Words for Worlds - Issue 82

Hello everyone, and welcome to another issue of the Words for Worlds newsletter.

Update on The Sentence: the Kindle version is also available now. We also have a Delhi launch event scheduled: on the 12th of November, at Alliance Française, at 6 30 PM. If you’re in Delhi, and free, we’d love to see you there. I’ll also be in Bombay the week after for LitLive, on the morning of 16th November, on a panel on Indian SF with Appupen and Lavanya Lakshminarayan.

The Sentence has also received its first review - a generous one - from the Unofficial Hugo Book Club Blog.

What I’m Reading

Since we’re on the subject of communes and anarchism these days, I’ve been reading Kristin Ross’ The Commune Form: unfortunately, this book came out just after I’d wrapped up final edits on The Sentence, and so, too late to inform the novel (although Ross’ previous book, The Emergence of Social Space: Rimbaud and the Paris Commune, influenced it in many ways). In The Commune Form, Ross examines a series of commune-like forms of social organisation in the second half of the 20th century (primarily focused on rural France), their forms and structures, and the ways in which they have resisted subsumption within the capitalist political economy.

At times, Ross links these mid-20th century forms with the original Paris Commune of 1871, as well as placing them in the context of the May ‘68 movement; thus we have something of a reverse Yesterday’s Tomorrow, where past moments of supposed failure appear in a new light because of the future events that they have informed.

What’s Happening at Strange Horizons

Check out the Strange Horizons’ ongoing 25th anniversary podcast series - the latest one, an interview with Arkady Martine; and this week’s issue has a review of the Ignyte Awards shortlist, in two parts - well worth a read.

The Indian Scene

This week saw the announcement of Amal Singh’s second novel - Slow Burn - with Flame Tree Press, due out in 2026; it is also the release day for Lavanya Lakshminarayan’s Interstellar Megachef. Congratulations to both.