“The Inaccessibility of Heaven” wins an Ignyte Award

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“The Inaccessibility of Heaven” wins an Ignyte Award

I am pleased and a bit shocked that my story “The Inaccessibility of Heaven” has won the Ignyte Award for Best Novelette.

This is the prepared text of my acceptance speech: I’m not sure what I actually delivered given that I was scrambling and trying to stay coherent.

Thank you all.

A text that goes "Whoa. I wasn’t really expecting this. I would like to thank Kate Elliott and Rochita Loenen-Ruiz for reading this. To my fellow finalists: it was an honour to be counted among you. My thanks to the Uncanny Magazine team—to Lynne M. Thomas, Michael Damian Thomas, Caroline M. Yoachim, Angel Cruz, Chimedum Ohaegbu, and the rest of the staff. And thank you as well to everyone who voted for it—and finally a great thank you and hurrah to the people running FIYAHcon, BonFiyah and Ignyte Awards for such a lovely experience. This story was written in the chaos and fear of the pandemic, in the upheaval that was my divorce, when I just didn’t have the heart or the space for writing. The words just wouldn’t come anymore. Until i opened up the file of an old story that I'd never finished. It’s almost done, I thought. Just a little further. A few more paragraphs. A few more words. You can finish it. Just one more step. Just get to the end—just of this, and then you’ll see. Step after step. Word after word. It’s 2021, and I’m still here. Still writing. Step after step. Word after word. Thank you all for your support. "

You can read the story here if you haven’t already.

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