Canadian writers Alexander Boldizar and Premee Mohamed win 2025 Locus Awards for science fiction
The annual awards recognize excellence in science fiction and fantasy
Canadian writers Alexander Boldizar and Premee Mohamed have won 2025 Locus Awards for science fiction.
The Locus Awards, founded by Charles N. Brown, who founded the magazine of the same name, recognize excellence in science fiction and fantasy.
Boldizar won the Locus Award for best science fiction novel of the year for The Man Who Saw Seconds.
The Man Who Saw Seconds tells the story of a man named Preble Jefferson who can see five seconds into the future. When an altercation with a policeman on the subway goes horribly wrong, Jefferson uses those seconds to save his life — causing another man to get shot in his place.
Once the government hears about Jefferson's gift, he's wanted. He'll do whatever it takes to protect his family, but as things get more and more out of hand, he's torn between the power of his gift and his loss of humanity.
Boldizar is a writer, lawyer and art critic who lives in Vancouver. His debut novel was The Ugly and his writing has won the PEN/Nob Hill prize, a Somerset Award for literary fiction and a Best New American Voices nomination.
Mohamed won the novelette category for her piece By Salt, By Sea, By Light of Stars, published in Strange Horizons, about an esteemed wizard reluctantly taking on a new apprentice.
Mohamed is an Indo-Caribbean scientist and speculative fiction writer. Her series Beneath the Rising received nominations for the Crawford Award, British Fantasy Awards, Locus Awards and Aurora Awards.
Her book The Annual Migration of Clouds won the 2022 Aurora Award for best novella. Her other books include We Speak Through the Mountain, The Siege of Burning Grass, The Butcher of the Forest and No One Will Come Back for Us. She is based in Edmonton.
The complete list of winners is below:
- Science fiction novel: The Man Who Saw Seconds by Alexander Boldizar
- Fantasy novel: A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher
- Horror novel: Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle
- Young adult novel: Moonstorm by Yoon Ha Lee
- First novel: Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell
- Novella: What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher
- Novelette: By Salt, By Sea, By Light of Stars by Premee Mohamed
- Short story: Why Don't We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole by Isabel J. Kim
- Anthology: The Black Girl Survives in This One edited by Desiree S. Evans & Saraciea J. Fennell
- Collection: Lake of Souls by Ann Leckie
- Magazine: Clarkesworld
- Publisher: Subterranean Press
- Editor: Neil Clarke
- Artist: Charles Vess
- Nonfiction: Afro-Centered Futurisms in Our Speculative Fiction by Eugen Bacon
- Illustrated and art book: The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle, illustrated by Tom Kidd
They were determined by a voting process that was open to the public and magazine subscribers. The winners do not receive a monetary prize and were honoured at a banquet.
