Haven Spec Magazine

My birch tree story is now free to read in this beautiful, all-second-person issue of Haven Spec !

A collage of spooky things on the left, including a pair of jeans with a bloody skull, sunglasses in front of flames, a lit match, a basket of breadsticks, and some goodwill tags, with the words "Bootcut" by Allison Pottern, Haven Spec, Jan 2026 across the middle. On the right are the opening words of the story (you get bonus sentences I couldn't fit on the graphic): Running your hand along the clothing rack, your finger catches on a Goodwill miracle: a pair of jeans that actually fits. They have no tag—no name brand—just a questionable stain below the left front pocket, no big deal. It’s like maybe these jeans have lived a more exciting life than you have. Maybe if you put them on, a bit of that excitement could rub off on you. The flared, dark-washed jeans look like once upon a time they were very expensive. Now that they’re in your broke hands, they’re merely “vintage.” But in the claustrophobic changing room mirror, they make your ass look like a million bucks. And (can you believe it?) they only cost you $6.66 plus tax. The cashier even offers you a band-aid for your finger, which is welling with ruby droplets of blood. You hadn’t noticed. You hope you didn’t get any stains on the denim. (Don’t worry, with a little ice water, blood washes right out.)

If you need a little feminist revenge story to fight the misogyny of the headlines right now, have I got the pair of jeans for you:

"Bootcut" @havenspec.bsky.social
havenspec.com/fiction/boot...
(tw: sexual assault)

A Tree is not a Home, Haven Spec Magazine "A Tree is not a Home" by Diana Dima

👀January 2026 Fiction👀

ICYMI, "A Tree is not a Home" is a short story by @dianadima.com about seeking refuge wherever you might find it. Read it for the quiet grief and pain embodied by its birch tree narrator.

havenspec.com/fiction/a-tr...

Hmm, my social media image banner didn't seem to show up. Let's see if the next one works...

👀January 2026 Poetry👀

ICYMI, "Rainmaker" is a poem by Olumide Manuel about the language and sound of water. Read this one as an invocation.

havenspec.com/poetry/rainm...

It's here!! You can now read my Weird, sartorial, feminist revenge story "Bootcut" for free @havenspec.bsky.social. This story bristles with rage, dark humor, & many sharp things. And a wickedly, well-fitting pair of jeans.

havenspec.com/fiction/boot...

(TW: sexual assault, violence)

last psalm, Haven Spec Magazine "last psalm" by P. H. Low

hello friends, i have new poem out today in @havenspec.bsky.social ~
havenspec.com/poetry/last-...

Issue Twenty-One, January 2026, Haven Spec Magazine Fiction and poetry for the 21st century

Our ✨January 2026 Issue✨ is now free to read online!

Find it here:
havenspec.com/issues/issue...

Or get the PDF and EPUB:
ko-fi.com/s/c906166bff

The January Issyou features seven stories and four poems all written in second-person POV!

This is *such* a good issue. Be sure to check it out!

Absolutely thrilled to be included in Haven Spec’s second person pov issue! And now it’s FREE to read!

Do you have recurring nightmares? Have you ever been seized by sleep paralysis? I know these hallways well. Let the projectionist guide you… 😈

havenspec.com/fiction/demo...

Excited to have a flash fiction piece in Haven Spec! Please read and support all the very talented writers in this issue!

So excited for my werewolf sanctuary poem to appear in such truly stunning company! Also that art! 🔥 🥹

do you need:
🎊 parties as an act of hope
🐺 monsters finding community

this poem was written for you

havenspec.com/poetry/a-par...

Bootcut, Haven Spec Magazine "Bootcut" by Allison Pottern

Everyone stop what you're doing and go read this good for her, unhinged feminist rage story by @apottern.bsky.social in @havenspec.bsky.social

It is 🔥

havenspec.com/fiction/boot...

Issue Twenty-One, January 2026, Haven Spec Magazine Fiction and poetry for the 21st century

Our ✨January 2026 Issue✨ is now free to read online!

Find it here:
havenspec.com/issues/issue...

Or get the PDF and EPUB:
ko-fi.com/s/c906166bff

The January Issyou features seven stories and four poems all written in second-person POV!

The general submission window will be open all month!

Haven Spec Magazine, Submission Page Fiction and Poetry for the 21st Century!

Our general submission window is now open!

We want stories and poetry with a strong voice and a sense of adventure, stuff that makes us feel things, stuff that lets us use our hearts and our brains and leaves us wanting more!

For our full guidelines and schedule, visit:
www.havenspec.com/submit/

a man wearing headphones stands in front of a sign that says yes ALT: a man wearing headphones stands in front of a sign that says yes

I am very excited to announce that, at the age of forty-eight, I just received my first ever acceptance for a short story!

The fine folks at @havenspec.bsky.social saw something in a little story of mine and said yes!

“We are the Giants We Fear” will be published in their next issue!

#writing

After 348 days and 3 rounds of edits, I'm overjoyed that my queer coming of age shapeshifter story, "Skin Deep," will be in the next issue of @havenspec.bsky.social!!! Many thanks to @leonp.bsky.social for accepting it and working through the revisions with me--I can't wait to share this one!

An excerpt of the poem "last psalm" by P.H. Low, in Issue 21 of Haven Spec Magazine (January 2026). The text reads: that you might be appeased by one such as me. that, smug on your garnet altar, you would unhinge your jaws and drink wetly of my fear, as a thousand mahogany harps tremble beneath your altar [...] The background is the issue's cover art, titled Pile, by Aimee Cozza. It shows a figure with blood around their mouth and on their neck and chest, cuddling a pack of wolves.

👀January 2026 Poetry👀

"last psalm" is a poem by @ph-low.com about skeletons and harpists and how systems of power can sanctify cruelty and exploitation. Read this one for its strong voice and spooky ambience.

Subscribers can read it now!

An excerpt of the poem "Rainmaker" by Olumide Manuel, in Issue 21 of Haven Spec Magazine (January 2026). The text reads: Rivers above and below, hear my voice. A ripple is how you speak. A pour is how you sing. I sing with both feet in vestigial bodies. By the stitch of the skies in me, I call you forth to this dance. In the epigenesis of silence, you forged the ways. The womb of the world was sedentary until you fed its first seed, broke it to light with your wet voice. You raised the first song to the dawns. The thunderbirds harvested it from there. The winds scrapped their leftover screams. The trees mothered the first mother—clay-skinned, sea-eyed. She disgarnished the grief... The background is the issue's cover art, titled Pile, by Aimee Cozza. It shows a figure with blood around their mouth and on their neck and chest, cuddling a pack of wolves.

👀January 2026 Poetry👀

"Rainmaker" is a poem by Olumide Manuel about the language and sound of water. Read this one as an invocation.

Subscribers can read it now!

An excerpt of the poem "Rainmaker" by Olumide Manuel, in Issue 21 of Haven Spec Magazine (January 2026). The text reads: Rivers above and below, hear my voice. A ripple is how you speak. A pour is how you sing. I sing with both feet in vestigial bodies. By the stitch of the skies in me, I call you forth to this dance. In the epigenesis of silence, you forged the ways. The womb of the world was sedentary until you fed its first seed, broke it to light with your wet voice. You raised the first song to the dawns. The thunderbirds harvested it from there. The winds scrapped their leftover screams. The trees mothered the first mother—clay-skinned, sea-eyed. She disgarnished the grief... The background is the issue's cover art, titled Pile, by Aimee Cozza. It shows a figure with blood around their mouth and on their neck and chest, cuddling a pack of wolves.

👀January 2026 Poetry👀

"Rainmaker" is a poem by Olumide Manuel about the language and sound of water. Read this one as an invocation.

Subscribers can read it now!

An excerpt of the short story "A Tree is not a Home" by Diana Dima, in Issue 21 of Haven Spec Magazine (January 2026). The text reads: A tree is not a home. But you, twelve years old and bony, dragging a suitcase behind a gray mother into the gray building where you were now going to live, looked back at me as though it was all wrong. As though the building should have been me. You came out soon afterwards, walked across the parking lot and over the low wire fence into my patch of land. (I saw you, in a manner of speaking, like an arrow rushing at me in the dark.) I could tell that you had never seen a birch before. You pressed your cheek... The background is the issue's cover art, titled Pile, by Aimee Cozza. It shows a figure with blood around their mouth and on their neck and chest, cuddling a pack of wolves.

👀January 2026 Fiction👀

"A Tree is not a Home" is a short story by @dianadima.com about seeking refuge wherever you might find it. Read it for the quiet grief and pain embodied by its birch tree narrator.

Subscribers can read it now!

Very happy to have this coming out, and in such great company! This Haven Spec issue goes hard

An excerpt of the poem "last psalm" by P.H. Low, in Issue 21 of Haven Spec Magazine (January 2026). The text reads: that you might be appeased by one such as me. that, smug on your garnet altar, you would unhinge your jaws and drink wetly of my fear, as a thousand mahogany harps tremble beneath your altar [...] The background is the issue's cover art, titled Pile, by Aimee Cozza. It shows a figure with blood around their mouth and on their neck and chest, cuddling a pack of wolves.

👀January 2026 Poetry👀

"last psalm" is a poem by @ph-low.com about skeletons and harpists and how systems of power can sanctify cruelty and exploitation. Read this one for its strong voice and spooky ambience.

Subscribers can read it now!

An excerpt of the short story "Branches" by Matt Tighe, in Issue 21 of Haven Spec Magazine (January 2026). The text reads: You smile when you see her across the street again. She laughs when you ask her the way to the station. It is right there behind her, South Entrance in huge letters, people bustling in and out of the oversized doorway. She asks where you are from—don’t they have trains there—and you smile and shrug. A version of you exists in almost every branch of reality, but part of you, the part that hurts, that knows how she holds your heart, has only just... The background is the issue's cover art, titled Pile, by Aimee Cozza. It shows a figure with blood around their mouth and on their neck and chest, cuddling a pack of wolves.

👀January 2026 Fiction👀

"Branches" is a short story by @mktighewrites.bsky.social about how sometimes every path you take can lead to loss. Read this one for its bittersweet multiverse and the impossibility of letting go.

Subscribers can read it now!

"... (can you believe it?) they only cost you $6.66 plus tax. The cashier even offers you a band-aid for your finger, which is welling with ruby droplets of blood. You hadn’t noticed. You hope you didn’t get any stains on the denim.
(Don’t worry, with a little ice water, blood washes right out.)" 😈👖

An excerpt of the short story "Bootcut" by Allison Pottern, in Issue 21 of Haven Spec Magazine (January 2026). The text reads: Running your hand along the clothing rack, your finger catches on a Goodwill miracle: a pair of jeans that actually fits. They have no tag—no name brand—just a questionable stain below the left front pocket, no big deal. It’s like maybe these jeans have lived a more exciting life than you have. Maybe if you put them on, a bit of that excitement could rub off on you. The flared, dark-washed jeans look like once upon a time they were very expensive. Now that they’re in your broke hands, they’re merely “vintage.” But... The background is the issue's cover art, titled Pile, by Aimee Cozza. It shows a figure with blood around their mouth and on their neck and chest, cuddling a pack of wolves.

👀January 2026 Fiction👀

"Bootcut" is a short story by @apottern.bsky.social about women finding solidarity and battling back against their abusers (and also a particularly well-fitting pair of jeans). Read this one for its mighty vengeance and rage.

Subscribers can read it now!

Haven Spec Magazine, Issue Twenty-One, January 2026. Cover and table of contents. The issue will be available to subscribers on January 26th, and its contents are as follows: Cover Art by Aimee Cozza. Fiction: Magical Girl: Corporate Failure by Lia Lao. Demon In Repose by J.A.W. McCarthy. A Beginner’s Guide to Summoning Demons by Cynthia Zhang. Bootcut by Allison Pottern. Branches by Matt Tighe. And If You Must Be Wicked, You Must by Elou Carroll. A Tree is not a Home by Diana Dima. Poetry: A Party, A Party! by Faith Allington Queercoded Villanelle by anaum sajanlal last psalm by P. H. Low Rainmaker by Olumide Manuel Nonfiction: Letter from the Editor, Ya Herd? by Leon Perniciaro. Little Fiction Reviews by the Editors of Haven Spec Magazine.

Our ✨January 2026 issue✨ is ready at last!

Subscribers will get it January 26th, and everyone else can read it February 2nd!

It's taken a long time to get the issue ready, but take a look at that 😍TOC😍! The wait was well worth it!

Subscribe through Patreon:
www.patreon.com/c/HavenSpecM...

"Consider the nature of evil. In books & movies, it is always so simple: here are the orcs & the creatures of the dark, who must be destroyed."

Read "A Beginner’s Guide to Summoning Demons" by @czwrites.bsky.social in @havenspec.bsky.social 🧂

Haven Spec Magazine, Submission Page Fiction and Poetry for the 21st Century!

Our limited demographic window ends soon! Of course, you can still submit in the general window next month, but it's our goal to publish more authors of historically marginalized backgrounds, so send us your stories and poems!

For our full guidelines and schedule, visit:
www.havenspec.com/submit/