M. C. Benner Dixon

Science fiction has spent decades building permission structure for the broligarchs to put chips in our heads and have "AI replace us" and accept gritty brutalist cyberpunk as "cool!" so maybe... stop doing that?

I feel like we (SF authors) should stop doing that.

(Alt: readers do it for us)

DOOOOooooOOOooo it! Fusion Fragment is a treasure!

The Chamos Project Twenty years after an attack perpetrated by androids ta…

February means my book comes out THIS MONTH! We are 16 days away from the release of The Chamos Project. If you like sad gays in space, this book is for you! #WritingCommunity #SFF www.goodreads.com/book/show/24...

The cover is here! The book will be out this fall. A little bit of joy in a bleak time.

Collage of workshop graphics overlaid with the single word, "WORKSHOPS"

Image shows a frosted rosebud and a border of flame. Text reads: "Flirting with Romantasy" "March 7, 10 a.m.–12 p.m., Literary Cleveland, online workshop"

Old advertisement featuring the Remington girl, a bob-haired woman in a white blouse sitting in front of a typewriter, pointing at the viewer. Overlaid text reads "Say What? Experiments in Dialogue" "March 28, 6–8 p.m. online. Hosted by Dream Foundry"

Bright blue background with line drawings of books open and in stacks. Text reads: "Scaffolding Your Novel: Getting your Story from Start to Finish. April 21st & April 28th, 6-8 PM. Virtual. Write Pittsburgh. www.writepittsburgh.com/events."

Ready to work on your writing craft? Some of these workshops are geared towards getting new words on the page, others are about structuring around your writing project, some are skill-building workshops. But they're all online, so you can join from anywhere! Link in bio has registration info.

Friends, go write the books that will be the change.

"You must stop resisting!"
No
"Obey!"
No
"If you don't kneel, we will only get more murderous!"
I know
"You have to stop!"
I don't
"We will only scream louder and do more terrible things!"
and we will win
"MIGHT MAKES RIGHT!!!"
oh, you wish
but it doesn't
never has
"OBEY!!!"
absolutely fucking not

Creative Writing (Low-Res MFACW) Chatham University’s online, part-time Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing nurtures writers focused on the intersection of nature, place, and human identity.

Chatham’s low-res MFA is re-launching!
We offer one-on-one creative writing mentorships, online courses like Travel Writing, Nature Writing, Appalachian lit & publishing, and onsite residencies in Pittsburgh & at Fallingwater! Nature/place-writers, apply!

chatham.edu/academics/gr...

That is exciting! I love genre-hopping. It gives me life.

Around the World with "Rewilding our Stories" - Dragonfly: An exploration of eco-fiction Click here to return to the world eco-fiction series I’m so excited to share with our readers some of the book projects the Rewilding our Stories Discord is doing. The Discord community began just ove...

So happy to have my book included in this roundup of “rewilded” stories. There’s some exciting work being done by writers who keep in touch with their planet!

dragonfly.eco/rewilding-ou...

We just strap ours to the roof and take it through the car wash.

It’s been fun writing this book. My voice when I’m writing as Mir is brasher, bolder, and less measured than usual. I’m taking risks and getting myself and my characters in trouble. But that means the story can run away with its readers, too. And who doesn’t want to be swept away from time to time?

Publishers Marketplace deal report for FIRE POWER by Mir Benitz from Headline. White square of text with a dark blue border.

The deal report for my next novel—written under the pen name Mir Benitz—came out this week. It’s kinetic and swoony and colorful. I can’t wait for readers to get ahold of FIRE POWER. This report doesn’t mention the fact, but the novel is also being published in the U.S. by Little, Brown.

I say risk it. Sounds like an excellent way to introduce hijinks into your life

Five AirFanta 3Pro air filters in mesh bags on the floor near a table and chair at the front of a room. Lots of books on shelves all around.

My wife, @mchristinebd.bsky.social, did a book event yesterday and I tagged along to watch and also set up 6 AirFanta 3Pro air filters to reduce viral transmission. (Five pictured, one more in back. Plug spots limited options.) We both wore high quality masks, too. #COVIDisnotover #AirQuality

An Evening with Yume Kitasei in Conversation with MC Benner Dixon — Riverstone Books Author Yume Kitasei joins us to talk about her latest dystopian sci-fi book, SALTCROP.

Pittsburgh! Come out on 11/4 @ 7 PM to hear from @yumewrites.bsky.social Do you like near-future dystopias, stubborn people, climate fiction, pirates, smart and resourceful female characters, complicated family relationships, and gorgeous writing? Join us! www.riverstonebookstore.com/events/an-ev...

An Evening with Yume Kitasei in Conversation with MC Benner Dixon — Riverstone Books Author Yume Kitasei joins us to talk about her latest dystopian sci-fi book, SALTCROP.

Pittsburgh! Come out on 11/4 @ 7 PM to hear from @yumewrites.bsky.social Do you like near-future dystopias, stubborn people, climate fiction, pirates, smart and resourceful female characters, complicated family relationships, and gorgeous writing? Join us! www.riverstonebookstore.com/events/an-ev...

I’m so excited to announce that ALL OUR TOMORROWS is now available as an audiobook! 🎧 This project was so important to me bc I’m part of the ME/CFS community, and many of my peers can only tolerate audiobooks. I wanted to make sure my book was accessible to everyone. 🩵 Peep my bio!

The climate “skeptics” have been talking for ages about how high CO2 is good for plants. Why not extend that to people? It’s a buzzword that can be perverted to capitalistic ends, so why not? Look soon for the purported benefits of diesel exhaust for children hanging around idling buses.

This looks super handy. I couldn’t click through the link, though. I got a “resource limit” message. Thought you might want to know.

Color drawing of an orange daylily on a white background. Handwritten text: Will Pull Weeds For Cash (excerpts) by M. C. Benner Dixon

Green weeds poke up from the bottom of the image. Text: It was a good summer job for a college kid. A quick drive down Old Plains Road, past the AT&T tower, and pull in at one of the innumerable fieldstone farmhouses nestled among the Pennsylvania back roads of the Upper Perkiomen Valley. Elaine would be waiting for me with my tools—a small trowel, a garden rake, a forked dandelion weeder—and a bucket for the weeds.

Various plants mentioned in the text fill the margins around handwritten words. Text: I knew my johnny-jump-ups from my wood sorrel, my daisies from my fleabane. I could spot poison ivy at twenty paces and knew the difference between its leaves and Virginia creeper.

A cluster of pokeberries hang from one corner of the image. Text: The typical home gardener creates the perfect environment for these weeds. We disturb the soil. We clear it and dig it and turn it over, keeping it in a perpetual state of starting over. From the perspective of the plants trying to grow in our gardens, we are an ever-collapsing riverbank, an endless landslide, a storm-toppled tree that falls over and over, exposing soil to the sun.

This essay about weeds and teachers came out today on Vox Populi. It’s part of an essay collection that Sharon and I are working on—all nature essays. We just turned the full manuscript in to our editor this week! Here's the link to the full essay: voxpopulisphere.com/2025/10/16/m...

“It’s Okay But It’s Also Really Not.” When Dystopian Fiction is No Longer a Thought Experiment Dystopian fiction is getting real, and I’m here for it. I don’t think I’m the only one. There’s something cathartic about reading about the end of the world. As a science fiction reader and avid fa…

I wrote an essay for @lithub.com.web.brid.gy about how I think there are two subgenres of dystopian fiction - the allegorical / thought experiment and the potential horrible future - and how they seem to be blending more and more…and converging with reality.

lithub.com/its-okay-but...

That’s the kind of reader feedback you dream about. (This is my other pen name, by the way.)

Gardeners hear “tending to” a little differently than other folks

Writers, man. What an emotional train wreck! (It's me; I'm the wreck)

I'm a prolific author with lots of novels/short stories over many years... I have a pattern. When I finish a story, the first 24 hours are an emotional rollercoaster.

All the highs.
All the lows.
1/n
#writing

Thanks for posting this. At first, I thought my own high/depression cycle was a sign of immaturity. (As a youth adults told me how mature I was, now it’s flipped.) I have come to realize it is part of being a writer for me—not something to fight in myself but to prepare for and tend to.

An Evening with Yume Kitasei in Conversation with MC Benner Dixon — Riverstone Books Author Yume Kitasei joins us to talk about her latest dystopian sci-fi book, SALTCROP.

Woo! Weekend conference followed by a book talk this evening . . . So much writerliness over the last few days!

And more to come! @yumewrites.bsky.social and I are talking about her new book on Thursday! www.riverstonebookstore.com/events/an-ev... #PittsburghBooks

An Evening with Yume Kitasei in Conversation with MC Benner Dixon — Riverstone Books Author Yume Kitasei joins us to talk about her latest dystopian sci-fi book, SALTCROP.

Woo! Weekend conference followed by a book talk this evening . . . So much writerliness over the last few days!

And more to come! @yumewrites.bsky.social and I are talking about her new book on Thursday! www.riverstonebookstore.com/events/an-ev... #PittsburghBooks

There’s no point in denying it!

Book Birthday Giveaway featuring cover of Lauren C Teffeau's A Hunger with No Name

A Hunger with No Name by Lauren C. Teffeau cover closeup with the txt LIKE FOLLOW SHARE for your chance to win a copy of the book in any format (non-us ebook only).

A Hunger with No Name has been out in the world for a year! I'm still in love with this story of hope in the high desert, dealing w so many things we’re grappling w now.

Like, follow, share for your chance to win the book in the format of your choice (internat'l e-book only) #giveaway