Finding North: January 2026

My word of the year for 2026 ✨

Note: The recording above is a reading of this newsletter — there’s no different content, and it’s not produced, so you’ll hear the occasional stumble, or sounds of daily life in the background. If you’re someone who needs or prefers to hear their news, then I hope it’s helpful.

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Hi there! I’m Amie Kaufman, NYT and internationally bestselling author of Red Star Rebels, The Isles of the Gods, Lady’s Knight, and many more. This newsletter is the place to learn about my latest releases or events, and to follow along behind the scenes as I find my way through writing, and through life.

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Hi, my friends.

Well, 2026. We made it. (And for those who were keeping score from last newsletter, I did hand in my PhD thesis draft before the holidays, woo!) Since then we’ve been enjoying summer here in Melbourne—eating mangoes every day, dunking ourselves in the sea and constantly smelling (in the best way) of sunscreen and bug spray. We’ve passed the summer solstice, filling ourselves with all the sunshine and energy we’ll need to carry us into the darker months ahead, and we’re ready. Life is leisurely, and life is good.

In this letter:

• My word for the year

• One month until Red Star Rebels

• A book recommendation

• Upcoming events

Pip on a high ropes course recently. She is so, so my child. For every obstacle, she wanted a full backstory. It’s over a gorge! There are wolves underneath! They’ve learned to climb!

Before we begin properly, I also want to let you know that if you’re in the US, you can grab Red Star Rebels for 25% off right now, but the offer finishes on January 1st. With a month to go, this is the best discount you’re likely to get—and I’d be awfully pleased if you’d get yourself a copy. You can find it here.

My word for 2026

Each year, I choose a compass word to guide me through the coming year. It’s a reflection of where I am as the year starts, and I use it to make choices to keep me on course. Over the long arc of a year, I can use the word to test the decisions I’m making.

In 2022, as I climbed out of long covid, and the burnout of lockdown, my word was nurture. At each stage, I made the choice that would nurture me as I healed.

In 2023, as I began to recover and fill my well again, my word was adventure. I said ‘sure, why not?’ and tried all kinds of new things.

In 2024, I was ready for new story ideas, new hobbies, and wanted to rebalance after lots of hard work, so I chose play.

In 2025, I wanted to stop looking ahead and planning for things that might (but rarely did) go wrong, a habit I’d picked up after years of ill health. So for last year, I chose present, and at each stage I made choices that would keep me anchored in, and appreciating, the present moment.

Some pics from my letters on play and presence. You can read them at the links if you want context.

And that brings us to 2026. It comes after year after year of an almost (almost, ha) comical line-up of health and personal disasters, through which I continued to write books, raise my daughter, care for my family and friends, travel the world, and be told surprisingly often that I was calm and balanced. And in fairness, I was most of the time, because the compass words are useful like that.

But this year, for the first time in a long time, I finally feel like I have a little clear runway ahead of me. My health is improving. Pip’s done her first year of school and we’ve found our rhythm. My husband and I are planning adventures together. Life is good, and I need to decide what will guide me through that.

I thought about daring for a little. I want to take some big swings this year, which is always something that energises me. I’m going to write in a new genre and age range—adult historical! I’ve got a non-book project that I think might interest some of you, that I’ll talk about more in March, after Rebels is out, and that will be a big swing too. I’ve got lots of great travel planned, too. But ‘daring’ feels a little too full-tilt.

Conversely, I also thought about steady. Because in some ways, this feels like a consolidating year. It’ll be the first year in several that I haven’t been behind, and I’m looking forward to that. But ‘steady’ feels a little too safe, and I do want to stretch.

In fact, this year I plan to write a YA novel (currently code-named Relic), write a sample of an adult novel (NOAM), polish and submit a middle grade series, finalise and submit my PhD, start a project that will involve teaching and mentoring, go on at least two big family trips, finally improve my physical fitness, now that I can., and generally relish this wonderful time of my life when my kiddo comes running to me when I open my arms.

All these things will keep me busy. All of this is stuff I absolutely love to do. So in a way I do want to be daring, because it’s a lot to achieve. And I do want to be steady, because all of this is in my life already.

But mostly, I want to do all this stuff in a way that brings me joy, soaking up all the good parts of it. There’s always a possible version of life in which I complain about my to-do list, rush through things for fear of falling behind, or generally make things a chore, but nothing about this year has to be that way.

And so I’ve chosen a very simple word for 2026.

This year, I’ll use this as my compass. As I approach each task, I’ll ask if I’m doing it in a way that makes me happy. And if I’m not, then I’ll find that way—whether it’s a case of practicing gratitude, taking a break for a walk by the beach, playing my favourite music out loud, or stopping to enjoy my favourite humans for a bit. Perhaps it’ll be keeping an eye on the way I rest, or digging into my draft for what I love most about it. I think, if I keep an eye on my compass, it’ll be small course corrections, rather than large life overhauls, and that’s what I’d like 2026 to be.

Do you have a word for this year? I’d love to know what it is.

One month until Red Star Rebels.

Back in 2016, on a visit to NASA, I ended up talking to some scientists and engineers about Martian dirt. As one does, in a perfectly normal way. It’s called regolith, and it’s so much lighter than Earth dirt. More like talcum powder. It hangs in the air, and the dust storms can completely wipe out visibility. I started wondering what kind of things you could get up to, when nobody could see.

With Jay at NASA JPL. Right behind us is one of the grounds they used for practicing manoeuvres for the Curiosity Rover, complete with fake Martian dirt.

I’ve done a lot of thinking in the years since about about what’s going to happen as we head to the stars. Do we go together, “for all mankind,” or do we let rich individuals and big corporations slap their logos on the nearest planets and call it progress? This question feels ten times more relevant after watching what rich individuals got up to in 2025.

Sci-fi is about taking today’s questions, and then heading into the future to see how various answers will turn out. Red Star Rebels is my answer to what happens if we let money and power lead the way. My choice of characters was influenced by that lens.

So we have the grandson of the man who settled Mars—a literal billionaire who has everything money can buy (except healthy family relationships, alas.) And we have a girl who stowed away and came to Mars illegally, on the run from some friendly folks who wanted to break her kneecaps. They each represent what the other dislikes the most—but when they’re trapped together at a base and hostile mercenaries start to arrive, they’ll have to work together. Feelings then may or may not occur. (I’m kidding, it’s me, there are so many feelings.)

This book was so much fun to write. The super-compressed timeline (the whole thing takes place in just eight hours) meant that although the characters never really have time to process their emotions, or make good choices, the challenge I set for myself was to make sure that my reader still felt the story deeply.

One month to go—I hope you love it as much as I do, and have as much fun reading it as I did writing it.

As ever, I am obliged to remind you that it would be extremely helpful if you’d consider preordering Red Star Rebels. Preorders really help demonstrate reader enthusiasm to publishers, and is the best way out there to support the authors you love.

🇺🇸 If you’re in the US, you can find all your preorder links right here (and remember that B&N discount, only for one more day!) And remember, you can try for an advance copy on Netgalley here.

🇬🇧 If you’re in the UK, you can preorder from Waterstones, Amazon, Blackwell’s, Bookshop, Foyle’s, Hive, or WH Smith. You can try for an advance copy on Netgalley here.

🇦🇺 If you’re in Australia, you can buy from Dymocks, Booktopia, Readings, Amazon or QBD.

And wherever you live, you can add it as to-read on Goodreads, which I know seems like it doesn’t really do much, but actually does — again, signalling enthusiasm!

What I’ve Loved Lately

I have been told I’m supposed to recommend books similar to my own here, as that will draw the right audience for my own work, but this is me absolutely continuing not to do that. I believe we are complex! I believe you can all enjoy my sci-fi and fantasy and also take on recommendations for very different things. (Or if you prefer, this rec is a delightfully feminist book, and so are mine.)

I bought The Eights after hearing Joanna Miller speak, but after a year spent mostly reading to judge a literary prize, it’s taken me until now to pick it up. Once I did, I finished it in two days. It’s about four girls attending Oxford in 1920, the first year women could be admitted for degrees. They’re very different—all living in the shadow of the Great War, but from different places, and with very different personalities. They room together on Corridor Eight, and this is the story of what becomes of them that year. I enjoyed it so much.

News and Events

Melbourne: My Melbourne launch hasn’t been announced yet, but you always get sneak peeks in the newsletter. If you’re in Melbourne, please put Thursday 5th Feb in your diary. I would love to see you at my launch, which will be at Dymocks in the city. I didn’t think to ask anybody what time it starts before they all went on holiday, but I’ll update you on that in the next newsletter, or you can keep an eye on my instagram account. It’ll probably be 6 or 6:30.

Rest of Australia: Definitely keep an eye on my instagram account—and I’ll also hopefully have an update for at least some of you when I’m in touch at the start of Feb.

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And that’s it from me! The next time I drop into your inboxes, it will probably be to celebrate the launch of Red Star Rebels. (Here’s your reminder, American friends: you can grab your discounted copy here.)

I hope your start to 2026 has been smooth, and if you have a word for this year, I’d love to hear it! What do you hope, for the year to come? What will you use as your compass?

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