“Crosstalk, Elysium” by Carolyn Zhao – 3.3
Clarkesworld, March 2026 The story is narrated by Elysium itself — a Karnarian spaceship — though this revelation unfolds gradually. Elysium orbits a distant fuel station, counting each pass in…
“Bend Like the Palm” by David D. Levine – 3.4
Clarkesworld, March 2026 Diona, a seventy-three-year-old woman living on a small Pacific island nation called the Republic of Ratak and Ralik, detects an unusually severe typhoon approaching. Using her notebook…
“The Book Collectors” by J.W. Halicks – 3.2
Beneath Ceaseless Skies, March 2026 Bishop, a seasoned book collector, and Bright, a sixteen-year-old orphan archivist-in-training, are sent on a retrieval mission into the stronghold of the Falmians — mechanical…
“Why Magical Realism and Family Tree School Projects Shouldn’t Mix” by Abigail Guerrero – 3.3
Adventitious, February 2026 A young girl named Clarita — full name Clara Villalba Prado — walks to the front of her elementary school classroom on hooves, wearing a century-old lace…
“What A Name Does Is Let You Leave” by Meagan Kane – 3.8
Adventitious, February 2026 “What A Name Does Is Let You Leave” is a science fiction short story set aboard a penal station orbiting Io, one of Jupiter’s moons. The narrator…
“Worlds Over The Edge” by Caleb Coy – 3.4
Ember Journal, 2025 Rila stands at a seaside bluff, methodically hurling marbles into the ocean below. Each one vanishes over the edge with a small clatter on the rocks —…
“Unsettled Nature” by Jordan Kurella – 3.6
Apex, February 2026 Set on the back of a living jackalope — a giant mythical creature whose fur serves as the ground an entire community calls home — “Unsettled Nature”…
“Sensor Ghosts” by Deborah L. Davitt – 3.5
Lightspeed, February 2026 “Sensor Ghosts” is a science fiction story set on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, where two investigators are sent to check on a research vessel that has gone…
“Dream Destinations (From the Lost Traveler’s Tour Guide)” by Alexander Weinstein – 2.9
Lightspeed, February 2026 “Dream Destinations” is a work of speculative fiction framed as a travel guide to impossible, surreal locations on a mysterious eighth continent that has suddenly appeared on…
“Death Echoes Overlapping” by Megan Chee – 2.1
Lightspeed, February 2026 The story opens on the necropolis space station of the ancient Tau Andromeda megacivilization, where specially trained keepers harvested “death echoes” — a mysterious energy released at…