[Post originally published: Mar 20, 2026]
My guest today is Argentinian-Brazilian writer Hache Pueyo, who recently published her novella Cabaret in Flames by TorDotCom and shared the Best Novella category of the Nebula Awards with me, for her TorDotCom novella But Not Too Bold. She has also appeared in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons, and The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, among others.
My first contact with Hache’s work (if my memory doesn’t fail me) was with her story Ajé, published in Strange Horizons, which blew my mind straight away!
She is the first Brazilian author I have in the Hyperspace, but I intend to have several others along the way! Some of us are hiding without an extensive use of social media, others are not publishing in English so much, and others end up mostly ignored. But we are here too, so part of this newsletter will be dedicated to bring them to the spotlight!
You can find Hache Pueyo at Bluesky, Instagram, or sign her newsletter!
Hache Pueyo
Tell me more about something you have published recently (or will publish soon) and what made you write it.
I just published CABARET IN FLAMES, my second novella! What made me write it was a distressing combination of a political nightmare (Brazil circa 2018—2019, you know perfectly why, Renan, but to those who don’t: several years of social chaos that culminated in the election of a cartoonishly incompetent fascist president), my own need to discuss the effects of violence and trauma on a person, and an idea of creatures who eat human meat. I mixed everything together, and this story came to life.
What is an underrated piece of fiction that you think didn’t get enough attention?
Margarita García Robayo’s The Delivery (trans. Megan McDowell) is short, fantastic and smart; Gautam Bhatia’s The Sentence is an amazing sci-fi (it will come out next year in the US under the new title of The Fifth Inflection); and it’s absurd that the work of Eliana Alves Cruz wasn’t translated to several languages (I wish I could recommend Nada Digo de Ti Que de Ti Não Veja!).
Show me an illustration that you love and tell me why!
This is one of the cover art sketches that Zoë van Dijk (@creepcaptain) made for CABARET IN FLAMES. All the alternatives were lovely, and we ended up choosing one that showed Ariadne’s prosthesis, but I loved the labyrinthine aspect of this one and how she used the wave pattern of the Copacabana promenade for the thread.
As a Brazilian writer from Rio de Janeiro, I have to say I love Cabaret in Flames. I have read the Portuguese version some years ago and I instantly thought that this story should be read by the whole world. I can’t hide my excitement that it finally is being published by Tor. What do you expect readers will take from reading Cabaret in Flames? How much of Brazil can readers expect to find in it?
Thank you, I’m so glad you liked it! I felt like Rio would be the perfect scenario for it, considering the political history of the city within Brazil: the historical capital, the cultural hub, the current stronghold enforced by police militia. But answering your question... I imagine many readers will find an unfortunate similarity between their own countries and the scenario presented in the story, in which a fascist government becomes increasingly more hostile, but life still goes on. I hope that, despite this bleak background, they can also get to have fun with the rest of the plot, and that they keep an open heart to the protagonist and the brutality of her past. And I guess there are plenty of Brazilian things in the story, like two different states and three cities, but it’s not so specific that it requires any kind of previous knowledge to understand what’s going on.
Let us show the newer writers that they are not alone! Tell me something that made you feel bad (a rejection, an empty signing session, a very harsh critique) and how you got over it (or not).
I published short stories for many years, so at some point I lost count of how many times I’ve been rejected, but it was definitely more than 200 times! Like, easily. And it can get depressing, especially when you haven’t been accepted yet (or it just happened a few times), but at some point I stopped caring. Writing is always more important—and infinitely more fun.
Tidbits
Disgraced Return of the Kap’s Needle is a Nebula Award finalist for Best Novella! I’m deeply grateful if you’re a SFWA member and is willing to consider it in your final ballot.
The Hugos are still open for nominations until March 28th. I appreciate any consideration, particularly for my novella Disgraced Return of the Kap’s Needle! If you’re reading for awards and want a copy, drop me a message.
My short story The Hungry Mouth at The Edge of Space and the Goddess Knitting At Home, published at Reactor, is in the 2025 Locus Recommended Reading List. Voting is open for anyone until April and you can also add write-ins!
My novelette The Winter of the Icebergirl was published in GigaNotoSaurus. It’s a piece that is very dear to me, about elderly superheroes in a care facility.