We heard you like anthologies…

~ mercyfulkate

…so we made you an anthology!

It’s been a long time in the making, but the Tales from the Guild: Blood and Water anthology is finished and off to the printers! We partnered with Fenris Publishing, who took on the hard work of layout, graphic design, and all the hidden steps of bringing a book to market. The amazing cover art is by Chum Basket.

The anthology is literally off to the printers, which means a wait of about a month for copies to be printed and bound, then probably a few more weeks for shipping. With luck Fenris will have copies in hand by August and the book will be available to order through their website or in person at your favorite convention!

We’ll keep you updated on the official release date and when preorders will be available. Thanks to Fenris, JFR Coates who spearheaded the project, the other editors, and of course all the authors!

FWG Monthly Newsletter June 2025

~ mercyfulkate

May was really busy for the guild, with the Cóyotl Award winners announced and guild officer elections! We’re settling into the middle of the year with some thoughts of how we should move ahead with changes to guild membership and also how we can get the word out about the guild to writers who might not know about us yet.

We’ve had some great new book releases over the last several months and I’ve been bad about updating the reading list at the bottom of the monthly newsletters. It’s updated now, so definitely take a look and grab copies of the books you’ve missed! I’ve also been bad about updating the open markets list below. Remember you can always check our Furry Writers’ Market page on the website to find new anthology calls and other open markets for your writing!

Our new VP has started a weekly writing ‘prawmt’ on the Discord server, if you’re looking for fun story prompts. If you hop on over to Sofawolf Academy and make an account (if you don’t already have one) you can watch an interview with me, your reluctant guild president.

Happy Pride Month! I hope your wordcounts soar this month and your troubles dwindle.

Here are the current open markets for your short stories:
The Morning After – Deadline June 1, 2025
Plott Hound Deadline June 15, 2025
Neo-Twiny Jam – Deadline July 1, 2025
The Second Hayven Celestia Anthology – Deadline July 15, 2025
Indecent Exposure – Deadline When Full
This Is Halloween – Deadline When Full
Children Of The Night – Deadline When Full

Please also check out the latest book releases from our members:
My Remise, by Koda Copeland, Released March 25, 2025
Tales of Scales, by Michael Miele, Released April 2, 2025.
Wind Singer: An Imbrium Novella, by Frances Pauli, Released April 19, 2025
Meeting Dominique, by Royce Day, Released May 1, 2025.
Dragon’s Soul, by J.F.R. Coates, Releasing June 7, 2025.

Officer Election Results

~ mercyfulkate

Voting has concluded in what we think may be the first actual vote needed for officer elections. 51 members voted.

The contested officer position was Markets Manager, with Scribbles Cheetah (incumbent) receiving 62.7% of the vote and Chase Anderson receiving 37.3% of the vote. It was actually a much closer race than it sounds, with the percentage going back and forth repeatedly and at one point standing (for a long time) right at 50/50. Congratulations to Scribbles for continuing as the FWG Markets Manager for 2025-26!

The other half of the ballot regarded expanding the guild’s membership requirements to include written work in other formats/media (i.e. not just novels, short stories, and poetry). Members overwhelmingly voted in favor of this, with 92.2% of the votes. We also received 33 thoughtful responses about the change, both positive and negative. In the coming weeks, guild officers will take all comments into account and discuss how best to implement the change to benefit guild members and potential members. I hope to post our conclusions sometime in June so that members can make comments and suggestions before the change is adopted formally.

Thanks to everyone who voted and commented!

It looks like I’ll be staying on as president for the next year, and I’ll do my best. Flash Kitterson has stepped into the vice president role and is doing a fantastic job already! Resolute will also be staying on as public relations officer and is, as always, doing a great job. Remember that the treasurer and Coyotl Awards chair roles are still vacant, so if you’ve been thinking of volunteering, you don’t need to wait for guild elections next April. Just let us know.

In other news–
For the horror fans among us, check out the Kickstarter for a planned horror anthology, The Deer Is Messed Up, which will be paying pro rates. It’s not a furry anthology but Scribbles checked with the editor and they will consider furry/anthro stories. It needs to meet its goal by June 4 for the anthology to happen, so pre-order your copy through Kickstarter and support small publishers!

I’ll be back next week with the monthly newsletter!

Guild Officer Elections!

~ mercyfulkate

It’s time for FWG members to vote for guild officers! The ballot is live and can be found here:

2025 FWG Elections

You must be a current guild member to vote, so make sure that you provide the correct name and email address so we can match your response against guild membership records. Feel free to email if your contact information has changed and you want to make sure guild records are up-to-date.

In addition to the one contested seat, Markets Manager, the ballot asks for your opinion about broadening the type of works accepted for membership in the guild. There’s also a comment section if you’d like to share your thoughts on this topic.

The ballot will remain open for one week, until May 23, 2025, so don’t put off your decision for too long.

2024 Cóyotl Award Winners Announced!

~ mercyfulkate ~ 1 Comment

Voting is closed for the Cóyotl Awards. The counting machine has been cleared of shed fur and we have tabulated the totals. Thanks to the Furry Film Burrow for hosting the announcement of winners this year–a venue that we may use for future awards announcements too!

The winners of the 2024 Cóyotl Awards are:

Winner for Best Novel
Far Flung – Utunu

Winner for Best Novella
You Look Lost, Pup – Rob MacWolf

Winner for Best Short Story
“Houses of Stone” – Utunu (in The Heavens Within Our Grasp)

Winner for Best Anthology
The Heavens Within Our Grasp – Furry Historical Fiction Society

Winner for Best Other Work
Voice of Dog – Rob MacWolf

Congratulations to the winners! A big thanks to everyone who worked to bring their work to publication this year. We as a fandom are so lucky to have writers, editors, publishers, and readers who are so generous with their time and talent. Truly, we couldn’t do this without you.

Sincerely, 

  • The staff of the Furry Writers Guild

Note: It came to our attention after voting started that Kyell Gold’s novel Squeak Thief is over 70,000 words. While this word count qualifies it as a novel by the Cóyotl Awards, we chose not to change it while the process was ongoing. Our main concern was to not invalidate the votes already cast. Based on the votes, the change in category would not have changed the winner in either category. While this might seem like a minor issue, we felt that being transparent in this process was the right way to go. Thank you to everyone who nominated and voted.

FWG Monthly Newsletter May 2025

~ mercyfulkate

May has arrived after a very busy April! The Cóyotl Awards have concluded, and we’re working on an announcement venue to reveal the winners within a week or so.

The next big thing is guild officer elections. We have several guild members running for office this year, including one contested seat! That means we’ll have a guild-wide vote in mid-May. Until May 14, candidates will answer questions on the guild’s Discord server, in the “Guild Officer Elections” channel. If you have a question but want to remain anonymous, you can email it to furwritersguild [at] gmail.com and I will post it for you. On May 16, voting will start via online ballot, which I’ll announce here closer to the time. We will most likely make one of our rare guild-wide emails to alert members when voting is live, so this is a very good time to update your email address if you need to.

Convention season is well underway as spring and summer weather brings out furries like weird flowers in the northern hemisphere, and cooling weather in the southern hemisphere allows for suiting without too much risk of heat stroke. I hope you get a chance to attend a convention or furmeet in your area! Even if you can’t, hopefully you’ll get some time off work or school so you can do some writing.

Here are the current open markets for your short stories:
The Second Hayven Celestia Anthology – Deadline July 15, 2025
Indecent Exposure – Deadline When Full
This Is Halloween – Deadline When Full
Children Of The Night – Deadline When Full
Furry/Lovecraftian/Erotic/University Themed Anthology – Deadline When Full

Please also check out the latest book releases from our members:

Space Dragons: Luxorian’s Crew, by Veo Corva. Released November 12th 2024.
Catfish and Other Stories, by K.C. Shaw. Released November 30th 2024.
Wolf Tech 3: The Alphas, by Adam Webster. Released December 10th 2024.
Tales of Scales, by Michael Miele, Released April 2, 2025.
Meeting Dominique, by Royce Day, Released May 1, 2025.

Happy writing!

Kate Shaw

Voting for the 2024 Cóyotl Awards

~ mercyfulkate ~ 1 Comment

At last, voting begins! We had a lot of nominations this year and as a result, our ballot is a bit larger than usual to make room for those 2024 works with the most nominations.

Guild members can vote using this form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScRdFoobt62L0gSbJBECYDtIcakUTF9lT1qH1_98mBcuf4nmA/viewform?usp=header

Please remember to include the name and email address that we have on file for you in the guild records! Only guild members may vote.

Voting will continue through April 22, 2025. We’ll announce the winners sometime in early May, details to be announced.

FWG Monthly Newsletter April 2025

~ mercyfulkate

Welcome to April! I’m a bit late, but that’s because I’m ridiculously busy and forgot I needed to post.

The most important news right now is a reminder for guild members to nominate their favorite works of 2024 for the Cóyotl Awards! You only have five more days, until April 7, 2025. Feel free to refer to the 2024 Cóyotl Awards reading list to help jog your memory about your favorite reads from last year. It’s a hard decision for sure, since so many amazing books, stories, and other works were published in 2024!

Please use this form to nominate a work published in 2024:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeCX_ImDPbzBmdieS5NuZnaaQ9TkBEdMKeuDVFDwQCaUmaY7g/viewform?usp=sf_link

Voting for the Cóyotl Awards will start on April 8 and continue through April 22.

Our other big news this month is guild officer elections. We’re very short-handed at the moment, so if you’ve ever considered running for an officer position, this is the time. Ordinarily I would direct you to the forums to post if you want to stand for a position, but at the moment the forums are down. Since they don’t see much use these days, we are considering closing the forums instead of trying to bring them back online. This might be something we’ll bring to a vote during elections, but if you have an opinion about the forums one way or another, please weigh in–in the comments here, or on the Discord or Telegram chats.

In any case, if you’d like to stand for an officer position, you can declare your intentions and give a little stump speech on the Discord server. There should be a channel up by tomorrow dedicated to guild elections. If more than one person stands for the same position, we’ll have a guild-wide vote.

This is your guilt trip friendly reminder that the Furry Writers’ Guild can only continue as an institution with the help of its members. We especially need someone with a vision and ideas for the guild’s future, and that someone will not be me. I will not be running for guild president, since I don’t feel I’m the right person for the job. But maybe you are!

Here are the current open markets for your short stories:
The Second Hayven Celestia Anthology – Deadline July 15, 2025
Indecent Exposure – Deadline When Full
This Is Halloween – Deadline When Full
Children Of The Night – Deadline When Full
Furry/Lovecraftian/Erotic/University Themed Anthology – Deadline When Full

Please also check out the latest book releases from our members:

Space Dragons: Luxorian’s Crew, by Veo Corva. Released November 12th 2024.
Catfish and Other Stories, by K.C. Shaw. Released November 30th 2024.
Wolf Tech 3: The Alphas, by Adam Webster. Released December 10th 2024.

Happy writing!

Kate Shaw

2024 Cóyotl Award Nominations Open

~ mercyfulkate

Better late than never, the 2024 Cóyotl Awards are open for nominations!

Remember that you need to be a Furry Writers’ Guild member to nominate a work, but the author does not. Please also remember that works nominated must have been first published in 2024. Nominations will run through April 5, 2025.

Feel free to refer to the 2024 Cóyotl Awards reading list to help jog your memory about your favorite reads from last year. It’s a hard decision for sure, since so many amazing books, stories, and other works were published in 2024!

Please use this form to nominate a work published in 2024:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeCX_ImDPbzBmdieS5NuZnaaQ9TkBEdMKeuDVFDwQCaUmaY7g/viewform?usp=sf_link

FWG Monthly Newsletter March 2025

~ mercyfulkate

Welcome to March! That’s all I have to say about that.

The Cóyotl Awards reading list is underway, with a form now attached so authors and readers can suggest qualifying works. Because of the difficulties we’ve had getting the page put together (many thanks to Resolute for his hard work!), nominations for the Cóyotls won’t start until March 15. I’ll post when the nomination form is open. Until then, visit the 2024 Cóyotl Awards Reading List page to find works you might have missed reading last year.

If you’re feeling frustrated at the delays we’ve had getting the Cóyotl Awards underway, perhaps you would like to volunteer to be next year’s Cóyotl Awards Chair! Guild officer elections start next month and we really need some fresh meat helpful volunteers.

Here are the current open markets for your short stories:
Plott Hound Magazine – Deadline March 15, 2025
Spirit of the Wolf – Deadline March 31st 2025
The Second Hayven Celestia Anthology – Deadline July 15, 2025
Indecent Exposure – Deadline When Full
This Is Halloween – Deadline When Full
Children Of The Night – Deadline When Full
Furry/Lovecraftian/Erotic/University Themed Anthology – Deadline When Full

Please also check out the latest book releases from our members:

Legend of Ahya: Broken Empires, by Matthew Colvath. Released October 2nd 2024.
Space Dragons: Luxorian’s Crew, by Veo Corva. Released November 12th 2024.
Catfish and Other Stories, by K.C. Shaw. Released November 30th 2024.
Wolf Tech 3: The Alphas, by Adam Webster. Released December 10th 2024.

Happy writing!

Kate Shaw