We are thrilled to share with you the news from WSFA, the Washington Science Fiction Association. Each year they present an award for short fiction at the Capclave Literary convention held in Rockville, Maryland, USA.

This year our own Liz Westbrook-Trenholm is a finalist for her wonderful story “The Bag of Holding”, published in our VOL 35 No 3, (Fall, 2025).

Here is the full list of finalists, courtesy of Mike Glyer’s FILE 770.  For those unaware, FILE  770 is a long-time respected source for all the latest news of interest to SF fandom.

• “Bag of Holding” by Liz Westbrook-Trenholm, On Spec, Vol 35., No. 3, Issue #133, Copper Pig Writers’ Society (October 2025), ed. by Diane Walton; and
• “Billionaire’s Tears,” by Vanessa Ricci-Thode, Escape Pod (July 24, 2025), ed. by Mur Lafferty; and
• “Blackrock,” by R. M. Olson, Skull X Bones, ed. by David B. Coe and Joshua Palmatier; Zombies Need Brains LLC, (December 2025),  and
• “Guardians of the Well,” by Rose Strickman, In Another Time Magazine, Issue 3, (June 2025), ed. by Agatha Grimke; and
• “Half Life,” by Stephen Harper, Skull X Bones, , ed. by David B. Coe and Joshua Palmatier, Zombies Need Brains LLC, (December 2025); and
• “The Last Mardi Gras,” by Raven Jakubowski, DreamForge Anvil #20, DreamForge Press, LLC (June 1, 2025), ed. by Scot Noel; and
• “Not a Fish,” by Andrew Dykstal, Beneath Ceaseless Skies #434 (June 12, 2025), ed. by Scott H. Andrews; and
• “The Teleporting Disaster Fairy,” by Rati Mehrotra, Uncanny Magazine, Issue 67 (November/December 2025), ed. by Michael Damian Thomas.

Voting has closed for this year’s Aurora Awards, so we will be waiting for the announcements of the winners at the August 9th online ceremony. Many thanks to those who nominated and who voted for us.

And at the end of August, we will know if On Spec got some love from the Hugo Award voters. We are in the Semi-Prozine award category for the FIRST time in On Spec’s history, which is a pretty awesome way to be recognized by our readers and supporters.

Being a finalist for both these coveted SFF awards is a grand way to bring On Spec, the Magazine, to an end. And we eagerly await the new beginning of the On Spec 2026 anthology, coming your way in October. Keep an eye on Shadowpaw Press for details.

Canada’s Sunburst Award committee has released the Short List of books selected by this year’s jury, and the winner will receive a medallion and $3,000 cash prize. This is a great place to enhance your reading list with titles by Canadian authors that have won this award as far back as 2001.

This is for the poetry lovers among us. On Spec’s Poetry Editor, Colleen Anderson, is releasing her new poetry collection titled To The Last Ion in October. Published by Lycan Valley Press, the book is available for pre-orders.

Colleen’s work, both her dark fiction and poetry, has been featured on the pages of On Spec since long before she became our Poetry Editor, and she’s won numerous awards for her writing. She talks about the new collection on her WordPress page, and it’s worth a look.

As a reader of On Spec, we know that you appreciate short fiction. Did you know that Canada has a prestigious juried award for novel-length works of Speculative fiction for adult readers? Named after a book by Phyllis Gottlieb, it’s known as  The Sunburst Award.

This year’s Sunburst jury is hard at work, reading and selecting the Canadian book published during 2025 that will receive this year’s award. This week, the longlist of books recommended by the jury was released. It’s definitely a good place to begin your new reading adventure.

David Jón Fuller, author of “Two Voices, One Song” (On Spec Issue #133) is launching his debut novel, Venue 13, published by Ravenstone, an imprint of Turnstone Press.

In the book, turning a run-down theatre into a new venue for a community Fringe festival, presents more problems than merely financial, when a belligerent ghost decides he isn’t happy with the plans.

Launch events below.

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Winnipeg Book Launch
McNally Robinson Booksellers
1120 Grant Avenue, Winnipeg, MB
Thursday, June 4, 2025
7:00pm. CST

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Ottawa Book Launch
Perfect Books
258A Elgin St., Ottawa, ON.
Tuesday, June 16th
7:00pm – 8:30pm EST
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Barrie Book Signing
Indigo Barrie
33 Mapleview Drive West, Barrie, ON
Saturday, June 20th
11:00am – 4:00pm EST

As we transition to new Copper Pig Writers’ Society activities, we are still maintaining this page for other purposes, not the least of which is making back issues of On Spec available for purchase.

And…

Lorina Stephens is continuing to post her reviews of Canadian-authored SFF books. You can see them here.

Hot on the heels of our Aurora final ballot announcement comes this tidbit of news for our loyal followers. For the first time EVER, On Spec will appear on the final ballot for a Hugo Award in the category of Best Semiprozine. 

Many thanks to the kind folks who nominated us and to the even kinder folks who encouraged those nominations. You know who you are.  And we are chuffed to bits with this recognition.

Unfortunately, we won’t be able to attend the Hugo ceremony in Los Angeles for…reasons…but wow, what a rush!

Congratulations and best wishes to all the finalists!

We are so happy to be represented on the Aurora Awards final ballot this year! Thanks to everyone for their nominations and support.

On Spec is nominated in the Best Related Work category. And Author Gillian Secord has her story “the love song of house and lake” in the Best Short Story category.

Two of our cover artists, Janice Blaine and Dan O’Driscoll are being recognized for their fabulous cover art in the Best Cover Art/Interior Illustration category.

Below is a link to the Current voting ballot on the Aurora page. To vote you need to purchase a membership in the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Society.

Current Ballot

We have told you before that the On Spec name will continue in another form. Ed Willett’s Shadowpaw Press announces the about- to-start Kickstarter for the new anthology of Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy. The book will feature a great selection of SF&F, along with new work by some of On Spec’s best-known writers.

In the meantime, help to support our writers and artists (shout-out to the great James Beveridge for a fabulous cover!) by making a donation as soon as the Kickstarter opens.

Check out the Kickstarter page for more information about On Spec 2026: New Canadian Literature of the Fantastic. 

When I was preparing the final issue, I thought this would be an opportunity to reflect on the vast number of people  who had been involved with On Spec over our 35 years.  It took me a while to go through every issue and find the names of staff, advisors, writers, artists and friends who have made such a great contribution. We published the list at the end of Issue #134. And you can find a link to it here.

It’s pretty darn big.

So Long and Thanks For All The Fish- Issue #134 Postscript