(1) 2026 GUGGENHEIM FELLOWS. Namwali Serpell, author of the 2020 Clark Award-winning The Old Drift, and Marlon James, whose Black Leopard, Red Wolf won a 2020 Locus Award, are among the 233 Guggenheim Fellows announced today.

Chosen through a rigorous application and peer review process from a pool of nearly 5,000 applicants, the Class of 2026 Guggenheim Fellows was tapped based on both prior career achievement and exceptional promise. 

The fellows span 55 different disciplines.

(2) A SFF MURDER. Pratchett’s here – “6 Mystery Novels with Unorthodox Settings and Setups” at CrimeReads.

Terry Pratchett, Snuff

The Discworld series, starting in 1983, quickly evolved from its parody nature to a dense universe and a perfect setting for whatever ideas Pratchett wished to explore. Commanders Vimes is a character that evolved with it, a grizzled police veteran with an adamantine sense of justice. In Snuff he finds himself on vacation in a small country town so, of course, there is a murder.

Terry Pratchett’s skill for blending relatable characters, affectionate pastiche and cuttingly incisive satire are all on fine display here. It explores small-town politics, racial prejudice and corruption all through the fine tunes comic style that Pratchett made his own.

(3) MEDICINE AFTER THE WORLD ENDS. Jason P. Burnham speculates about “Post-Apocalyptic Antibiotics” at SFWA’s Planetside.

Whoopsie-doodle! Your protagonist has just been written into a world where the infrastructure for antibiotic production no longer exists. Perhaps you’re writing in the near future, and climate change has progressed to the point of the complete collapse of global commerce. Perhaps the aliens from the first Independence Day movie have blown up all the major centers of production around the world. Or maybe the antibiotic production infrastructure has yet to be invented because you’re writing in the past or a pre-technological fantasy world. Wherever you’re creating, no one is making antibiotics. Protagonists living a “life after antibiotics” (or before, as may be the case) is becoming an increasingly relevant theme/scenario for modern speculative fiction. What’s a protagonist (and author looking to write such a setting with believable medical accuracy) to do?

Before we dive into what your main character’s options are for making/acquiring antibiotics, first we must consider the spectrum of conditions for which you might need antibiotics. Some common bacterial infections are those of the urinary tract, lungs (pneumonia), ears, skin and soft tissue, bones, and meninges (meningitis). Add to that diarrheal illness and sexually transmitted infections. If there are no antibiotics, what can your protagonist do for the afflicted? …

… Bald’s Eyesalve is just one example—perhaps your protagonist has access to other forgotten or dismissed remedies. An ancient text, only recently discovered. An Indigenous remedy known only through oral tradition, in danger of being phased out of history by colonial violence. Lost scrolls from antiquity stumbled upon in a cave, desert, or island that are previously unread, but provide crucial insights into antibiotic properties and preparations from commonly available plants, fungi, insects, or other plot/world-convenient source. It is entirely plausible!…

(4) THE CUTTING ROOM. The Unofficial Hugo Book Club Blog dissects the 1991 Best Dramatic Hugo results in “A Fantasy Of Suburbia (Hugo Cinema 1991)”.

…More than 800 people voted in the category, as there were strong feelings expressed about the top two contenders. Paul Verhoven’s Total Recall had been the standard-bearer for fans of hard-edged classic science fiction, while Tim Burton’s gothic fable Edward Scissorhands was beloved by the more whimsical factions of fandom. The winner was decided by just six votes — a margin of less than 0.7 per cent. The shortlist was rounded out by the top-grossing movie of the year, Ghost, a well-liked sequel to the Hugo-winning Back To The Future, and The Witches, the last theatrically-released movie from iconic puppeteer Jim Henson….

(5) INTERVIEW SUBJECT. Mental Floss reveals “The Tragic Real-Life Inspiration Behind ‘Interview with the Vampire’”.

…In 1972, Rice lost her five-year-old daughter Michele to leukemia. The child’s death led to the creation of Interview with the Vampire, which became Rice’s first published novel when it came out in 1976. 

“Some time after, in grief, and madness, a dreadful fiction was born to me out of the tragedy—a book that was most certainly allegorical though I never noticed—Interview with the Vampire in which the child vampire Claudia, created by two males clearly married to each other, realizes that though she is immortal like her parents, she will never grow up,” Rice wrote in a 2019 Facebook post….

(6) UP ABOVE THE WORLD SO HIGH. James Davis Nicoll spotlights “Five Vintage SF Works About Traveling to the Moon” at Reactor.

People the world over welcomed the distraction offered by astronaut Jeremy Hanson as the Canadian and some others made their way to and around the Moon in the spacecraft Artemis II.

Now, the idea of a journey to the Moon is nothing new. The Moon has been in the sky for a very long time. I have no doubt it will still be there when humans are a fading memory¹. It’s only natural that storytellers have long pondered journeys there. Before the nineteenth century, these journeys were only fantasies. Of late we have begun to imagine Moon travel via technology. You might enjoy these early works….

One of them features comics hero The Spirit —

The Spirit on the Moon by Will Eisner, Jules Feiffer, and Wallace Wood (1952)

The Interplanetary Flight Commission is determined to put men on the Moon. The problem is that any man with the requisite skills has far better options than a quite-possibly-one-way trip to an airless, deadly world. Any free man, that is. Hardened convicts can be enticed into volunteering, in return for freedom should they return.

Someone will have to accompany the crooks, to keep them on-mission and ensure the success of the venture. That man is, as the title suggests, masked crimefighter Denny Colt, AKA the Spirit. But is even a two-fisted man of action up to the challenges of keeping panicky convicts alive on an alien world?

Sending masked crimefighters to the Moon? What next? Dick Tracy?

Efforts to test crewed spaceflight with animals infuriated animal welfare agencies. Nobody seems all that bothered about sending convicts. This is just one reason why this atypical Spirit arc is incredibly depressing…the art, the Spirit’s internal monologue, and the unpleasant fatalities all play a role.

(7) BUCKET LIST ADDITIONS. “By the Power of Grayskull: The Masters of the Universe Popcorn Bucket Is a Castle and the Sword of Power Is a Drink Container” – Fantasy Land News tells all about them.

The Masters of the Universe Cinemark popcorn bucket, collectible tumblers, Sword of Power drink container, and plush lineup have been officially revealed ahead of the film’s June 5, 2026, theatrical release, with the full lineup unveiled at CinemaCon 2026 in Las Vegas. Cinemark’s Masters of the Universe collectibles feature a Castle Grayskull popcorn bucket with a built-in drink holder tower, a full-face Skeletor sculpted tumbler with red glowing eyes, a He-Man figure cup, a Sword of Power drink container that unscrews in three sections and uses the hilt as a straw, chibi-style Skeletor and Beast Man plush toys, and a Skeletor Bust Popcorn Bucket….

…What makes this one genuinely special is the dual functionality. Popcorn fills the main Castle Grayskull body, while one of the side towers functions as a dedicated drink compartment — making this a complete all-in-one concession piece that holds both your popcorn and your drink simultaneously….

… The Skeletor face tumbler. The skull face, red glowing eyes, and purple hood are all rendered in three-dimensional detail, wrapping the front of the cup in a character portrait that reads as a genuine collectible figure rather than a branded cup. Comes with a black lid and straw. Skeletor is played by Jared Leto in the 2026 film, and the sculpt captures the classic animated Skeletor design rather than a film-specific likeness. Expected to be priced around $17.99

The He-Man figure cup features a fully articulated He-Man figure sculpted onto the dome lid of a blue translucent cup, with He-Man’s likeness also embossed through the cup body itself — the hero raising the Power Sword against an embossed rocky landscape visible through the translucent blue walls. The figure on top stands free of the lid and is detailed enough to function as a standalone display piece. The blue translucent design is a clean and distinctive execution that stands apart from the darker tones of the Skeletor and Castle Grayskull pieces.

(8) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

April 16, 2007 — Ray Bradbury Awarded Pulitzer Board Special Citation

Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger (on the left) presents Michael Congdon (accepting for Ray Bradbury) with the Pulitzer Prize Special Citation.

Eighteen years ago, a special citation went to Ray Bradbury from the Pulitzer Board for his distinguished, prolific and deeply influential career as an unmatched author of science fiction and fantasy.

But the Pulitzer Board doesn’t give out such an Award without picking a specific work and this is the full language of their announcement:

Bradbury came of age as a writer before the postwar ascendancy of the paperback book as a publishing medium. Instead, during the Golden Age of Science Fiction, short stories published in pulp magazines like Astounding Science-Fiction, Thrilling Wonder Stories and Amazing Stories stood at the forefront of the field. As such, many of his novels are actually “fixups”—a term coined by SF legend A.E. van Vogt to describe novels assembled from previously published short stories that were buttressed with new interlinking maCulled from Bradbury’s late 1940s output, The Martian Chronicles is a sweeping account of the colonization of Mars amid nuclear war on Earth. Its literary structure (patterned after Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio) earned plaudits from such notable critics like Christopher Isherwood, who read the book after a fortuitous encounter with the younger writer (and fellow Angeleno) at a bookstore. In his review, Isherwood deemed Bradbury “a very great and unusual talent,” a tastemaking assessment that charted the course of the rest of his career.

(9) COMICS SECTION.

• Bound and Gagged picks up riders.
• Jerry King detects a virus.
• Non Sequitur qualified.

(10) EO-POOH. “Pooh in pencil: sketches for original Winnie-the-Pooh book shared for first time” – see them in the Guardian.

Previously unseen drawings of Winnie-the-Pooh that show the honey-loving bear before he was introduced to generations of readers in the 1926 book have come to light.

Two preliminary pencil sketches by E H Shepard have been shared for the first time by his family to mark the centenary of one of the most loved books in children’s literature.

Having been abandoned at the very earliest stage of the book’s creation, the drawings offer a rare glimpse into Shepard’s working process and imagination as he brought AA Milne’s character to life. They depict passages that are familiar to readers but were not accompanied by illustrations in the original published book.

A pencil drawing, captioned: “Climbing very cautiously up the stream”, shows Pooh and his adventure-loving friends Christopher Robin, Piglet and Owl. It was intended for Chapter VIII, in which Christopher Robin leads an “expotition” to the north pole….

(11) ‘UNC’ GAMES. [Item by Steven French.] If you ever wondered what an ‘unc’ game is, Keza MacDonald explains all in the latest “Pushing Buttons” newsletter: “Long live the ‘unc game’” in the Guardian.

While researching women’s experiences in multiplayer video games recently, I came across this thread on the subreddit about Bungie’s latest live shooter, Marathon. “I’ve played a lot of shooters, and as a feminine-presenting player tbh it’s often a struggle,” it reads. “I’ve heard all the ‘get back to the kitchen’ jokes … ​But Marathon has been completely different, guys. I haven’t had a single issue, people have been incredibly kind and helpful… ​The community feels genuinely welcoming to everyone.”

The top-voted reply? “Benefit of being an unc game.”

What the heck is an unc game? It didn’t take me long to discover that “unc” (short for uncle) is the latest semi-disparaging gen Z name for anyone over about 30. Further back, it originated as AAVE slang. “Uncslop” refers to the implicitly terrible games beloved by this older generation of players; basically anything made in the 1990s or 2000s, from Knights of the Old Republic to World of Warcraft. An unc game, then, is a game predominantly played by millennials (and older) – and Marathon is one of them. A week or so later, I read Emanuel Maiberg’s article for 404 Media, which dug into the game’s unc credentials.

I’ve been waiting a long time for this cultural milestone: the point at which video games have been around long enough for old games (and older gamers) to become fundamentally embarrassing. I’m totally here for it – long live the unc game. May uncs enjoy slower-paced shooters and 12- to 15-hour cinematic narrative games for ever, while simultaneously decrying the frenetic pace and aesthetic overwhelm of young-people games. This is the eternal generational cycle, and it should be embraced and enjoyed.’…

(12) NEW D&D PLAY SHOW. “Dungeons and Dragons Launches Official Actual-Play Show” – Variety has details.

Hasbro’s Wizards of the Coast is putting their trademarked D back in DM-ing with the launch of a new “Dungeons & Dragons” actual-play TV series.

Launching with its first two episodes available on YouTube on April 22 at 6:30 p.m. PT, the new show, titled “Dungeon Masters,” stars Jasmine Bhullar (“DesiQuest,” “Dimension 20”) as the Dungeon Master along with players Mayanna Berrin (“Dispatch,” “StoryQuest”), Christian Navarro (“13 Reasons Why,” “Forgotten Realms: Tears of Selune”), Neil Newbon (“Baldur’s Gate III”) and Devora Wilde (“Baldur’s Gate III”).

For the uninitiated, an actual play show features people who are really playing “Dungeons & Dragons,” or another table-top roleplaying game. The format has become widely popularized in recent years through the web series “Critical Role” and Dropout’s “Dimension 20,” both of which focus on D&D-style game mechanics, but without using the official D&D products or licensing. (Instead of Dungeon Masters, you have game masters.)…

(13) UNKNOWABLE TV. ComicBook.com can’t forget “7 Unsolved TV Show Mysteries That Still Haunt Us Years Later”.

… A show must hook viewers from its first episode; otherwise, they risk being suddenly cancelled. That means creators who plan for multiple seasons risk leaving the story unfinished if the audience numbers are not to the liking of the executives in control of content planning.

When a series builds its entire identity around a puzzle, the contract with the audience is particularly binding. Occasionally, creators soften the blow after the fact, such as when Mike Flanagan shared his planned resolution for The Midnight Club following Netflix’s decision not to renew it. More often, the creators move on, the IP stays locked in corporate vaults, and the audience is left with a half-told story and no explanation in sight.

Here’s one of their unanswered questions:

2) Who Was Ciaran and What Was His Plan in 1899?

1899, created by Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar, the duo behind Dark, premiered on Netflix in November 2022. The series follows a group of European emigrants aboard the steamship Kerberos who discover a ghost ship and descend into a reality-fracturing nightmare. The first season’s climactic twist reveals that the entire historical setting is a simulation, that the passengers are sleeping in pods aboard a spaceship in the year 2099, and that the simulation was originally built by protagonist Maura Franklin (Emily Beecham) to preserve her dying son. The season ends with Maura waking in space to find a message from her brother Ciaran, who has been manipulating the simulation from the outside and whose larger purpose was never explained. 

Friese and Odar had designed 1899 as a three-season story, with Season 1 functioning as Act One of a complete arc. Sadly, Netflix cancelled the series in January 2023 without explanation beyond the platform’s standard data-driven criteria. Ciaran’s identity, his relationship to Maura’s original world, and the nature of the simulation’s origins remain completely unresolved, turning what should have been a first chapter into a permanent cliffhanger.

(14) FIRST MOVIE ROBOT. “A Rare 1897 Film Discovered in an Old Trunk in Michigan Features the First On-Screen Appearance of a Robot” – Smithsonian Magazine chronicles the discovery.

In a battered trunk full of his great-grandfather’s nitrate film rolls, a Michigan man discovered a relic of filmmaking history: a copy of “Gugusse and the Automaton,” a long-lost 45-second film by French auteur Georges Méliès, a pioneer of early cinema.

The slapstick short film, created around 1897, was famous for containing the very first on-screen appearance of a robot—preceding the term itself by more than two decades. But no watchable copies of the film were known to survive.

Last fall, however, retired teacher Bill McFarland of Grand Rapids brought his great-grandfather’s collection to the Library of Congress’ National Audio-Visual Conservation Center….

(15) VIDEO OF THE DAY. Past America’s video about The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951) covers casting decisions and a “Banned Secret Ending and Hidden Truth They Tried to Hide”.

[Thanks to SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Kathy Sullivan, Olav Rokne, David Doering, Steven French, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, and Cat Eldridge for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Bill.]