.bsky.social, @mariness.bsky.social and @ecatherine.com. I can't wait to read the other stories in the issue!
www.3lobedmag.com/issue45/
www.3lobedmag.com/issue45/
3LBE Magazine - Issue 45: Contents
A magazine of speculative fiction, horror, fantasy, and science fiction. Issue 45 features stories by Christi Nogle, Octavia Cade, A.C. Wise, Mari Ness, E. Catherine Tobler, and Avra Margariti.
www.3lobedmag.com
July 15, 2025 at 10:03 PM
The latest issue of @3lobedmag.com is out today. It contains a new short story by yours truly, along with several other fabulous folks like @octavia-cade.bsky.social, @mariness.bsky.social and @ecatherine.com. I can't wait to read the other stories in the issue!
www.3lobedmag.com/issue45/
www.3lobedmag.com/issue45/
NZ writers, the Ursula Bethell residency at the University of Canterbury is open for applications. Closing date is August 3rd! jobs.canterbury.ac.nz/jobdetails/a...
July 15, 2025 at 1:21 AM
NZ writers, the Ursula Bethell residency at the University of Canterbury is open for applications. Closing date is August 3rd! jobs.canterbury.ac.nz/jobdetails/a...
I can finally announce it! I'm happy to say that I'll be spending next year in Berlin, thanks to Creative New Zealand awarding me the Berlin Writer's Residency.
I'm so grateful to our national arts funding body for the opportunity. Thank you CNZ!!!
creativenz.govt.nz/news-and-blo...
I'm so grateful to our national arts funding body for the opportunity. Thank you CNZ!!!
creativenz.govt.nz/news-and-blo...
July 14, 2025 at 9:45 AM
I can finally announce it! I'm happy to say that I'll be spending next year in Berlin, thanks to Creative New Zealand awarding me the Berlin Writer's Residency.
I'm so grateful to our national arts funding body for the opportunity. Thank you CNZ!!!
creativenz.govt.nz/news-and-blo...
I'm so grateful to our national arts funding body for the opportunity. Thank you CNZ!!!
creativenz.govt.nz/news-and-blo...
Oh yay! My article "Fact, Fiction, and Feeling: Ecological Grief in a Changing World", published by @clarkesworldmagazine.com, has just won Best Production/Publication at this year's Sir Julius Vogel Awards!
Thank you to everyone who voted!
clarkesworldmagazine.com/cade_10_24/
Thank you to everyone who voted!
clarkesworldmagazine.com/cade_10_24/
April 19, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Oh yay! My article "Fact, Fiction, and Feeling: Ecological Grief in a Changing World", published by @clarkesworldmagazine.com, has just won Best Production/Publication at this year's Sir Julius Vogel Awards!
Thank you to everyone who voted!
clarkesworldmagazine.com/cade_10_24/
Thank you to everyone who voted!
clarkesworldmagazine.com/cade_10_24/
I've seen a thylacine!!! Thanks to curators Moira and Kane, I got a behind-the-stage look at the Otago Museum collections yesterday. There was a cave bear skull and moa bones and lots of wonderful things, but the big surprise was the stuffed thylacine!
@stelliform.press
@stelliform.press
April 7, 2025 at 8:28 PM
I've seen a thylacine!!! Thanks to curators Moira and Kane, I got a behind-the-stage look at the Otago Museum collections yesterday. There was a cave bear skull and moa bones and lots of wonderful things, but the big surprise was the stuffed thylacine!
@stelliform.press
@stelliform.press
This is a fantastic book - if you like short stories about science and the lives of scientists, you should give it a go!
The first review of this week at @strangehorizons.bsky.social is from @octavia-cade.bsky.social, of Pippa Goldschmidt’s BSFA-shortlisted collection from @goldsf.bsky.social.
“I didn’t quite shove all the other reviewers out of the way to get to this, but it was a near thing.”
On lives in science:
“I didn’t quite shove all the other reviewers out of the way to get to this, but it was a near thing.”
On lives in science:
Schrödinger’s Wife (and Other Possibilities) by Pippa Goldschmidt
If there’s a repeated theme in Schrödinger’s Wife (and Other Possibilities) it’s how the practice of science mirrors the life of its practitioners.
www.strangehorizons.com
April 7, 2025 at 8:24 PM
This is a fantastic book - if you like short stories about science and the lives of scientists, you should give it a go!
I've got a chapter in press on the Finnish horror film Sauna (2008)... but the book's run overlong so all the contributing authors have to cut 500 words from our chapters.
Hopefully I've waffled so much it will be easy!
It's a great film, btw. Historical, atmospheric and quietly disturbing.
Hopefully I've waffled so much it will be easy!
It's a great film, btw. Historical, atmospheric and quietly disturbing.
April 5, 2025 at 4:32 AM
I've got a chapter in press on the Finnish horror film Sauna (2008)... but the book's run overlong so all the contributing authors have to cut 500 words from our chapters.
Hopefully I've waffled so much it will be easy!
It's a great film, btw. Historical, atmospheric and quietly disturbing.
Hopefully I've waffled so much it will be easy!
It's a great film, btw. Historical, atmospheric and quietly disturbing.
I'm super happy to be able to announce this! I'm a big fan of fanfiction, and I've written a study on how Narnia fanfic reimagines Susan Pevensie. I've held a grudge several decades long on her behalf (nylons, lipsticks, and invitations, oh my) and clearly I'm not the only one.
We are delighted to unveil a new literary work by Octavia Cade, for Academia Lunare: Nylons, Lipstick, and Narnia: Rewriting Susan Pevensie in Fanfiction! @octavia-cade.bsky.social
Announcing a New Literary Work: Octavia Cade's Latest Book for Academia Lunare
We are delighted to unveil a new literary world by Octavia Cade, for Academia Lunare: Nylons, Lipstick, and Narnia: Rewriting Susan Pevensie in Fanfiction!
www.lunapresspublishing.com
March 10, 2025 at 10:38 AM
I'm super happy to be able to announce this! I'm a big fan of fanfiction, and I've written a study on how Narnia fanfic reimagines Susan Pevensie. I've held a grudge several decades long on her behalf (nylons, lipsticks, and invitations, oh my) and clearly I'm not the only one.
I'm three weeks into my year as Robert Burns Fellow at Otago Uni, and things are going great!
I'm spending the year writing a novel on algal blooms, as well as doing a short study on how NZ speculative fiction looks at ecological invasion. Both projects on track so far!
I'm spending the year writing a novel on algal blooms, as well as doing a short study on how NZ speculative fiction looks at ecological invasion. Both projects on track so far!
February 19, 2025 at 8:47 PM
I'm three weeks into my year as Robert Burns Fellow at Otago Uni, and things are going great!
I'm spending the year writing a novel on algal blooms, as well as doing a short study on how NZ speculative fiction looks at ecological invasion. Both projects on track so far!
I'm spending the year writing a novel on algal blooms, as well as doing a short study on how NZ speculative fiction looks at ecological invasion. Both projects on track so far!
Passing this on for anyone interested: there's a BMI Summer Institute on Environmental Justice looking for 15 fellows to join them this summer in Chicago. www.theblackmidwest.com/summer-insti...
2025 Summer Institute — Black Midwest Initiative
www.theblackmidwest.com
January 26, 2025 at 12:14 AM
Passing this on for anyone interested: there's a BMI Summer Institute on Environmental Justice looking for 15 fellows to join them this summer in Chicago. www.theblackmidwest.com/summer-insti...
Looking forward to working through the slush pile for this! Send us your stories, please.
Announcing a submission call for IT WAS PARADISE, a new, special issue themed around war and conflict, edited by @soniasulaiman.bsky.social and with cover art by @monarobot.bsky.social! 15c/word! Submission deadline is the summer solstice, 6/22/25: reckoning.press/special-subm...
Special Submission Call: It Was Paradise | Reckoning
It’s time to announce the call for submissions to It Was Paradise*, a special issue of Reckoning edited by Sonia Sulaiman and with cover art by Moníca Robles Corzo. In a world devastated by catastroph...
reckoning.press
January 22, 2025 at 10:16 PM
Looking forward to working through the slush pile for this! Send us your stories, please.
Abstract acceptance, yay! There's an academic collection being put together on sharksploitation films - I saw the call for papers, and suddenly all those years of watching shark horror films had a purpose. My chapter will be on shark horror in urban environments - like Under Paris. Fun!!!
January 22, 2025 at 7:34 AM
Abstract acceptance, yay! There's an academic collection being put together on sharksploitation films - I saw the call for papers, and suddenly all those years of watching shark horror films had a purpose. My chapter will be on shark horror in urban environments - like Under Paris. Fun!!!
The Neverending Story is on tv right now. It was ALWAYS played on NZ tv at Xmas when I was a kid, because there's nothing like trifle and presents and Peace on Earth when Artax is dying in the Swamp of Sadness.
December 26, 2024 at 5:52 AM
The Neverending Story is on tv right now. It was ALWAYS played on NZ tv at Xmas when I was a kid, because there's nothing like trifle and presents and Peace on Earth when Artax is dying in the Swamp of Sadness.
The most important Boxing Day question: should I have trifle for breakfast or not???
December 25, 2024 at 9:08 PM
The most important Boxing Day question: should I have trifle for breakfast or not???
Looking at you, Microsoft copilot.
December 24, 2024 at 8:47 AM
Looking at you, Microsoft copilot.
I have finished the most ridiculous project and I don't know what to do with it. For decades I've held a grudge that Susan Pevensie got kicked out of Narnia for liking nylons, lipsticks, and invitations, and now I have a 45k word analysis on how fanfic retells her story better.
December 24, 2024 at 7:53 AM
I have finished the most ridiculous project and I don't know what to do with it. For decades I've held a grudge that Susan Pevensie got kicked out of Narnia for liking nylons, lipsticks, and invitations, and now I have a 45k word analysis on how fanfic retells her story better.
Withdrawing an article after THREE YEARS in peer review and still no feedback, despite my following up on it. Time to try this thing somewhere else.
December 14, 2024 at 9:36 PM
Withdrawing an article after THREE YEARS in peer review and still no feedback, despite my following up on it. Time to try this thing somewhere else.
I remember reading this and promptly demanding a sequel, because the end was so exciting I wanted more immediately!
If you like hard sci-fi novellas, this will be right up your alley.
If you like hard sci-fi novellas, this will be right up your alley.
My attempted-first-contact novella 'Wayfaring Stranger' is out now (yay!) but is still not marketing itself (boo hiss!), so I am morally obligated to provide accompanying blurbage, as below with words from @octavia-cade.bsky.social, Adam Browne and Thoraiya Dyer
December 10, 2024 at 9:49 AM
I remember reading this and promptly demanding a sequel, because the end was so exciting I wanted more immediately!
If you like hard sci-fi novellas, this will be right up your alley.
If you like hard sci-fi novellas, this will be right up your alley.
I've just read the best thing! The Mires by @tinamakereti.bsky.social.
It's near-future cli-fi with supernatural elements and is occasionally narrated by a sentient swamp. But mostly it's about people and how they are basically decent: Indigenous families and climate refugees and neighbourhoods.
It's near-future cli-fi with supernatural elements and is occasionally narrated by a sentient swamp. But mostly it's about people and how they are basically decent: Indigenous families and climate refugees and neighbourhoods.
December 10, 2024 at 9:38 AM
I've just read the best thing! The Mires by @tinamakereti.bsky.social.
It's near-future cli-fi with supernatural elements and is occasionally narrated by a sentient swamp. But mostly it's about people and how they are basically decent: Indigenous families and climate refugees and neighbourhoods.
It's near-future cli-fi with supernatural elements and is occasionally narrated by a sentient swamp. But mostly it's about people and how they are basically decent: Indigenous families and climate refugees and neighbourhoods.
I have just packed up two boxes of books and dropped them off for the local Life Education Trust book fair. I now have space on my shelves for the different books I can buy at the book fair!
October 24, 2024 at 1:55 AM
I have just packed up two boxes of books and dropped them off for the local Life Education Trust book fair. I now have space on my shelves for the different books I can buy at the book fair!
And the sheer fucking nerve to be hiding behind Ernest Rutherford when this government STILL hasn't named a Chief Science Advisor!
Maybe start with that, Nicola?
Maybe start with that, Nicola?
Nicola Willis, quoting Ernest Rutherford: "We haven't got the money, so we'll have to think." #nzpolitics
Rutherford's greatest breakthroughs were made in Canada and the UK because there wasn't sufficient science funding to keep him in NZ. The more things change...
www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...
Rutherford's greatest breakthroughs were made in Canada and the UK because there wasn't sufficient science funding to keep him in NZ. The more things change...
www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...
Nicola Willis asks public servants for their 'best and boldest ideas'
The finance minister has implored public servants to bring new ideas to the table, while acknowledging she was "asking a lot" at an "unsettling" time.
www.rnz.co.nz
October 24, 2024 at 1:45 AM
And the sheer fucking nerve to be hiding behind Ernest Rutherford when this government STILL hasn't named a Chief Science Advisor!
Maybe start with that, Nicola?
Maybe start with that, Nicola?