Kin, Painted, by Penny Stirling
Watercolour. I brush water in thin lines down my right arm before adding green pigment. Colour spreads down each lane. I twist my arm to surface tension’s extent and then … Continue reading
Facing the Wind, by Mat Joiner
For Toby, a sky The sun is guttering, the wind harps moan, and in the rising breeze Talizander hears Shirrem calling. Seven years and all over the Archipelago he’s set … Continue reading
The Glad Hosts, by Rebecca Campbell
Mai knew them from photographs back on Earth, but she was still mesmerized by the creatures overhead. They were neither mammalian nor insectoid, not birds nor lizards, but the first … Continue reading
She Shines Like a Moon, by Pear Nuallak
It’s cold in London but you glow with warmth. You travel limbless and limned from your core, throat crossed with black silk just as it was in your first days. … Continue reading
Sometimes Heron, by Mari Ness
Sometimes she is a duck. This is for moments on quiet bodies of water—small ponds, gentle lakes, and the like—or for the rain. She has found this so useful that … Continue reading
Sang Rimau and the Medicine Woman, by Nin Harris
Prologue Sang Rimau stopped visiting a decade ago. Some days, Cempaka wondered if there were any were-tigers left at all. She chanted prayers, incantations, and set out unholy brews by … Continue reading
The Whale of Penlan Tork, by Steven Earnshaw
On the Air We climbed the poles to discuss the whale of Penlan Tork, recently discovered off the coast of Patagonia, languishing in kelp forests. Chorus: O mighty pillars! Simon: … Continue reading
Spider Moves the World, by Dominik Parisien
1. I will write. I have strength enough for that, at least. Picked up by spider caravan, out on the Greensea. These spiders are their own wagons, and there are … Continue reading
The Selkie, by David K. Yeh
March 1942. I cling to a trunk amidst the flaming wreckage of torpedoed ships. The stink of burning petrol is overwhelming. A human cannot survive in these frozen waters more … Continue reading
Ambergris, or The Sea-Sacrifice, by Rhonda Eikamp
There once lived a fisherman named Sandoval, who had a wife much younger than himself whom he loved like the sand on the shore. They had no children, her body’s … Continue reading
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