Strange Horizons

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 ⬇️
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#bookreviews #fantasy #sciencefiction #scifi

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 ⬇️
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#bookreviews #horror

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 ⬇️
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#bookreviews #fantasy #patriciaamckillip

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 ⬇️
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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 ⬇️
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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! ❤️

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...

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...

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 ⬇️
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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 ⬇️
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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 ⬇️
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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 ⬇️
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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 ⬇️
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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 ⬇️
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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 ⬇️
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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 ⬇️
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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 ⬇️
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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 ⬇️
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Poetry Submission Guidelines How to submit poetry.

I'm reading poetry subs at Strange Horizons this month. You can submit up to 6 speculative poems in a single file or separate files. I recommend separate files, because we allow simultaneous submissions and it's easier to withdraw individual poems. Guidelines: strangehorizons.com/submit/poetr...

POETRY by Darius Jones The Point Quote The triangles bred and twisted, replicating themselves. 9 February 2026 Strange Horizons

The Point
by Darius Jones

"The triangles bred and twisted,
replicating themselves."

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

#poetry #speculativepoetry

FICTION Quote But she had heard about the cable line stewards, those like Benny who usually descended from generations of ʻohana living out near the cable stations, long-term custodians of the ‘āina and, in turn, the cable lines that ran through them, enabling communication across the islands. end Quote A Night with Hui ‘Enehana ‘Ike  by Maʻemaʻeolehua Matsumoto 9 February 2026 Strange Horizons

A Night with Hui ‘Enehana ‘Ike 
by Maʻemaʻeolehua Matsumoto

Link ⬇️
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#shortstories #fiction #speculativefiction

POETRY by Larina Warnock Why You Don't Buy Your Wife a Dishwasher for Her Birthday Quote sometime in the night, we heard rocking and knocking and rapping and tapping, a million trillion tiny feet skittering across the open oven door. 9 February 2026 Strange Horizons

Why You Don't Buy Your Wife a Dishwasher for Her Birthday
by Larina Warnock

"sometime in the night, we heard rocking and knocking and rapping and tapping, a million trillion tiny feet skittering across the open oven door."

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

Podcast: The Aquarium for Lost Souls In this episode of the Strange Horizons Fiction podcast, Michael Ireland presents Natasha King's 'Aquarium for Lost Souls' read by Jenna Hanchey. Subscribe to the Strange Horizons podcast: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠…

NEW PODCAST ALERT!

In case you missed it:

The Aquarium for Lost Souls
by Natasha King @pelagicnatasha.bsky.social
read by Jenna Hanchey @jennahanchey.bsky.social

Link ⬇️
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Left cover of Hazelthorn by C. G. Drews featuring a person stretching their face out of thorned vines with vines across their bleeding eyes. Right REVIEWS Quote It leans on the idea of a “good” rich person pursuing better communion with the earth, meshing queerness and wealth critique within the gothic. Ultimately, it neatly combines a critique of the rich themselves with one of the exploitation inherent to gaining massive wealth. reviewer: Cameron Miguel 2 February 2026 Strange Horizons

Hazelthorn by C. G. Drews 
reviewed by Cameron Miguel

Link ⬇️
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Left cover of Brigands & Breadknives by Travis Baldree featuring a humanoid mouse, a goblin, an elf and a horse standing around a pot heating over a campfire. Right REVIEWS Quote Brigands & Breadknives is a brave book to write, a cozy fantasy novel that acknowledges the hard, the messy, the jagged, and the wrenching bittersweet, while simultaneously advocating for hope and belief in an essential goodness. reviewer: Anushree Nande 2 February 2026 Strange Horizons

Brigands & Breadknives by Travis Baldree 
reviewed by Anushree Nande

Link ⬇️
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Left cover of Spiderlight by Adrian Tchaikovsky  featuring a round metal shield with a spider on it surrounded by fire. Right REVIEWS Quote it's certainly possible to read Spiderlight as a lightly amusing deconstruction of the kind of fantasy we have all read too much of. At the end of the day, it’s a guilty pleasure. We know where we’re going, and we are happy to have a skilful guide to take us there. But if this novel is play, it is thoughtful play. reviewer: Andy Sawyer 2 February 2026 Strange Horizons

The reviews are in!

Spiderlight by Adrian Tchaikovsky 
reviewed by Andy Sawyer

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

POETRY by Alison Clara Tan The Sunfish Considers Flotation Therapy Quote Don’t know why they bob? In blue death boxes? Sunless wreck. 2 February 2026 Strange Horizons

The Sunfish Considers Flotation Therapy
by Alison Clara Tan

"Don’t know why they
bob? In blue death boxes? Sunless wreck."

Link ⬇️
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#poetry

FICTION Quote From the window of the nursery, Wendy saw Jane wobbling her way down Kensington Park Road on a borrowed bicycle, hair unbraided and wild like she’d been flying. Wendy’s throat seized with fear. Was that gold glittering in the girl’s hair? Had the neighbors seen? Was that his laughter that rang out from Kensington Park across the way? end Quote Mother, Darling  by Allison Pottern 2 February 2026 Strange Horizons

Mother, Darling
by Allison Pottern @apottern.bsky.social

"Was that gold glittering in the girl’s hair? Had the neighbors seen? Was that his laughter that rang out from Kensington Park across the way?"

Link ⬇️
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#shortstories #fiction #fantasy

POETRY by Josh Pearce Plastic Paradise Awaits Quote Inject direct the petroleum of salvation 2 February 2026 Strange Horizons

Plastic Paradise Awaits
by Josh Pearce @fictionaljosh.bsky.social

"Inject direct

the petroleum of salvation"

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

Statement on ICE Operations in the USA Strange Horizons stands with immigrants in the US facing these conditions.

Strange Horizons stands with immigrants in the US as they experience intensified anti-immigrant operations.

We have the opportunity to lend our strength as a global community.

Read our full statement:
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...