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Martin Cahill is an Ignyte Award-nominated writer of fiction and nonfiction living just north of New York City. His short stories have been published in Reactor, Lightspeed, Clarkesworld, and elsewhere. He is a contributor to Critical Role: Vox Machina--Stories Untold and the author of Critical Role: Armory of Heroes. His debut novel, Audition for the Fox (Tachyon Publications, September 16, 2025), centers on a trickster god and the underachieving acolyte who challenges him.
Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:
Terry Pratchett arm wrestles Aesop while Nghi Vo sneakily steals their respective wallets, Catherynne Valente sings a raucous fight song, and there's, weirdly, random confetti everywhere.
On your nightstand now:
The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow; The Isle in the Silver Sea by Tasha Suri; The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes; King Sorrow by Joe Hill; Queen Demon by Martha Wells; Happy People Don't Live Here by Amber Sparks; Tell Me Yours, I'll Tell You Mine by Kristina Ten; You Weren't Meant to Be Human by Andrew Joseph White; Spread Me by Sarah Gailey; Fate's Bane by C.L. Clark; Dead Hand Rule by Max Gladstone; and A Ruin, Great and Free by Cadwell Turnbull!
Favorite book when you were a child:
The Redwall series by Brian Jacques! It made me deeply invested in the inner workings of animals, and to also seek out a cherry and dandelion cordial, for science. It didn't hurt that it was the first time I'd ever seen the name Martin as a heroic name.
Your top five authors:
Kelly Link
George Saunders
Karen Russell
N.K. Jemisin
Sofia Samatar
Book you've faked reading:
I don't think I've faked reading a book, but I do think I've been yelled at for NOT reading Dune by Frank Herbert more times than I can bother to count!
Book you're an evangelist for:
Saint Death's Daughter by C.S.E. Cooney--700 pages of true, unbridled delight, prose that has the bite and sweetness of honey butter on crunchy toast, and characters I would shield from as much harm as I could.
Book you've bought for the cover:
It was sent to me for review consideration but if I had simply seen the cover for Hellions: Stories by Julia Elliott, it would absolutely be coming home with me on sight.
Book you hid from your parents:
I didn't tend to hide things from my parents; I would just grab whatever caught my eye off my parents' bookshelves and they'd eventually see me reading it. One time my dad saw me reading the first volume of Y: The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra when I was about 12, said, "Should you be reading that, bud?" and when I said that I was already on the last issue of the graphic novel and it was too late to stop, he went, "Ah, understood," and let me finish.
Book that changed your life:
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin. I read it in a single sitting on a beach day, absorbing every tremendous and brilliant page from one of the best in the business, and left the beach that day a changed reader and writer. Just one of those books that draws a line in the sand and challenges you to step up to meet it, as a reader and writer of the fantastical.
Favorite line from a book:
"No voting on who gets to be people." --N.K. Jemisin from The Obelisk Gate. I have a lot of quotes but especially these days, this is the one I always come back to; it has never been more important.
Five books you'll never part with:
Ultimate Spider-Man Volume 1 from Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley; it's signed, a first edition, and is a piece of my heart from childhood.
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison; it's my old college book from when I did a course on Toni Morrison's work and August Wilson's, and this book of hers in particular altered my creative brain chemistry. Astounding work.
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado; a signed ARC from BookExpo America in 2017, and the mutual joy we shared as I received a copy and she gave it to me with the green ribbon bookmark built in was palpable, and a moment of magic between reader and author.
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone; signed hardcover first edition, signed the summer it came out at Readercon and they signed in different inks, in different directions, and while that was special as it was, who knew how tremendous and beloved the book would become years from then?
The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez, a bound manuscript sent to me to blurb; it is truly one of my favorite books, and having been given such a nascent copy of it feels like being given a grimoire that would only grow in power through the ages.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
The Book of Love by Kelly Link. You can truly only know this kind of pure, unfiltered magic once; I would love to go back and, unknowing, discover it, facet by facet, once again.