Of course I hope you’ve enjoyed my short fiction and poetry (and nonfiction!) this year. But other people have been absolutely lighting the place up as well, and here are my recommendations for speculative short fiction and poetry for 2025. Even I can’t read everything, so please do not take this as a comprehensive list! I’m sure there’s great stuff out there I’ve missed, and if you want to comment with it, that’s great. Spread the joy.
Heritage/Speaker | Hablante/Herencia, Angela Acosta (Samovar)
The Witch and the Wyrm, Elizabeth Bear (Reactor)
Thirteen Swords That Made a Prince: Highlights From the Arms & Armory Collection, Sharang Biswas (Strange Horizons)
Biologists say it will take at least a generation for the river to recover (Klamath River Hymn), Leah Bobet (Reckoning)
Watching Migrations, Keyan Bowes (Strange Horizons)
Bestla, James Joseph Brown (Kaleidotrope)
Mail Order Magic, Stephanie Burgis (Sunday Morning Transport)
With Only a Razor Between, Martin Cahill (Reactor)
As Safe As Fear, Beth Cato (Daikajuzine)
And the Planet Loved Him, L. Chan (Clarkesworld)
“To Reap, to Sow,” Lyndsey Croal (Analog Mar/Apr 25)
Atomic, Jennifer Crow (Kaleidotrope)
Flower and Root, J. R. Dawson (Sunday Morning Transport)
Six People to Revise You, J. R. Dawson (Uncanny)
The Place I Came To, Filip Hajdar Drnovšek Zorko (Lightspeed)
Understudies, Greg Egan (Clarkesworld)
All That Means or Mourns, Ruthanna Emrys (Reactor)
Holly on the Mantel, Blood on the Hearth, Kate Francia (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
The Jacarandas Are Unimpressed By Your Show of Force, Gwynne Garfinkle (Strange Horizons)
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Gorgon, Gwynne Garfinkle (Penumbric)
The Otter Woman’s Daughter, Eleanor Glewwe (Cast of Wonders)
In the Shells of Broken Things, A.T. Greenblatt (Clarkesworld)
In Connorville, Kathleen Jennings (Reactor)
Michelle C. Jin, Imperfect Simulations (Clarkesworld)
What I Saw Before the War, Alaya Dawn Johnson (Reactor)
The Name Ziya, Wen-yi Lee (Reactor)
Barbershops of the Floating City, Angela Liu (Uncanny)
Kaiju Agonistes, Scott Lynch (Uncanny)
The Loaf in the Woods, David Marino (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
One by One, Lindz McLeod (Apex)
10 Visions of the Future; or, Self-Care for the End of Days, Samantha Mills (Uncanny)
Everyone Keeps Saying Probably, Premee Mohamed (Psychopomp)
Liecraft, Anita Moskát (trans. Austin Wagner) (Apex)
The Orchard Village Catalog, Parker Peevyhouse (Strange Horizons)
Lies From a Roadside Vagabond, Aaron Perry (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
Last Tuesday, for Eternity, Vinny Rose Pinto (Imagine 2200)
The Horrible Conceit of Night and Death, J. A. Prentice (Apex)
The Girl That My Mother Is Leaving Me For, Cameron Reed (Reactor)
Ghost Rock Posers F**k Off, Margaret Ronald (Sunday Morning Transport)
Regarding the Childhood of Morrigan, Who Was Chosen to Open the Way, Benjamin Rosenbaum (Reactor)
No One Dies of Longing, Anjali Sachdeva (Strange Horizons)
Laser Eyes Ain’t Everything, Effie Seiberg (Diabolical Plots)
Orders, Grace Seybold (Augur)
Unbeaten, Grace Seybold (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
After the Invasion of the Bug-Eyed Aliens, Rachel Swirsky (Reactor)
“Holy Fools,” Adrian Tchaikovsky (Of Shadows, Stars, and Sabers)
A Random Walk Through the Goblin Library, Chris Willrich (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
“An Asexual Succubus,” John Wiswell (Of Shadows, Stars, and Sabers)
Phantom View, John Wiswell (Reactor)
Brooklyn Beijing, Hannah Yang (Uncanny)
Unfinished Architectures of the Human-Fae War, Caroline Yoachim (Uncanny)