Shen Tao

Tales from the Cryptids: Games, Stories, & Uncanny Ephemera An anthology of narrative games and other writing that flips the lens on conventional cryptid lore. In this zine, cryptids are beings with vivid lives, goals, and stories of their own to share. Don’t ...

Tales from the Cryptids just went live on Backerkit! Back this anthology edited by @brigittewinter.bsky.social with work from @lackingceremony.bsky.social, @sharangbiswas.bsky.social, @shing.bsky.social, @aeosworth.bsky.social, @dragons.bsky.social, and more! www.backerkit.com/c/projects/s...

Honored to be picked by a most excellent book club- Go get your Aardvark books now! - Goose approved :)

Thank you friend!

🤩

I hope you enjoy the story!

The Poet Empress by Shen Tao

My debut is officially out today!!! (I can’t believe I get to say that)

Thank you to my publishing team, my writing friends, and all the wonderful ARC readers!! Thank you for taking a chance on a debut author!!

#booksky

I will be doing an AMA (ask me anything) at reddit.com/r/fantasy on release day if you'd like to join me there!

BookPage starred review of The Poet Empress

My debut is coming out TOMORROW!!! :)

#booksky

Poetry is powerful in local author Shen Tao’s debut novel “The Poet Empress” asks readers to sit with contradiction and to consider the cost of speaking clearly in a world determined to silence certain kinds of truth.

Thank you so much @seattletimes.com and Jordan Snowden for featuring my debut! The article was so well-written!

www.seattletimes.com/entertainmen...

Thank you so much for having me! I really enjoyed our chat on Long Story Short!

Right?! I feel honored to be counted among this group!

Look at all the beautiful books! I can't believe I get to be part of this debut class.

IT'S OUR YEAR, GEESE!!! Look at all these incredible first quarter books...including @sadieturner.bsky.social's TIDESPEAKER, which pubs TODAY!

Tidespeaker A Barista’s Guide to Love & Larceny A Vow in Vengeance Into the Midnight Wood The Book of Blood & Roses The Poet Empress Godstorm Once Upon A Song

February🌷 Heart’s Gambit Queen of Faces The Forest on the Edge of Time The Faithful Dark All We Have Is Time The Iron Garden Sutra Weavingshaw Saltswept

The Last Starborn Seer Midnight on the Celestial These Shattered Spires Child of the Dragon A Wish So Deadly Prodigal Tiger Honeysuckle Aicha The Geomagician The Celestial Seas

2026 is our debut year!! Here are some of the SFF authors I have the honor of debuting with early this year. I am really excited about these books so please check them out when you have the chance!

#booksky

Delightful cryptids!!

Love the choices! Glad to hear someone else does this too :p

TNR is a classic!!

That is a good idea!

Do other writers have a different font for each book they write? My current WIP is an Arial book :p

Thank you!

book cover for the poet empress by shen tao with peach lettering over a lush red and black illustration of an asian style palace bordered in flames with a masked figure towering over it, plus a ribbon of chinese characters winding across it with a tiny woman in a green robe standing on the ribbon

THE POET EMPRESS by shen tao @dragons.bsky.social releases 1/20/26 from bramble @torbooks.bsky.social @macmillanlib.bsky.social #debut #fantasy #epic #love #death #poem #BookSky get your @libraryreads.bsky.social votes in by 12/1!

SPARRING PARTNERS is available for request on Netgalley! We so appreciate your early reviews as they help drive sales 😁

🫶🏼 Happy reading!

#2026Debuts #RomanceBooks #BookSky #Netgalley

DEBUT Famine spreads across the land of Tensha, and young Yin Wei does the only thing she can think of to save her family—become a concubine to Prince Guan Terren. Heir to the Azalea Throne, Terren is a cold man, with poetry magic that he uses for cruelty and death. As Wei navigates the inner machinations of the court, she realizes that she may have to become just as self-serving as Terren to survive. Not only do the other concubines battle each other to secure the spot as future Empress, but Terren deals with attacks on his succession from his honorable older brother, and both Wei and Terren face treachery from other court members. To achieve her goals, Wei must kill Terren—and with one forbidden poem, she can accomplish it. However, the only way to write this poem of death is with love, and she hates everything Terren is. The novel’s unique magic system and character-driven plot create an immersive tale.VERDICT Tao’s debut is an intricate study of court politics and what a young woman will do to survive. Hand to fans of The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang or She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan.

DEBUT Famine spreads across the land of Tensha, and young Yin Wei does the only thing she can think of to save her family—become a concubine to Prince Guan Terren. Heir to the Azalea Throne, Terren is a cold man, with poetry magic that he uses for cruelty and death. As Wei navigates the inner machinations of the court, she realizes that she may have to become just as self-serving as Terren to survive. Not only do the other concubines battle each other to secure the spot as future Empress, but Terren deals with attacks on his succession from his honorable older brother, and both Wei and Terren face treachery from other court members. To achieve her goals, Wei must kill Terren—and with one forbidden poem, she can accomplish it. However, the only way to write this poem of death is with love, and she hates everything Terren is. The novel’s unique magic system and character-driven plot create an immersive tale.VERDICT Tao’s debut is an intricate study of court politics and what a young woman will do to survive. Hand to fans of The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang or She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan.

SO excited about a second starred review for The Poet Empress! A world of thank yous to Library Journal 🥰

Congratulations Kemi! 🥳

Cover for THE KING MUST DIE, illustrated by the amazing Eleonor Piteira.

On a planet damaged by rushed terraforming, a bodyguard-turned-reluctant rebel joins the last dregs of her parents’ failed uprising...

THE KING MUST DIE is out today! If you love stories about found families, revolutions, and second chances, this book’s for you.

Starred review for The Poet Empress from Publishers Weekly with quote "Tao’s prose gleams with poetic precision, and climactic revelations strike with devastating inevitability."

The Poet Empress Shen Tao. Bramble, $29.99 (480p) ISBN 978-1-250-40681-1 Tao’s haunting debut immerses readers in a famine-stricken empire where poetry is power. In the final years of the Azalea Dynasty, Yin Wei, a peasant girl desperate to save her starving family, volunteers as concubine to the notoriously cruel Prince Guan Terren. This act of survival pulls her into a labyrinth of palace intrigue and rebellion, where each written word contains magic that can shape a person’s destiny, but where female literacy is illegal. Against the lush backdrop of Tao’s lyrical worldbuilding, which draws from Chinese history and myth to craft a court defined by both beauty and brutality, Wei’s transformation from naive villager to calculating courtesan is expertly rendered. Meanwhile, Terren emerges as a monstrous yet profoundly human prince. Their uneasy bond anchors a story less about romance than the corruptive and redemptive powers of language and ambition. The many political threads become fascinatingly tangled, Tao’s prose gleams with poetic precision, and climactic revelations strike with devastating inevitability. Fans of R.F. Kuang’s The Poppy War and Shelley Parker-Chan’s She Who Became the Sun will be enthralled by this fierce meditation on love, power, and survival through art. Agent: Jennifer Azantian, Azantian Literary. (Jan.) Reviewed on 10/31/2025

I'm so happy to say that The Poet Empress got a starred review from @publisherswkly.bsky.social !

Graphic with blurb snippet from author Hana Lee: “The world of The King Must Die is a shattered, starving place, and yet the scenery and culture are so lush with detail that every description felt like a feast. Fen, the novel’s protagonist, is friendless and alone–but the people she bonds with along the road to revolution are everything an SFF reader hopes for when they hear the words “found family.” ...The King Must Die begins as a whisper and swells into a war cry.”

Just 3 days before THE KING MUST DIE comes out! I'm thrilled to share these very kind words from @hanalee.bsky.social, author of the Magebike Courier duology!

Preorder TKMD: www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Ki...
...then grab a free digital poster by Eepz: www.simonandschuster.com/p/the-king-m...

Seattle, USA

Does anyone know where a new author can find lawyers familiar with literary contracts?

🥹 Thank you for your amazing work on it!