"Formative Years" by Jacqueline West, in Penumbric's April issue at https://www.penumbric.com/currentissue/westFormative.html

I’m still bleeding when I unlock the apartment door.

-from "Formative Years" by Jacqueline West, in #Penumbric's April issue at www.penumbric.com/currentissue... and pdf www.penumbric.com/currentissue...

#shortstory #horror

100% in agreement on this. There's nothing like reading ten in a row and then suddenly the 11th blows your socks off (no, literally, I have no socks now!)

Diabolical Plots logo: a smiling begoggled face on teal background

New fiction!
"Davy Jones, Lobsterman" by Daire McNally

www.diabolicalplots.com/dp-fiction-1...

No Mother to Replace - PSYCHOPOMP.COM Someone once asked why / My mother's portrait guards the doorway

"Someone once asked why

My mother’s portrait guards the doorway.

“Doesn’t it stop you from healing?”

TODAY, beloveds! our first POEM of issue 42:

No Mother to Replace by Nosawema O.

read it here: ⬇️ 🖤 💀

psychopomp.com/deadlands/is...

The Stars Play Tug-of-War Sometimes - Small Wonders There have never been so many red lights before. I wouldn’t mind dreadfully—they tickle all pleasant and rich over my skin—but you are too silent.

"The Stars Play Tug-of-War Sometimes" by @jeanniemarschall.bsky.social has an unexpected point of view character, especially since the story is set on a spaceship. Check it out here:

“Always Intense”: Contests of Power in Alex Cox’s Repo Man by John Joseph Ryan - Seize The Press OTTO:     “Intense!” MILLER:  “The life of a repo man is always intense.” –Repo Man  The American West is in some ways the ideal setting to explore contests of power, the United States having literall...

Always intense! New article from Issue #13, in which John Joseph Ryan looks at how people on the margins of society contest power in the American West of Alex Cox's 1984 punk cult classic film, Repo Man.

Escape Pod 1041: Love in the Time of Dust and Venom Using his walker to brace himself, Keiko watched her ancient grandfather stoop beside the packed dirt path and tug at a weed. Nearby, sprinklers sang shoop-shoop-shoop in the stillness…

All the wires the trilobites chewed on have been replaced, so now please enjoy our latest story: "Love in the Time of Dust and Venom" by Sharon Joss. If you're still getting "forbidden" errors, blame the trilobites.

Looking for speculative fiction that blends heart, intelligence, and imagination? Get Anvil Issue 23 and all our previous issues online - at DreamForge or at Amazon. Read Free online : go.dfstory.com/anvil23 or BUY on Amazon: go.dfstory.com/Anvil23Amazon

POETRY by Joshua Ginsberg Dead City Dreaming Quote So I waited, and dreamed Memorized security footage reruns (So I wouldn’t lose your shape) end Quote 13 April 2026 Strange Horizons

Dead City Dreaming
by Joshua Ginsberg

"So I waited, and dreamed
Memorized security footage reruns
(So I wouldn’t lose your shape)"

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

Inheritance - Trollbreath Magazine Inheritance

Welcome to another Free Fiction Friday!

Today we have "Inheritence," by @jenniferskogen.bsky.social, a story about what we owe our parents and what they owe us. Familial expectation can be more than a weight that drags us down. It can be far darker indeed.

magazine.trollbreath.com/inheritance/

If you want to support Translunar Travelers Lounge it's free and easy to post about the stories, write a review, or recommend them.

Podcast Episode 50: The Pelican in its Piety | Reckoning Subscribe via RSS, Google Podcasts, Android, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, Apple or Amazon. Michael: Welcome back to the Reckoning Press Podcast! I'm Michael J. DeLuca, publisher of Reckoning and erstwhile p...

Good morning! As promised, a new podcast episode has dropped, featuring publisher and erstwhile host @michaeljdeluca.bsky.social reading @slharris.bsky.social's Gulf Coast oil monster story "The Pelican in its Piety" from Reckoning 9: reckoning.press/podcast-epis...

Cover of 3LBE Volume XI with a colorful illustration of various odd creatures alongside a list of contributors Thomas Ha · Ruth Joffre · Steve Toase · Aliya Whiteley · Joe Koch · Eugenia Triantafyllou · Christi Nogle · Octavia Cade · A.C. Wise · Mari Ness · E. Catherine Tobler · Avra Margariti · K.S. Walker · Brian Evenson · Nadia Bulkin · Corey Farrenkopf · Premee Mohamed · Katie McIvor

It’s release day for 3LBE VOLUME XI print anthology! Featuring 18 stories by Thomas Ha, Ruth Joffre, Joe Koch, Eugenia Triantafyllou, A.C. Wise, E. Catherine Tobler, Brian Evenson, Nadia Bulkin, Premee Mohamed, and many more, with 29 new illustrations. Order now! www.3lobedmag.com/store.html

By a Doorstep That Never Receives You - Small Wonders You are my first delivery, and I leave you by a doorstep that never receives you.

In just 308 words, Ai Jiang crafts a beautiful and moving story. Check out "By a Doorstep That Never Receives You" in our 10th issue:

Sixteen tales about curiosity, empathy, and what kind of future we want to live in, available DRM-free, directly from us. Yours to keep, yours to read at your own pace. 📖 www.lunastationquart...

I felt his kiss. I felt his touch. I felt the blood hot against my skin. And still my eyes stayed shut, beneath a century of dust.

Sleeping beauty is in the eye of the beholder in @mariness.bsky.social's new poem "Awakening."

kaleidotrope.net/spring-2026/...

Locus is the trade publication for SFF markets (for those of you unaware), so please consider contributing to help keep them churning out their reviews, articles, and all the other fine work they provide the SFFH community.

Anathema: Spec from the Margins Relaunches Anathema: Spec from the Margins, a speculative fiction magazine “by and for queer people of color,” has announced that it is relaunching after a four-year hiatus. We’re committed …

Thank you @locusmag.bsky.social for highlighting our relaunch 💜 Their IndieGoGo for their annual budget closes on Tuesday. Please support this vital print space!!

locusmag.com/2026/04/anat...

Critical Friends The Strange Horizons SF/F Criticism Podcast

NEW PODCAST ALERT!

Jenny Hamilton, Anushree Nande, and Dan Hartland discuss romance and romantasy all in the Critical Friends Episode 22: Romancing The Genre!

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

The Boy and the Turtle is a beautiful fairytale about growth, friendship, fear, and the world waiting beyond our carefully built walls. Read Leo Rose Rodriguez’s modern fairytale. go.dfstory.com/turtle

A Noose is a Knot - Small Wonders “Aren’t you bored?” You are, God knows you are, but God has given you tasks to do and a life with which to do them, and so you must consent to try.

What answers would you have for the fox with no face? "A Noose is a Knot" by MR is a story with teeth:

Detail of 3LBE VOLUME XI featuring a closeup of a giant crow with many eyes, a blue figure with multiple arms and fungi growing from their body, a red crocodile-like head, and a long flying beast with a curly tongue.

Order today because 3LBE VOLUME XI is coming tomorrow! www.3lobedmag.com/store.html

March 2026 Issue | UtopiaScienceFiction March 2026, Vol. 7 Issue 3 Content EditorialLetter from the Editor by Raima Larter InterviewsS. T. Joshi Short StoriesThe Blue Horse by Mackenzie RobinThe Love Story of Bex Kyle... by Catherine Tavare...

Our latest issue features the fascinatingly weird "Blobs of Luck" by Sandy Parsons (@zazzeaux.bsky.social). #sciencefiction #weird

www.utopiasciencefiction.com/product-page...

Cover art by Narupiti Harunsong, which shows the mythic Monkey King emerging from his flying cloud

Issue 45 of the new-look Mythaxis Magazine is out now!

mythaxis.co.uk/issue-45/

Here you’ll find 6 new stories and 2 review articles, plus a background overhaul that adds an app-like mobile reading experience and a bunch of little bells and whistles!

Many thanks to our latest contributors!

First Words asks what we’ll do once we can no longer pretend we don’t understand. Is the world ready to hear? Read First Words by Hap Aziz. go.dfstory.com/firstwords

She burrows and invites — Brief Ecology Smoke hisses out of the wrinkled, larva-ridden pomegranates lying under the shadow of their withered tree. The manchild stares at the hole pulling fruit and dirt within, as Mother wails beside. Not upset about the mess or the rotting stench, her tragedy is the neighbors gossiping over her weird gar

We've got a new rotting leaf dropping on Saturday, but in the meantime don't miss our previous one, "She Burrows and Invites", by @linardos.bsky.social.

It's fully rotten.

www.briefecology.com/the-rotting-...

Live in BCS #454: "How Gods Feed" @mercwolfmoor.bsky.social "Her breast aches and she gasps in surprise, her hands shaking. She was dead—her brother was dead. How can this be? _You are too late._ The words echo like thunder in her head." www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/how-...

mountain scenery in shades of blue, green and pale gold

Cast of Wonders 683: Born of the Mountain's Chill by @trailofleaves.bsky.social narrated/hosted by @chesneycat.bsky.social and produced by @jeremycarter42.bsky.social

www.castofwonders.org/2026/04/cast...

CW: colonialism

Rejoice, sophonts! It's Thursday or Friday, and as such we bring you a fresh original for your experiential experience: "Gods and Spirits Our Witnesses" by @scmillsbooks.bsky.social. Go ahead, witness it!

Though it looks like the trilobites may have eaten the link preview image...

The moon shines full, and gruesome souls everywhere toil gleefully at their foul mischiefs. Wolves gnash their frothing teeth and don cloaks of warm flesh. Wise women cackle over spindles and rituals and blood-pricked eternal slumbers. Stepmothers pay huntsmen for slick nubile hearts, while hideous others destroy ballgowns and hold the cheeks of maidens to glowing cinders.

“It is the evilest of eves in the kingdoms of the realm when the visitors in the sky change everything.”

Isn’t that always the way?

Find a very different sort of fairytale in @amandacecelia.bsky.social’s new story “Once Upon an Invasion.”

kaleidotrope.net/spring-2026/...