Marissa van Uden

The "girlhood is a spectrum" meme with "bonne maman advent calendar" on the left and "ted bundy's demonic soul trapped in a jar" on the right

Cover of THE CELLAR BELOW THE CELLAR by Ivy Grimes

I'm literally just a girl with a basement full of demon jars and I'm not going to apologize for that 💅🍓🫙✨

Satisfy your craving for scrumptious surreal horror and check out THE CELLAR BELOW THE CELLAR by @ivygrimes.bsky.social, available for preorder now!

🌌 www.apexbookcompany.com/products/the...

Congrats!!

I love everything Joe writes, but I am REALLY excited to read this one.

👀✨

A medieval style heart surrounded by devils. Inside the heart reads: R.L Summerling 20205 THE Dancer’s Dozen ergot. - Jan 2025 His Most Feared Constellation The Dark - April 2025 Through Narrowing Veins Nightjar Press June 2025 Vanitas Interzone - June 2025

I made an awards eligibility post! I always feel a bit embarrassed doing these, but I'm really proud of these stories and extremely grateful to the editors who've published them

contract is signed!!!

in a post-apocalyptic future where people live on megafauna, Beau put his roots down on the back of a jackalope. but bodies start showing up, and he's the primary suspect.

forthcoming in @apexmag.bsky.social !!!!

amazing, love it

Cover of Cormac McCarthy's book The Road. Gray background, an abstract flame in the middle. Silhouette of father and son holding hands while looking at the fire.

Another inspiration: Cormac McCarthy's The Road

Cormac and I don't have much in common, God bless us, but The Road made me think seriously about what would happen to us if we lost most of our technology.

In CELLAR, I wanted to explore this loss in the context of a small community.

it's truly a beautiful piece by @ivygrimes.bsky.social. pensive, mysterious, thoughtful, and weird in all the beautifulest ways. thank you for the ARC, and I can't wait for this to be out!

This is such a beautifully thoughtful review! Love when the reader brings so much to the experience 🖤🖤🖤

Finally have a minute to reflect on what a fun time this was on Tuesday (now that I'm not on a dredge 🥲). So much thoughtful discussion and many new friends! Can't wait to plant my little seed packet seeds 🌱

Thank you for reading! 🌿💚🐾 So happy you enjoyed it - we have a lot of amazing ecofic writers out there!

Particularly affecting is interplay of fantastical and science fictional stories, showing just how broadly ecofiction speaks to our present moment. Kaleidoscopic in its approach. This series is going to be a fantastic annual addition to the thriving ecosystem of short fiction anthologies!!

ECO24: THE YEAR'S BEST SPECULATIVE ECOFICTION ed. by Marissa van Uden held up before a viburnum lush with autumn foliage.

Timely and transcendent. I've had a marvelous time recently with ECO24, collecting some of the finest ecofiction of the last year. A chance to reflect on the anxieties of a changing world, and to consider possibilities for transformation and alternative paths. A critical collection for our time!!

NOW OPEN FOR NOMINATIONS
If you published speculative ecofiction this year, we'd love to consider it for ECO25 💚🌿🐾🐚🦋🌿💚

Black-and-white portrait photograph of Dr. Louella E. Cable as a young woman. She has short, dark, wavy bobbed hair styled close to her head, and is wearing a light-colored blouse with vertical pleats and a delicate necklace. She gazes calmly to the side with a gentle, confident expression against a plain studio backdrop.

Dr. Louella Cable | Aquatic biologist & brilliant scientific illustrator #WorldFisheriesDay

First woman hired (1927) by the US Bureau of Fisheries (later became US Fish & Wildlife). Her research + art advanced fisheries science. #WomenInSTEM #art #conservation

thefisheriesblog.com/2020/04/27/l...

Don’t invest in AI, invest in the future of the book Why the publishing industry must back small presses, rather than LLMs.

wrote an article for @thebookseller.com outlining to the industry why small presses are the lifeforce & future of book production. Pls share esp w people who may not know what small press publishers do!

www.thebookseller.com/comment/dont...

Also got interviewed by the delightful @marissavu.bsky.social ❤️ I always appreciate the research and thoughtfulness she puts into her interview questions!

Here's my interview with the amazing @leahning.bsky.social! We discuss her incredible new piece of ecofiction, "We Used to Wake to Song," & many other things. LOVED this story 🪸
~
"I think we’ll become a better sanctuary in the future. I hope we become a better sanctuary in the future." -Leah Ning

2025 Award Eligibility — Ai Jiang

Novella A PALACE NEAR THE WIND (Titan Books) Novelette "All the Names You Didn't Choose" (YOU, Human Vol. 2 Anthology) select short stories "Memories Are Only Valuable if They Can Be Lost" (Clarkesworld) "Shadows Below Seaway Trains" (Apex Magazine) "All the Men Who Cried Wolf" (HOWL: An Anthology of Werewolves from Women-in-Horror) "Unsewn" (ROOTS OF MY FEARS: Terrifying Stories of Ancestral Horror) "The Heaven That Tastes Like Hell" (Silk & Sinew Anthology) "Red God Waiting" (The Rack II: More Stories Inspired by Vintage Horror Paperbacks) "On the Bridge Above the River" (And One Day We Will Die Anthology) "A Thousand Forbidden Weddings and a Song for Dead Darlings" (The Earth Bleeds at Night Anthology) Select Poetry "the bud of a dead dream" (Uncanny Magazine)

✨2025 Awards Eligiblity Post✨

if anyone needs a copy of anything for awards consideration, do reach out! 🙆🏻‍♀️🤍🙇🏻‍♀️

This story will haunt you - it is somehow harrowing and heartening at the same time. Unforgettable 🖤🖤

Baba Yaga by Ivan Bilibin: a drawing of the witchy Baba Yaga with her white hair and worn face, who seems to be levitating in the woods. Mushrooms at her feet.

Vasilisa has to contend with Baba Yaga, a crone who lacks the charm and safety of a fairy godmother. Instead, she's rich in magic, lights her property with fire skulls, and guards many secrets in her house and the surrounding woods.

Vasilisa the Beautiful by Ivan Bilibin: this is a drawing of Vasilisa holding a skull with eyes like lanterns. She's near Baba Yaga's skull-decorated house.

My main inspiration was "Vasilisa the Beautiful," a Russian fairy tale about a girl whose mother dies leaving her with only a (magic!) doll. Her stepmother sends her to get fire from the magical and dangerous Baba Yaga, hoping she'll die there.

Bookmark this thread! It's Ivy Grimes' CELLAR BELOW THE CELLAR origin story 👀💜

"A Seder in Siberia" by Louis Evans was first published by @grist.org Imagine 2200.
and "Pig House" by Kay Vaindal was first published by @seizethepress.bsky.social

New review of ECO24! ✨

Thank you, Dawn! So glad you enjoyed it! :)

Author Louis Evans reading from his story "A Seder in Siberia" (first published by GRIST magazine) in the ECO24 anthology

Author Kay Vaindal reading from their story "Pig House" (first published by Seize the Press magazine) in the ECO24 anthology

ECO24 branded native-seed packets designed by Ori Whipple, sitting in a small white bowl on a counter

Author Kay Vaindal, looking effortlessly cool as they answer audience questions about their story "Pig House" in ECO24: The Year's Best Speculative Ecofiction

A few 📸 from the ECO24 book launch at Lofty Pigeon! Word is it was a full house & all the books sold out 🙌🎉🔥✨🎉💚
Pictured: @kayv.bsky.social reading from "Pig House," & @louisevans.bsky.social reading from "A Seder in Siberia."
Featuring native-seed packets designed by Apex's very own ⭐Ori Whipple!

LAUNCH DAY! COME TO LOFTY PIGEON TO SEE ME AND @kayv.bsky.social TALK ABOUT IT!

Proud to have a story in this amazing collection!