New story out today! Translunar Travelers Lounge brings you Spark of Change, today’s new story about phoenix eggs, fraught sibling relationships, and a city on the edge of…whatever comes next. Go, read, enjoy!
Tag: short story glory
Like the wee pots of jam, but with ichor
New story out today in Haven Spec! Monster of the Month Club returns to my old monstrous stomping grounds for a new tale inspired by, yes, my childhood obsession with the little cheeses or teas or jams or…anything of the month really. But this time monsters! So many monsters! Find out about them in this fairly short story!
Short stories (and poems) I’ve enjoyed this spring
Notable Escapes, Leah Bobet (Strange Horizons)
“At the Heart of Each Pearl Lies a Grain of Sand,” Marie Brennan (Sunday Morning Transport)
“What I Remember of Oresha Moon Dragon Devshrata,” P Djeli Clark (The Book of Witches)
“John Hollowback and the Witch,” Amal El-Mohtar (The Book of Witches)
The State Street Robot Factory, Claire Humphrey (Apex)
“Catechism for Those Who Would Find Witches,” Kathleen Jennings (The Book of Witches)
Better Living Through Algorithms, Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld)
Still Life With Slain God and Lemon, Anne Leonard (Translunar Travelers Lounge)
Steve Irwin and the Unicorn, Theo Nicole Lorenz (Strange Horizons)
“So Spake the Mirrorwitch,” Premee Mohamed (The Book of Witches)
A Chronicle of the Mole-Year, Christi Nogle (Strange Horizons)
Little Apocalypses, Aparna Paul (Reckoning)
There’s a Door to the Land of the Dead in the Land of the Dead, Sarah Pinsker (The Deadlands)
“Amrit,” Kiran Kaur Saini (F&SF May/Jun)
Blooms, Grace Seybold (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
“Drained,” Sonya Taaffe (Not One Of Us #74)
Construction Sacrifice, Bogi Takács (Lightspeed)
“The Cost of Doing Business,” Emily Y Teng (The Book of Witches)
She Blooms and the World Is Changed, Izzy Wasserstein (Lightspeed)
“Manic Pixie Girl,” AC Wise (The Other Side of Never)
Ugh, humans.
I’m sorry to tell you that my new story in Nature Futures features humans. UGH, HUMANS. WHO CAN EVEN WITH THEM. But don’t worry, there are other species in it too. Read Tourist Season!
Stories I’ve Enjoyed, First Quarter 2023
As always, feel free to put more stories in the comments; this is by no means exhaustive.
Our Grandmother’s Words, M.H. Ayinde (BCS)
flood fish/pumpkin moon, Grace Cahill (The Deadlands)
Perhaps in Understanding, Anamaria Curtis (Uncanny)
After encountering the grey whales in El Burbujon, Laguna Ojo de Libre, Naila Francis (Reckoning)
“Forever the Forest,” Simone Heller (Life Beyond Us)
“The Five Lazy Sisters,” Kathleen Jennings (F&SF Mar/Apr)
The Big Glass Box and the Boys Inside, Isabel J. Kim (Apex)
A Princess With a Nose Three Ells Long, Malda Marlys (Fantasy)
His Guns Could Not Protect Him, Sam J. Miller (Lightspeed)
“The Far Side of the Door,” Premee Mohamed (Life Beyond Us)
The Spoil Heap, Fiona Moore (Clarkesworld)
Discreet Services Offered for Women Ridden by Hags, Stephanie Malia Morris (BCS)
Somewhere, It’s About to Be Spring, Samantha Murray (Clarkesworld)
Enchanted Mirrors Are Making a Comeback. That’s Not Necessarily a Good Thing., Mari Ness (Fantasy)
To Whomsoever Remains, Brandon O’Brien (Uncanny)
“The Dangers We Choose,” Malka Older (Life Beyond Us)
The Changeling and the Child, Pooja Peravali (BCS)
Always and Forever, Only You, Iona Datt Sharma (Strange Horizons)
“Cowboy Ghost Dads Always Break Your Heart,” Stefan Slater (F&SF Jan/Feb)
“Cyclic Amplification, Meaning Family,” Bogi Takacs (Life Beyond Us)
I Should Have Been a Pair of Ragged Claws, Alice Towey (Fantasy)
“Defective,” Peter Watts (Life Beyond Us)
Bad Doors, John Wiswell (Uncanny)
The Father Provincial of Mare Imbrium, E. Lily Yu (Uncanny)
Exile
New story in Sunday Morning Transport this morning, Exiled to Gravity! It’s got truth and lies, family relationships, disability, space stations…it’s full of a number of things, is what I’m saying here.
(If you don’t have a subscription, it will be a teaser. If you get my newsletter, there was a link for a short-term subscription, though….)
More worms, more wisdom
A reprint of my story “A Worm to the Wise” is out in this lovely volume.
I still love soil science and wish there was more SF about it, but also the rest of the stories are worth your time if you didn’t read them in the original online project–or if you did and would really like a stable version of them.
Finalist
So hey, uh, it looks like I’m a finalist for the inaugural round of Emeka Walter Dinjos Awards: https://file770.com/inaugural-finalists-for-emeka-walter…/ It’s so nice to have one’s work thought of, I have to say, especially as I can rattle off dozens of wonderful disabled writers. I’m so privileged to work in the field I do, with the colleagues I have.
The work in question is So Your Grandmother Is a Starship Now: A Quick Guide for the Bewildered: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00503-3
Favorite short stories of 2022
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)
Short stories I’ve enjoyed, last quarter 2022
The list for the whole year is coming soon.
Fertile Week, Leah Bobet (Reckoning: Our Beautiful Reward)
“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)
The Florida Project, Morayo Falayimu (Grist: Imagine 2200)
Murder By Pixel: Crime and Responsibility in the Digital Darkness, S.L. Huang (Clarkesworld)
Calf Cleaving in the Benthic Black, Isabel J. Kim (Clarkesworld)
ESCAPE! Auditions: Transcript for Contestant 35, Mur Lafferty (Sunday Morning Transport)
Directions to the House of Unnumbered Stars, Devin Miller (Flash Fiction Online)
Rabbit Test, Samantha Mills (Uncanny)
“Lady Rainbow,” Yvette Lisa Ndlovu (Africa Risen)
The Other Side of Mictlan, Matthew Olivas (Uncanny)
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)
The Found Revelations of Revalor’s Last Oracle, Elsa Sjunneson (Sunday Morning Transport)
“A Dream of Electric Mothers,” Wole Talabi (Africa Risen)
A Local TV Weatherman Describes the Apocalypse, Marcus Whalbring (Strange Horizons)