Dr. U. Whitcher (U. is for Bear)

OTHERSIDE 2026: A New Magazine of Queer SFF! A new queer-led literary magazine devoted to speculative fiction, poetry, and art by 2SLGBTQIA+ authors and artists.

A spot has opened up, and our TTRPG reward (originally sold out in just a few days!) is back on the menu! If you want to virtually play a TTRPG with the co-founders, now is your chance! This reward also includes a 2026 subscription to OTHERSIDE. It's going to be SO MUCH FUN!

Only one book will get the prize, because that's the reality of prizes, but every book in this stack is so very worth reading. Go read them all.

Do you ever think about in 200 years if they write romance novels about this time, what will be the five cultural things that every book will reference?

The eight books shortlisted for the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction are in a stack, with a note on top that reads "Prize winner announcement 10.21.25 9 am PDT." The books are North Continent Ribbon by Ursula Whitcher; Remember You Will Die by Eden Robins; The City in Glass by Nghi Vo; The Sapling Cage by Margaret Killjoy; The West Passage by Jared Pechaček; Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera; Archangels of Funk by Andrea Hairston; and Blackheart Man by Nalo Hopkinson.

On Tuesday, October 21st—Ursula's birthday—we'll announce the recipient of the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction! Join Theo Downes-Le Guin and guest host Ebon Moss-Bachrach on YouTube for a live announcement at 9 am PDT.

The announcement will happen here: www.youtube.com/@ursula.k.le...

* (for COOL COLLEGE STUDENTS read "members and alumni of an rpg club")

It wasn't new music when I was in high school, but it was still very popular. Once I went to a party with COOL COLLEGE STUDENTS* and met someone whose claim to fame was having kicked Nirvana out of Evergreen College for a noise violation.

@deuceofgears.bsky.social and I are of the same generation, but you can tell instantly that (a) I'm the one from the Pacific Northwest and (b) I would've been the bad influence.

What musical artists do you associate with your coming of age or teen years?

Violent Femmes, specifically listening to "Good Feeling" on the tape deck of my parents' Volvo as I drove back country roads home around midnight, along with Nirvana & all the grunge top hits.

Matt drew the interior illustrations for North Continent Ribbon (including my beloved six-legged salamander)!

LIVE NOW ON KICKSTARTER poetry critique by URSULA WHITCHER writer, poet, and mathematician published by Neon Hemlock, Analog, Asimov's, The Deadlands, and elsewhere! Otherside logo is at the bottom over blurred purple OTHERSIDE website banner art. Ursula's icon is to the left of the text.

Want a poetry critique from the lovely @yarntheory.bsky.social? Ursula Whitcher is a writer, poet, and mathematician published by Neon Hemlock, Analog, Asimov’s, The Deadlands, and elsewhere!

Grab a subscription + poetry critique!

www.kickstarter.com/projects/hyb...

Spiral arrangement of playing cards fanning out with 'October Feature Column' text overlay and American Mathematical Society logo in corner.

How many cards do you need to draw to get one of each suit? Discover the surprising link to differential equations in the Oct Feature: The Hypergeometric Flower Pot by Ursula Whitcher https://mathvoices.ams.org/featurecolumn/2025/10/01/the-hypergeometric-flower-pot/

<3

A stack of issues of Asimov's Science Fiction in a magazine rack. One is open to the table of contents and shows a poem by Ursula Whitcher.

Look what's in stock at my local Barnes and Noble!

I have actually learned a ton about fashion over the years by trying to buy a boring article of clothing like the one that just wore out, and discovering it's no longer made. My math dishevelment takes work!

So were Vermonters wearing plaid in the great "you can't buy plaid in normal stores" dead zone of, say, 2010? If so, what are their secret plaid sources?

I do know about LL Bean plaid! (Which isn't Vermont but is Northeast.) I don't think the Northeast was driving the recent plaid resurgence, though.

(I guess they play Nirvana in grocery stores these days too.)

I think your example is an example of a stylish person following the then-trend. But the mainstream 2020s trend was a throwback to original PNW style.

A few years back plaid came into fashion across the US as a retro '90s thing (retro '90s style has now moved on to wide pants & baby-doll T-shirts). I was very excited about this!

The Pacific Northwest is where grunge flannel + stompy boots came from! It helps that Portland is flannel weather a lot of the year.

as a Portland expat I am wearing it for the team

The thread embedded here is fun (and makes me homesick!) but I think it misunderstands the genuine honesty embedded in "shitposting". Portland has Gideon the Ninth style meming.

I do drink caffeine but I've been pretty grumpy about how effective a morning run is as a substitute. A quick walk might have some of the same effect?

I've now read the majority of the works shortlisted for the @ursulakleguin.com award and they are all excellent. For me, it's a toss up between @vajra.me's Rakesfall and @yarntheory.bsky.social's North Continent Ribbon (the latter of which I really hope more people would read)

DIE: Loaded The sequel to the three-times Hugo-nominated, award winning dark fantasy comic, DIE.

October 20th is the order cut off for DIE: LOADED, sequel to the three-time Hugo-nominated DIE. I've pulled together a short primer it with all the info you need on it - what it is, previews, full cover details (check out our sketch variant!) and more. Go nose! Join our party. It's an experience.

I don't get many of these (I suspect my old-school spam-deterrent method of writing my email as firstname at domain dot suffix helps) but the ones I have seen are super creepy.

Info on Angela Liu's poetry critique! Text says: LIVE NOW ON KICKSTARTER poetry critique by ANGELA LIU Nebula, Hugo, Locus, and Ignyte finalist! Rhysling Award recipient! work in Uncanny, Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons, elsewhere! Otherside logo is at the bottom over blurred purple OTHERSIDE website banner art.

We have some lovely rewards for you over on Kickstarter! Snag a subscription + poetry critique from the wonderful @angelaliu.bsky.social! Angela is a Nebula, Hugo, Astounding, Locus, AND Ignyte finalist—as well as a Rhysling Award recipient! And also the best.

www.kickstarter.com/projects/hyb...

THIS.

SAME BUT I WAS FOURTEEN.