Strange Horizons (@strangehorizons) — Bluesky Profile

10 hours ago

Podcast: I Wish You Died Laughing In this episode of the Strange Horizons Fiction podcast, Michael Ireland presentsLio Abendan's 'I Wish You Died Laughing' read by Jenna Hanchey. Subscribe to the Strange Horizons podcast: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠…

NEW PODCAST ALERT!

"I Wish You Died Laughing" by Lio Abendan @lioabendan.bsky.social from our 1 December 2025 issue is now available in podcast form read by Jenna Hanchey @jennahanchey.bsky.social!

Link ⬇️
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/po...

13 5 0 1

1 day ago

FICTION

Quote
We do not regret running the obit for Eartha Kitty, however we do regret not creating a separate section. From now on, all pet tributes will be placed in a new, paid category: OUR FURRY FRIENDS. Thanks for your comments, advice, and readership. —Editor
end Quote

This Obituary Has Been Redacted
by P.C. Verrone

9 March 2026
Strange Horizons

This Obituary Has Been Redacted
by P.C. Verrone @pcverrone.com

"From now on, all pet tributes will be placed in a new, paid category: OUR FURRY FRIENDS. Thanks for your comments, advice, and readership. —Editor"

Link ⬇️
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/fi...

9 5 0 1

2 days ago

POETRY

by Sophia Zhao
An Inheritance of Air; or, You Are Cordially Invited to Attend My Presentation on Genealogy

Quote
and we let loose our dragon by the sun of a thousand fireflies.
end Quote

9 March 2026
Strange Horizons

An Inheritance of Air; or, You Are Cordially Invited to Attend My Presentation on Genealogy
by Sophia Zhao

"and we let loose our dragon by the sun of a thousand fireflies."

Link ⬇️
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/po...

9 3 1 0

3 days ago

Left
cover of The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts by Kim Fu featuring rows of alternating green and black hills with outlines of houses behind, on top, and in front of them.

Right
REVIEWS
Quote
This book wants us to ask this question as it shows us Eleanor’s own ghosts, people both living and dead who follow her around when she has nobody else. Kim Fu’s writing at the sentence level is deceptively simplistic. It hides how much her work makes me think.
reviewer: Tina S. Zhu

2 March 2026
Strange Horizons

The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts by Kim Fu
reviewed by Tina S. Zhu

Link ⬇️
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...

1 0 0 0

3 days ago

Left
cover of Into the Midnight Wood by Alexandra McCollum featuring two shadowed people standing in front of a well lit house framed by two tall thin trees on either side.

Right
REVIEWS
Quote
Into the Midnight Wood is good, at least, in its ability to supply the chief thing I care about from a romance: a pair of characters trying to get their emotional houses in good enough order to be in love with each other.
reviewer: Jenny Hamilton

2 March 2026
Strange Horizons

Into the Midnight Wood by Alexandra McCollum
reviewed by Jenny Hamilton

Link ⬇️
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...

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3 days ago

Left
cover of The Inescapable March by Hana Carolina featuring a gold feathered owl in front of an ornate almond shaped decoration.

Right
REVIEWS
Quote
I don’t want to disavow fantasy completely, either, because when it combines wit, humour, and magic as The Inescapable March does, while refusing the quick fix of happy ever after, it allows us to imagine worlds where life is not just a tedious linear repetition of nasty, brutish, and short days until we die.
reviewer: Nick Hubble

2 March 2026
Strange Horizons

The reviews are in!

The Inescapable March by Hana Carolina
reviewed by Nick Hubble

Link ⬇️
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...

7 2 1 0

5 days ago

Critical Friends
The Strange Horizons SF/F Criticism Podcast

NEW PODCAST ALERT!

This week we have a new episode of Critical Friends for you!

This time out Dan Hartland discusses style in SFF with Paul Kincaid and Dawn Macdonald!

What do you think about style? Why does SFF have such a fraught relationship with it?

Link ⬇️
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/po...

21 11 0 1

6 days ago

POETRY

by Dacey Eliot
You Will Disembowel the Bird (Viator)

Quote
i must warn you before all else
before you poke and prod
at your new brood of yellow chicks
end Quote

2 March 2026
Strange Horizons

You Will Disembowel the Bird (Viator)
by Dacey Eliot

"i must warn you before all else
before you poke and prod
at your new brood of yellow chicks"

Link ⬇️
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/po...

4 2 0 0

1 week ago

FICTION

Quote
I’ll knock on your door, at which point I will most likely encounter a puzzled maidservant, who will ask who in the world I am, and I will explain that I am returning a book you were kind enough to bestow on me (generous creature that you are and clearly down-on-their-luck, weatherworn would-be poet that I am).
end Quote

Bitter as the Sea
by M.E. Bronstein

2 March 2026
Strange Horizons

Bitter as the Sea
by M.E. Bronstein

"...(generous creature that you are and clearly down-on-their-luck, weatherworn would-be poet that I am)."

Link ⬇️
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/fi...

10 3 0 1

1 week ago

POETRY

by Janet McAdams
Afterstory

Quote
Even as the trees were softening, their bark for the hungry to scrape and scrape and spread it on whatever bread they could beg or bake.
end Quote

2 March 2026
Strange Horizons

Afterstory
by Janet McAdams @janetthemcadams.bsky.social

"Even as the trees were softening, their bark for the hungry to scrape and scrape and spread it on whatever bread they could beg or bake."

Link ⬇️
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/po...

12 3 0 1

1 week ago

Fungi in SFF Special Issues
call for non-fiction submissions

Strange Horizons is open to non-fiction submissions for our March 30th special issue which will be all about Fungi in SFF!

More information about our submission guidelines and how to submit ⬇️
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...

53 46 3 3

1 week ago

Spec Fic and the Politics of Identity: Finding the Self in Other Black speculative poetry works this way too. It’s text that is flexible and immediate. It’s a safe space to explore Afrocentric text rooted in story, song, dance, rhythm that natural flows from my …

Grateful to see my smol essay on the self and identity, the politics of belonging, is a BSFA Awards finalist. 🥹
Congratulations to all finalists! @strangehorizons.bsky.social , @bloomsburyacademic.bsky.social
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...

65 22 5 2

1 week ago

Left
cover of The House of Illusionists and Other Stories by Vanessa Fogg featuring a East Asian style building with a tree blooming with purple flowers behind it.

Right
REVIEWS
Quote
Fogg’s focus on endings and societies declining or being destroyed may hit harder today than when these stories were originally written, which is why her consistent emphasis on the power of beauty—if not to save then at least to somehow redeem such endings—is important.
reviewer: Stephen Case

23 February 2026
Strange Horizons

The House of Illusionists and Other Stories by Vanessa Fogg
reviewed by Stephen Case

Link ⬇️
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...

#bookreviews #fantasy #sciencefiction #scifi

14 8 1 1

1 week ago

Left
cover of New Meat in a Clean Room edited by Ira Rat featuring a close up of the upper right of a face with the eye covered in a yellow dot with a thick line extending downwards like tears.

Right
REVIEWS
Quote
This is not comfortable reading. It is not intended to be. It is, however, one of the most tightly conceived, skillfully executed, and intellectually demanding horror anthologies I have encountered in recent years.
reviewer: Subham Rai

23 February 2026
Strange Horizons

New Meat in a Clean Room edited by Ira Rat
reviewed by Subham Rai

Link ⬇️
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...

#bookreviews #horror

6 2 1 2

1 week ago

Left
cover of The Essential Patricia A. McKillip by Patricia A. McKillip featuring a person sleeping draped over a rock with a black horse in the background.

Right
REVIEWS
Quote
The Essential Patricia A. McKillip is by and large concerned with three things—how can imagination set people free, what do people imagine, and how do those imagined things/people/places connect and change throughout space and time?
reviewer: Roy Salzman-Cohen

23 February 2026
Strange Horizons

The reviews are in!

The Essential Patricia A. McKillip by Patricia A. McKillip
reviewed by Roy Salzman-Cohen

Link ⬇️
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...

#bookreviews #fantasy #patriciaamckillip

13 3 1 0

1 week ago

NON-FICTION

Quote
Every world build makes choices about where agency rested in the great stages of its past, using histories as models and also practicing the historian’s craft: making claims about how the world changes, and who has the power to change it.
end Quote

Why All Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Are Historians
by Ada Palmer

23 February 2026
Strange Horizons

Why All Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Are Historians
by Ada Palmer

"Every world build makes choices about where agency rested in the great stages of its past, using histories as models and also practicing the historian’s craft..."

Link ⬇️
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...

38 16 1 6

2 weeks ago

NON-FICTION

Quote
I did expect the story to go another way because I thought it was going to be like any other undead story. But I am very happy to see that it wasn’t. Frankly, they are a nice change from the usual OTR shows which, to be honest, are often on the sloppy side.
end Quote

Stories From The Radio
by Kuzhali Manickavel

23 February 2026
Strange Horizons

Stories From The Radio
by Kuzhali Manickavel @kuzhalimanickavel.bsky.social

"I did expect the story to go another way because I thought it was going to be like any other undead story. But I am very happy to see that it wasn’t."

Link ⬇️
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...

9 5 0 1

2 weeks ago

2026 Rhysling Anthology and Award – Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association

Congratulations to all the 2026 @sfpoetry.bsky.social Rhysling Award nominees! 🎉

Very exciting to see twelve (!!!) poems from last year's Strange Horizons issues on the list!

Thank you to everyone who trusted us with their work and thank you to everyone who read and enjoyed them! ❤️

26 8 0 0

2 weeks ago

POETRY

by IM Shulman
bones and bones and bones and

Quote
I unzipped my skin and all my bones fell out. This was not by design: I meant to loose my soul from the forest of my lungs, unfurl its banner past my legs and my toes and there, in the blameless earth, find a new alchemy for living. Instead—bones.

23 February 2026
Strange Horizons

bones and bones and bones and
by IM Shulman

"I unzipped my skin and all my bones fell out."

Link ⬇️
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/po...

2 0 0 1

2 weeks ago

POETRY

by Ursula Whitcher
Secondary Filters

Quote
Adjust the color of the sky,
my phone offers

23 February 2026
Strange Horizons

Secondary Filters
by Ursula Whitcher @yarntheory.bsky.social

"Adjust the color of the sky,
my phone offers"

Link ⬇️
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/po...

8 6 1 0

2 weeks ago

NON-FICTION

Quote
Chambers asserts that to marvel is a necessary part of human flourishing, a mandatory part of responsible human participation in our environment. To be a responsible ecological citizen, Dex must recognize that as an animal, they have no purpose.
end Quote

Rewilding Human Purpose in Becky Chambers's A Psalm for the Wild-Built
by Elizabeth Bush-Peel

23 February 2026
Strange Horizons

Rewilding Human Purpose in Becky Chambers's A Psalm for the Wild-Built
by Elizabeth Bush-Peel

"To be a responsible ecological citizen, Dex must recognize that as an animal, they have 'no purpose.'"

Link ⬇️
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...

6 1 0 2

2 weeks ago

Left
cover of Slow Gods by Claire North featuring a red planet with radial waves around it and a small gold rocket in the centre.

Right
REVIEWS
Quote
There are so many huge ideas and issues addressed in Slow Gods—capitalism, religion, gender, culture, climate migration, othering, war, love, morality, having a meaningful life—but they don’t get in the way of enjoying a well-written and enjoyable novel.
reviewer: Ian J. Simpson

16 February 2026
Strange Horizons

Slow Gods by Claire North
reviewed by Ian J. Simpson

Link ⬇️
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...

7 2 0 0

2 weeks ago

Left
cover of Lies Weeping by Glen Cook featuring three people, two generating golden wisps of magic in their hand and the third holding up a long sword.

Right
REVIEWS
Quote
Cook is a competent enough writer in his dour, sardonic way—his action sequences are decently blocked and his characterization rich enough that we remember who these people are from book to book.
reviewer: Roz Kaveney

16 February 2026
Strange Horizons

Lies Weeping by Glen Cook
reviewed by Roz Kaveney

Link ⬇️
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...

0 1 1 0

2 weeks ago

Left
cover of Into the Sun by C.F. Ramuz, translated by Olivia Baes and Emma Ramadan featuring a sun crudely drawn with black marker.

Right
REVIEWS
Quote
In this translation, Ramuz’s sentences have the beauty of a beam of sunlight through swirling dust—simple, elegant, illuminating the structure of the invisible. Repeatedly he invokes a mirrored world, in which constructions partner natural objects, and the mind reconstitutes reality in its own image.
reviewer: Dawn Macdonald

16 February 2026
Strange Horizons

The reviews are in!

Into the Sun by C.F. Ramuz, translated by Olivia Baes and Emma Ramadan
reviewed by Dawn Macdonald

Link ⬇️
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...

4 5 1 1

3 weeks ago

POETRY

by Garth Upshaw
They Leave

Quote
The mother tide goes out. And stays.
Sends me a text. Three emojis:
Yellow hand waving.
Palm tree.
Palm tree.

16 February 2026
Strange Horizons

They Leave
by Garth Upshaw

"The mother tide goes out. And stays.
Sends me a text. Three emojis:
Yellow hand waving.
Palm tree.
Palm tree."

Link ⬇️
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/po...

8 1 0 0

3 weeks ago

FICTION

Quote
I can’t say where I’m from for obvious reasons, but just know that most of it is a very arid, very empty desert with a whole lot of nothingness. Water is life here, and it's evident in that if you stray too far off the beaten path and away from water, you will get lost and you’ll be lucky if anyone sees you again before sundown.
end Quote

The River Speaks My Name
by Ocoxōchitl la Coyota

16 February 2026
Strange Horizons

The River Speaks My Name
by Ocoxōchitl la Coyota

"Water is life here, and it's evident in that if you stray too far off the beaten path and away from water, you will get lost and you’ll be lucky if anyone sees you again before sundown."

Link ⬇️
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/fi...

11 2 0 0

3 weeks ago

POETRY

by Carolina Marchioro
The Secret to being a Dragon

Quote
you’re a girl-shaped puncture wound

16 February 2026
Strange Horizons

The Secret to being a Dragon
by Carolina Marchioro

"you’re a girl-shaped puncture wound"

Link ⬇️
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/po...

14 5 0 0

3 weeks ago

Left
cover of Manga's First Century: How Creators and Fans Made Japanese Comics, 1905–1989 by Andrea Horbinski featuring three scenes from early Japanese comics at the top two floating heads in the middle two people looking surprised as something below them and at the bottom an early telephone with arms attacking a man.

Right
REVIEWS
Quote
Manga’s First Century is nonetheless a fluent, eloquent account of the art form and its many iterations across Japan’s rapidly-shifting social, political, and economic landscapes during the tumultuous, accelerated twentieth century.
reviewer: Rachel Cordasco

9 February 2026
Strange Horizons

Manga's First Century: How Creators and Fans Made Japanese Comics, 1905–1989 by Andrea Horbinski
reviewed by Rachel Cordasco @rachelcordasco.bsky.social

Link ⬇️
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...

4 1 0 0

3 weeks ago

Left
cover of Arctic Knot by Ivan Leonov featuring an arctic landscape with two people underneath sitting and watching the same landscape on a screen.

Right
REVIEWS
Quote
In failing to live up to its ambitions, then, Arctic Knot demonstrates what makes idea-driven speculative fiction work, the essential transformation that makes an idea into something that can animate a story, that needs to be explored in narrative.
reviewer: Tristan Beiter

9 February 2026
Strange Horizons

Arctic Knot by Ivan Leonov
reviewed by Tristan Beiter @tristanbeiter.bsky.social

Link ⬇️
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...

5 3 1 0

3 weeks ago

Left
cover of Cathedral of the Drowned by Nathan Ballingrud featuring a face with glowing yellow eyes and a centipede curling around it's left side.

Right
REVIEWS
Quote
His characters are at turns ruthless and pathetic, endearing and distancing, and the scope of the characters’ relationships remains grounded, even while the scale reaches out to the stars. As with Ballingrud’s previous short story work..., I was simultaneously repulsed, fascinated, horrified, and certainly never bored.
reviewer: Andy Sawyer

9 February 2026
Strange Horizons

The reviews are in!

Cathedral of the Drowned by Nathan Ballingrud
reviewed by Matt Holder

Link ⬇️
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...

13 3 1 1