This is the final list of the 286 short stories I read in 2019. I launched a new column at Tor.com starting in April spotlighting 10 short stories every month, hence the length of this list. Here are links to each of those mini-reviews: April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December.
Abacus of Ether by Stephen Case
Beneath Ceaseless Skies – May 23, 2019
“Tomorrow is Whitchandlers’ Eve. I can smell the beeswax of the candles in the market waft in as the door rasps open and a soldier steps through.”
Advice For Your First Time At the Faerie Market by Nibedita Sen
Fireside Fiction – July 2019
“You’ll smell it before you see it — scents of ticklish pollen, braised roots. The market doesn’t like to let itself be found too easily.”
After Life by Shari Paul
The Dark Magazine – March 2019
“This time, he thinks before he opens his eyes, this time he’s made it to Duat.”
Ahura Yazda, the Great Extraordinary by Sanaa Ahmad
Lightspeed Magazine – July 2019
“The sunshine brings him to his knees. Every day he thinks, I am here, I am here, in this house that we raised above ourselves, with this woman who chose me.”
All My Relations by Bryan Kamaoli Kuwada
The Dark Magazine – September 2019
“Fish are bloody and fleshy and briny. The belly meat is fatty, the guts are sharp and acrid. But they barely sate my hunger. Only the flesh of your skin-sack kin does that.”
All the Hometowns You Can’t Stay Away From by Izzy Wasserstein
Fireside Fiction – May 2019
“You Snap into the procedurally-generated shithole you call a hometown, and a moment later the stench leaves you gagging. So many universes and yet, in almost every one, South Topeka smells like a family of raccoons died inside a middle school locker room.”
Amanda Draws Crows by José Pablo Iriarte
Fireside Fiction – July 2019
“Amanda drew while Mommy cooked dinner. Amanda was always drawing. Ever since she could hold a crayon.”
Amazon’s First Fully Automated Factory Is Anything But by Brian Merchant
New York Times Op-Ed from the Future – October 21, 2019
An Arc of Lightning Across the Eye of God by P H Lee
Clarkesworld – October 2019
“Zhou Wenshu was the young magistrate of Shenkong Bian and he was feeling every inch of that appointment.”
And Now His Lordship Is Laughing by Shiv Ramdas
Strange Horizons – September 9, 2019
“When the first breeze of the morning whistles over the green tips of the paddy-stalks to kiss the tawny jute thatching of the bungalow roof, Apa is already out on the verandah.”
Annotated Setlist of the Mikaela Cole Jazz Quintet by Catherine George
Clarkesworld – December 2019
“That solo! Art blowing so hard and so hot, jumping out like a solar flare. Art, the only one of us with a real instrument, a beat-up old brass thing with the spit of two hundred years of play in it—and, well, sometimes we thought you could hear the difference.”
The Anomaly, or the Rise of the World-wheel by Gunnar de Winter
Speculative City – Summer 2019
“Derreck closed the old leather-bound history book. Nothing useful there. Nothing that so much as hinted at the Anomaly, which led him to conclude that it was indeed an unprecedented phenomenon.”
The Answer That You Are Seeking by Jenny Rae Rappaport
Lightspeed Magazine – September 2019
“It’s the lollipops that break you. The thought of your child sucking on one during a lockdown drill carries enough cognitive dissonance that your brain has trouble actually comprehending it.”
Antripuu by Simon Strantzas
Nightmare Magazine – July 2019
“There are four of us left huddled in the cabin: me, Jerry, Carina, and Kyle. And we’re terrified the door won’t hold.”
Any Way the Wind Blows by Seanan McGuire
Tor.com – June 5, 2019
“New York City spreads out beneath us, gray steel and gleaming glass from our aerial perspective, virtually stripped of the color and chaos that almost always fills its streets, and everything about it is familiar, and nothing about it is familiar, and I am so very far away from home.”
The Archronology of Love by Caroline M. Yaochim
Lightspeed – April 2019
“From this distance, she could pretend that things were going according to plan—that M.J. was waiting for her in one of the domed cities. A shuttle would take her down to the surface and she and her lifelove would pursue their dream of studying a grand alien civilization.”
The Armadillo Man by Norm Sherman
Drabblecast – December 8, 2019
““Neat arch,” said 13-year old Annabelle Marsh, her tone half-way serious for the first time this outing.”
Artificials Should Be Allowed to Worshipby Steven James
New York Times Op-Eds from the Future – July 29, 2019
As Dark as Hunger by S. Qiouyi Lu
Black Static – November 2019
As the Last I May Know by S.L. Huang
Tor.com – October 23, 2019
“A growing crowd of protesters trudged doggedly through the flurrying snow, bundled up into roundness against the cold until they resembled determined beetles.”
Away with the Wolves by Sarah Gailey
Uncanny Magazine – September/October 2019
“When I wake, I am curled up as small as a seed. My hands are tucked between my knees, my face pressed into sweet loam. Morning dew blankets my skin like thick, glistening fur.”
The Ballad of Boomtown by Priya Sharma
Nightmare Magazine – April 2019
“The wide avenues of Boomtown were named for trees when there was grand optimism for growth. Now nothing booms in Boomtown. It’s bust and broken.”
Balompié by Ana Hurtado
Fireside Fiction – April 2019
“It happens every couple of weeks. Mostly by knifing, once the boys reach the outskirts of Atahualpa Stadium, yards away from the fútbol crowds but still near enough the edifice to catch scents of cold Pilsener and empanadas con ají, a mixture that causes turmoil in their bellies.”
Batteries by Patricia Coral
Fireside Fiction – November 2019
“I gather batteries for you in the same way that a farmer gathers his crops. I gather batteries for you like Mami gathered her orchids before the hurricane came.”
Before Dominica by Cat Sparks
Kaleidotrope – Autumn 2019
“Friday night—not her favorite by a long shot. Saturdays are bad enough but Fridays are the worst. Ruby’s shift supposedly runs from eight till twelve, but midnight’s when the party’s getting started. Inner Sydney CBD, shakedowns, shoot-ups, drive-bys, drive-throughs. Rapid Uzi fire like popping corn.”
Before the World Crumbles Away by A.T. Greenblatt
Uncanny Magazine – March/April 2019
“It’s a beautiful lie, even Elodie will admit that. There are two lovers on the pier with the painter, sitting for their portrait, and she’s honest about the way the light of the setting sun catches their hair, the way the breeze ripples their clothes, how they lean into each other. She gets so many details right that even Elodie doesn’t notice what’s missing at first.”
Billie the Dragon Slayer by Alexandra Grunberg
The Future Fire – October 2019
“Dragons did not seem so terrible in the old stories. Or, maybe they were terrible, but it was a terribleness in the past tense.”
A Bird, a Song, a Revolution by Brooke Bolander
Lightspeed Magazine – September 2019
“Before the flute is a flute, it is a bird. This is the first act of magic. This is the first lesson the girl learns, when the world is still young and shaggy-coated with lingering winter.”
Black Flowers Blossom by Vina Jie-Min Prasad
Uncanny Magazine – November/December 2019
“I was in the parlour of 427 Cheyne Walk, listening to the occult detective relate his story.”
Black, Like Earth by Jordyn Blanson
Beneath Ceaseless Skies – June 20, 2019
“The misha comes to me on my eleventh summer. I awake in the middle of the night to pain in my stomach, as though I’d eaten a bad batch of fwah fruit and it is spoiling me from the inside out.”
Blame it on the Bees by Rachel Menard
Cast of Wonders – July 25, 2019
“I can’t find it. Digging through my drawer, shoving aside patchy band shirts and pilled hoodies, I feel for the soft fabric of one, very important Sex Pistols tank top. My fingers hit the base of the drawer. No shirt.”
The Blanched Bones, the Tyrant Wind by Karen Osborne
Fireside Fiction – March 2019
“The city lives because we die: we, the shivering, bloody few, the girls who climb the diamond stair in the winter to serve ourselves to the dragon.”
The Bleeding Maze: A Visitor’s Guide by Kurt Fawver
Nightmare Magazine – August 2019
“I want to tell you about the bleeding maze at the center of our town.”
Blood Is Another Word for Hunger by Rivers Solomon
Tor.com – July 24, 2019
“In a wooden house on a modest farmstead by a dense wood near a roving river to the west of town, miles from the wide road and far away from the peculiar madness that is men at war, lived the Missus, the Missus’s grown daughters Adelaide and Catherine, the Missus’s sister Bitsy, the Missus’s poorly mother Anna, and the Missus’s fifteen-year-old slave girl Sully, who had a heart made of teeth—for as soon as she heard word that Albert, the Missus’s husband, had been slain in battle, she took up arms against the family who’d raised her, slipping a tincture of valerian root and skullcap into their cups of warmed milk before slitting their throats in the night.”
Blue Morphos in the Garden by Lis Mitchell
Tor.com – April 4, 2019
“I am elbows-deep in dishwater and morning sunlight when Lily brings me the news.”
Blur by Carmen Maria Machado
Lightspeed Magazine – April 2019
“En route to visit my girlfriend in Indiana, I pull over at a rest stop in Illinois to wash my face. It is not my first mistake of the day, but it is the biggest.”
Boiled Bones and Black Eggs by Nghi Vo
Beneath Ceaseless Skies – April 11, 2019
“The sign that sits over the lintel of the Drunken Rooster reads “we have served tea to all the world,” and it is only a slight exaggeration.”
Bonobo by Robert Reed
Clarkesworld – June 2019
“Living with a stranger. For eighteen years, that’s what June had been doing. Which was the second most painful lesson from that brutal Sunday.”
BookSavr by Ken Liu
Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction – September/October 2019
Border Crossing by S. R. Algernon
Nature: Futures – October 23, 2019
“Two wooden sawhorses blocked the road beside a crumbling adobe mission. A car idled on the dirt beside them, sporting chrome, tailfins and a star like a sheriff’s badge on the door.”
The Boy on the Roof by Francesca Forrest
Fireside Fiction – November 2019
“The boy was perched on the cylindrical water tank that lay alongside the sink, bare feet gripping its curve, a pair of expensive Athletics lying discarded at the tank’s base.”
The Boy Who Killed His Mother by Rosemary Hayes
Pseudopod – December 6, 2019
“Nobody wanted to play with the boy who killed his mother. Nick Metcalf understood why in the same way he understood why the sun rose and set.”
Breadcrumbs for an Alien by Bo Balder
Nature: Futures – August 7, 2019
“One of the aliens was still alive. We had watched the fire streaking down from the sky and the egg smash down.”
Breaking by Maya Chhabra
Cast of Wonders – August 18, 2019
“Mom’s kind of bizarrely happy for someone with a daughter about to croak, but I don’t mind.”
Breaking the Waters by Donyae Coles
Pseudopod – September 20, 2019
“Bootsie is what her mother called her, only her mother, ever. She stood on the train platform, the air daggers of ice against her, cutting through her clothes, leaving her skin raw and frozen.”
Breath by Bruce McAllister
Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction – May/June 2019
Breath, Weeping Wind, Death by Emily McCosh
Galaxy’s Edge – May 2019
Bridge of Sighs by Kaaron Warren
Nightmare Magazine – March 2019
“Terry needed a fresh ghost, so he dressed warmly and headed out, camera around his neck, syringes safely packed into the bag over his shoulder.”
The Brightest Lights of Heaven by Maria Haskins
Fireside Fiction – July 2019
“I haven’t seen Moira for fourteen years, but I dream about her all the time.”
Brigid Was Hung By Her Hair from the Second Story Window by Gillian Daniels
The Dark Magazine – September 2019
“Brigid, a native of County Cork, was nineteen in 1889 when she moved to Boston to marry Michael O’Flannery, who ended up hanging her out the window by her hair.”
Bubbles and His Biped by Mary Berman
Fireside Fiction – June 2019
“Actually, MacKenzie liked the apocalypse.”
Bury-Me-Not by Katherine Heath Shaeffer
Flash Fiction Online – August 2019
“We buried Mother in a tasteful rosewood cube. I couldn’t stop thinking that she looked like a paperweight.”
Carry On by Seanan McGuire
Nightmare Magazine – March 2019
“Mary found her eyes drinking in that hair like a starving man drinks in the sight of a laden table. This woman had mass. She was allowed to occupy space. When she flew, she probably didn’t need to step onto a scale.”
Chickens by Raquel Castro
Fireside Fiction – September 2019
“A long, long time ago, in a little village in the mountains of Puebla, chickens started to disappear.”
Children of Itzamná by Carmelo Rafala
Speculative City – Summer 2019
““Now play the part, Malinal,” I said, fingers casually running down the front of my strapless bodice. “That’s all you have to do. Stay calm. No smart-mouthing. Don’t look me in the eyes. Sit straight, shoulders back. Remain a step behind me, and no assertive posturing; it’s a dead giveaway when your chupacabra begins to growl.””
Chiripas by José González Vargas
Fireside Fiction – May 2019
“The chiripas came with the rain season. They were small, bean-sized insects the color of coffee that ran and hid whenever they felt seen and followed.”
City of the Angels by Libia Brenda
Fireside Fiction – September 2019
“1531 AD The heavenly hosts had not had such a crowded assembly in nine years.”
Colonized Bodies, Desiccated Souls by Nin Harris
Diabolical Plots – August 16, 2019
“The PPMS had cordoned off Jalan Mandailing. They had guards posted along the banks of Sungai Chua. But it was not enough.”
Comfort Food by R.D. Harris
Galaxy’s Edge – July 2019
Comment History for JustAnotherEarthling by John Post
Daily Science Fiction – December 17, 2019
“1. Post: “Ariana Grande: Thank You, Next” in the MUSICVIDEOS subcommunity”
Confession by Tochi Onyebuchi
Foreshadow – December 2019
“Yes, sah, I am ready to talk today. I am sorry that it has taken me this long to cooperate.”
Consequences of a Statistical Approach Towards a Utilitarian Utopia: A Selection of Potential Outcomes by Matt Dovey
Drabblecast – December 2, 2019
“Michelle smiled, exhausted, as her baby’s cry filled the hospital room.”
Consider the Monsters by Beth Cato
Diabolical Plots – August 16, 2019
“Jakayla crouched in front of her dark closet. She hadn’t turned on the light because that was an awfully rude thing to do when trying to talk to the monster hidden inside.”
The Converter of Time by Mina Ikemoto Ghosh
Speculative City – Winter 2019
“My parents bought my freedom from the Converter of Time before I was born.”
The Coven of Dead Girls by L’Erin Ogle
Pseudopod – June 7, 2019
“The key turns in the lock and you step inside. Until you, we have been adrift in waiting, silence heavy in our bones. Time passes slowly inside these walls, dressed in our plastic coffins. Your sister follows you inside and looks around.”
Cratered by Karen Osborne
Future Science Fiction Digest – June 15, 2019
“The fireplace stuck out from the lunar surface like a middle finger directed at my future.”
The Dandelion Man by Jack Nicholls
Drabblecast – June 20, 2019
“Teo and Paulus stood at the shore of the pampas, where the grass grew twice as tall as a man. They were naked, and the pampero raised goosebumps on their skin. The stalks bent against the wind’s force, green and gold ripples drawing the eye to the distant horizon.”
Daughters of Silt and Cedar by Rebecca Mix
Kaleidotrope – Summer 2019
“I am six years old when Papa leaves me in the swamp. There is no color in the sky, as if even the clouds are weary, huddling together to block out the blue. I want to go home.”
The Dead, in Their Uncontrollable Power by Karen Osborne
Uncanny Magazine – March/April 2019
“I used to be a girl. Now I am a hundred. The dead whisper me awake and stay with me while I dream.”
Dear Parents, Your Child Is Not the Chosen One by P.G. Galalis
Diabolical Plots – September 11, 2019
“I apologize for the misunderstanding. When I said Rodney would improve, I did not mean that he should expect to earn a grade of “Chosen One” next term (or any other term for that matter). “Hero” would really be a more realistic goal, perhaps further down the road, should he improve his efforts, though I’m afraid “Paragon” would be quite out of reach.”
The Deer Boy by Micah Dean Hicks
Nightmare Magazine – May 2019
“I never had a place. A girl, and the oldest of five. Two brothers and two sisters with howling mouths. Mother sleepwalking from home to work and back. Father was nothing but a flat hand and restless, punishing eyes.”
Désiré by Megan Arkenberg
Glittership – June 13, 2019
“It was the War that changed him. I remember the day we knew it. [A pause.] We all knew it, that morning.”
The Doing and Undoing of Jacob E. Mwangi by E. Lily Yu
Asimov’s Science Fiction – May/June 2019
Dollhouse by Adam-Troy Castro
Nightmare Magazine – November 2019
“He is not a doll-sized man. He is a full-sized man. The structure is designed for miniatures, and he is trapped inside it, knees up against his chest, head scraping the ceiling.”
Earthgazing by Lisa Cai
The Future Fire – October 2019
“The earth was like a circular pond, viewing it from the moon. It had more landmass than Chiyo expected and had ice at the poles.”
The Eight People Who Murdered Me (Excerpt from Lucy Westenra’s Diary) by Gwendolyn Kiste
Nightmare Magazine – November 2019
“The teeth in the neck gambit obviously starts all of this. Don’t think I’ll forget that. Don’t expect for one moment you’re going to get off too easily. You might not be the only one to blame, but you’re still mostly to blame.”
Empress in Glass by Cory Skerry
Clarkesworld – May 2019
“The train tracks slashed across the wetlands like a stitched wound, and to Meneja, the sun’s red light pooling on the marsh looked like congealing blood.”
An Empty Space West of Iowa by James Reinebold
Galaxy’s Edge – May 2019
Ephemera by Catherine George
Flash Fiction Online – November 2019
“The day after Kieran left, his favorite mug left, too. Rose had brought it home from the thrift store four years ago, but over time it had shifted loyalties, become Kieran’s. She watched it float down from the cupboard and rattle over to the open window, helpless to stop it.”
Erdenweh by Bo Balder
Clarkesworld – June 2019
“Onway dreaded the condolence visit, but still she hurried to the front door. It was never wise to expose yourself to Nueva Esperanza sun for long, even with skin as dark as hers.”
Escape by Tanvi Berwah
Foreshadow – October 2019
“The day my mother’s cancer relapsed she still had the pochette. She would have warned me about it, had she the time. Nobody else bothered. Not in a way that mattered. But I wasn’t surprised. Nobody actually warned me what was happening to my mother either.”
Evergreen by M. Rickert
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction – November/December 2019
Every Song Must End by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam
Uncanny Magazine – March/April 2019
“Florence leaned in, forcing him to readjust his arm around her shoulder. She knew what he wasn’t saying: when was she going to let Henry go? Stop listening to the sad songs they shared across so many million miles? Stop dreaming of him even in her waking hours?”
Example by Adam-Troy Castro
Nightmare Magazine – March 2019
“Hector Ortiz sat on the edge of his cot, smoking a cigarette, because why not.”
The Executioner General by Raluca Balasa
Mithila Review – December 2019
Fairy-Tale Ending by Beth Goder
Flash Fiction Online – June 2019
“When the moon was full, Immer lowered her hair to the Earth, a silver net with snarls bound tight as a captain’s knot. Kneeling down, she plucked the strands of her hair like a harpist.”
Family Album by Marissa Lingen
Nature: Futures – November 13, 2019
“It was eccentric enough that the little town in east-central Alberta, tumbleweed and Herefords, had taken stones from all over Canada to build a UFO landing pad in 1967. What was stranger was that eventually aliens had used it.”
Fare by Danny Lore
Fireside Fiction – August 2019
“The change always starts at the back of DeShaun’s neck, and it takes everything not to claw the beast out — to not let it peel him open along his spine like pages of a book.”
The Fifth Day by Tochi Onyebuchi
Uncanny Magazine – September/October 2019
“I feel the morning sun first in the bones of my shoulders, and then the high of my back and, when I turn to face the clearing where the clay is soft and red and ready for wounding, I feel it on my face. This is how it talks to me.”
A Final Resting Place by Matthew Hornsby
Metaphorosis – September 2019
The First Breath after Drowning by Tannara Young
The Future Fire – October 2019
“Eoway’s illusion began in darkness. Most illusions did. The judges awarded more points for those which started in light because it was harder to draw the audience in when the arena was already visible.”
Fission by Nicole Tan
Anathema – December 2019
“At the station, I see my binary on the other train, arriving in a squall of blinding wind.”
Five Stories in the Monsoon Night by Nghi Vo
Fireside Fiction – June 2019
“The hand-lettered sign hanging in the Crooked Dragon’s front window proclaimed that it had the best wide egg noodles in the city of Tsang, which of course must be taken to mean that it had the best wide egg noodles in the world.”
Flags Flying Before a Fall by Osahon Ize-Iyamu
Strange Horizons – December 16, 2019
“Remember when you roll down hills, Brother, don’t forget us. Many people don’t write letters, don’t send anything, but you’re too distant, and I wish we were closer but there’s no time left.”
The Flowering by Soyeon Jeong, translated by Jihyun Park and Gord Sellar
Clarkesworld – April 2019
“Anyway, the last time I saw my sister, before the Flowering? It was there, inside that prison in Yeongdeungpo.”
For He Can Creep by Siobhan Carroll
Tor.com – July 10, 2019
“Flash and fire! Bristle and spit! The great Jeoffry ascends the madhouse stairs, his orange fur on end, his yellow eyes narrowed!”
Forget-Me-Nots for the Potter’s Field by Wendy Nikel
Deep Magic – Fall 2019
The Fourth Trimester Is the Strangest by Rebecca Campbell
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction – May/June 2019
Fossilized by Jessica Yang
Anathema – December 2019
“The tourist guidebook says our local god was carved into the Tianran mountainside long ago, back when “traditional folklore and quaint cultural beliefs were an integral part of rural life.””
The Fruit That Bears the Flower by Mary Cool
Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet – December 2019
Fugue State by Steven Barnes and Tananarive Due
Apex Magazine – May 2019
““Shit,” Charlotte Berry whispered as the fog of sleep began to clear. She heard Arthur fumbling in the bathroom cabinet and saw his reflection in the mirror, salt-and-pepper hair and a small bald spot as he hunched over, a medicine bottle close to his face. She wanted to pretend he only needed reading glasses. But it was far worse than that.”
Gert of the Hundred by L.S. Johnson
Beneath Ceaseless Skies – July 18, 2019
“The boy’s name was Nicholas, though it took Gert some days to learn it. At first he was just a shadow in her garden, watched by the spiders who strummed their webs as he passed them, vibrating intelligence on the invader: he touches leaves, he watches you.”
Ghost Ships by Michael Swanwick
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction – September/October 2019
The Girl and the House by Mari Ness
Nightmare Magazine – April 2019
“She is a girl, coming to a house. Not just any house: a large, sprawling mansion, built up from the remains of a ruined abbey, or a shattered castle.”
The Girl With All The Ghosts by Alex Yuschik
Glittership – April 11, 2019
“It’s her second-to-last Friday night at Six Resplendent Suns Funeral Palace and House of the Dead, and Go-Eun is getting terrible reception on her cell.”
Glass Heart, Glass City by Mike McClelland
Speculative City – Fall 2019
“Things first went topsy-turvy when Moonbeam Heartstruggle (not her birth name) arrived in Quinlet’s Grove.”
Going North by Roxanne Khamsi
Nature: Futures – December 11, 2019
“The mothers-to-be arrived with swollen bellies. Sometimes their bumps were so big that I knew immediately it was too late, and I would have to turn them away.”
The Great Mandini and the Dead Man’s Hand by Kevin Wabaunsee
Strange Horizons – October 14, 2019
“Two in the morning in the booth of an all-night diner a block off Santa Monica Boulevard, and I was trying to convince the Great Mandini to tell me his secrets.”
Gundark Island, or, Tars Tarkas Needs Your Help by Matthew Corradi
Lightspeed Magazine – April 2019
“When Tommy Burke took me out to Gundark Island to see the alien, I wasn’t really expecting much.”
The Happiest Place by Kevin Wabaunsee
PseudoPod – August 16, 2019
“Everyone knows the edge of the Kingdom of Fun out near the wall is the riskiest place to work. So of course, that’s where they put me on my first day.”
The Haunting of Olúwo Street by Suyi Davies Okungbowa
Fireside Fiction – October 2019
“You’d think I would be a wastrel. You’d think my roof would have rusting zinc that flaps, iron dust floating in the night wind, rotting wood barely supporting its eaves, worms in its holes, playing hide-and-seek in the sun and taking shelter from the harmattan cold.”
Haven by Karen Lord
Xprize – June 2019
“Lyndon Greaves sighed deeply and leaned his forefinger on the delete button for a long, long time. He stretched back in his chair, reached out for the glass of rum, breathed and sipped, and reread his last paragraph with a critical eye.”
Hello, Hello by Jeff Hecht
Nature: Futures – September 11, 2019
“Hello, Hello. We are messengers bringing you greetings from the Galaxy, and are we are pleased to welcome you to the ranks of its intelligent civilizations.”
His Giant Heartbeat by Natalia Theodoridou
PodCastle – September 10, 2019
“I smoke with my back to the caravan while I wait for B and his client to finish. It’s a drippy afternoon, deep in the fenlands.”
Homecoming by Gardner Dozios
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction – September/October 2019
The Homunculi’s Guide to Resurrecting Your Loved One From Their Electronic Ghosts by Kara Lee
Escape Pod – September 5, 2019
“If you are reading this, your Loved One has died. We are sorry for your loss.”
The House Wins in the End by L Chan
The Dark Magazine – July 2019
“This is not a haunted house story. This is what happens after.”
How Can You Appreciate 23rd-Century English? Look Back 200 Years by Gretchen McCulloch
New York Times: Op-Eds from the Future – September 23, 2019
How to Confront the Sphinx Haunting Your Garden by Alexei Collier
Flash Fiction Online – June 2019
“If you are consulting this guide, you live alone in the house at the end of the lane, and a sphinx has been haunting your overgrown garden.”
How to Make a Paper Crane by Elsa Sjunneson-Henry
Uncanny Magazine – January/February 2019
“Fold the paper in half by taking the top corner and folding it to the bottom corner, as you learn what it feels like to be angry, as you learn that the world isn’t just, because there is no cure for the thing that will kill your father.”
How to Win a Pulitzer by Aishah Ojibara
Flash Fiction Online – November 2019
“Ms. Ann Foster, journalist and Africa’s imminent saviour, stands outside the hotel, sweltering in the hot sun.”
The Hundreth House Had No Walls by Laurie Penny
Tor.com – September 11, 2019
“The King was bored.”
Hunting the Viper-King by Kathryn Harlan
Strange Horizons – June 3, 2019
“At the mathematical center of Dorothy’s father’s RV, at its golden ratio curl, there is a tarot card pinned to the corkboard.”
I Am Not the Hive Mind of Transetti Prime by Steven Fischer
Nature: Futures – August 14, 2019
“I am not a young girl staring up at the stars, grasping her father’s hand and holding it tight.”
I Send My Tower Walking by Amanda Helms
Fireside Fiction – December 2019
“In the cool of night, as the owls hoot and moonlight streams through my window, I whisper the spell to twine my hair into my tower.”
In Search of Your Memories by Nian Yu, translated by Andy Dudak
Clarkesworld – April 2019
“I can’t walk into his memories, but I suppose they must engender some particularly unhappy feelings. Industry brought rapid development to these small, forgotten communities, and left behind scars, scars that can’t be forgotten or washed away.”
In Search of Your Memories by Nian Yu
Clarkesworld – April 2019
“I see a village. Low houses, fields, open countryside.”
In That Place She Grows a Garden by Del Sandeen
FIYAH – April 2019
Inanition by Kate Kastelein
The Future Fire – October 2019
“Everyone says that loss gets easier with time, but no one tells you that during that time you may also lose yourself.”
Infringement by Timothy J. Gawne
Nature: Futures by October 9, 2019
“I opened the front door and was not surprised by the tall man covered in bright blue feathers because I was distracted by the kilometre-wide flying saucer hovering overhead.”
Inheritance by Qurat Dar
Anathema – April 2019
“I’d heard my share of cautionary tales. The land of fertile ground was a place just as fertile for vivid stories to scare children, and more adults than would care to admit it, as it was for rice and sugarcane.”
Inheritance by Elise Stephens
Escape Pod – October 17, 2010
“Carmen would have expected a gold necklace or tarnished antique, maybe some money or a secret family recipe card, but she’d never dreamed her grandmother would try to immortalize herself through an inheritance like this.”
Into the Eye by SL Harris
Strange Horizons – December 9, 2019
“The stories of the sounds at the center of the universe are true. You hear the piping from light-years away, or feel it, in the noise of the engines and the hum of the navcom.”
Invisible and Dreadful by S. R. Mandel
Strange Horizons – August 19, 2019
“It’s no secret that Carrie’s been having trouble starting her thesis. And, okay, maybe she has been complaining for weeks, and maybe Professor Kawamura has started breathing down her neck, and maybe Yumi and Kazu have been bearing the brunt of it all.”
It Never Snows in Snowtown by Rebecca Zahabi
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction – November/December 2019
It’s 2040. We Need to Keep Abortion Legal in New York by Lucy Ferriss
New York Times Op-Ed from the Future – October 7, 2019
It’s 2043. We Need a New American Dream for the A.I. Revolution by Baobao Zhang
New York Times Op-Eds from the Future – August 12, 2019
Joss Papers for Porcelain Ghosts by Eliza Chan
The Dark Magazine – December 2019
““Nothing followed you?” Harriet’s mother said, peering up and down the corridor.”
The Kiss of the Water by Malena Salazar Maciá, translated by Toshiya Kamei
Mithila Review – December 2019
Knitting in English by Brit E. B. Hvide
Cast of Wonders – August 25, 2019
“Looping the thread over her needle, Kari caught the sun in her knit. It was an old spell: warmth trapped in rows of neatly patterned wool to stave off the winter wind. The first spell her pappa taught her.”
The Lady of Shalott by Carrie Vaughn
Lightspeed Magazine – April 2019
“As far as she could remember, the Lady had never been outside the tower. She might have been born here. She assumed she had been born, but maybe not. Maybe she just appeared, her complete adult self, flowing red hair and porcelain skin, dressed in a gown of blue trimmed with gold, with no memory of a New York Timeshing outside these rounded walls.”
Las Vegas Museum of Space Exploration by Marilee Dahlman
Metaphorosis – June 2019
“The purpose of the Las Vegas Museum of Space Exploration is to preserve and display extraterrestrial art and material of incredible cultural importance: the Mars Frescoes and Earth’s largest collection of MarsBlood.”
Late Train by Anthony Ha
Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet – February 2019
A Leash of Foxes, Their Stories Like Barter by Cassandra Khaw
Lightspeed Magazine – August 2019
“I will tell you the true story of Mr. Fox, and it’ll be better than any other you’d hear.”
The Legend of Wolfgang Robotkiller by Alex Irvine
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction – July/August 2019
A Letter to Peter Jefferson from His Son Peter Jefferson by George Nikolopoulos
Galaxy’s Edge – November 2019
Lest We Forget by Elizabeth Bear
Uncanny Magazine – May/June 2019
“I am dying of the war, though not in it.”
The Librarian by Robert Dawson
Nature: Futures – March 27, 2019
“The Librarian rolled slowly through the stacks, its rubber treads making no sound. Its side cameras scanned the spines of the books, 100 call numbers every second.”
Little (Green) Women by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Galaxy’s Edge – July 2019
Little Empire of Lakelore by D.A. Xiaolin Spires
Diabolical Plots – July 1, 2019
“All the world followed pretty much the same guidelines for international trade and travel. That’s a very big gloss, but let’s say it was true. And it was, for the most part.”
Lost Girl by Catherine Lundoff
Fireside Fiction – October 2019
“This is the way the story goes: a young woman, alone in the world, in a dilapidated house by the sea or on the moors.”
Macadam by Samantha Henderson
Drabblecast – December 8, 2019
“The East Texas asphalt is surprisingly intact, and the Corolla’s retreads make a crisp sound as they bite along the hard tar surface, and at first I have a faint hope that the job’ll be an in-out, easy-peasy one.”
Madness Afoot by Amanda Hollander
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction – September/October 2019
Malinche by Gabriela Santiago
Clarkesworld – September 2019
“The Eagle Knight came like a star in midday. I looked up, and I saw the profile of his helmet’s beak so sharp against the light, the golden feathers of his wings so bright in the glare of the sun. As though he were Huitzilopochtli himself.”
Mama Bruise by Jonathan Carroll
Tor.com – April 17, 2019
“She stood in front of the mirror, twisting from side to side, hands on her hips. The livid black bruise on her thigh was about ten inches long and spelled out in perfectly shaped block letters: MAMA BRUISE.”
Meet Me In Okhotsk by Sarah Daniels
Flash Fiction Online – November 2019
“Mary dangles, letting seawater leap over her boots. She’d happily hang here forever, where the ocean and the stars touch.”
The Memory Dresser by Nicholas M. Stillman
Metaphorosis – May 2019
“Our parlor is small—tucked in a corner of Helm, folded between an empty Gassa stall and the home of a half-deaf mystic.”
Mighty Are the Meek and the Myriad by Cassandra Khaw
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction – July/August 2019
The Migration Suite: A Study in C Sharp Minor by Maurice Broaddus
Uncanny Magazine – July 2019
“The lights dotting the night sky filled the hunter with wonder and terror. He did not know what they meant, nor why they hid during the day. But each night he stared up at them, waiting.”
Miles and Miles and Miles by Andrew Penn Romine
Lightspeed Magazine – July 2019
“Noah Stubbs eyes the large white pill pinched between his thumb and forefinger, remembering the first time he hit golf balls on the moon with Gord.”
The Minor Superhero, at Home after His Series Ends by Adam-Troy Castro
Lightspeed Magazine – May 2019
“He has a superhero name. It’s as stupid as every other superhero name.”
Mister Dog by Alex Jennings
PodCastle – May 14, 2019
“Trenice felt the car more than she saw it. Or she saw it without seeing it. She couldn’t be sure.”
Modern Science by Nelson Stanley
The Dark Magazine – March 2019
“Doctor Bermuda steepled his hands, leaned forward over the desk. The patient man stared, with a mixture of horror and fascination, at the Doctor’s fingers—short and brutally squared-off as if someone had been at them with a pair of bolt-croppers, stained as if with iodine up to the first joint.”
The Monster And the Child by Dolly Garland
Nature: Futures – September 18, 2019
“The child hid under the bed while the monster slept, its snores filling the room with a rhythmic sound.”
Monsters by Adriana Marachlian
Foreshadow – November 2019
“The day Milagros moved to the U.S., she saw monsters.”
More Information to Help You Get to Rookwood by Margo Lanagan
Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet – December 2019
More Real Than Him by Silvia Park
Tor.com – August 7, 2019
“He opens his eyes and is named Yohan. Yohan looks up the name, filled with wonder at who he could be.”
Moses by L. D. Lewis
Anathema – April 2019
“Moses is not dreaming. She is remembering.”
Mother Ocean by Vandana Singh
Xprize – June 2019
“In the ocean, Paro sometimes forgets she’s human.”
Move Forward, Disappear, Transcend by A. T. Greenblatt
Clarkesworld – May 2019
“I lost my favorite fingers as I was walking to the library. Spotting it first from the corner of my eye, I glanced down.”
Mr. Buttons by Miyuki Jane Pinckard
Flash Fiction Online – October 2019
“Mom was coming up the stairs. Taylor carefully fitted the last pack of Legos into the moving box.”
My Sister Is a House by Zoë Medeiros
Fireside Fiction – May 2019
“It’s common enough, once or twice a generation. We had a great aunt who became a dagger.”
My Snakes by Frieda Vaughn
FIYAH – April 2019
National Center for the Preservation of Human Dignity by Youha Nam, translated by Elisa Sinn and Justin Howe
Clarkesworld – October 2019
“At four in the morning the doorbell rang. Outside stood two young men dressed in gray uniforms, uncreased.”
Necessary Cuts by Bryan Miller
Drabblecast – October 1, 2019
“The manuscripts I read are haunted. Commas vanish forever into the void. Subjects and verbs struggle in bloody disagreement.”
Nice Things by Ellen Klages
Uncanny Magazine – May/June 2019
“After the memorial service, Phoebe Morris returned to the beachfront townhouse where her mother had lived for the last twenty years, and prepared to cope.”
No Other Life by Isabel Cañas
Nightmare Magazine – July 2019
“Cities like her make men leave their hearts on their shores.”
Not All Caged Birds Sing by Sheree Renée Thomas
Fireside Fiction – July 2019
“The Dissy strutted on the unkempt lawn, folding and unfolding an intricate fan, eyes blazing.”
Nutrition Facts by D.A. Xiaolin Spires
Uncanny Magazine – November/December 2019
“I’m told that the recipe never changes. It’s the same taro congee day after day, no added powders or ingredients. The taste is supposed to be consistent with only a few shifts in nutrients.”
Of the Green Spires by Lucy Harlow
Interzone – September/October 2019
Omnopolis: After Calvino by Beston Barnett
Speculative City – Winter 2019
“Omnopolis, city of flowers, city of lights—without a doubt, the single most colorful city in the world—began its long ascension with a simple garden.”
On the Lonely Shore by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Uncanny Magazine – March/April 2019
“His condition was quickly deteriorating and thus it was deemed best that he journey to Saltwater House. The ocean air, the murmur of the waves, they would soothe him.”
One Day in Space Too Many by Michael Sherrin
Metaphorosis – July 2019
“Day 1: Gerry woke to his chiming alarm clock, unaware his spaceship, the Rotor, had just exploded.”
One/Zero by Kathleen Ann Goonan
Tor.com – April 3, 2019
“My brother struggles as I crush him to my side. Aunt Ezo, at the front door, her AK-47 at the ready, yells “Runrunrunrun GO!””
The Only Way Out is Through by Setsu Uzumé
Beneath Ceaseless Skies – December 19, 2019
“Had Dagn given the instructions herself, she would have ordered the use of mushrooms or a few drops of banewood essence—far more precise ways of poisoning someone.”
Onyx Woods and the Grains of Deception by D.A. Xiaolin Spires
Clarkesworld – August 2019
““The king certainly likes fire,” said Cohl. We could see the smoke rise from beyond, from another forest.”
An Open Coffin by H. Pueyo
The Dark Magazine – April 2019
“General Estiano hired me to take care of the body, but he avoids speaking to me. The only times we did talk was by telephone, when he insisted that this job would require my full attention and care.”
Other, Like the Sun to the Planets by Lore Graham
Vulture Bones – August 2019
“Of all the things that Robin had expected to miss when xe left home, xe hadn’t thought about how much xe would miss the sun.”
Painless by Rich Larson
Tor.com – April 10, 2019
“Mars takes a breath of cold, dry air. He bows his head, shuts his eyes. He can hear the first autotruck now: roaring, squeaking, clatter-clanking. He imagines it as a maelstrom of metal hurtling toward him. His heart thrums fast in his chest.”
Partially True (But Mostly Not) by Sherin Nicole
Fireside Fiction – December 2019
“The thing that was neither true nor fully a lie often slept beside her. Some days, if she didn’t wake up fast enough, it would go out and live in her shoes.”
Personal Rakshasi by Suzan Palumbo
Fireside Fiction – November 2019
“Priya’s drawing lotuses with chalk on the driveway, unhappy with each blossom’s symmetry, when a shadow lurches across her designs.”
The Planting Prayer by Caroline Diorio
Flash Fiction Online – October 2019
“The Mothers will walk with you to the edge of Morana Street, where the pavement ends and the woods begin, but no further.”
The Price of Knives by Ruoxi Chen
The Dark Magazine – September 2019
“We see, sister to sister, salt to salt. We live as gut and gill and long hair fanning weed-like in the water.”
Probabilitea by John Chu
Uncanny Magazine – May/June 2019
“Ordinary fathers lead ordinary lives. They go to work, they raise the kid, they open their homes for the weekly mahjong and meal that rotates from one family to the next in their circle of Chinese immigrants.”
Professor Strong and the Brass Boys by Amal Singh
Apex Magazine – April 2, 2019
““Remember, boys, we’re doing this for Yuyu,” I say in my best professor-y voice. It is a preset baritone. I also emulate a slight cough, even though, in the company of these droids, I don’t have to. Coughs are for humans. Sighs are for humans. Ahem, ahem, clear the throat before you begin the speech. One, two, three, sound check, before you begin the song.”
Raices (Roots) by Joe Ponce
Anathema – April 2019
“When it started it looked like a rash, and I only noticed because of the protests.”
Ratcatcher by Amy Griswold
Glittership – April 4, 2019
“The souls in the trap writhed and keened their displeasure as Xavier picked up the shattergun.”
Regardless of How Lost You Are Returning From, Regardless of How Far by Anthony R. Cardno
Kaleidotrope – Summer 2019
“A strange man sits in the high-backed Adirondack chair on the front porch of my house. His posture is relaxed; he looks like he belongs to the house and the house belongs to him.”
Remember by A. J. Lee
Nature: Futures – May 15, 2019
“Dan looked up from Jen to see her father staring at her, at the tubes and wires, the bunched-up blankets, the lifeless eyes.”
Repairs at the Beijing West Space Elevator by Alex Shvartsman
Analog Science Fiction and Fact – May/June 2019
Repatriation by Nalo Hopkinson
Xprize – June 2019
“Incredulous, I looked up at the vast white steel bulk of the ship that was docked in the harbour. “A cruise, Jerry?” I said. “You really taking me on a cruise for my birthday?””
Requiem Without Sound by Izzy Wasserstein
Escape Pod – December 12, 2019
“Evie is born into cold and silence. They know this, though they have only now gained consciousness, because their sensors report it.”
Risk by Rachel Hylton
Foreshadow – June 2019
“We, the sophomore girls of Carol Moseley Braun High School, would like to set the record straight. We were there for Marnie Vega long before she became a lobster.”
Road: A Fairytale by Shalini Srinivasan
Strange Horizons – May 20, 2019
“It was not what is generally termed a nice road.”
The Rose Sisterhood by Susan Taitel
Cast of Wonders – December 22, 2019
“My Sisters and I await the next girl. She will be beautiful. We always are.”
Sacrid’s Pod by Adam-Troy Castro
Lightspeed Magazine – September 2019
“Hello, Sacrid Henn. I’m aware that you’re terrified. I’m also aware that you are paralyzed, deaf, and blind, your only sensory input being my voice.”
A Salt and Sterling Tongue by Emma Osborne
Uncanny Magazine – May/June 2019
“I found my dying boy curled up in a pile of straw wet with his blood. Seamus rolled over as I entered the barn, and I saw then that he’d chewed his fingers down to the first knuckle. ”
Sand Castles by Adam-Troy Castro
Lightspeed Magazine – July 2019
“They met day-drinking.”
Scapegoat by Holly Messinger
Beneath Ceaseless Skies – December 19, 2019
“He knew it was a dream, but for a few bittersweet seconds he was back in Illinois, twenty-two years younger, waiting with dread hope to feel Sarah’s weight leave the bed to go check on their baby girl.”
Scolex by Matt Thompson
Interzone – May/June 2019
Scrap by Tehlor Kay Mejia
Foreshadow – November 2019
“On the surface of the water your reflection haunts. Yellowing fangs, crooked and protruding. Hair black and bristling and unkempt while you dream of glossiness, of smoothness, of moving unnoticed instead of tearing your way with fangs and claws.”
Second Death Services by Shondra Snodderly
Speculative City – Winter 2019
“The girl sitting on the other side of Jared’s desk was the perfect picture of grief.”
The Secret Life of the Unclaimed by Suyi Davies Okungbowa
Nightmare Magazine – November 2019
“It starts with something as simple as a toothache. I’m home on vacation before final session at Ecclesia Boys, so Momsie is the one I run to. ”
Seonag and the Seawolves by M. Evan MacGriogair
Tor.com – August 21, 2019
“I know you’ve heard the story of An Duine Aonarach, who one day walked into the sea and never returned. And likely you have at least heard of Seonag as well, who did the same thing but to less collective memory.”
Seventy-Seven by Francisco Ortega, translated by David Bowles
The Dark Magazine – April 2019
“She knew every noise in the house. The lethargic creaking of the pipes during the night, that constant tapping of plum tree branches in the backyard, the beams of the terrace swelling with temperature changes, the window frames when touched by the first rays of dawn.”
Signal by L. D. Lewis
Fireside Fiction – August 2019
“They were told not to smoke anymore. The Colossus could spot a cigar cherry a mile out and he’d fire off one of those back spears fast enough to have you inhaling the smoke through a new hole in the back of your head.”
The Silent Flowers of the Magician’s Garden by Eleanna Castroianni
Beneath Ceaseless Skies – September 2019
“All flowers sing but his.”
Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Memphis Minnie Sing the Stumps Down Good by LaShawn M. Wanak
Apex Magazine – May 2019
“Rosetta knelt to look at the stump in the corner of her client’s bedroom. It had the likeness of a ten-year-old boy, four feet tall, dressed in an oversized shirt and suspenders, and its features were flawless, from the newsboy’s cap cocked on its tight curls, to its pupil-less eyes fringed with long eyelashes.”
The Skin of a Teenage Boy Is Not Alive by Senaa Ahmad
Nightmare Magazine – August 2019
“Parveen isn’t there when Benny falls off the roof. But everyone knows the story. Benny and his dumb demon cult.”
The Snow-White Heart by Marie Brennan
Flash Fiction Online – October 2019
““Cut out her heart and bring it to me,” the queen said, and so the huntsman did.”
Someday We’ll Embrace This Distance by Niyah Morris
Strange Horizons – August 12, 2019
“I woke up that morning in the mood for curry, so I ended up at the supermarket. I was pushing a shopping cart down the ethnic aisle, scanning the shelves of spices, when you appeared beside me. I didn’t have to turn to know you were staring. The side of my face burned with attention.”
Someone to Watch Over Me by Nancy Kress
Lightspeed Magazine – April 2017
““I still hate this,” Trevor said. “That you’re doing this to Becky.” “So you’ve told me,” I said wearily. “Many times.””
Sometimes You End Up Where You Are by Beth Cato
Nature: Futures – December 18, 2019
“One of Grandma’s favourite sayings had been: “Sometimes you end up where you are.” Her quirky sense of humour helped her endure the arduous decades she spent perfecting her time machine.”
Somewhere to Be Going by Katrina Smith
Metaphorosis – May 2019
“The changeling boy goes to space in a ship of his own making.”
A Song for the Leadwood Tree by Aimee Ogden
Beneath Ceaseless Skies – August 2019
“The morning of her last day as queen, Nehan’s mouth begins to bleed before her attendants finish braiding her hair. The blood bubbles up between her lips, catching her and them by surprise, and dribbles onto her robe.”
Soul Searching Search Engines by Rodrigo Assis Mesquita
Future Science Fiction Digest – December 2019
“The most famous search engine in the world by then, LOCATOR had occasional glitches of second-guessing beyond its coded parameters, especially when users either asked questions it didn’t understand or couldn’t answer.”
Sparkle and Shine by Tonia Laird
Speculative City – Fall 2019
“A whimper from the hall and well-manicured claws that make a clickity-click sound against enamel-coated salted steel catches my attention. The poor beast has been sitting there in that crate since we arrived home.”
Spectrum of Acceptance by Nyla Bright
Escape Pod – July 18, 2019
“When Leon Kenner left the planet of Acceptance, he asked me to go with him back to Earth. I belonged with people like me, like him.”
The Staircase to the Moon by M.K. Hutchins
Fireside Fiction – July 2019
“It was my destiny to die like my mother did. Earth goddesses always die for their people.”
The Stone People by Jeff Benz
Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet – December 2019
Sturdy Lanterns and Ladders by Malka Older
Xprize – June 2019
“As a freelance marine behavioral researcher most of Natalia’s jobs went something like this: She swam around in some large but controllable environment with a cephalopod, paying attention to its body language and her own.”
The Sweetest Fruit of Summer by R.K. Duncan
Beneath Ceaseless Skies – August 2019
“The fields were golden and the vines heavy with fruit in the harvest of her eighteenth year, when Corra’s mother gave her to the king of barren places.”
The Tailor and the Beast by Aysha U. Farah
Uncanny Magazine – September/October 2019
“A beast dwelt in the castle on the hill.”
The Tale of Descruptikn and the Product Launch Requirements Documentation by Effie Seiberg
Cast of Wonders – December 29, 2019
“Once upon a time there was an associate project manager named Jaime.”
Team Work by A. T. Greenblatt
Fireside Fiction – March 2019
“For the first time in my life, I’m part of something that accepts me as I am. I will myself not to check the time, refuse to think about how I could get to the café faster using … other methods.”
A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime by Charlie Jane Anders
Lightspeed Magazine – March 2019
“Sharon’s head itched from all the fake brain implants, and the massive cybernetic headdress was giving her a cramp in her neck. But the worst discomfort of all was having to pretend to be the loyal servant of a giant space blob.”
Temptation by Karuna Riazi
Podcastle – June 4, 2019
“When was the last time food glided over her tongue?”
Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island by Nibedita Sen
Nightmare Magazine – May 2019
“There are few tales as tragic as that of the denizens of Ratnabar Island. When a British expedition made landfall on its shores in 1891, they did so armed to the teeth, braced for the same hostile reception other indigenous peoples of the Andamans had given them.”
There Is No Beauty Without Resistance by Dominica Phetteplace
Fireside Fiction – December 2019
“In the summer after abortion was outlawed, a lot of us went wild with our makeup. We started wearing thick stripes of dark eyeliner, or we drew teeth on our lips.”
Therein Lies a Soul by Osahon Ize-Iyamu
The Dark Magazine – June 2019
“Under the bridge, there’s a veiled woman. She’s said to be merged with the dark, to be the shadow of a human being, or a creature, or some other kind of horrid thing.”
They Went Into the Graveyard, One by One by Matthew Bey
Drabblecast – December 8, 2019
“Well hoooowdee partner! Welcome to the the the Refugio County Halloween Fright-O-Rama and Haunted Cemetery Tour!”
Thin Places by Kay Chronister
The Dark Magazine – July 2019
“The knock on the schoolhouse door came an hour after dismissal, and Miss Augusta hesitated for a moment before answering.”
Things My Father Taught Me by Rhoads Brazos
PseudoPod – November 22, 2019
“My father taught me old knowledge, not all of it useful.”
Thirty-Three Wicked Daughters by Kelly Barnhill
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction – May/June 2019
This Is How by Marie Brennan
Strange Horizons – September 16, 2019
“This is how a valravn is made: A child dies. Lost in the woods, he curls up at the base of an ancient oak, and never rises again.”
This Is Not My Adventure by Karlo Yeager Rodríguez
Uncanny Magazine – September/October 2019
“I know something’s wrong, the way we’re both hunched over your tiny table in your tiny kitchen, and you keep looking at the tea you’re not drinking.”
Through the Fog, a Distant Land Appears by Wanxiang Fengnian, translated by Nathan Faries
Future Science Fiction Digest – September 2019
“Yellow is the breath of the dying.”
Tiger, Tiger Bright by Benjanun Sriduangkaew
The Dark – August 2019
“The first thing you learn as you climb out of the chasm is that there are fingers to pull you down.”
Til Death by Karen Heslop
Flash Fiction Online – December 2019
“David suggests having drinks on the verandah to escape the heat building inside the house.”
The Time Invariance of Snow by E. Lily Yu
Tor.com – December 19, 2019
“The Devil looked into his mirror and admired himself, and all his demons preened and swaggered and admired him too. And joy resounded throughout the vaults of Hell.”
Tiny Teeth by Sarah Hans
PseudoPod – August 9, 2019
“I risk walking to the doctor’s office from my workplace, because it’s only a few blocks, and I think the fresh air will do me some good.”
The Train to Wednesday by Steven Fischer
Diabolical Plots – November 15, 2019
“Charlie Slawson sat alone in the transit station, watching a set of empty train tracks and wondering why the train was late. Truth be told, he hadn’t known until just then that temporal trains even could be late.”
Under Their Wings, These Starving Ghosts by Grace Yang
Beneath Ceaseless Skies – October 10, 2019
“The first thing he feels after being brought back to life are the gentle strokes of wispy fingers trying to touch him.”
Undercurrents by Charles Payseur
Beneath Ceaseless Skies – March 28, 2019
“He imagines the scene in three parts, a triptych of carved wood. The first panel—the river running, waving lines to represent motion, speed, desperation. The second—the stillness of Rory’s perch, the sharp angles of his body.”
Unpublished Gay Cancer Survivor Memoir by Caspian Gray
Lightspeed Magazine – June 2019
“Sydney’s cellphone rang and she ignored it, on the grounds that it was either her mother or news that someone had died, and either way she was too high to handle it.”
Vacation Station by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Daily Science Fiction – December 27, 2019
“Trevor and I were sitting in our favorite niche at Rube Cube, watching, hearing, and smelling the stream of people flowing toward and away from the bar.”
The Vetting by Michael Cassutt
Tor.com – September 18, 2019
““Have you been here before?” The TSA officer, a tall African American woman in a baggy blue blazer, turns to punch numbers into the security pad.”
Vīs Dēlendī by Marie Brennan
Uncanny Magazine – March/April 2019
“The Masters file into the high-vaulted chamber with its ceiling of clear, faceted crystal. The rainbow light cast by the sun finds its echo in their robes, fine silks in all the shades of their titles: sky-blue, steel-grey, rose-red, blood-red.”
The Visible Frontier by Grace Seybold
Clarkesworld – July 2019
““That’s Ifenwa,” the captain said, pointing at a smear of light almost directly overhead. Inlesh repeated the name dutifully to himself.”
Water: A History by KJ Kabza
Tor.com – October 9, 2019
“Her bath is deep and steaming. Light falls from the high windows, splashing the marble with wealth. My grandmother has opened these windows a crack, and wet spring air slithers in.”
The Way to Paradise by Rati Mehrotra
Lightspeed Magazine – May 2019
“The mountains were beautiful, even though the roads that took you there were broken. Even though the whole world was broken.”
We Who Flee the Sun by Sean Patrick Hazlett
Galaxy’s Edge – September 2019
The Weapons of Wonderland by Thoraiya Dyer
Clarkesworld – July 2019
“Hey, you! Yes, you. We need your help and we don’t have time to write a novel. This ain’t no Neverending Story.”
The Weather Dancer by Aisha Phoenix
Strange Horizons – August, 5, 2019
“Amaya sits among empty armchairs and fading curtains in a room brightened by plastic flowers. On each wall there’s a still life, and a grey carpet covers the floor.”
The Weight of a Thousand Needles by Isabel Cañas
Lightspeed Magazine – June 2019
“A full moon silvers the stalls of the Light Markets, the bazaar of the living and the dead. Here, where jinn mix with mortals and gods, where sorcery sits thick on the air, blue as incense, a crow presides over its wares.”
Wet Fur by Jeremiah Tolbert
Drabblecast – April 25, 2019
“You can tell the dog owners when they board the plane; they see the black cloud hovering in the first row and their eyes widen in shock, then narrow in fear, followed by a glimmer of a smile, a hope as they glance at so many occupied seats.”
What the Plague Did to Us by Auston Habershaw
Galaxy’s Edge – July 2019
When I Left, You Did Not Ask Me To Stay by Steven Fischer
Nature: Futures – December 4, 2019
“When I left for the first time, there were tears in your eyes, and you grasped my hand with a quiet, desperate affection.”
Where You Are Now Is Better than Where You Were Before by Eliza Victoria
Fireside Fiction – December 2019
“The office reminded Lily of the quirky, industrial interior of co-working spaces back home in Manila: white brick walls, empty beer crates turned into chairs in the lounge, copywriters pinning paper on clotheslines or writing their ideas on the glass partitions with silver markers (IDEA – Execution – Execution – Execution).”
Who Should Live in Flooded Old New York? by Brooke Bolander
New York Times Op-Eds from the Future – July 1, 2019
Whom My Soul Loves by Rivqa Rafael
Strange Horizons – November 11, 2019
“Osnat went back to talk to the dybbuk again. Usually she liked walking up from the subway station, so close to the pulsating holiness of 770. Different though Osnat’s own traditions were, the pull of the Lubavitch synagogue was impossible to ignore.”
Widdershins Mine by Damon Shaw
Flash Fiction Online – November 2019
“There is only one magic: the ritual of possession.”
The Wilderling by Angel Slatter
The Dark Magazine – May 2019
“The kid appeared on the first of May.”
Witch of the Weave by Henry Szabranski
Clarkesworld – December 2019
“Skink changed direction toward a knot of weave that loomed ahead. She sailed easily between the withies dangling from the tunnel ceiling, moving with a speed and agility I could never hope to match.”
Witch’s Road by Christian K. Martinez
Beneath Ceaseless Skies – September 2019
“The forest gave Catalina the road, as she stepped under its boughs; for it was not a sleeping forest.”
With Eyes Half Open by Frances Pauli
Metamorphosis – April 19, 2019
“The circus smelled of magic, of popcorn, dung, and cotton candy. Miranda squinted as she entered, just like the book suggested.”
Without Access by Deborah Walker
Nature: Futures – May 1, 2019
“I shouldn’t be here. Walking in the night during the Festival of the Communing Dead. It’s … quiet. This is possibly not the safest place for a 15-year-old, off-planet girl.”
Xingzhou by Ng Yi-Sheng
Clarkesworld – July 2019
“My grandfather was a rickshaw coolie. He was born in China in the late 19th century, in a tiny village upriver from the coast of Fujian province.”
The Yorkshire Mammoth by Harry Turtledove
Clarkesworld – August 2019
“Thrsk is, or claims to be, the only town in England without a vowel to, or in, its name. People who live there say the Vikings carried it off a thousand years ago.”
Your Face by Rachel Swirsky
Clarkesworld – August 2019
“Oh! Abigail! Oh. It’s good—it’s so good to see you.”
Your Future Is Pending by Matthew Kressel
Clarkesworld – November 2019
“The dog was in the alley again, sniffing around the empty trash bins for scraps she wasn’t going to find.”
The Zest for Life by N. R. M. Roshak
Future Science Fiction Digest – April 24, 2019
“Humanity had been hoping for some transformative, revolutionary technology, but what the aliens left us was a salad dressing recipe.”
Punk-Ass Book Jockey 