I am beyond thrilled that “The Last Novelist” has been nominated for a Nebula Award! I can’t believe it! I’m super grateful to Ellen Datlow, for choosing and editing the story, to Tor.com, for publishing it, and for everyone who voted for and shared their love for the story on social media. “The Last Novelist” is about pursuing one’s art even when it seems no one is paying attention. It is about carving out an artistic niche even when there are too many other worrisome things going on in the world that want to take precedence. Though I wrote “The Last Novelist” over a year ago, and it takes place in the far future, I believe it couldn’t be more apt to today’s political climate.

I am also honored to be nominated alongside such amazing talents! I have read many, but not all, of the nominated works, so I can’t wait to dig in to all the great stuff!

This is my third Nebula Award nomination (I haven’t won a Nebula so far), and I have to say getting nominated is still one of the Most Exciting Things™ to ever happen to an author. So, thanks a bunch! You guys really are amazing.

I’ll be attending the 2018 SFWA Nebula Conference in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania from May 17-20th, 2018. And I’ll be doing panels and podcasts and autographs and (hopefully!) doing some sightseeing around Pittsburgh, since I’ve never visited the city. Here’s my official schedule:

Saturday, May 19, 2018

A Users Guide to Writers’ Workshops, 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Speakers: Mur Lafferty • Fran Wilde • Curtis C. Chen (Curtis C. Chen) • Matthew Kressel (Tyrell Corporation) • John Kessel, Moderators: James Patrick Kelly
Marquis B

Health and Happiness for Writers, 2:30pm – 3:30pm, Speakers: Rekka Jay (writing as R J Theodore) • Lara Elena Donnelly (Ms.) • Matthew Kressel (Tyrell Corporation) • Patrick Rothfuss
Moderators: Theodora Goss
Marquis B

Skynet, Matrix, Other: Where Will AI Lead Us?, 4:00pm – 5:00pm
Speakers: Kenneth Chiacchia (Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center) • David D. Levine • PJ Manney (PJ Manney) • Matthew Kressel (Tyrell Corporation)Moderators: Martha Wells
Marquis B

Sunday, May 20, 2018

Mass Autographing, 1:00pm – 3:00pm
Sam Linton Grand Ballroom

Hope to see all you crazy cats there!

Over at Locus, Paula Guran reviews recent horror fiction and has this to say about my recent story, “Will You Meet Me There, Out Beyond the Bend?” in Nightmare:

“There are a number of the dead in Kressel’s tale. They are a melancholy bunch, always waiting for life to find them again. It has been said that horror is about the unknowable and that death is the greatest unknown of all. Kressel paints a good picture of death that anyone is sure to fear.”

You can read the full review here.

I’m delighted to announce that my short story “Love Engine Optimization” (originally in Lightspeed Magazine). will appear in Rich Horton’s The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, 2018 Edition. This is my second ever Year’s Best inclusion (the first is for “The Last Novelist” which also came out in 2017). I get to share this amazing table of contents with Rich Larson, Charlie Jane Anders, Suzanne Palmer, Samuel R. Delany, Michael Swanwick, Maureen McHugh, Tobias Buckell, Kameron Hurley, Sofia Samatar, Yoon Ha Lee, Linda Nagata, Sarah Pinsker, and so many others.

I’m glad this story got noticed, and not just because it’s been included in a year’s best. The story concerns the overwhelming amount of data collected on individuals, often without our awareness. It seemed to me that people were (and still are) too comfortable giving up their personal data for a bit of convenience. And it seemed to me that often people had (and still have) no idea what was/is being collected on them and how it might be used. “Love Engine Optimization” is my attempt to show what one pernicious actor might do with access to such data. If one person can do this much harm, imagine what powerful nation states might do with all this information. The more technology becomes integrated into our lives, the greater the potential that technology might be used against us in malicious ways. 

I work in IT. I see technology daily bringing immense benefit to the world. But it can also cause great harm if we don’t consider how it might be abused.

If you’d like to hear me discuss more about “Love Engine Optimization,” you may want to check out the Alan & Jeremy vs. SF podcast episode where I was invited on to speak about the story. 

I’m psyched to announce that my story “Love Engine Optimization” made the Locus Recommended Reading List! The list is collected via a consensus by Locus editors, reviewers, and other professionals.

So that other career milestone I hinted at in some of my previous posts? I’m beyond thrilled to announce that my story “The Last Novelist (or a Dead Lizard in the Yard)” has been picked up for The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume 3, edited by Neil Clarke. The story originally appeared on Tor.com and was edited by Ellen Datlow. 

This is my first Best Of anthology, and I couldn’t be happier to be part of this. Here’s the full table of contents:

• “A Series of Steaks” by Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Clarkesworld, January 2017)
• “Holdfast” by Alastair Reynolds (Extrasolar, edited by Nick Gevers)
• “Every Hour of Light and Dark” by Nancy Kress (Omni, Winter 2017)
• “The Last Novelist, or a Dead Lizard in the Yard” by Matthew Kressel (Tor.com, March 2017)
• “Shikasta” by Vandana Singh (Visions, Ventures, Escape Velocities, edited by Ed Finn and Joey Eschrich)
• “Wind Will Rove” by Sarah Pinsker (Asimov’s Science Fiction, September/October 2017)
• “Focus” by Gord Sellar (Analog Science Fiction and Fact, May/June 2017)
• “The Martian Obelisk” by Linda Nagata (Tor.com, July 2017)
• “Shadows of Eternity” by Gregory Benford (Extrasolar, edited by Nick Gevers)
• “The Worldless” by Indrapramit Das (Lightspeed, March 2017)
• “Regarding the Robot Raccoons Attached to the Hull of My Ship” by Rachael K. Jones and Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali (Diabolical Plots, June 2017)
• “Belly Up” by Maggie Clark (Analog Science Fiction and Fact, July/August 2017)
• “Uncanny Valley” by Greg Egan (Tor.com, August 2017)
• “We Who Live in the Heart ” by Kelly Robson (Clarkesworld, May 2017)
• “A Catalogue of Sunlight at the End of the World” by A.C. Wise (Sunvault, edited by Phoebe Wagner and Bronte Christopher Wieland)
• “Meridian” by Karin Lowachee (Where the Stars Rise, edited by Lucas K. Law and Derwin Mak)
• “The Tale of the Alcubierre Horse” by Kathleen Ann Goonan (Extrasolar, edited by Nick Gevers)
• “Extracurricular Activities” by Yoon Ha Lee (Tor.com, February 2017)
• “In Everlasting Wisdom” by Aliette de Bodard (Infinity Wars, edited by Jonathan Strahan)
• “The Last Boat-Builder in Ballyvoloon” by Finbarr O’Reilly (Clarkesworld, October 2017)
• “The Speed of Belief” by Robert Reed (Asimov’s Science Fiction, January/February 2017)
• “Death on Mars” by Madeline Ashby (Visions, Ventures, Escape Velocities, edited by Ed Finn and Joey Eschrich)
• “An Evening with Severyn Grimes” by Rich Larson (Asimov’s Science Fiction, July/August 2017)
• “ZeroS” by Peter Watts (Infinity Wars, edited by Jonathan Strahan)
• “The Secret Life of Bots” by Suzanne Palmer (Clarkesworld, September 2017)
• “Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance” by Tobias S. Buckell (Cosmic Powers, edited by John Joseph Adams)

Cover art by Chris McGrath.