Scrawny and boyish in his ill–fitting humanity, the wolf paced naked through my forest. Even my old eyes could see the way grasping brambles had torn his unprotected skin. An unwoven thing he was, a creature of the tower’s making. My responsibility. Or, at least, my fault. I set a platter of cold meat on …

For Cindy Pon In the garden where girls grew from flowers, their days washed in the distant trills of the queen’s wooden flute, a gardener toiled. His name was Rajesh, and in his spare time, he collected shadows. Shadows of nectar–loving hummingbirds, shadows of laughing fathers, shadows of hawks who preyed on squirrels. Rajesh had …

As they pulled him out of the oxygen tent, he asked for the latest party. “Oh, Mr. Jones,” one of the nurses said, amused. “We wouldn’t forget that.” The nurses, women in gray smocks with pale faces, moved in and out of view, murmuring in conspiratorial voices. Something important had happened. Something that he should …

1. I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor Think of it like the best macaroni and cheese you’ve ever had. No neon yellow Velveeta and bread crumbs. I’m talking gourmet cheddar, the expensive stuff from Vermont that crackles as it melts into that crust on top. Imagine if right before you were about …

The Sisters' Line by Liz Argall and Kenneth Schneyer. Uncanny Magazine Issue Six short fiction.

Randall lowered one foot on to the surface of green fibers. The organic matter yielded under her weight but seemed to support her. She dared to put a second foot on to the strange, graminoid material—just as Archive came back with a response. “A lawn,” it told her. “Proceed with operation.” Randall prowled across the …

I don’t claim that this story is true, and I don’t care if you believe it. It happened in 1973, when I was ten years old. It’s impossible to verify. But I’m still going to tell it to you. On this particular hot summer night, I ran through the swamp behind the trailer park as …

The carving was going badly. Sarah examined the duck decoy before her and sighed. The bill was shaped entirely wrong. It was supposed to be a mallard, but she hadn’t taken enough off before she began shaping and now the bill was half again as long as it should be. I’ll flare the bill and …

Sister Scholastique rolled onto her back. She pulled her hard, sawdust–stuffed pillow over her head and reflected on the sure and certain hope for peace and for virtue rewarded in the next world. She had determined that there was little enough of either in this one. The monastery dogs had been barking for half an …

(For Patrick Farrell, who told me a story about that very fish soup one rainy night) PART ONE: It Seems I Met You in an Unlucky Hour After the War, and before the War, the first time I met him on the road to Moscow, the cat was wearing a green woolen coat he’d stolen …

I was monitoring Cherie Peng’s pulse, breathing, her sweaty palms, all of it, when the Sarissa interrupted me. “This proposal of yours,” the Sarissa said. She—the Sarissa insisted on the animate feminine instead of the inanimate sentient pronoun like most of us ships—sent me the document reference so I knew which proposal she was talking …

I Prelude An author dies. Then the newly discovered texts surface. They’re drafts, notes, sometimes entire manuscripts. They appear in the clutter on a desk, or in the publisher’s computer, or among newspapers and dead spiders in a summer cottage chest. Sometimes they spill forth as if from a horn of plenty (see: Tolkien). Sometimes …

"The Half-Life of Angels" by Sarah Monette in Uncanny Magazine Issue Five.

"Midnight Hour" by Mary Robinette Kowal in Uncanny Magazine Issue Five.

There is a magic shore where children used to beach their coracles every night. The children have stopped coming now, and their little boats are tipped over on the sides, like the abandoned shells of nuts eaten long ago. The dark sea rushes up to the pale beach and just touches the crafts, making them …

"Catcall" by Delilah S. Dawson in Uncanny Magazine Issue Five.

"A Year and a Day in Old Theradane" by Scott Lynch in Uncanny Magazine Issue Five.

"Ghost Champagne" by Charlie Jane Anders in Uncanny Magazine Issue Five.

Sinners, Saints, Dragons, and Haints, in the City Beneath the Still Waters by N. K. Jemisin. Uncanny Magazine Issue Six classic short fiction.

Find a Way Home by Paul Cornell - Uncanny Magazine Issue Six short fiction.

The Oiran's Song by Isabel Yap - Uncanny Magazine Issue Six short fiction.

The Practical Witch's Guide to Acquiring Real Estate by A.C. Wise in Uncanny: A Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy Issue Four.

You Are Two Point Three Miles From Your Destination by Fran Wilde

Young Woman in a Garden by Delia Sherman in Uncanny: A Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy Issue Four.

In Libres by Elizabeth Bear in Uncanny: A Magazine of Science Fiction & Fantasy Issue Four.

Restore the Heart into Love by John Chu in Uncanny: A Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy Issue Four.

"Woman at Exhibition" by E. Lily Yu in Uncanny Magazine Issue Five.

"The Rainbow Flame" by Shveta Thakrar in Uncanny Magazine Issue Five.

Three Voices by Lisa Bolekaja in Uncanny: A Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy Issue Four.

The Nalendar by Ann Leckie. Uncanny Magazine Issue Two. Short fiction.