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Vajra Chandrasekera

@vajra.me

11K followers 3.6K following 5.3K posts

Writer. Revenant. Wrote THE SAINT OF BRIGHT DOORS (2023 Nebula, Ignyte, Crawford, and Locus awards) & RAKESFALL (2024 Otherwise award, Le Guin and Nebula finalist) Colombo/New York. https://vajra.me

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Vajra Chandrasekera @vajra.me · Jul 24

The Gaza Soup Kitchen run by Hani Almadhoun and family is currently feeding 3000 people a day under the monstrous conditions of the engineered famine happening before our eyes. You can help feed at least a few people. Please donate: gofund.me/e37b4bae

Donate to Hot meals 4 Starved Palestinian Kids in north Gaza, organized by Hani Almadhoun

Do you know what it’s like to watch your family starve? I do. My… Hani Almadhoun needs your support for Hot meals 4 Starved Palestinian Kids in north Gaza

gofund.me

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Vajra Chandrasekera @vajra.me · 6h

I had a great time picking these stories, and I think you will very much enjoy their mixture of weird/heartache/ice cream brainfreeze

Vajra Chandrasekera @vajra.me · 6h

You can follow at least some of them online, if you don't already!

Malena and Testimony are on Insta:
www.instagram.com/msmacia
www.instagram.com/testimonyodey/

Laila and Kat are on bsky at @amadolaila.bsky.social and @esedia.bsky.social

Jason has a website at www.jasonpearcefiction.com

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Vajra Chandrasekera @vajra.me · 6h

This is the wonderful cover by @carlydraws.bsky.social for the October issue of The Deadlands @thedeadlands.com—for which I had the great pleasure of being the fiction guest editor!—with stories by Malena Salazar Maciá, Testimony Odey, Erin Ulm, Laila Amado, Jason Pearce, Kat Sedia, and Scott Payne

$The cover of The Deadlands Issue 40, Fall 2025. Subtitled "a journal of ends and beginnings". Author names on the cover are Maciá, Biscotti, Odey, Ross, Ulm, Wollin, Amado, Pearce, Lemberg, Sedia, Romano, and Payne. The cover art shows a fractured red sky, maze-like with golden fissures, surrounds a golden skull at the top of a long, golden path awaiting a lone figure.$

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Kat for now 🍉 🏳️‍⚧️ 🏕️ @esedia.bsky.social · 13h

Another dead boyfriend story just dropped! Many thanks to the amazing @vajra.me for picking it!

The Deadlands @thedeadlands.com · 14h

FICTION continued

The Ghost of Cerrera Orbital Station Makes Herself Known, by @amadolaila.bsky.social

The Pretendian, by Jason Pearce

Punks Don't Die, by @esedia.bsky.social

Liminalities of the Second Contraction, by Scott Payne

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carlydraws @carlydraws.bsky.social · 12h

New cover art for THE DEADLANDS

a pleasure to illustrate this issue full of gorgeous stories! Here is 'Golden Maze'.

oil pastel, china graph pencil and digital colour

#art

golden maze
a gold skull on a maze with a pile of coins

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The Deadlands @thedeadlands.com · 14h

and the cover

Golden Maze by @carlydraws.bsky.social

$A fractured red sky, maze-like with golden fissures, surrounds a golden skull at the top of a long, golden path awaiting a lone figure.$

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The Deadlands @thedeadlands.com · 14h

NONFICTION

The Ritual, by Matthew Wollin

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The Deadlands @thedeadlands.com · 14h

POETRY

Amanita Season, Belle Biscotti

I had a dream and in the dream I knew I was dreaming so I believed I could change things, @shanaross.bsky.social

Bay nakht afn altn mark: A rehearsal, by @rblemberg.bsky.social

Not a Bird, Ellen Romano

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The Deadlands @thedeadlands.com · 14h

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The Deadlands @thedeadlands.com · 14h

FICTION

The Last Minute Before the Rooster Crows, by Malena Salazar Maciá

Hamaka, Leave Me Alone, by Testimony Odey

The Destruction of All That is Good and Holy, Otherwise Known as Green Beans, by Erin Ulm

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The Deadlands @thedeadlands.com · 14h

guess what?

it's TOC'O TUESDAY!! 🌮 💀

and issue 40 is AMAZING

featuring guest fiction editor @vajra.me!!

are you ready?

thread/

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Vajra Chandrasekera @vajra.me · 2d

Congrats!!!!!

Vajra Chandrasekera @vajra.me · 2d

Double-congrats, Sonia!!!!! 🙌

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Sonia is an Ignyte and Ember Award winner! @soniasulaiman.bsky.social · 2d

I didn’t know what to say before, with Thyme Travellers winning just now. All I have to say is please continue to support Palestinians loudly and without apology.

So much love to you all!

The Ignyte Awards @theignyteawards.bsky.social · 2d

The Ember Award for Unsung Contributions to Genre goes to @soniasulaiman.bsky.social
#2025IgnyteAwards

2025 Winner The Ember Award: Sonia Sulaiman

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Sonia is an Ignyte and Ember Award winner! @soniasulaiman.bsky.social · 2d

I don’t know what to say except that the Ignytes mean so much to me, are so important for the community. I’m incredibly honoured to say this is my first win, and a win for all the contributors.

Thank you all! 🍉

The Ignyte Awards @theignyteawards.bsky.social · 2d

Congratulations @soniasulaiman.bsky.social on winning the #2025IgnyteAwards in Outstanding Anthology/Collected Works for THYME TRAVELERS: AN ANTHOLOGY OF PALESTINIAN SPECULATIVE FICTION

2025 Winner Outstanding Anthology/Collected Works - THYME TRAVELLERS: AN ANTHOLOGY OF PALESTINIAN SPECULATIVE FICTION edited by Sonia Sulaiman

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E. Catherine Octobler @ecatherine.com · 2d

This is absolutely FANTASTIC news, and if you haven't read it, I hope you'll come do so: psychopomp.com/we-who-will-not-die/

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Vajra Chandrasekera @vajra.me · 2d

Congrats!!!!! 🔥

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Vajra Chandrasekera @vajra.me · 2d

Congrats!!!!!!!! 🔥

Vajra Chandrasekera @vajra.me · 2d

Congrats!!!!!!!!! 🚀

Vajra Chandrasekera @vajra.me · 2d

Congrats Ignyte winners!!!!

The Ignyte Awards @theignyteawards.bsky.social · 2d

Oh, hello

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The Ignyte Awards @theignyteawards.bsky.social · 2d

Oh, hello

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Derrick @dmartincampbell.bsky.social · 3d

Rakesfall still wonderful and surprising even the second time:

With each life, it grows easier to move between worlds: they echo each other, harmony and counterpoint.
I manage to dislodge one of my curses on a world not far from home, snagging it on the burrs of a city much like my own.
My curse wedges its doors forever open. I'll return there often, in the time after time to come: those open doors call out to me, bright lights in the dark ocean. Perhaps that place appeals to me because it's like but not too like; unlike enough to surprise, sometimes. Perhaps it's only the curse, ceaselessly calling me home.

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Drew Broussard @drewsof.bsky.social · 3d

If you like @vajra.me's THE SAINT OF BRIGHT DOORS and/or RAKESFALL, you need to have Paige Lewis's CANON on your radar. It's gonna get the Literary treatment from PRH (or maybe, at best, Literary-Genre a la CHAIN-GANG ALL-STARS) but I hope spec/weird readers will take it seriously too.

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Quiara but spoopy! (they/them) @quiara.net · 4d

I’m reading Rakesfall by @vajra.me. I have no idea what to say it’s about, but I also cannot put it down. Tell me more things about this weird (set of?) world(s?) that I don’t understand!

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Gretchen Felker-Martin 🍉 @scumbelievable.bsky.social · 4d

My friend Sama'a needs our help to feed and clothe her small children, who depend on her for everything. Please give what you can

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