The national suicide being committed by the Republican-led United States has no historical precedent. Centuries from now (if humanity survives that long), historians will struggle to explain how such a thing was possible.
Even with all the video footage, tweets, and the rest of the contemporaneous documentation, none of it will ever make any sense.
It may actually make less and less sense the more historians delve into the evidence. 21st century US history is going to be the domain of psychologists, not historians.
Our panel Prose, Poetry, and Play: Game Design as a Literary Practice at #AWP26 was amazing yesterday, with brilliant insights from @natmesnard.bsky.social @sharangbiswas.bsky.social @brigittewinter.bsky.social @nirele.bsky.social @davering.bsky.social! If you attended, let us know your takeaways ✨
Come hang out with me here! While "fantasy" is in the name, the 4th Street community is warm and welcoming to all walks of speculative and adjacent writing.
Hi new subscribers! I wanted to shine a light on this gem of mine from 2024. A funny, feel-good paranormal romp about a delightfully clueless artist and the *ahem* unusual comments she gets on a travel forum.
Pass it on to someone who needs a smile today. magazine.trollbreath.com/cryptid-car-...
Come say hi if you are at AWP this week!
Looking forward to @awpwriter.org #AWP26 this week, where I'll be moderating my panel "Story Game Presses: Pitching, Submissions & Publishing" with some incredible publishers: @domsdickey.bsky.social @nearfutures.bsky.social @justinsirois.bsky.social @natmesnard.bsky.social
Today's the day! World premier reading of Hornytown Chutzpah 13 days before the books official release. If you are near #Baltimore or attending #AWP please join me & 7 other amazing SFF readers. Let's celebrate together!
Free event. Signed books. If you can't make it presale copies r a good sub 😜
PM deal announcement against a background of line art tentacles. Announcement reads: "Amanda Helms's THE UPPER TENTACLE, pitched as a horror comedy mash-up of EVERYONE IN MY FAMILY HAS KILLED SOMEONE with H.P. Lovecraft, in which the admin for a corporate retreat and a body splitting alien team up to solve the murder of the company's president at a closed ski resort before their alien overlords inflict dire consequences for humanity's collective insubordination, to Mika Kasuga at Union Square & Co, by Paul Lucas at Regal Hoffmann & Associates (world)."
It is I, joining the ranks of those for whom design is their passion
Very happy this weirdo novella found a home with Union Square and Mika Kasuga! Thanks to @canonizer.bsky.social for connecting us!
Neverland, WWI, Zepplins, lost boys (and girls), toy swords, real guns, hungry mermaids, bitter fairies, ghost soldiers, General James Hook, and Wendy Darling, mother, out to save her daughter from herself.... and Peter Pan.
This is going to be delightful. My two spookiest friends, Will and @brigittewinter.bsky.social, in one livestream! Come watch us ~~~scare~~~ each other w/ how much we all love to read and write creepy queer fiction 💕
A quote: “A vivid, poignant, and compassionate story about our desperate search for meaning...whether on Earth or far beyond it.” —Veronica Roth A book cover: THE RAINSEEKERS by Matthew Kressel. A figure in silhouette on a purple Martian terrian. There are star trails in an iridescent sky. One of the stars, possibly Earth, is brighter than all the others. The overall color tone is purple and green.
My novella THE RAINSEEKERS is out today from Tordotcom! A group of adventurers hope to be the first to feel the rain on Mars.
“A vivid, poignant, and compassionate story about our desperate search for meaning...whether on Earth or far beyond it.” —Veronica Roth
A dark and lovely reimagining of Peter Pan that explores the pain and joy of motherhood and the roles women are often forced to play - Mother, Darling by @apottern.bsky.social
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/fi...
I was so honored that F.E. Choe let me be a part of brining "Better Me Is Fun at Parties" into the world the first time.
Sharing a TOC with this story and watching both our pieces finding new audiences together fills my cup to overflowing.
"Better Me Is Fun at Parties” by F.E. Choe... I won’t give away the ending, but it is stunning and perfect, making the reader think through everything that led to that point and breathing even more life into an already excellent tale.
“In the Palace of Science” by Chris Campbell...In a sense, it could be seen as a story that bridges readerships, but all told, it’s just damn good storytelling."
www.lightspeedmagazine.com/nonfiction/b...
"When you take the jeans off that evening, there’s a worn spot on the back right pocket, shaped like the key. Like the key was a talisman you always carried. Always there, waiting for you.
You start wearing the jeans regularly. Like armor."
*
"Bootcut" havenspec.com/fiction/boot...
"She resisted the fantasy of letting Jane fly off into her own mistakes. Or doing something rash, like burning the whole house to the ground.
Instead, Wendy gave herself one, no, two long moments, to hate Peter Pan.
Then she got to work."
*
"Mother, Darling" strangehorizons.com/wordpress/fi...
Huge thanks to @sundialmagazine.bsky.social for publishing my Dust Bowl poem. This is set in 1935 after the Black Sunday dust storm, inspired by my great-grandparents. I'm happy for their experiences to be out in the world!
We’re revisiting 3 of our favorite stories from meetings past! These are worth a reread!
Glass Bottle Dancer by Celeste Rita Baker 💜
The Time Traveler’s Cookbook by @angelaliu.bsky.social
Open House on Haunted Hill by @wiswell.bsky.social
Links follow - read along with us!
I read an early draft of Flickerstate and I cannot reiterate enough how good this book is.
reactormag.com/cover-reveal...
👀January 2026 Fiction👀
ICYMI, "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.
havenspec.com/fiction/boot...
"You've been cleaning up after bad men all your life. What's one more?"
Tonight!
💜💜💜
E
I have a story out today! 'A Sleeper Ship is Like a Game of Go' is probably the most ambitious thing I've ever written, with future tense and a bit of slice of life. It’s about why we tell stories, why we play Go, and the role of AI in both of those.
clarkesworldmagazine.com/jia-wen_02_26/
purple text over a lighter purple background that reads: Claire Jia-Wen Awards Eligibility Celestial Migrations Clarkesworld | Sci-fi Four Soups for a Four Pests Plague If There’s Anyone Left | Fantasy If an Algorithm can Cast a Shadow Clarkesworld | Sci-fi Abstraction is When I Design Giant Death Creatures and Attraction is When I Do It for You Clarkesworld | Sci-fi Assimilation, through the Ocean Taking Bites of the Moon Baffling | Fantasy Astounding Award for Best New Writer Second year of eligibility
what I did in 2025! I'm very proud of the year I had, and would love if you checked any of my stories out, I've linked some below :D
I'm so honored that my first published story is going to be in the first issue of @othersidespec.bsky.social
Still hard to believe it's really happening. I'm so excited! 🐳
The Strange Horizons logo at the top, then below the words: Fiction "Mother, Darling" by: Allison Pottern Issue: 2 February 2026 12570 words "Wendy knew it wouldn't be long now before her daughter was taken."
I got the proof of my upcoming novelette w/ @strangehorizons.bsky.social and reader, I almost cried. @jolantru.bsky.social has been a huge advocate for this story of the beauty and brutality of motherhood, conformity, and growing up, set against the backdrop of a war-torn Neverland.
**Out Feb. 2!**
