2020 Awards Eligibility

* Hello and welcome!

I’m incredibly excited to make my first ever awards eligibility post. I am Radha Pyari Sandhir, and I write speculative fiction as “R. P. Sand“. My writing through-lines include grief, trauma, mental health, and (often non-romantic) love. I manage to slip in a cat or two every so often as well.

I’m eligible for the Astounding Award. I have a novelette that is eligible for other awards:

Ask the Fireflies by R. P. Sand

(Sci-fi Novelette, Clarkesworld, Sept. 2020, Issue #168)

Ask the Fireflies is eligible for the Nebula and Hugo awards in the novelette category.

Word Count: ~9k

[Link to story]

[Link to the podcast version]

First line: They say the universe was created when a Giant lit a matchstick.

This story made it into the top 10 2020 Reader’s Poll Finalists at Clarkesworld! 

Spoiler-free snippet of the review from Quick Sip Reviews:

The piece is strange, a mix of fantasy and off-world science fiction, and it’s complex and richly drawn, a story of a limited AI trying to avert tragedy without tools to speak or communicate what’s really going on.[…]A wonderful read!

For the complete review with spoilers, please click here.

Spoiler-free snippet of the review from SFRevu:

Beautifully told story with nice detail.

For the complete review with spoilers, please click here.

A few lovely comments on the Clarkesworld page:

A Goodreads review (spoilers have been hidden):

For the complete review with spoilers, please click here.

I have one other published fiction piece in 2020:

Everett’s Cat by R. P. Sand

(Sci-fi Flash Fiction, Nature: Futures, Aug. 5, 2020)

Thank you for your consideration!

Please feel free to take a look at my other published writing and works in progress here.

And find me on Twitter at @RadhaPyari!