Brother Adalbert’s Last Shift by Karol Lagodzki – 3.7
In a domed underground city called New Chicago, built after the surface became uninhabitable, Brother Adalbert spends his final day as caretaker of a single ancient oak tree enshrined in…
A Flame in the Dark by Sam W. Pisciotta – 4.0
Set in 1775 in the American wilderness, A Flame in the Dark is told through the journal entries and letters of Annette Lacroix, a French naturalist living on the frontier…
“The Scent of Memory” by Zhao Haihong, translated by S. Qiouyi Lu – 3.8
Clarkesworld, May 2026 Shijun wakes on a Greyhound bus crossing the Canadian Rockies, an amber bottle of perfume in his bag and a message from his friend Jiayuan flashing on…
“The Profitable Sentience of Household Goods” by Louis Inglis Hall – 3.4
Clarkesworld, May 2026 The story unfolds as a series of monologues addressed by a refrigerator — designated “Buddy” — to a newly activated light switch on its first day of…
“Paper Airplane Poet” by Sheri Singerling – 4.0
Clarkesworld, May 2026 The story opens on Tillie, a twenty-one-year-old low blood woman standing outside her family’s home in the crowded lower city of Simetria while her father is being…
“Wireworks” by Sheri Singerling – 4.6
Clarkesworld, September 2025 Calista is nearly twenty and paralyzed by grief. A month ago her mother died by suicide — leaping from the cliffs above the beach at Étretat —…
“Conquerors” by Nick Wolven – 3.7
Clarkesworld, May 2026 “Conquerors” unfolds across a single Reunion Day in a far-future Earth where humanity has split into two distinct cultures: Grounders, who tend the planet’s restored ecosystems from…
“Archaeological Evidence for the Time Traveler” by Tia Tashiro – 4.4
Clarkesworld, May 2026 Teresa is a Canadian archaeologist working the interior caves of northern Brazil, returning from maternity leave with her infant son Daniel strapped to her chest. At an…
“Aly” by Grace Chan – 3.7
Clarkesworld, May 2026 “Aly” is a four-part novelette by Grace Chan, structured in dated sections spanning 2075 to 2078, set in a climate-controlled Melbourne divided into sealed residential Zones. Its…
“Fernie” by Angela Liu – 3.6
Adventitious, April 2026 “Fernie” is a dual-perspective short story told in alternating voices: a lonely, precocious little girl named Sally, and a sentient ancient fern she befriends during a family…