By Julie Sondra Decker Zero “It’s a boy!” I do what newborn babies do. I take my first breath and cry. It’s one of the only times in my life I did what was expected of me. If I’d understood what my father’s words had sentenced me to, the crying would have been on [...]
Last year, there was a storm brewing over sexism and minority voices being underrepresented in the science fiction community. That debate hasn't gone away, but in the finest SF tradition, it has mutated.
By Jean Asselin Abstract This article presents a theme-based curriculum for the teaching SF literature. Sets of 15 stories each, six in all, match the number of weeks in the North American semester system. Selection criteria include theme, awards won or nominated for, and critical recognition. Curricular material is taken from 80 years of [...]
by Jean Asselin These are the sources referenced in "A Theme-based Online Curriculum for the Teaching of Science Fiction" Adams, J. J. (Ed.). (2008). Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse. San Francisco, CA: Night Shade Books. Adams, J. J. (Ed.). (2009). Federations. Rockville, MD: Prime Books. Adams, J. J. (Ed.). (2011). Brave New Worlds: Dystopian Stories. [...]
By Adele Gardner On high-ozone days, we all wear masks, Filtering what air there is to breathe, Supplementing it from oxygen tanks. Still, it pays to walk Slowly. Owls do not have masks. We keep them in a room With potted trees and recycled air And VR walls simulating night That emit a jaguar's warning [...]
By David Falkinburg There’s an open wound across the sky bleeding stars waiting to be bandaged with paper and ink. Fire ashes smoke towards it from a tired history smoldering wanting hope from those stars. Have we forgotten what’s above us? Put down your earthen weight and all those retrograding problems and worn out words [...]
By Changming Yuan A whole box of human hearts, each Still pulsing like a fresh-skinned toad Two rows of shining skeletons of unknown gods All with fingers longer than legs, skull-sized toes Three sets of enchanted knives, possessed By evil spirits (need sharpening) Four giant alarm clocks, guaranteed To wake the dead in a five-mile [...]
By Adrian Simmons At 247 Black Oak Lane stands a perfectly un-unusual house. One story, fireplace, a wooden fence around the backyard, and a chain-link one around the front. The front fence, which most of the other houses on the street do not have, is about the only reason anyone would give it a second [...]
By Sean Monaghan They were waiting outside the prison gates when Carmen strode through. It was raining and the water beaded on the car’s black skin. The door clanged shut behind her. So this was what freedom tasted like: wet, and already with watchers. Shafts of light from the setting sun radiated through cloud breaks. [...]
By Hunter Liguore On an unnamed island in the Gulf of Riga, fifty miles north of the Latvia coast, there lived a chiseler and his wife. They owned a house that sat at the top of a sloping hill in the middle of a cemetery, where the chiseler was given charge of cutting stone and [...]