It’s all subjective, but 2015 really seemed to be the year of Sam J. Miller and Kelly Robson. If you weren’t reading their stuff you were missing something special. There were others, like Alyssa Wong, but you needed to read Sam and Kelly. Just like the year before it was Kai Ashante Wilson and Usman Malik.

While thankfully none of those fine writers have gone away, this year seems to belong to Rich Larson and Dominica Phetteplace, both of whom have had fine stories in a range of publications. Larson has had strong work in Interzone, Analog, F&SF and elsewhere, while Phetteplace has set up home in Asimov’s with a series of excellent stories. She also has a new one in the upcoming July/August F&SF, “Spells Are Easy If You Have The Right Psychic Energy,” that I really enjoyed. And both authors are in the current issue of Asimov’s, July 2016 (above right).