THE AFTERLIFE PROJECT is a Toronto Star favorite fiction book for 2025
December 22, 2025 § 1 Comment
Floored and profoundly honored to see that THE AFTERLIFE PROJECT is a Toronto Star favorite fiction book for 2025!
“Good writing and a timely message about nature and humanity’s resilience make this novel stand out in what has become a crowded field of end-of-the-world lit.” — The Toronto Star
Thank you, Canada🇨🇦! Here’s hoping we can become better neighbors in 2026. See the full list here.
THE AFTERLIFE PROJECT is a Library Journal Best Books of 2025 pick
December 12, 2025 § 2 Comments
Stunned, thrilled, and obviously over-the-moon happy to learn that The Afterlife Project has been selected by Library Journal as one of their Best Books of 2025! This comes as a complete surprise, but it’s a true honor and I’m so pleased that it’s going to help this novel reach a larger readership.
Earlier in the year Library Journal gave the book a starred review, which you can read in full here.
Prominent book blogger picks THE AFTERLIFE PROJECT as a favorite science fiction book of 2025
December 9, 2025 § 3 Comments
It’s an honor to be in such excellent company as one of Tam Sparks (of Books, Bones & Buffy fame) Favorite Science Fiction books of 2025!
“A thrilling and immersive adventure story, The Afterlife Project combines complex, thoughtful themes with relatable characters and bittersweet emotion . . . Tim Weed’s latest novel is a gripping and emotional time travel/post apocalyptic adventure with a fair amount of science backing everything up. It’s also full of themes like found family and even a bit of romance, but mostly it’s an ode to our planet’s natural wonder and beauty, as well as a cautionary tale about humanity’s downfall. Weed masterfully tells his story in two timelines with a great deal of distance between them—more than 10,000 years!—and it’s surprisingly effective. . . Please do yourself a favor and consider reading The Afterlife Project, which deserves every bit of praise it’s received and is one of the best books I’ve read so far this year.”
See the whole list here.
THE AFTERLIFE PROJECT is one of New Scientist’s top books of the month
June 7, 2025 § Leave a comment
Such an honor to see that THE AFTERLIFE PROJECT has made this list in New Scientist, one of my favorite weekly popular science magazines.
In these troubling times, good communication about the latest trends and discoveries in science and technology is more important than ever, and New Scientist is among the very best. The fact that they also cover the latest fiction is an added bonus!
THE AFTERLIFE PROJECT receives a starred review from Library Journal
March 31, 2025 § 1 Comment
“Rousing seafaring adventure, combined with contemplative musings on life wrapped around a compelling romance make this a fascinating tale that is difficult to put down; the combination of dire ecological challenges and imaginative future discovery combine in this very engrossing read from Weed.” — Library Journal
This is a big deal, and should really help get the word out about this book. My humble and profound gratitude to all the great folks at Podium Entertainment, Page One Media, Gelfman Schneider Literary Agents, and to the many of you who have already preordered or posted early reviews. The Afterlife Project comes out June 3, 2025; the paperback original, audiobook, and ebook are available for preorder now.
THE AFTERLIFE PROJECT shortlisted for Uncharted Magazine’s Novel Excerpt Contest
April 1, 2024 § Leave a comment
Happy to report that the new novel, a finalist for the Prism Prize in Climate Literature, has garnered another pre-publication recognition. Uncharted is a magazine dedicated to high quality genre fiction, and I couldn’t be more pleased to have made this shortlist.
THE AFTERLIFE PROJECT will be released by Podium Publishing in all three formats—print, audio, and ebook—in early 2025.
If you’re interested in staying extra up-to-date on the book, and/or if you’d like to take advantage of various opportunities to get your hands on advance review copies, send me a quick note and I’ll add you to my email newsletter.* Otherwise, feel free to check in at your own pace here on my website or on my socials; I occasionally post as “vtweeder” on Instagram and Threads, and you can also find my pages on Facebook and LinkedIn.
*Given the current plague of spammy emails and social media posts, one of my goals with this newsletter is not to contribute to overloading anyone’s already-full inbox with junk. That’s why it is and will always be “very occasional but always interesting” — meaning that it will only contain information that is pithy, to the point, and, at least potentially, of interest and/or benefit to you. This may include book news, special deals and opportunities for friends, upcoming writing courses and opportunities for small-group travel experiences with creative and like-minded people. And I promise that it will land in your inbox a maximum of 2-3 times per year.
Good news from the 92nd Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Awards
August 2, 2023 § Leave a comment
Happy to report that two unpublished short stories have earned nods in the Writer’s Digest Annual Writing Competition (Eighth Place & Honorable Mention, Mainstream/Literary Short Story category). The stories, “Under the Highway” and “Seabirds,” are part of a collection, Tickets to the Reckoning, that’s currently being shopped around to publishers. Hopefully it will be available for your reading pleasure soon!
Three stories short-listed for the Tobias Wolff Award in Fiction
May 25, 2022 § 2 Comments
Received a nice bit of good news today: three of the stories in my collection-in-progress (working title: Tickets to the Reckoning) were chosen as finalists in the Tobias Wolff Award for Fiction (judged blind, sponsored by Bellingham Review). This is the first time multiple stories of mine have had that distinction in any contest, and this is a prestigious one. I’ll take it as a good omen!
New longlists/shortlists
September 9, 2021 § Leave a comment
A cynic might say something like “always the bridesmaid, never the bride,” but I’ve never been a cynic and I’m pleased to report these recent honors:
Semi-Finalist, 2021 Leapfrog Press Global Fiction Prize, for a novel, THE HAVANA STANDARD
Finalist, 2021 Southern Humanities Review Editors Chapbook Prize, for a novelette, AMONG THE MONOLITHS
Honorable Mention, 2021 Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition (Mainstream/Literary), for a short story, VIRGIN OF THE APOCALYPSE
Honorable Mention, 2021 Cisco Writing Club, Annual Summer Writing Contest (Short Stories), for a short story, SKIN MONKEYS
None of these works has been published yet. Stay tuned!
New short fiction at Pangyrus
June 29, 2021 § 2 Comments
Great to see my new short story, “The Tawny-Green Steppe,” up at the beautifully edited and produced Pangyrus literary magazine. The story, a reimagining of Charles Darwin’s adventures in Tierra del Fuego and the Argentine pampas, was shortlisted for the 2021 Fish International Short Story Prize.
My focus over these last few years has been on novels, so it’s wonderful to be back in the short fiction game. Link to full story here.
Tim Weed 