“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…
“I Spin Records Into Gold” by Daria Lavelle – 3.7
Reactor, April 2026 “I Spin Records Into Gold” by Daria Lavelle — Reactor, 2026 Eddie is a engineering student turned reluctant roadie, a man who abandoned a clear-eyed future —…
“A Tree That Can’t Be Chopped” by Timothy Mudie – 3.5
Kaleidotrope, April 2026 The story is narrated by Brinnen Ott, a mill worker at a frontier timber company town built on the edge of a vast, ancient forest. Brinnen’s closest…
“How Gods Feed” by Merc Fenn Wolfmoor – 3.3
Beneath Ceaseless Skies, April 2026 Naomi is a widow in mourning, living in the prairie village of Somerled among her husband Endride’s people. Her infant son Iovita has recently died…
“Underneath the Underneath” by Audrey Zhou – 3.7
Strange Horizons, April 2026 Mina is a woman from elsewhere—a seafarer’s daughter who came to Dragon Pass Island when her family’s trade ship was wrecked at its port and who…
“Skiinfolk” by Jamie McGhee – 4.1
Strange Horizons, April 2026 In a near-future America where Augmented Skiins™ — artificial second skins that transform one’s appearance — are as commonplace as clothing, Ogden is a young Black…
“Unspeakable Knowns” by Donald McCarthy – 3.5
Asimov's, May/June 2026 The story unfolds in first person through the voice of an unnamed Secretary of Media for Maldrove, the oldest human colony world, distinguished by its pervasive red…
“The Sky Above The Earth Below” by Steve Rasnic Tem – 3.7
Asimov's, May/June 2026 Grace is twenty-nine years old, American-born, and supervising three experimental carbon capture beaches along the Chilean coast for the Civilian Climate Corps. The beaches are surfaced with…
“The Language of Machines” by Betsy Aoki – 3.7
Asimov's, May/June 2026 The story is narrated by Rach, one of the New Humans — beings engineered by sentient spiral machines from the corpses of Old Humans who once tore…
“The Girl Who Stole Life” by Zhou Wen, tr. Xueting C. Ni – 4.0
Asimov's, May/June 2026 The story opens with an unnamed narrator standing in an ominous alley, the scent of decay seeping from behind a door, contemplating a woman whose choices led…