March 2025 Writer Support Thread

Funny you should mention it, because a “sequel” to Omelas is up for the Nebula short story award this year. :slight_smile:

I only first read Le Guin’s original story seven years ago, shortly after she died. I thought it worked way better as a critique of the dystopian imagination than it does as the straight-up anti-utilitarian thought experiment that the last paragraph gestures at.

But for anyone who’s read and appreciated it, this follow-up is an absolute hoot – all the poignancy and awfulness of the original, and it’s also hilarious.

There are a bunch of other good short stories on the ballot – this nasty little vignette, this Tumblr from hell, this gorgeously alien exercise in form – but I think the Omelas Hole is going to take my vote.

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