10 Badass N.K. Jemisin Quotes

Posted by Augur Blog
On March 29, 2019

If you’re not familiar with N.K. Jemisin or her three-times Hugo-winning fantasy trilogy, you’re probably missing out on the stunning, badass lines that appear in her writing. No worries, we’re on it. Her works entertain and captivate while exploring themes such as race, oppression, power, love and environmentalism. So here are ten awesome quotes from […]

La Corriveau

Posted by Augur Blog
On March 14, 2019

By K.T. Bryski Here is a most peculiar object. Come closer, take a good look. See, here it is, laid out in this museum basement. It is a battered iron cage—human-shaped. At the top, there are two bent strips to enclose the head. Down here are thicker bands to surround the rib cage, the pelvic […]

Challenge Accepted: Augur Reads Diversly

Posted by Augur Blog
On February 27, 2019

When Augur heard that the Festival of Literary Diversity (FOLD) had an annual reading challenge, we knew we had to join. Each book prompt is designed with diversity in mind and we’re all for that. Each month, the FOLD blog will feature a selection of recommended Canadian picks based on the prompt. (If you’re looking […]

Experiencing Afrofuturism as a Black Canadian

Posted by Augur Blog
On February 21, 2019

By Terese Mason Pierre I’m a young black woman. I write speculative fiction. It took me far too long to discover the existence of black women speculative fiction writers. I assumed it was something white people did, and that I, writing speculative fiction, was doing something white people do. It wasn’t the first time I […]

Murakami vs. Saunders: Magical Book Design

Posted by Augur Blog
On February 15, 2019

On the surface, a story about a library prison escape and the tale of an anthropomorphic fox rendered homeless could not be more different. But both of these short stories—The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami and Fox 8 by George Saunders—have been published as standalone books with illustrations (adult picture books, if you will). This […]

Dishling

Posted by Augur Blog
On January 30, 2019

What I knew of Margaret Taft, gathered over the years from the few people on the faculty who could recall her for me, was that by nature she was no more ruthless than anyone else in the graduate program, and despite Paul Fisher's best efforts to recruit her...

Love of Science and Dragons: Memoirs of Lady Trent by Marie Brennan

Posted by Augur Blog
On January 23, 2019

Reviewed by Patrick Icasas Marie Brennan, the author of the five-part series The Memoirs of Lady Trent, has created a cohesive fictional work that trumps many sagas that have been pumped out in the last ten years. I love epic, multi-part sci-fi and fantasy series, but I’m always wary of how they end. Some authors try to […]

zamana

Posted by Augur Blog
On January 18, 2019

By Amrita Chakraborty several hundred years ago, i knew a girl named zamana. where she lived, june marked the start of monsoon season. and she had her ways of preparing. every night, as her husband slept soundly, zamana would sit for hours in the small courtyard beyond their hut and weave baskets and thatches from thick, […]

All Too Casual: Taking Responsibility in Artistic Representations

Posted by Augur Blog
On January 15, 2019

By Lorna Antoniazzi It’s the beginning of a new year—a time to look to look forward to all the new plans, but also a good time to look back at everything we’ve already accomplished. Today we’ve dug up one of Kickstarter essays that introduced Augur to all of you. Our cover artist, Lorna Antoniazzi, has written about the responsibility an artist has to ensure that intersectionality is included in renderings of stories. I feel it’s important to recognize this right off the bat: I am […]

Memory and Truth: An Interview with Rati Mehrotra

Posted by Augur Blog
On January 11, 2019

SFF writer and bookworm extraordinaire, Rati Mehrotra, chatted with Augur about the joys of world-building and writing within the speculative with the “rules” of the realistic. Her debut novel, Markswoman (the first in a series), was published in 2018. In the same year, her short story “Hacker’s Faire” was shortlisted for the 2018 Sunburst Award for […]