Slog tipper Stesha points out that Seattle author G. Willow Wilson won the World Fantasy Award for her debut novel Alif the Unseen over the weekend. I can't believe that I missed this news; the World Fantasy Award is a pretty huge nerd award and a big honor for fantasy authors. I read and very much enjoyed Alif when it was published last year; you should read my review and then pick up a copy, now that you know professional nerds enjoyed the book enough to give it a big-time award.

Today brings some new G. Willow Wilson news, too. the New York Times just posted the exciting information that Wilson is writing a new superhero series for Marvel Comics. It's about a superhero named Ms. Marvel, and here's the pitch:

With most superheroes, when you take away the colorful costume, mask and cape, what you find underneath is a white man. But not always. In February, as part of a continuing effort to diversify its offerings, Marvel Comics will begin a series whose lead character, Kamala Khan, is a teenage Muslim girl living in Jersey City.

I expect conservatives to be overjoyed by this news. (Just kidding! They'll lose their shit over the fact that there's going to be a superhero who isn't a white guy. Expect lots of "what's next, a one-legged Samoan midget superhero?" sneers and other, less polite comments all over the internet.) This sounds really promising to me. Ms. Marvel was the name of one of Marvel's first female superheroes to headline her own series in the 1970s. (The original character has since graduated to the title of Captain Marvel.) So there's a history of this name being used for progressive causes in the comics industry. Congratulations to Wilson for winning the World Fantasy Award and for the Ms. Marvel news. I can't wait to read this comic book.