"Anything out of the ordinary?" Yes, if you'd like, every week!
December 24, 2021 8:29 AM Subscribe
The short, light fantasy story "Scales and Fire" by Jeff Soesbe features a dragon who needs to track down who tried to poison her. "After I roasted the apothecary, his wife started talking." It's in Abyss and Apex, which you can follow via RSS feed. In fact, while I'm at it....
If you want a fresh and frequent supply of short speculative stories, start using a feedreader/RSS reader and follow the links below! In the cases where I couldn't find a syndication/RSS/Atom link for a site, I mention their email newsletter or a similar way to follow them. And I use Dreamwidth to subscribe to and read my feeds, so in some cases I also link to the magazines' Dreamwidth ("DW") feeds.
First: some "maybe you've heard of these" magazines. They are more prominent, some of them have actual marketing efforts, you run into their stories more often on ballots for awards such as the Hugos and the Nebulas, and you're a little more likely to run into the names of more well-known authors. Many of these also regularly produce audio versions of some or all of the fiction they publish. All of them are Science Fiction Writers of America qualifying markets which means they pay authors what SFWA has determined to be a pro rate for their fiction. And, as I recall, all the stuff they publish is free to read online.
Now, to highlight podcasts that are also magazines. These podcasts publish short stories as audio and as text (except when they don't have the rights to reproduce the text of a reprinted story). Some are also SFWA-qualifying markets.
OK, now for the "not enough people know about these!" magazines. They publish in text. You can read most or all of the published work for free online. Several of them are SFWA-qualifying markets, and some have specific remits.
To find more syndication feeds or email newsletters you can find and subscribe to, check the list of Science Fiction Writers of America qualifying markets or look through the Submission Grinder. For instance, FIYAH: Literary Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction, which this year won the Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine, publishes fiction in digital issues for sale, and you can use their feed to remind you when a new issue is available.
[Of course people who have favorite online venues that publish free-to-read genre stories should (IMO) recommend them in the comments! I thought about including Granta (site; fiction category) & MIT Technology Review, but they have article limits or paywalls or similar.]
Some sources of short fiction recommendations, highlighting noteworthy individual stories: This is the last of my daily story recommendation MeFi posts this year, and possibly ever. Happy reading and please post stuff you like to the MeFi front page!
If you want a fresh and frequent supply of short speculative stories, start using a feedreader/RSS reader and follow the links below! In the cases where I couldn't find a syndication/RSS/Atom link for a site, I mention their email newsletter or a similar way to follow them. And I use Dreamwidth to subscribe to and read my feeds, so in some cases I also link to the magazines' Dreamwidth ("DW") feeds.
First: some "maybe you've heard of these" magazines. They are more prominent, some of them have actual marketing efforts, you run into their stories more often on ballots for awards such as the Hugos and the Nebulas, and you're a little more likely to run into the names of more well-known authors. Many of these also regularly produce audio versions of some or all of the fiction they publish. All of them are Science Fiction Writers of America qualifying markets which means they pay authors what SFWA has determined to be a pro rate for their fiction. And, as I recall, all the stuff they publish is free to read online.
- Apex Magazine (site). Example: "Captain Midrise" by Jim Marino.
- Beneath Ceaseless Skies (site) -- a magazine of literary adventure fantasy. Example: "The War of Light and Shadow, in Five Dishes" by Siobhan Carroll. Run by a nonprofit, no ads, gorgeous art and nicely-formatted website.
- Clarkesworld (DW, site). Example: "Love Unflinching, at Low- to Zero-G" by M. L. Clark.
- Fireside Magazine (Dreamwidth feed, site). Example: "The Ransom of Miss Coraline Connelly" by Alix E. Harrow. I think no ads.
- Lightspeed (DW, site). Example: "The Vampire of Kovácspéter" by P H Lee.
- Strange Horizons (Dreamwidth feed, site) -- has more of an emphasis on encouraging works by underrepresented groups, and does "Samovar", a quarterly magazine of translated SF/F. Example: "Coiffeur Seven" by Kiran Kaur Saini. If you want to only subscribe to a single one of these magazines, pay attention to Strange Horizons: no advertising, run as a nonprofit, has been raising the bar for inclusivity in SF for twenty years, and does approximately zero advertising so you're less likely to hear about these stories elsewhere.
- Tor.com, including fiction and nonfiction (DW, site) -- slightly confusingly, "Tor.com" is also the name of a publishing line within Tor/Forge Books, which also publishes books that you need to pay to get. But all the stuff at www.tor.com is free to read, including a lot of short fiction. Example: "Exile’s End" by Carolyn Ives Gilman.
- Uncanny Magazine (site). Example: "That Story Isn’t the Story" by John Wiswell.
Now, to highlight podcasts that are also magazines. These podcasts publish short stories as audio and as text (except when they don't have the rights to reproduce the text of a reprinted story). Some are also SFWA-qualifying markets.
- PodCastle (site) -- fantasy. Example: "Shaina Rubin Keeps Her Head Under Circumstances Nobody Could Have Expected" by Rebecca Fraimow.
- Escape Pod (site) -- science fiction. Example: "One Hundred Seconds to Midnight" by Lauren Ring.
- Cast of Wonders (site) -- young adult speculative fiction. Example: "Growing Resistance" by Juliet Kemp.
- Pseudopod (site) -- horror. I do not read much horror so I don't have a good example here; feel free to mention one in the comments!
- Metaphorosis (text feed, site). Example: "Tell the Crows I’m Home" by Laurel Beckley.
- Drabblecast (site). Example: "On the Feeding Habits of Humans: A Firsthand Account" by Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali and Rachael K. Jones.
- Glittership (site) -- on hiatus right now; queer sf/f. Example: “The End of the World in Five Dates” by Claire Humphrey.
OK, now for the "not enough people know about these!" magazines. They publish in text. You can read most or all of the published work for free online. Several of them are SFWA-qualifying markets, and some have specific remits.
- Abyss and Apex (site). Example above the fold in this post!
- Anathema: Spec from the Margins (site; I think their RSS feed is broken and have written to them about it) -- "featuring work by Queer/Two-Spirit People of Colour/Indigenous creators". Example: "Heard, Half-Heard, in the Stillness" by Iona Datt Sharma.
- Constelación Magazine (site which has a newsletter) - "a quarterly speculative fiction bilingual magazine, publishing stories in both Spanish and English...Fifty percent of the stories we publish in every issue will be from authors from the Caribbean, Latin America, and their diaspora." Example: "The Breaks" by Scott King.
- Cossmass Infinities (site). Example: "The Hard Quarry" by Caleb Huitt.
- Daily Science Fiction (site which lets you sign up for a newsletter) -- pretty short speculative fiction (including fantasy, despite the name). Example: "Cyclical" by Tanya Breshears.
- Diabolical Plots (site). Example: "Open House on Haunted Hill" by John Wiswell.
- Electric Spec (site). Example: "A Thousand Ways" by Beth McCabe.
- Fantasy Magazine (site) -- as you guessed, it's fantasy. Example: "The Dryad’s Shoe" by Ursula Vernon (as T. Kingfisher).
- The Future Fire (site) -- "Social-political and Progressive Speculative Fiction, Feminist SF, Queer SF, Eco SF, World SF and Cyberpunk". Example: "Cascade" by A.J. Fitzwater.
- Future Science Fiction Digest (site; some stories are podcasted and here's the podcast feed). Example: "Nobel Prize Speech Draft of Paul Winterhoeven, with Personal Notes" by Jane Espenson.
- Future Tense (site), a regular scifi feature on Slate that gets paired with nonfiction articles about the issues addressed in the story. (you can also subscribe to the mailing list for Arizona State University’s Center for Science and the Imagination to get notified of new "Future Tense" stories). Example: "Legal Salvage" by Holli Mintzer.
- GigaNotoSaurus (site); watch out, because at least some past stories have spam links right now (I've sent the editor a heads-up)
- Kaleidotrope (site). Example: “Basilisk and Sons” by Timothy Mudie.
- khōréō (site) -- "a quarterly magazine of speculative fiction and migration. We are dedicated to diversity and elevating the voices of immigrant and diaspora authors." Example: "For Future Generations" by Rachel Gutin.
- Little Blue Marble (site) -- "speculative fiction that examines humanity's possible futures living with anthropogenic climate change" and with a hopeful bent. Example: "Choose Your Battleground" by Andrew Leon Hudson.
- Luna Station Quarterly (DW, site) -- speculative fiction by writers who consider themselves "on the woman end of the gender spectrum in any significant capacity". Example: "The Notary of No Republic" by Julia Byrd.
- Mermaids Monthly (site) -- "a magazine about mermaid stuff. that’s it. that’s the shell." Example: "Riparian" by Seanan McGuire.
- Nature Futures (site; I don't think there's a Futures-specific syndication feed, just this RSS feed for all of Nature) -- a regular sci-fi feature within the research journal Nature. Example: "The Most Important Thing" by Marissa Lingen.
- Nightmare Magazine (site) -- horror & dark fantasy. Example: "Some Kind of Blood-Soaked Future" by Carlie St. George.
- Reckoning (site, newsletter, can't find a good syndication feed) -- "creative writing on environmental justice". Example: "Happenstance" by Fran Wilde.
- Translunar Travelers Lounge (site) -- "aims to explore the fun side of fantasy and science fiction". Example: "The Bronx’s First Spiritual Hip Hop Party" by Sarah A. Macklin.
- Compelling Science Fiction which is on some kind of hiatus and there's a mailing list there for updates. Example: "The Stillness of the Stars" by Jessica Snell.
- Expanded Horizons (feed) -- focuses on underrepresented authors. Example: "The Guest" by Zen Cho.
- The Fantasist (feed) -- publishes fantasy novellas. Example: "Suradanna and the Sea" by Rebecca Fraimow.
- Strange Constellations (feed). Example: "The Prince and the Pirate" by Andrea Tang.
- The Georgia Review (site, fiction). Example: Amanda Ajamfar's "Catastrophizing".
- Jaggery (DW, site)
- Lunch Ticket (site. Example: "Keening" by Josh Denslow.
- Mithila Review (DW, site). Example: "The Twelve Rules of Etiquette at Miss Firebird’s School for Girls" by Gwendolyn Kiste.
- Plotter (site). Example: "Retriever" by Stephen Kearse.
To find more syndication feeds or email newsletters you can find and subscribe to, check the list of Science Fiction Writers of America qualifying markets or look through the Submission Grinder. For instance, FIYAH: Literary Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction, which this year won the Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine, publishes fiction in digital issues for sale, and you can use their feed to remind you when a new issue is available.
[Of course people who have favorite online venues that publish free-to-read genre stories should (IMO) recommend them in the comments! I thought about including Granta (site; fiction category) & MIT Technology Review, but they have article limits or paywalls or similar.]
Some sources of short fiction recommendations, highlighting noteworthy individual stories: This is the last of my daily story recommendation MeFi posts this year, and possibly ever. Happy reading and please post stuff you like to the MeFi front page!
What a gift!
Thank you, brainwane, truly. You've shown me so many new authors that I now get to share with others!
posted by Acari at 8:40 AM on December 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
Thank you, brainwane, truly. You've shown me so many new authors that I now get to share with others!
posted by Acari at 8:40 AM on December 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
Thank you for all your short fiction posts, brainwane. If this really is the last one, you’ve done enough. But I hope you continue to occasionally share new favorites. Thanks for this post, too -- I appreciate the "teach a man to fish” approach. There’s a lot to get in to here.
posted by Rinku at 9:18 AM on December 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by Rinku at 9:18 AM on December 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
This is a great list, brainwane. You hit on some of the major SF/F magazines I dig (and have on my submission list). Of course, this is to say nothing of awesome print-only publications, few as they may be, and/or the archives of defunct magazines worth checking out. (I call dibs on that post!)
A few others I'd add to this excellent overview:
Lackington's
The Arcanist
The Dark
The Deadlands
Three-Lobed Burning Eye
posted by xenization at 9:51 AM on December 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
A few others I'd add to this excellent overview:
Lackington's
The Arcanist
The Dark
The Deadlands
Three-Lobed Burning Eye
posted by xenization at 9:51 AM on December 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
Terrific post as always. Heapings of delicious thanks.
posted by Obscure Injoke at 10:39 AM on December 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Obscure Injoke at 10:39 AM on December 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
brainwane, I can tell we must have been very, very good this year, because this is a magnificent gift to receive.
Thank you for all the excellent feed links in this thread; for the suggestion to use RSS feeds to find all those wonderful new stories to come; and for the dozens of posts you've made highlighting some of the best of these works.
You have given us so much, brainwane, and I am truly grateful!
posted by kristi at 10:49 AM on December 24, 2021 [3 favorites]
Thank you for all the excellent feed links in this thread; for the suggestion to use RSS feeds to find all those wonderful new stories to come; and for the dozens of posts you've made highlighting some of the best of these works.
You have given us so much, brainwane, and I am truly grateful!
posted by kristi at 10:49 AM on December 24, 2021 [3 favorites]
It sounds too final but I can’t resist saying “so long and thanks for all the fics”
posted by moonmilk at 11:09 AM on December 24, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by moonmilk at 11:09 AM on December 24, 2021 [3 favorites]
Thanks, brainwane! A few more sources for the list:
Omenana - African / African Diaspora SF
Bourbon Penn - positioned as weird lit
The Cafe Irreal - typically very short weird/surreal/absurdist/magic realist stories
IIRC Granta's free content remains free--if nothing's changed, I've found it easier to scan for SF than, say, the New Yorker. Other literary sites with occasional SF or stuff strange enough to count include Conjunctions, Guernica, Catapult, Hazlitt, The White Review, Electric Literature, Center for the Art of Translation, Words without Borders, etc.
posted by Wobbuffet at 11:54 AM on December 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
Omenana - African / African Diaspora SF
Bourbon Penn - positioned as weird lit
The Cafe Irreal - typically very short weird/surreal/absurdist/magic realist stories
IIRC Granta's free content remains free--if nothing's changed, I've found it easier to scan for SF than, say, the New Yorker. Other literary sites with occasional SF or stuff strange enough to count include Conjunctions, Guernica, Catapult, Hazlitt, The White Review, Electric Literature, Center for the Art of Translation, Words without Borders, etc.
posted by Wobbuffet at 11:54 AM on December 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
Oh, I see LitHub Daily yesterday mentioned another source that launched Dec. 3: Flourish Fiction, "diverse writers with diverse knowledge of climate solutions to share hopeful visions for the future." So far, 2 out of 3 stories are from the founders, interviewed here.
posted by Wobbuffet at 12:39 PM on December 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Wobbuffet at 12:39 PM on December 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
Neglect The Dread Machine at your peril.
(Also, not to poop on the main link, did Wendy Delmater ever walk back her support for the Sad Puppies? I've avoided Abyss & Apex ever since then, even though they were one of my earlier publication venues.)
posted by Scattercat at 9:30 PM on December 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
(Also, not to poop on the main link, did Wendy Delmater ever walk back her support for the Sad Puppies? I've avoided Abyss & Apex ever since then, even though they were one of my earlier publication venues.)
posted by Scattercat at 9:30 PM on December 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
In this Twitter thread, John Wiswell shares some favorite short sf/f from 2021.
posted by brainwane at 4:38 AM on December 28, 2021
posted by brainwane at 4:38 AM on December 28, 2021
Thank you for all the stories, and authors, I would never have encountered on my own; you’ve got me reading short F/SF fiction again for the first time in years!
posted by librosegretti at 10:10 PM on December 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by librosegretti at 10:10 PM on December 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
In my posts in 2021 I tried to specifically mention when a piece of short fiction had been published in 2021, to make it easier for people thinking about award nominations. Ladybusiness is again spearheading a Hugo Award recommendation spreadsheet which (by the time I got to it) already mentioned a few stories I posted about here -- "Comments on Your Provisional Patent Application for An Eternal Spirit Core", "Mr. Death", "One Hundred Seconds to Midnight", "Proof by Induction", and "For Future Generations". I added "A Luxury Like Hope" and "The Notary of No Republic". Anyone can edit - feel free to add stuff you think others should consider!
That's also a good source for learning what short stories people liked in pay-to-read magazines such as Asimov's or in anthologies such as It Gets Even Better: Stories of Queer Possibility.
(I also added myself to the sheet for people to consider for Best Fan Writer.)
librosegretti: I'm so glad! People are writing and publishing so much great stuff; it's really neat to get to share and enjoy it. Hope you follow a magazine or two and keep finding good stuff!
posted by brainwane at 7:12 AM on January 3, 2022
That's also a good source for learning what short stories people liked in pay-to-read magazines such as Asimov's or in anthologies such as It Gets Even Better: Stories of Queer Possibility.
(I also added myself to the sheet for people to consider for Best Fan Writer.)
librosegretti: I'm so glad! People are writing and publishing so much great stuff; it's really neat to get to share and enjoy it. Hope you follow a magazine or two and keep finding good stuff!
posted by brainwane at 7:12 AM on January 3, 2022
Eugenia Triantafyllou's recommendation list for 2021.
posted by brainwane at 5:20 AM on January 15, 2022
posted by brainwane at 5:20 AM on January 15, 2022
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posted by brainwane at 8:30 AM on December 24, 2021 [1 favorite]