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WORLD WEAVER PRESS

Out Now: Solarpunk Creatures

1/16/2024

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SOLARPUNK CREATURES is out now in ebook and paperback!

Stories by N. R. M. Roshak, Tashan Mehta, Justine Norton-Kertson, Lauren C. Teffeau, Rimi B. Chatterjee, and more.
 
A newly sentient AI inhabits a Roomba to escape from their research office, and a robotic dog hunts for rain in a drought-ridden world. A murder of crows disrupts production on a solar farm, and a young woman communes with a telepathic fungal network to protect a forest. A suspicious cat follows bees across the rooftops of a solarpunk city, and a rabbit hitches a ride to the Grand Canyon to fulfil a prophecy. The path toward better futures is one we must walk alongside other creatures, negotiating the challenges of multispecies justice. This speculative fiction anthology introduces a whole new cast of more-than-human protagonists: organic and digital, alien and fantastic, tiny and boundlessly large.

Ebook

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Amazon * Barnes & Noble * iTunes * Kobo * World Weaver Press

Paperback

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Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Books-a-Million * IndieBound * World Weaver Press

What Early Readers Are Saying

Dive into a dazzling world of sustainable futures with this Solarpunk anthology! A breath of fresh air in speculative fiction, it celebrates the diversity of voices and delivers a captivating array of short stories. Each tale unfolds unique and intriguing premises, painting a vivid mosaic of possibilities where technology and nature coalesce. A must-read for those seeking a hopeful glimpse into tomorrow.
—NetGalley Reviewer
A dazzling array of polyphonic voices building lives new, strange and infinitely wonderful. I strongly recommend inviting them all into your brain.
—Samit Basu, author of The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport
These stories have all my love. Every one was fun, fantastical, and solarpunk (the new steampunk I think). I especially loved the Threadloom, so imaginative and entertaining. This is for anyone that needs some whimsy and inventive fantasy.
—MC, NetGalley Reviewer
This anthology brings out delectable futuristic stories as seen by a new subaltern - robots, animals, artificial intelligence, birds, trees and other creatures who have been rendered voiceless by humans.
—Shweta Taneja, award-winning author

Story Excerpts, Read by the Authors!

Buy Now
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Cover Reveal: Solarpunk Creatures

10/16/2023

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​A newly sentient AI inhabits a Roomba to escape from their research office, and a robotic dog hunts for rain in a drought-ridden world. A murder of crows disrupts production on a solar farm, and a young woman communes with a telepathic fungal network to protect a forest. A suspicious cat follows bees across the rooftops of a solarpunk city, and a rabbit hitches a ride to the Grand Canyon to fulfil a prophecy. The path toward better futures is one we must walk alongside other creatures, negotiating the challenges of multispecies justice. This speculative fiction anthology introduces a whole new cast of more-than-human protagonists: organic and digital, alien and fantastic, tiny and boundlessly large.

Solarpunk Creatures will be available in ebook and paperback January 16, 2024!
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Cover art and design by Paul Summerfield

Pre-order Now

Amazon * Barnes & Noble * iTunes * Kobo * World Weaver Press

Table of Contents

Introduction by Christoph Rupprecht, Deborah Cleland, Melissa Ingaruca Moreno, Norie Tamura, Rajat Chaudhuri

Stories:
“Threadloom” by N. R. M. Roshak
“Sonora’s Journey” by Kai Holmwood
“The Colorful Crow Of Web-Of-Life Park” by Sandra Ulbrich Almazan
“The Business Of Bees” by Andrew Knighton
“Night Fowls” by Ana Sun
“Water Cycle” by Lauren C. Teffeau
“Microbia” by Center For Militant Futurology
“Rabbits, Rivers, And Prickly Pears” by Justine Norton-Kertson
“Hunting For Rain” by Lyndsey Croal
“AI Dreams Of Real Sheep—More At 8” by Commando Jugendstil and Tales from the EV Studio
“An Inconvenient Unicorn” by Geraldine Briony Hunt
“Quorum Sensing” by Calliope Papas
“Flyby” by Priya Sarukkai Chabria
“Quarropts Can’t Dance” by Rodrigo Culagovski
“Thank Geo” by BrightFlame
“Our Minds Share A City” by Catherine Yeates
“Hopdog” by Rimi B. Chatterjee
“Solar Murder” by A.E. Marling
“The Wetlands Versus The Mayor” by Jerri Jerreat
“Leaf Whispers, Ocean Song” by Tashan Mehta

Artwork:
“Kelp Gardens” and “Stormwater Streams” by Yen Shu Liao
“Orange Crested Grebe” by Pamina Stewart
“Solar Powered” by Badlungs Art
“Renaissance Pisces” by Irina Tall
“Tunaakola” by ZiitaMdot
“Moth City” and “Kombucha Atoll” by Yen Shu Liao
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Pushcart Prize Nominations for 2022

11/8/2022

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It's time to announce our nominations for this year's Pushcart Prize! 

WWP published two anthologies in 2022, and we have selected three stories from each. Scroll down to see the nominees, and read an excerpt from the stories.

Congratulations to the authors, and best of luck in the final selection! For more on the Pushcart Prize, see their website here: ​www.pushcartprize.com/

First up, the three stories from Trenchcoats, Towers, and Trolls: Cyberpunk Fairy Tales, edited by Rhonda Parrish.

Find Your Copy:
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Goodreads
Independent Bookstores
iTunes/Apple iBooks
Kobo
World Weaver Press

​"A Beautiful Nightmare" by Sarah Van Goethem

I can’t help but turn and see it through her eyes, for the first time, all over again. Sharp grey rock—fieldstone I think, though there isn’t a field anywhere around. Miles of rolling green grass the shade of emeralds, and ivy that’s grown and twisted over time, pushing its tendrils in, embedding itself in the mortar.

It’s gorgeous, really. That’s the thing. It’s all golden light and blue skies. A place that was meant to heal us, or so Nurse Ginger said. You’ll feel better in no time, dear. Just a little rest from the world.
​

But therein lies the problem. None of us remembered what world it was we needed a rest from.

​"Three" by Nicola Kapron

“You’ve never come out before. I’m starting to think you live down there.”
​
“Where else would a troll live? Especially these days. The wild places are shrinking, there’s cameras everywhere, and cities are eating the globe.” A lopsided grin. “The world can change however it likes, but monsters will still live the same way they always have. It’s just a tossup if anyone else will notice.”

​"Neon Green in D Minor" by Laura VanArendonk Baugh

I sling noodles at a street food stall. My hair is constantly coated with a film of cooking oil, splashed over me in little burning droplets that dot my skin with red marks to blend with the acne—but that doesn’t matter much in the Grimes. We know the doll-skinned faces in the giant billboards are fake; no one really looks so beautiful as the people in the advertisements. They want us to think rich people can look so fabulous, but it has to be a lie. Even if they don’t have hot oil burning their greasy skin, even if they have professional aestheticians to fill their leisurely days with beauty care, even with experts to polish their abnormally straight teeth, no one can look like that.
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In summer, the Grimes is hot. Really hot. They say our streets measure twelve degrees hotter than posh neighborhoods on the same day, not that I’ve ever been able to compare. That’s because when they divided the cities, the posh neighborhoods got things like green spaces and trees over the sidewalks, and we got cheap concrete and chemicals to kill anything that might crack it. Four generations after the war of liberation, even our weather is worse than theirs.

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And next, our nominations from Mothers of Enchantment: New Tales of Fairy Godmothers, edited by Kate Wolford.

Find Your Copy:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Books-A-Million
Goodreads
Independent Bookstores
iTunes/Apple iBooks
Kobo
World Weaver Press

​​“Wishes to Heaven” by Michelle Tang

“But why do you want to help me?”

The moth’s voice sounded surprised. It spoke slowly, as though worried the woman would not understand. “Mei-Jin, you asked for help.”

The lantern festival. Hope, long buried, sprouted within Mei-Jin. “I didn’t expect a moth.”

“What better creature to find floating lights in the night? Think of me as your Fairy Godmoth.”

“You mean Fairy Godmother.”
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The insect fluttered its wings. “Godmoth.”

​“A Story of Soil and Stardust” by Kelly Jarvis

They will speak of a girl so good and kind she wore dresses spun of the sky. They will speak of a girl so good and kind she captured the heart of a Prince.

They will sprinkle goodness and kindness like seeds across their firm dough of lies, and the famished villagers, enticed by the smell of stories baking like bread, will scramble to savor the first sweet bites of their sushki.

It is true I wore a dress that shimmered with the shades of sunset. It is true I danced with a Prince, and my beauty took his breath away.

But only my godmother knows the whole truth.
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I have never wanted to be good, and I have not always chosen to be kind.

​“Returning the Favor” by Lynden Wade

In one of the tales from the thick forests of Germany, a princess saves a prince from, of all things, an enchanted stove, then loses him again when she spends too long saying goodbye to her family. The quest to win back her beloved from his new fiancée is a familiar pattern in fairy-tales. But where other young women are helped by the sun, moon, and winds, or an old crone, in this story she is helped by three toads in a cottage. The conclusion has it that with the breaking of the enchantment the toads are revealed to be the children of kings.

The story is wrong on two points. One is the number of toads—there was only one. The other is how the tale ends. I should know: I was there.
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Solarpunk Creatures Editor MSWL

10/17/2022

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We are still considering submissions of short fiction (up to 7,000 words) and artwork for the Solarpunk Creatures anthology! Submissions close October 31, 2022.

Full guidelines are here: https://www.worldweaverpress.com/blog/call-for-submissions-solarpunk-creatures

​Read below for more insights about what the editorial team is looking for!

What is solarpunk?

Optimistic and inclusive representations of better futures. Solarpunk embodies new ways of doing and being, which integrate ecology, technology, ethics, aesthetics, creativity, and justice. It makes space for beauty as well as practicality; it imagines abundance and delight, as well as care and restitution. A mosaic of concepts and tools, solarpunk virtues include sharing, cooperation, multispecies justice, connections, conviviality, care, decolonisation, degrowth, commons and commoning, and more, while striking a balance between individual freedom and social cohesion. Solarpunk tries to bring out the best in people, to tell stories of healing, of changing minds, of restorative justice. Solarpunk rejects the dystopian post-apocalypse—the privileged don’t get to give up on humanity, and humanity doesn’t get to give up on other species.

What are creatures?

Mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, invertebrates, trees, plants, fungi, etc.—all of the many different species we share our planet with.
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We will consider stories and art about robots and AI, aliens lifeforms, mythological beings, dinosaurs or other extinct animals, and any other “unreal” creatures, if they take a solarpunk approach, but we hope to fill the bulk of the anthology with stories and art that center more realistic approaches to multispecies interactions and multispecies justice.

Meet the Editors

​Christoph Rupprecht, professor for sustainability based in Matsuyama (Shikoku) Japan

What kind of stories he’s looking for in Solarunk Creatures:

Solarpunk has its heart in the right place when it comes to being green/eco-oriented, but people CAN’T build our better futures alone. We need to collaborate with other species. I hope to get stories (and art!) that tell of renewal, hope, change, and reckoning through non-human senses, taking readers along on adventures outside of the everyday, and in the process hopefully fostering understanding, sympathy, respect, and maybe a sense of potential partnership with more-than-humans. I’d love to have as wide a variety of protagonists as possible, from animal to plant to fungi to microbe to non-living.
 
Melissa Ingaruca Moreno, Researcher, Designer, Futurist in multispecies & smart urbanism

What kind of stories she’s looking for in Solarunk Creatures:
​
I would like to see radical political imaginaries. The fight for a solarpunk future—not a world that magically turned out better, but the stories of resistance, transformation, and dismantling of the industrial-capitalist complex. Or the coexistence/tension of solarpunk worlds with cyberpunk worlds (where capitalist corruption, surveillance, and technological authoritarianism remain). In that way, I would also love to see how we deal with the scars of loss (climate impacts), colonialism, capitalism, speciesism, and how we heal bodies, communities and land. I also would like to see stories of human non-human entanglements, stories around decentralized approaches to economies, maker spaces, common pool resources, more-than-human cognitive systems for cities. I’m also really curious to discover new aesthetics of naturecultures expressed in music, art, sensorial experiences that are possible in these worlds, or even new languages or ways of communication.
 
Rajat Chaudhuri, fiction writer, activist, editor

What kind of stories he’s looking for in Solarunk Creatures:

I will be looking for stories which creatively and/or ingeniously situate non-human creatures at the centre (as a major plot point, main character, decisive helper/s, etc.) while engaging one or more of the ideas that drive solarpunks. I would also like to see how writers address colonisation of Nature and over-consumption, rewilding etc. by employing solarpunk tools, foregrounding multispecies connections and through a radically imaginative lens.
 
Deborah Cleland, Visiting Fellow at Australian National University, political advisor

What kind of stories she’s looking for in Solarunk Creatures:

I think some of my favourite stories from Multispecies Cities spoke to the ways we would deal with all the problems/sadnesses that would still arise in a solarpunk world—conflict, heartbreak, loss, senescence, misunderstandings and mistakes—but with this backdrop of possibility. I’m also hoping for hybrid creatures, maybe ones that fall outside of traditional understandings of companion animals, for example.
 
Norie Tamura, environmental scientist/social scientist of fishery and forestry

What kind of stories she’s looking for in Solarunk Creatures:
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DIY technology, not large scale and/or industrial.
A new relationship between nature and human or non-human.
Multinational or stateless atmosphere.
Especially interested in contributions from Japan.

Need examples for inspiration?

Check out these solarpunk stories with a multispecies focus:

Multispecies Cities: Solarpunk Urban Futures
https://www.worldweaverpress.com/store/p176/Multispecies_Cities.html

“Secret Powers” by Anya Markov
https://grist.org/fix/climate-fiction/imagine-2200-secret-powers/

“The Mammoth Steps” by Andrew Dana Hudson
https://longnow.org/ideas/02022/08/31/the-mammoth-steps/

“Afterglow” by Lindsey Brodeck
https://grist.org/fix/arts-culture/imagine-2200-climate-fiction-afterglow/

Ready to submit?

Open for Submissions: October 1 – 31, 2022
Story Length: up to 7,000 words
Payment:
Fiction: $0.03 per word (USD)
Art: $100 (USD) for previously unpublished art; $50 (USD) for reprint art
​
Stories must be in English; translations are welcome, provided the original author has given permission. 
Simultaneous submissions are okay, so long as you let us know if it sells to another market before we can make a decision. Please send only one story or one work of visual art. Reprints will be considered if you mention in the cover letter where the story or artwork originally appeared.

Fiction: Send story as a .doc, .docx, or .odt to 
[email protected]. Use the subject line SOLARPUNK CREATURES: [STORY TITLE] and include a brief cover letter in the body of the email. (Please do not summarize your story.)
 
Artwork: Send art as .png or .jpeg attachments with a DPI of 300 or higher to [email protected]. Use the subject line SOLARPUNK CREATURES: [ARTWORK TITLE]. While both color and black and white will be considered, please note that all artwork will be printed in black and white in the paperback.
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Interview with Rebecca Roland

10/3/2022

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Which of your characters would you most like to meet in real life, and where would the two of you hang out?
 
I would love to meet Tuvin, who is a Jegudun who we meet in Shards of History. Jeguduns are sort of like real life gargoyles, protecting the Taakwa Valley and the people who live there. They’re intelligent and kind and funny, and even though they look fierce, they’d just as soon invite you in for tea.
 
As for where we’d hang out, that would probably be along the Columbia River Gorge where Tuvin would have plenty of room to show off his flying skills. And, it’s just a beautiful place with lots of views and plenty of waterfalls, lots of great hiking. I wouldn’t mind hiking to the top of a waterfall if Tuvin would be kind enough to carry up some goodies for a picnic.

Favorite snack or drink while writing?
 
That depends on the time of day! If I’m writing in the morning, coffee is my go-to. I make my own, add some Splenda (I know, it’s probably slowing killing me, but I avoid sugar as much as possible for reasons) and some whole milk, or creamer if we have it. There are lots of great coffee roasters in the Pacific Northwest, so there are plenty of tasty coffees to choose from.
 
If I’m writing in the afternoon or evening, either tea or Coke Zero are my choices. If it’s not too late, I go for the caffeine. Otherwise, herbal tea it is, again with whole milk and Splenda, along with honey. Right now I’m working my way through a local blackberry honey.

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What else have you published recently?
 
Most recently a piece of flash fiction titled “A Singing on the Verdigris River” came out in Tree and Stone. I belong to an online writing group, Codex, and every January the group hosts a flash fiction competition called Weekend Warrior. For five weekends, writers choose from one of several prompts that are put up Friday night and turn in a story Sunday night. Other participants read and judge during the week. “A Singing on the Verdigris River” came out of my mashing up a couple of the prompts. One prompt had to do with a chase involving an unusual means of transportation (in this case, a keelboat), and the other had to do with colors, I think. At any rate, I have more fun and come up with better stories when I mash a couple of prompts together.
 
I have another flash piece coming out at some point in Daily Science Fiction. I’m pretty excited about that one because I’ve submitted to DSF fourteen times, and this is my first acceptance. Sadly, they’re going on hiatus later this year, so this is probably my first and only piece to come out there. Look out for “Wild and Free, the Moon and Blood,” a story about menopausal lycanthropy.
 
What are you working on now?
​

I’ve been working on a stand-alone fantasy novel featuring an older protagonist—a single mother, and a former swordswoman. I enjoy the Chosen One trope, so I played around with it, asking myself what would happen if, for a change, the Chosen One was an adult with responsibilities (kids, a home to care for, a job… you know, super serious adult stuff). I thought it would really suck to get that poke from the universe right smack in the middle of one’s life. On the other hand, it makes for a heck of a mid-life crisis. At any rate, I get to write about an older woman doing kick ass stuff. I get to incorporate my experience in kendo (sword fights are cool, ya know). And there are corgis, which is like putting a cherry smack on top of an already delicious sundae with the perfect ratio of chocolate drizzle to ice cream.

Books by Rebecca Roland

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Call for Submissions: Solarpunk Creatures

9/30/2022

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Call for Submissions: Solarpunk Creatures
 

Open for Submissions: October 1 – 31, 2022
Story Length: up to 7,000 words
Payment:
Fiction: $0.03 per word (USD)
Art: $100 (USD) for previously unpublished art; $50 (USD) for reprint art
 
To imagine and build better futures, we’re championing a new wave of inclusive storytelling that centers nonhuman characters and positive multispecies interactions. Whether the setting is urban or rural or a space station, we’re looking for stories and artwork that put human-nonhuman or even nonhuman-nonhuman relations in the spotlight. We encourage creators to imagine nonhuman main characters, and we welcome narratives that acknowledge the agency of multispecies actors, both in the worldbuilding and in the plot. Because this is a solarpunk anthology, stories that acknowledge the realities of climate change and address those challenges through uplifting possibilities will have the best chance.
 
We’re defining “creature” broadly, so let us see your depictions of wild animals as well as domesticated ones, of intelligent fungi or plastic-eating bacteria, of lakes and rivers granted personhood. Reconsider the traditional tropes of alien first contact and sentient AI, and envision them in a way that doesn’t replicate the same old oppressions and assumptions of human dominance. We’re looking for work that acknowledges humans as one species in a larger ecosystem, for human characters who strive for cooperation with (rather than dominance over) other creatures, for settings that reflect a sustainable balance of nature and technology.
 
This is a sequel-in-spirit to Multispecies Cities: Solarpunk Urban Futures, which reimagined our urban spaces as less anthropocentric. Read those stories to get a sense of what our editors will be looking for. We also adore Becky Chambers’ Monk and Robot duology, and would love to see stories and artwork in that tenor.
 
Submissions from authors outside of the United States are highly encouraged, as well as from authors of marginalized identities. We aim to curate a diverse, inclusive, and international table of contents. Stories must be in English; translations are welcome, provided the original author has given permission.
 
Simultaneous submissions are okay, so long as you let us know if it sells to another market before we can make a decision. Please send only one story or one work of visual art.
 
How to submit:
 
Fiction: Send story as a .doc, .docx, or .rtf to [email protected]. Use the subject line SOLARPUNK CREATURES: [STORY TITLE] and include a brief cover letter in the body of the email. (Please do not summarize your story.)
 
Artwork: Send art as .png or .jpeg attachments with a DPI of 300 or higher to [email protected]. Use the subject line SOLARPUNK CREATURES: [ARTWORK TITLE]. While both color and black and white will be considered, please note that all artwork will be printed in black and white in the paperback.

Questions? Leave a comment below or email [email protected].

​Need inspiration? Check out the solarpunk anthologies we've already published!

Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers

$13.95
Anthology edited by Sarena Ulibarri
Series: Glass & Gardens
Science Fiction / Short Story Anthology
Release Date: June 5, 2018

Trade Paperback
ISBN-13: 978-0998702278
Anthology: Approx. 87,000 words / 290 pages
Also available as an ebook

Find it Online:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Books-A-Million
Goodreads
Independent Bookstores
iTunes/Apple iBooks
Kobo

Wholesale: Ingram or direct: World Weaver Press.
Shop

Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Winters

$15.95
Anthology edited by Sarena Ulibarri
Series: Glass & Gardens
Science Fiction / Short Story Anthology
Release Date: January 7, 2020

Trade Paperback
ISBN-13: 978-1732254688
Anthology: Approx. 95,000 words / 300 pages
Also available as an ebook

Find it Online:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Books-A-Million
Goodreads
Independent Bookstores
​
Ingram
iTunes/Apple iBooks
Kobo

Library: Overdrive or Bibliotheca
Wholesale: Ingram or direct from [email protected]
Shop

Multispecies Cities

$15.95
Anthology
Science Fiction / Short Story Anthology
Release Date: April 13, 2021

Trade Paperback
ISBN-13: 978-1734054521
Anthology: Approx. 100,000 words / 330 pages
Also available as an ebook

Find it Online:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Books-A-Million
Goodreads
Independent Bookstores
Ingram
iTunes/Apple iBooks
Kobo


Wholesale: Ingram or direct: World Weaver Press.
Shop
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WWP Bestsellers: June 2022

6/23/2022

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This seems as good a space as any to announce that World Weaver Press is now on an indefinite hiatus. Most of our books will remain on sale, but at this time, we have no future titles planned. Trenchcoats, Towers, and Trolls: Cyberpunk Fairy Tales and Mothers of Enchantment: New Tales of Fairy Godmothers, both published earlier this year, may be our final releases.

When I took over World Weaver Press in 2016, my goal was to follow through on the promises the previous owner had made to the authors and editors who had trusted us with their creative projects. With varying degrees of success, I did that, and a little bit more. Our books have reached readers all over the world. Stories in our anthologies have been translated into other languages, quoted in critical essays, and assigned in classrooms. I'm especially proud of the books that have made it onto SFF award lists: Bite Somebody by Sara Dobie Bauer, 2017 Imadjinn Award for Best Paranormal Romance Novel; “The Partisan and the Witch” by Charlotte Honigman in Skull and Pestle: New Tales of Baba Yaga, 2020 WSFA Small Press Award; Multispecies Cities: Solarpunk Urban Futures, nominee for Best Utopian Anthology/Collection in the 2022 Utopia Awards.

Even though we're (probably) not publishing any new ones, World Weaver Press books still have a long life ahead of them, so please continue to leave reviews, share your favorites with your on- and offline networks, and pick up the ones you've been meaning to check out. Below, you can see which titles readers were most excited about in the first half of 2022!
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How these rankings are calculated:
  • This list takes into account all vendors (Amazon, iTunes, website sales, libraries, etc.), from all countries, in both ebook and paperback.
  • Vendors may not report numbers to us for one to four months after the actual sale, so even though I'm calling this list "first half of 2022," it may include sales ranging from October 2021 to May 2022, depending on vendor reports. Sales are counted in the month when payment is rendered to World Weaver Press.
  • Only books currently in print are included in this bestsellers list.

TOP 10 BESTSELLERS: 1st Half 2022

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#1 MULTISPECIES CITIES: SOLARPUNK URBAN FUTURES

Anthology edited by Christoph Rupprecht, Deborah Cleland, Norie Tamura, Rajat Chaudhuri, and Sarena Ulibarri

​Released April 2021
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#2 ​GLASS AND GARDENS: SOLARPUNK SUMMERS
​
Anthology edited by Sarena Ulibarri

Released June 2018
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#3 SOLARPUNK: ECOLOGICAL AND FANTASTICAL STORIES IN A SUSTAINABLE WORLD

Translated from Brazilian Portuguese

Released Aug. 2018
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#4 ​GLASS AND GARDENS: SOLARPUNK WINTERS
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Anthology edited by Sarena Ulibarri

Released January 2020
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#5 ​KRAMPUSNACHT

Anthology edited by Kate Wolford

Released Nov. 2014

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#6 TRENCHCOATS, TOWERS, AND TROLLS

Anthology edited by Rhonda Parrish

Released January 2022
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#7 RECOGNIZE FASCISM

Anthology edited by Crystal M. Huff

Released October 2020
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#8 ​SKULL AND PESTLE: NEW TALES OF BABA YAGA

Anthology edited by Kate Wolford

​Released January 2019
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#9 THE CONTINUUM
Place in Time, Book 1

by Wendy Nikel

Released Jan. 2018
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#10 THE FALLING OF THE MOON
Moonfall Mayhem, Book 1

by A.E. Decker

Released October 2015

TOP 10 ALL-TIME BESTSELLERS,
​2012-PRESENT

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2022 Utopia Award Nominations

6/6/2022

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Thank you to Android Press and all of the folks involved in the 2022 Utopia Awards for acknowledging World Weaver Press in your nominations! We're nominated in two categories: Best Utopian Curator, and Best Utopian Anthology/Collection, for Multispecies Cities: Solarpunk Urban Futures, edited by Christoph Rupprecht, Deborah Cleland, Norie Tamura, Rajat Chaudhuri, and Sarena Ulibarri.
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We're big fans of many of the other works and creators included in these categories, as well! Check out the full list of nominees at android-press.com/2022-utopia-award-nominees and be sure to check out the first ever Climate Fiction Conference on October 1, 2022 to find out the winners!
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When Your Godmother is a Witch

5/5/2022

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Guest Blog by Kelly Jarvis

Every girl dreams of having a fairy godmother.

But what happens when your fairy godmother is a witch? This is the question lurking behind my story for the Mothers of Enchantment: New Tales of Fairy Godmothers anthology. “A Story of Soil and Stardust” blends elements from traditional Cinderella and Vasilisa the Beautiful tales, casting Baba Yaga, the terrifying witch of Slavic folklore, in the fairy godmother role.

I first learned about Baba Yaga through the anthology Skull and Pestle: New Tales of Baba Yaga. Described as a ferocious old woman with a hooked nose and long, bony legs, Baba Yaga can be found living deep in the woods in a broken-down hut that runs around on chicken feet. She flies through the air in a mortar and pestle, has a trio of horsemen to do her evil bidding, and satisfies her voracious appetite by devouring the flesh of children, adding their skulls and bones to the grisly fence that surrounds her forest property.

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But, when we look beneath Baba Yaga’s frightening surface, we find so much more than a cannibalistic witch. She is a crafty crone, a wise woman, and an earth mother. Described as both a donor and a villain, Baba Yaga is just as likely to help the mortals she encounters as she is to eat them, and her insatiable hunger stands in bold opposition to the rules and restrictions imposed by civilized societies. Her name, which differs slightly within the Slavic languages, may reveal her softer side. “Baba” usually translates to “grandmother” or “old woman”, while “Yaga” may be a diminutive form of the name “Jadwiga”, a Slavic variation of the Germanic name “Hedwig”.  Hedwig is also the name of the Catholic patron saint of orphans (Hedwig of Andechs), and although an exact connection between the saint and Baba Yaga can’t be drawn, the similarity of their names made me wonder how Baba Yaga might interact with the orphaned protagonists of Cinderella and Vasilisa tales. It was from this wondering that my witchy fairy godmother was born.

Once Baba Yaga entered my story, the details of the narrative fell into place. The setting moved to the harsh northern forest. The pages filled themselves with warm baked breads, steaming bowls of porridge, grilled sausages, and thick pieces of gravied beef, offerings to satisfy Baba Yaga’s deep hunger. The doll, a symbol central to the Vasilisa tale, became a Matryoshka Doll, a set of wooden nesting dolls placed one inside the other. As a child, I delighted in twisting these dolls open to find smaller dolls inside, amazed by the number of unseen secrets the outermost doll could hold within her.

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Stories are a lot like Matryoshka Dolls; they invite us to twist them open and find the treasures hidden within. Their smallest elements stand as reflections of the whole, and it can take time and patience to stack the pieces together in meaningful order. If a Matryoshka Doll can hold endless versions of herself within her, then perhaps Baba Yaga can do the same, and we need only to twist open her stories to see the secret fragments that make her who she is.

Fairy godmothers come in all shapes and sizes, and it may be possible that a gruesome witch can be a blessing to an orphaned child desperate to find her way in a hostile world.

You will have to read my story to find out.

Kelly Jarvis (she/her) is the Special Projects Writer for Enchanted Conversation: A Fairy Tale Magazine. Her work has appeared in Eternal Haunted Summer, Mermaids Monthly, and Blue Heron Review. When not writing, she teaches classes in writing, literature, and fairy tale at Central Connecticut State University. ​
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Redeeming Rumpelstiltskin: A Look Behind “In the Name of Gold”

5/4/2022

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Guest Blog by Claire Noelle Thomas

​This story began with a list of questions.

When I was young, I read a lot of fairy tales. They were dazzling, down-to-earth, beautiful, and sometimes frightening, but I loved them all.

In most of the stories, the characters’ motivations were clear, whether good or evil. There was no ambiguity about why the villains did awful things. The witch wanted to eat Hansel and Gretel. The evil stepmother envied Snow White’s beauty. The spurned fairy took her revenge on Sleeping Beauty’s parents.

Because of this clarity of intention and action, fairy tales always made sense to me on a fundamental level.

But not Rumpelstiltskin. For some reason, it left me feeling confused and dissatisfied. I couldn’t put my finger on why the story bothered me, so I began to avoid it.

As I got older, I stopped returning to fairy tales as frequently. Something of the magic of that world had been lost to me. The stories didn’t set fire to my imagination like they once did.

Then, a few years ago, I found my way back to fairy tales again. This time, I began to glimpse possibilities and gray areas, gaps that I’d never questioned before. All of a sudden, the stories came alive to me, their world richer and more vibrant than ever.

I rediscovered Rumpelstiltskin when the Grimms’ tale came up in a fairy tale class I was taking. It still left me feeling hollow and dissatisfied, but this time, instead of shying away from the story, I kept thinking about it. Eventually, I realized that one of the things that bothered me was the lack of clear motivation for the character of Rumpelstiltskin. He appears as a rescuer at first, but quickly becomes a villain. To me, he’s one of the most terrifying fairy tale characters, precisely because his actions are so illogical and inexplicable. Why does he torment the miller’s daughter when he has no connection to her? What’s in it for him?

At that point, something clicked for me, and I began to consider all the unanswered questions in this story. Who is Rumpelstiltskin, and what brings him to the castle in the middle of the night? What motivates him to ask the miller’s daughter for her first-born child? Why does he offer her a chance to guess his name when he could simply take the child? And why exhibit such indiscretion in singing his own name aloud? (One could say overconfidence, I suppose, but it’s not a very satisfying answer.) And, perhaps most baffling, why does he tear himself in half at the end of the story?

None of these questions had obvious answers, and to me, the story felt like it was more holes than plot. I started toying with the idea that maybe the version we know is only half the tale. What if Rumpelstiltskin actually had perfectly reasonable, even honorable intentions? What was his side of the story?

This idea sparked my imagination so much that I decided to try to “redeem” Rumpelstiltskin. Not an easy task when you’re dealing with an extortionist and would-be kidnapper!

But as soon as I started writing, everything seemed to fall into place. I glimpsed a pattern I hadn’t seen before, shadows of things already in the tale that just needed to be brought to the forefront. Suddenly, all the elements that had always bothered me about Rumpelstiltskin shifted and turned, revealing a much different face to a story I thought I knew.

Giving Rumpelstiltskin a voice and a conscience was painful and challenging. It took me to places within the story that I never noticed before, but it also allowed me to appreciate the original tale in a totally new way. Beneath the apparent cynicism and spitefulness, I found other emotions and motivations at work in these characters.
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Rumpelstiltskin is a story about greed, yes. But it’s also about possibilities and new beginnings. And, at its heart, it is a celebration of the tenacity of life and hope, even in the harshest conditions. 

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