Friends, there was so much good stuff published this year. I know I say that every year. Happily for me, it’s true every year. I feel 100% confident that there is at least one story published in 2022 that I will love but haven’t read yet. YAY. (And that’s just other people’s work! If you’re looking for my own work, it’s here.) Two seemingly opposite things that make me happy: there are a lot of my buddies on this list, and I love to see my friends doing well. (Selfishly, I particularly love to see them doing well at things I personally enjoy. I mean, go ahead and do well at things I don’t enjoy, too, love you, wish you all joy. But really.) But also it makes me really happy that there are a lot of new names on this list every year. People I’ve never read before. People who might be colleagues and friends in years to come, or might just have said something that was meaningful to me this one time and gone on to do other things in their lives. I love that there are so many voices out there to discover. Best thing as a writer. Best thing as a reader. High fives all around.
“The Voice of a Thousand Years,” Fawaz Al-Matrouk (F&SF May/June)
Lily, the Immortal, Kylie Lee Baker (Uncanny)
Surprise, Tom Barlow (Reckoning)
“Just Deserts,” A. M. Barrie (Fiyah Issue 23)
The Part You Throw Away, Elizabeth Bear (Sunday Morning Transport)
Fertile Week, Leah Bobet (Reckoning: Our Beautiful Reward)
Sunday in the Park With Hank, Leah Bobet (The Deadlands)
Tyrni, Laura Adrienne Brady (Reckoning)
This Is I, KT Bryski (The Deadlands)
“Breathless in the Green,” Octavia Cade (F&SF May/June)
Billable Hours for the Disputed Rights of the Chosen One, L. Chan (Wyngraf)
Elsewhere, Elsewhen, L. Chan (GigaNotoSaurus)
Thirteen Goes to the Festival, L Chan (The Deadlands)
“The Book of Unwritten Poems,” Curtis Chen (Sunday Morning Transport)
Miracle Babies, Roshani Chokshi (Strange Horizons)
If You Find Yourself Speaking to God, Address God with the Informal You, John Chu (Uncanny)
“Whose Spaceship Is It Anyway?”, John Chu (Bridge to Elsewhere)
“Finding Ways,” Zig Zag Claybourne (Dreams for a Broken World)
“How to Make a Spell Jar,” EA Crawley (Xenocultivars: Stories of Queer Growth)
My Great-Grandmother’s House, Madalena Daleziou (The Deadlands)
“Cadence,” Charlotte Nicole Davis (Tasting Light)
Laser Squid Goes House Hunting, Douglas DiCicco (Escape Pod)
“The Blue House,” Dilman Dila (Africa Risen)
Troubling a Star, Andrew Dykstal (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
“Solidity,” Greg Egan (Asimov’s Sep/Oct)
The Florida Project, Morayo Falayimu (Grist: Imagine 2200)
Embroidery of a Bird’s Heart, Nelly Geraldine García-Rosas (Strange Horizons)
A Record Of Our Meeting With the Grand Faerie Lord of Vast Space and Its Great Mysteries, Revised, A. T. Greenblatt (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
If We Make It Through This Alive, A. T. Greenblatt (Slate)
Hello, this is Automatic Antigrief: what problem can I solve for you today?, Jenna Hanchey (Nature)
Murder By Pixel: Crime and Responsibility in the Digital Darkness, S.L. Huang (Clarkesworld)
Merry in Time, Kathleen Jennings (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
“Give Me English,” Ai Jiang (F&SF May/June)
Calf Cleaving in the Benthic Black, Isabel J. Kim (Clarkesworld)
Clay, Isabel J. Kim (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
The Dragon Project, Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld)
This Tree Is a Eulogy, Jordan Kurella (Strange Horizons)
Have Mercy, My Love, While We Wait for the Thaw, Iori Kusano (Apex)
ESCAPE! Auditions: Transcript for Contestant 35, Mur Lafferty (Sunday Morning Transport)
Rooted, Wen-yi Lee (Reckoning)
“Maker of Chains,” Sarah A. Macklin (F&SF Mar/Apr)
We Greet the Solstice, Avra Margariti (Haven Spec)
Advice from the Civil Temporal Defense League, Sandra McDonald (Lightspeed)
The Goldfish Man, Maureen McHugh (Uncanny)
Directions to the House of Unnumbered Stars, Devin Miller (Flash Fiction Online)
The Malachite Storm, Devin Miller (Strange Horizons)
A Partial Record of Enchanted Cheeses I’ve Fed My Wife, Devin Miller (PodCastle)
Two Beaches, Devin Miller (Haven Spec)
Rabbit Test, Samantha Mills (Uncanny)
Carcinisation, Ellie Milne-Brown (Reckoning)
All That Burns Unseen, Premee Mohamed (Slate)
“The Usual Way,” Lina Munroe (Fiyah Issue 23)
“Lady Rainbow,” Yvette Lisa Ndlovu (Africa Risen)
Footnotes From “Phosphates, Nitrates, and the Lake A Incident: A Review,” Mari Ness (Reckoning)
Move, Mountain, Move, Russell Nichols (Reckoning)
Witchbreaker, Leah Ning (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
“Cumulative Ethical Guidelines for Midrange Interstellar Storytellers,” Malka Older (Bridge to Elsewhere)
The Locked Pod, Malka Older (Sunday Morning Transport)
The Other Side of Mictlan, Matthew Olivas (Uncanny)
On the Sunlit Side of Venus, Benjamin Parzybok (Apex) (SERIOUS DESPAIR AND SELF-HARM CONTENT WARNING)
Sword and Spore, Domenica Phetteplace (Tor.com)
“Now Is the Time for Expansion and Growth,” Sarah Pinsker (The Sunday Morning Transport, 3/20)
“Delivery,” C.L. Polk (Fiyah No. 21)
The Cheesemaker and the Undying King, Lina Rather (Lightspeed)
Babang Luksa, Nicasio Andres Reed (Reckoning)
A Holdout in the Northern California Designated Wildcraft Zone, T.K. Rex (Grist: Imagine 2200)
He Stays Among the Commots, Christopher Rowe (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
Arbitrium, Anjali Sachdeva (Tor.com)
Papa Legba Has Entered the Chat, DaVaun Sanders (Fireside)
Sheri, at This Very Moment, Bianca Sayan (Apex)
One More Fairy Tale, Carol Scheina (Cossmass Infinities)
Give This Letter to the Crows, Iona Datt Sharma (The Deadlands)
To Embody a Wildfire Starting, Iona Datt Sharma (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
“My Family and Other Evolving Animals,” Shuang Chimu (New Voices in Chinese Science Fiction)
The Found Revelations of Revalor’s Last Oracle, Elsa Sjunneson (Sunday Morning Transport)
Water-logged Roots, Cislyn Smith (Reckoning)
“The Aloe’s Bargain,” Julian Stuart (Xenocultivars: Stories of Queer Growth)
The Direction of Escape, Sonya Taaffe (Not One of Us)
The House Snakes, Sonya Taaffe (Uncanny)
“A Dream of Electric Mothers,” Wole Talabi (Africa Risen)
Weaver Girl Dream, Lisabelle Tay (Uncanny)
“Team Building Exercise,” Valerie Valdes (Bridge to Elsewhere)
“Bumblebot,” Marie Vibbert (Analog Sep/Oct)
“Subscription Life,” Marie Vibbert (Dreams for a Broken World)
Onions, Grace Wagner (Reckoning)
A Local TV Weatherman Describes the Apocalypse, Marcus Whalbring (Strange Horizons)
The Coward Who Stole God’s Name, John Wiswell (Uncanny)
Demonic Invasion or Placebo Effect?, John Wiswell (Sunday Morning Transport)
DIY, John Wiswell (Tor.com)
Too Little, Too Little, Too Much, John Wiswell (Cossmass Infinities)
“The True Meaning of Father’s Day,” John Wiswell (F&SF May/June)
“Inheritance,” Hannah Yang (Analog Sep/Oct)