Angela Liu

Award Eligibility 2025

It’s that time of year again! I had four new stories published this year. I’d be honored if you read any of them, but the two I’m promoting for Hugo/Locus/Nebula Awards season are:

1) “Barbershops of the Floating City”
Published in: Uncanny #64 (May/June 2025)
Award Category: SHORT STORY
Word Count: 6,024
Genre: FANTASY

“You used to be in a band. Now you cut hair.”

– In a world where the best haircuts can let you relive your favorite memories, who gets to sit in the chair and who has to cut? This a story about growing up working class, intergenerational trauma, and the value of memories.

Read the story here.
Read my interview where I talk about the inspirations behind the story here.

If you enjoyed the story, please upvote on the Nebula Reading List here.

2) “Brainstem Disco, 2191”
Published in: Clarkesworld 224
Award Category: SHORT STORY
Word Count: 1,640
Genre: Sci-fi

“We’re in a club inside my head.”

– What if you meet the love of your life again in a disco (a short story that explores the association of music with memories—with its own mini playlist.

Read the story here.
Listen to the audio version here.

Full List of Eligible Stories

SHORT STORIES

  1. “Brainstem Disco, 2191” (Clarkesworld 224, sci-fi, 1640 words)
    – meeting the love of your life again in a stunning disco, exploring the association of music with memories
  2. “Swallow Test” (Nightmare Magazine, horror flash, 1191 words)* (audio version available)
    – when an old man goes in for a swallow test, he gets a mouthful more than he bargained for
  3. “Barbershops of the Floating City” (Uncanny Magazine, fantasy, 6024 words)
    – a story about haircuts, growing up working class, and how far we will go to relive our favorite memories
  4. “How To Set Up Your Mourning Robot”  (Lightspeed, sci-fi, 950 words) (audio version available)
    – why die without preparing someone who will mourn you the way you’ve always dreamed?

* Stories also eligible for Bram Stoker

Here’s my 2024 List if you want to check out any of those stories too!

Full List of Eligible Poems (for Nebula and Rhysling Award consideration)

LONG POEM

  1. “The Church at the Edge of Time” (Strange Horizons)

SHORT POEM

  1. “The Language of Fireflies” (The Deadlands)
  2. ” High School Graduation, June 2099″ (Worlds of Possibility)
  3. “Toba Catastrophe Theory” (The Cosmic Background)
  4. “The Mourning Robot”(Uncanny Magazine)

NON-FICTION

This is also my first year publishing non-fiction! I had one essay out at Uncanny Magazine, inspired by my previous research on mixed reality storytelling in grad school.

  1. “Crawling out of the Laptop: On Reader-to-Character Interactions and Mixed Reality Storytelling”