3,400 words Caroline tucked an unruly strand of coarse brown hair up under her pink knit cap, shrugged the strap of her black violin case back into place over her shoulder, and hurried up the music…Penelope Waits

4,700 Words Gable began turning into a bird at night two days after her mother died. “Gable is a boy’s name,” one of the grandmothers said and turned her teacup in gnarled hands. A dark wart hung f…While the Black Stars Burn

7,700 Words (Translated from Russian by Alex Shvartsman) Firstly, my name is Marcus. Grandma sumtimes calls me Marcy. Marcy is a girls name. I should make her stop caling me by a girls name. But I …The Lightning Bird

2017 Locus Recommended Short Story 6,100 words Kalyani had to stop and touch the Jambu trees lining the road, each exactly twice, or else her insides would itch. She counted as she walked. “Twelve.…Untilted

800 Words Survival of the Fictitiousest Winner It was hot. The kind of hot that would make the devil himself pull out a fan. Everywhere Mauve looked was blurry, either from heat rising off the pave…An Unexpected Boon

6,300 Words “Sit here.” He pulls out a thin panel from the front of his kiosk, punches it into the third dimension, then into its secondary function as a chair, and places it in front of me. “Here’…The Case of the Mysterious Meat

5,500 Words I drove a brand-new rental car I couldn’t afford—next year’s model, so in a way it was a car from the future—from the Amherst Amtrak stop and into the Vermont countryside, which was jus…Behind Her, Trailing Like Butterfly Wings

4,900 Words She lay bleeding upon her cartridge belts. She could not stand up. The piercing pain in her stomach would not allow it. Catalina raised her head, squinting. A man with a long coat, shin…The Dude Who Collected Lovecraft

6,600 words The problem, of course, is that the world ended. She’s lying in her bed, staring at the sloping scribbles on the ceiling. Downstairs, the party continues as ever. Voices rise from the p…Cemetery Man

2,900 Words Be careful with trusting navigation systems. Sometimes they lie. They say there is a place where world ships go when they know the end is close. A prism of stars, ravenous, burning like…The Edge of Things

SHORT FICTION: I was eight years old the first time I spoke to cancer.The Ghost Stories We Tell Around Photon Fires

3,700 Words The last of the fairies worked in a charnel house, taking apart the beasts that came dead under her hands. In her youth, she had been the last and least of three; now she was the only l…Talking to Cancer

Featured reprint: “Ghost Marriage” by P. Djeli Clark!Origin Story

SHORT FICTION (Reprint): Marla and Zufi, the reigning queens of Hell, were eight years into a meaningless spat, living more as roommates than lovers, and as a consequence, Marla was irritable and Z…Ghost Marriage

SHORT FICTION: Don’t stop until the world clicks back into position. Sky above, earth below. Flesh threaded along calcium. Nerves and sinew, thews and thighs, the gravity of viscera and old scars, …Three Petitions to the Queen of Hell

SHORT FICTION: A white man in overalls, shivering and rubbing his arms as he ran up the alleyway. Everything about that was suspicious. Did she know who he was?What to Do When It’s Nothing but Static

SHORT FICTION: After the zombie outbreak in San Fontaine was put down, Zadie treated herself to a new hair color as a way to get away from constantly watching the news.Luisah’s Church

SHORT FICTION: When the security alarm rang out, Zhang Dong was at the very peak of the village, thinking about family.A Different Kind of Place

SHORT FICTION: Erika’s fingers tense on the steering wheel as she approaches the Kansas-Colorado state line. Endless fields of wheat, waiting to be harvested, sit on both sides of the interstate, t…All Clear

The Whipping Girls

SHORT FICTION: My board was dwindling quickly, and my anger at such a one-sided defeat was increased whenever I looked up into Brahms’ smug, synth face—my face.Boy A, Girl A, Slender Man

SHORT FICTION: The little girl reached up and tugged on her mother’s sleeve. “Mommy. That man’s here again!”Master Brahms

SHORT FICTION: I waste a hard-earned chit for public access to chase a clue that turns out to be poetry.Godzilla vs Buster Keaton, Or: I Didn’t Even Need a Map

SHORT FICTION: My granddad used to tell me that there were only two things he was afraid of: sharks and somehow finding himself in Iraq.Toward a New Lexicon of Augury

SHORT FICTION: Every night, the devil sits himself on the lip of her bed and every night, she sighs and whispers the same word over and again. “Yes.”The Standard of Ur

SHORT FICTION: My brothers imagined themselves the first to speak without mouths…Bargains by the Slant-Light

SHORT FICTION: My first memory is of orderly rows of human skulls placed on glass shelves.With Lips Sewn Shut

SHORT FICTION: Meanwhile, I’m checking out Coyote. Seriously, the dude’s not even trying to hide. To me, he looks like an actual dog dressed in an Armani suit.A Siren’s Cry Is a Song of Sorrow

SHORT FICTION: River Street’s never hard to find; in fact, you’re likely to stumble into it while looking for somewhere else entirely.Coyote Now Wears a Suit

SHORT FICTION: When Amelia turned fourteen, everyone assured her that she’d find her fairy soon.River Street