“[W]writing a book in which I slam an asteroid into Washington D.C. is very different before Trump than after Trump.”

—Mary Robinette Kowal, author of 2018 Nebula Award for Best Novel nominee The Calculating Stars, on Syfy Wire

“I don’t know that I set out to refute any particular stereotypes–because you need base knowledge of a history to form misconceptions about it, and I don’t think that many Western readers even have that. A lot of readers have written me about how they’d never heard of the Nanjing Massacre until they read the book, which is saddening but not surprising. American education is terribly Americentric and Eurocentric. We learn about Normandy but not Shanghai.”

—R. F. Kuang, author of 2018 Nebula Award for Best Novel finalist The Poppy War, on the B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasyblog

 “I sort of think of myself as this weird kind of border guard at a strange frontier in my mind between this world and a way more interesting one. And people are always showing up, like a woman accompanied by a killer whale, and demanding entry. And I really was too afraid of her to say no.”

—Sam J. Miller, author of 2018 Nebula Award for Best Novel finalist Blackfish, on NPR

"[I]t makes me happy that people write fanfiction about my books. I want to write worlds that feel real to people, and when my stories are done I would not want the characters to just live happily ever after. The stories are living on in these readers, and that's what I love."

—Naomi Novik, author of 2018 Nebula Award for Best Novel finalist Spinning Silver, in the Straits Times

"I wanted to tell a rez story, but a story that reflected the rez as I know it -- contemporary, dynamic, challenging, but wholly a place unto itself .... And I threw in a few badass monster hunters, which is a Navajo tradition, too."

—Rebecca Roanhorse, author of 2018 Nebula Award for Best Novel finalist Trail of Lightning, on Syfy Wire

“Witchmark didn't happen in a bolt of inspiration. It simmered in my mind for about six months as I weighed all the pieces of the story, and then it all came together when I had an image of soldiers returning victorious from the war, but only Miles was horrified by what he saw.”

—C.L. Polk, author of 2018 Nebula Award for Best Novel finalist Witchmark, on the “Los Angeles Public Library” blog

Megan Labrise is a staff writer and the co-host of the Kirkus podcast, Fully Booked. The photo above right of Sam J. Miller is by Kalyaní-Aindrí Sánchez; the photo above left of Rebecca Roanhorse is by Stephen Land Photography.