Spencer Nitkey

Huge thanks to @psychopomp.com and @shereereneethomas.bsky.social for all the work that went into curating and putting this anthology together. There are so many amazing, rending stories in here that explore death from so many angles. It's a beautiful, rich, anthology!

Would you like to read a story about Charon (who uses a train now, not a dingy boat now, thank you very much) at the end of the universe, wondering what to do now that there are no more souls left to ferry? Buy this phenomenal anthology and check my story "At the End of Everything" out!

Afterlives: The Year's Best Death Stories, 2024 - PSYCHOPOMP.COM Afterlives The Year’s Best Death Fiction 2024 Curated by Sheree Renée Thomas While Psychopomp aims to publish all the death fiction, we cannot possibly, so we decided to round up the best death storie...

you've been waiting

and it's finally HERE!!

AFTERLIVES

curated by @shereereneethomas.bsky.social ✨🖤💀

get your ebook here!

psychopomp.com/product/afte...

Karlo Yeager Rodríguez Eligibility 2025 Short Fiction: A Line of Ink, Stretching Back Like a Shadow - Cold Signal Magazine #3 Blanquitos - Typebar Magazine #8

With "Blanquitos" being a late bloomer (pun intended), I can now make my Eligibility Post:

If you're reading for awards, please consider these two stories.

FYI even if you're not voting for awards, I'd be honored if you read these (links to follow)

Yoo! This story is amazing. Killer opening, too.

Yes indeed - my favorite of which is probably 'Eagle-Eyed' in Eye to the Telescope from @sfpoetry.bsky.social!

eyetothetelescope.com/archives/057...

FUBPoetry, you say? 👀

A picture of bioluminescent vein-like neon structures of fungi in soil with text of my awards elligible stories atop. Text reads (from top to bottom): Un-Pragmagic: A Tyler Moore Retrospective (fantasty; lightspeed magazine; 1500 words) In the Dream, He is Skinless and Beautiful (Horror; Weird Horror Magazine; 2300 words) The Eternal Life and Art of Maxwell Ardeen (Sci-fi; Asimov Press; 2000 words) How to See the Dead (Sci-fi; Asimov Press; 5000 words) Bird Burning (Horror; Adroit Journal; 5000 words Life on Earth (Sci-fi; Phano; 1700 words)

It is once again the season to make a poorly designed but earnest awards eligibility post for some of my fiction published in 2025! (links below).

I have such tenderness for those early stabs at any new medium/genre, where you can still see all the fingerprints of inspiration in very high fidelity.

It's so interesting you cite Silken as a poetic influence. In retrospect, I can totally see the linkage between both your poetic works: unflinching and heartfelt in equal measure. Unafraid to mine deep, rich emotion.

This one was devastating... brutal and beautiful.

indeed!
bsky.app/profile/spen... an ever-growing thread I have been neglecting but there's a lot on it already!

Ornithogonia, or Five Featherings The first time you plucked a feather from your lover’s skin, you did so laughing.I laughed with you, my laugh as true as yours was false, and—though you could not hear me, Korone, my sweet-bitter g…

And another joins the flock! @mruthrobinson.bsky.social has this phenomenal FUBF flash out at @flashfictiononline.bsky.social check it out! www.flashfictiononline.com/article/orni...

“Girl,” by Jamaica Kincaid Fiction, from 1978: “This is how to love a man, and if this doesn’t work there are other ways.”

Man is this story so good it hurts.

www.newyorker.com/magazine/197...

1. Really great story! 2. Adding this to my canon of Fucked Up Bird Fiction ASAP!

Ornithogonia, or Five Featherings The first time you plucked a feather from your lover’s skin, you did so laughing.I laughed with you, my laugh as true as yours was false, and—though you could not hear me, Korone, my sweet-bitter g…

The first story I wrote in 2025 is also my final story of 2025! "Ornithogonia, or Five Featherings" is the tale of a priestess and the woman she wants desperately not to love, told by a bitter goddess. It's about faith, all-consuming love, and also birds 🐦‍⬛ Out now at @flashfictiononline.bsky.social!

Of course award nominations and ballots are always appreciated nothing means more to me than someone simply taking time out of their day to read a story. Thanks to everyone who has read anything I put out this year, and thank you to all the publications who believed in my work and gave it a home!

Life on Earth It’s an incredible time to be alive, but all that matters is Willmae.

Life on Earth in @ammansabet.bsky.social's Phano Magazine

A sci fi story best set up by its opening line: "They discover life on Mars the same day the doctors tell us Willmae is dying."

www.phano.co/articles/lif...

Spencer Nitkey Visit the post for more.

Bird Burning in @adroitjournal.bsky.social

A literary horror story about a boy whose family burns a giant wooden bird in effigy of his mother every year. A heavy, grief-filled story.

theadroitjournal.org/issue-fifty-...

How to See the Dead A retinal implant designer must decide if translating mourning into light is progress or a refusal to let go.

How to See the Dead in @asimovpress.bsky.social

A "diamond hard" sci-fi story. A custom retinal implant designer must decide if translating mourning into light is progress or a refusal to let go. My most heavily researched story to date!

press.asimov.com/articles/see...

The Eternal Life and Art of Maxwell Ardeen Bioart emerges where biological science, technology, and aesthetics collide. For one terminally ill artist, it offered a chance at immortality.

The Eternal Life and Art of Maxwell Ardeen in @asimovpress.bsky.social

A sci-fi story about a terminally ill bioartist who turns to his art and longevity science in an attempt to achieve immortality.

press.asimov.com/articles/max...

Skinless and Beautiful — Weird Horror Magazine

In the Dream, He is Skinless and Beautiful in @undertow.bsky.social's Weird Horror.

A horror story about "skin, loss, and the dripping viscera of the thoughts we keep inside ourselves."

www.weirdhorrormagazine.com/skinless-and...

Un-Pragmagic: A Tyler Moore Retrospective - Lightspeed Magazine Tyler Moore’s spells strive to exist in and of themselves. They make no excuse or justification for their existence: no promise to speak to the dead, predict next year’s grain or gold prices, or read ...

Un-Pragmagic: A Tyler Moore Retrospective in @lightspeedmagazine.com

A fantasy story about a magical artist haunting the gallery that hosts his posthumously released works. 🔥

www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/un-p...

A picture of bioluminescent vein-like neon structures of fungi in soil with text of my awards elligible stories atop. Text reads (from top to bottom): Un-Pragmagic: A Tyler Moore Retrospective (fantasty; lightspeed magazine; 1500 words) In the Dream, He is Skinless and Beautiful (Horror; Weird Horror Magazine; 2300 words) The Eternal Life and Art of Maxwell Ardeen (Sci-fi; Asimov Press; 2000 words) How to See the Dead (Sci-fi; Asimov Press; 5000 words) Bird Burning (Horror; Adroit Journal; 5000 words Life on Earth (Sci-fi; Phano; 1700 words)

It is once again the season to make a poorly designed but earnest awards eligibility post for some of my fiction published in 2025! (links below).

2025 Good and Evil and Other Stories – Samanta Schweblin, trans. Megan McDowell – Knopf (Los Angeles Review of Books) Profane Illuminations II: On Weird Fiction by John Langan, Rebecca Campbell, and B. Catling (Ancillary Review of Books) Foreword – Uncertain Sons and Other Stories – Thomas Ha (Undertow Publications) Reading Weird Fiction in an Age of Fascism (Ancillary Review of Books) Profane Illuminations I: On Weird Fiction by Steve Rasnic Tim, Ananda Lima, and Christi Nogle (Ancillary Review of Books) Profane Illuminations: An Initiation (Ancillary Review of Books) The Profane Illumination of the Weird: Distinguishing Weird Fiction and Horror (Nightmare) Model Home – Rivers Solomon – MCD (Seize the Press) Red Skies in the Morning – Nadia Bulkin – Dim Shores (Seize the Press)

A few other pieces that I was hoping would publish this year - my Jeffrey Ford essay, in particular - but I guess I'll go ahead and call it and say this is my 2025 summary. Go to doomsdayer.wordpress.com and follow some links to some criticism of weird fiction. Or don't, I'm not the boss of you.

It’s Storytime with Wil Wheaton You may recognize Wil Wheaton’s name from his acting work in television shows like The Big Bang Theory, Leverage, and Star Trek: The Next Generation, or 1985’s timeless classic, Stand B…

Hey! Some fun news. "The Sort" (orig. @clarkesworldmagazine.com) was picked up for @wilwheaton.net's podcast. Went live today! Narrated thoughtfully and w/a kind shoutout for SFF mags at the end. And a surprise(!) mention of Uncertain Sons 🙏. Many thanks to Wil and his audio team. What an honor.

omg thank you!!

Really honored to have my story "Life on Earth" nominated for this year's Pushcart by Phano!

"They discover life on Mars the same day the doctors tell us that Willmae is dying. . ."

www.phano.co/articles/lif...

For only a fraction of your Netflix budget you can support actual art, not “content”, and also get full access to all of my ramblings at @briefecology.bsky.social

(un?)fortunately, I have not! thank you so much for reading and saying this!

www.flashfictiononline.com/article/with...