One of my favourite flash fictions I've read this year, and it's always good to see stories written for themed calls selling elsewhere.

Rebecca E. Treasure@retreasure.bsky.social · 2w ago

"Scoop" was written for the Apparition Lit flash contest theme Ice Cream but found the perfect home at small wonders. I love dystopian stories, and always have. Everyone who reads this one tells me how sad it is. smallwondersmag.com/...

Any news report that starts “OpenAI says…” or claims “an AI” (sic) has “broken containment” or “gone rogue” is no longer doing journalism, but PR for the #AI industry. #OpenAI used their product to hack a third-party and failed to implement adequate safeguards. That’s it. That’s the story. #AIHype

When people ask me what the phrase "artificial intelligence" means, my short answer is, it means "venture capitalists, give me some money". But OUP asked me for a longer answer, given here and summarized in the section headings: doi.org/10.1093/9780...

Just a heads up! @khoreo.bsky.social is 5 days from the end of their kickstarter and the mag hasn't funded. L pointed out last month that if we want nice things, we have to communicate that via dollars. Let's retain this important magazine! khōréō Year 6 www.kickstarter.com/projects/kho...

khōréō: Year 6

Help us sustain and grow an award-winning magazine of speculative fiction and migration!

kickstarter.com

The Internet has largely been great for my fiction research. From scans of medieval documents to reports on how far wind turbines can fly if they break off, even detailing how likely they are to kill someone (horror genre)! The past week, "A.I." slop both written and image make things difficult.

Window = "wind's eye" from Old Norse. I love that. Health-wise, I'm always on about "break fast" to help show fasting is something our ancestors did in relation to how such fasting can help our health today.

Susie Dent@susiedentwords.bsky.social · 4w ago

If you fancy a read in the shade, I’ve written a short piece on the words that wear their hearts on their sleeves. Like ‘secretary’, originally a ‘keeper of secrets’. susiedent.substack.com/p/hiding-in-...

New spec flash roundup!

Flash Roundup * March/April 2026

A gathering of recent speculative flash & micro fiction, each presenting a tiny-yet-powerful universe. How tiny? About one-thousand words for flash; four-hundred words for micro. The wor…

mynachang.com

Some indy research that I'll be sharing results of for everyone to see / use! This survey is on short fiction anthologies. You can take it even if you never read them, as there are Qs about that, too. The aim is to help anthologies shine, so please share it! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Fiction Anthology Purchasing Factors

This survey is designed to help clarify how people decide on buying and reading short fiction anthologies. For the purposes of this survey, I am defining "anthology" to mean a book of multiple short...

docs.google.com

IT WAS PARADISE, our long-awaited special issue on war and conflict in environmental justice, is out today in ebook form, and the print edition is up for preorder! Edited by @soniasulaiman.bsky.social and with (terrifying) war monster art by @monarobot.bsky.social! reckoning.press/it-was-parad...

Flash fiction deserves more love at the Hugo and Nebula Awards. "Eight Legs of the Mother Hunted" by @brandoncase101.bsky.social hooked me and didn't let go. Intense and gut-wrenching. It hit home especially as our mum fought to keep a roof over the heads of my brother and I when we were kids.

Flash Fiction Online@flashfictiononline.bsky.social · last yr.

“Eight Legs of the Mother Hunted” by Brandon Case is just in time for Mother’s Day here in the US. Wishing all moms and mother figures, of humans and pets and spiders alike, a great weekend! @brandoncase101.bsky.social #flashfiction #specfic #mothersday www.flashfictiononline.com/article/eigh...

Great list I've been working my way through this week. reactormag.com/tenish-of-th...

Ten(ish) of the Best African Speculative Short Fiction Stories of 2025 - Reactor

Here are some of the speculative fiction gems that may have flown under the radar in 2025...

reactormag.com

Wole Talabi | Preorder THE FIST OF MEMORY@wtalabi.com · 6mo ago

Alright. As is now tradition, here are my 10 favorite African SFF stories from 2025 📖 📚 Featuring tales from: @fiyahlitmag.bsky.social @clarkesworldmagazine.com @omenanamag.bsky.social @giganotosaurus.bsky.social @zamashort.com @khoreo.bsky.social @willthisbeaproblem.bsky.social + more!

All of this - a brilliant article about "A.I." and language.

Emily M. Bender@emilymbender.bsky.social · 7mo ago

"The media has largely let [tech companies] set the terms of the debate, right down to the terminology used in any discussion of these systems." From @nannainie.bsky.social & me in @techpolicypress.bsky.social on how to spot and resist anthropomorphizing language about so-called "AI".

Merriam-Webster’s human editors have chosen ‘slop’ as the 2025 Word of the Year.

A couple of stunning highlights from a trip to Argentina earlier this year. The "secret waterfall" near El Chaltén, which I passed on my third day of hiking and camping the Fitz Roy Loop. Mirador El Ventisquero in the Quebrada de las Flechas, driving RN40 from Cachi to Cafayate in Salta Province.

This column on Vox is the biggest pile of steaming AI crap I've seen this year. Human's aren't running out of ideas. Instead, those with power and money don't want to listen to ideas that threaten their power and money. Ideas are plentiful. Putting those ideas into action is the hard part.

We’re running out of good ideas. AI might be how we find new ones.

What if the best use of AI is restarting the world’s idea machine?

vox.com

Nebula nominations are open. It would mean a lot if you’d consider “Through the Machine.” Published in Lightspeed and featured by Gizmodo, it’s a cautionary tale of AI in the arts, using the film industry as example. Thank you for your consideration. www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/thro...

Through the Machine - Lightspeed Magazine

“Steve, over here! Turn to your right. Can we get a smile?” He falls back on his training easily enough, turns to the cameras, gives them his famous crooked smile, tilts his head just so as the flashe...

lightspeedmagazine.com

Google AI Overviews hallucinating as usual. I won't let it poo-poo my sci-fi short story ideas. 🙃

Strange Horizons turns 25 this year, which is pretty much an eternity in the world of spec fic zines, and I had the privilege of going through the archives for a special short fiction roundup: 2 x 25 Gems from Strange Horizons’ Archives strangehorizons.com/wordpress/fi...

A Short Fiction Treasures Special: 2 x 25 Gems from Strange Horizons’ Archives

Going through the archives of Strange Horizons for this special column has been a bit like exploring a treasure chamber. I’ve picked fifty stories. I could have picked hundreds. Meaning: I left a l…

strangehorizons.com

We need funny stories, more than ever. Help me pay a bunch of authors to write them! www.kickstarter.com/projects/ufo...

Unidentified Funny Objects 10

After a three-year hiatus, a new volume of this iconic anthology series of humorous science fiction & fantasy is finally in the works!

kickstarter.com

The Apex Magazine 2026 Kickstarter is LIVE! Our initial goal is $20K to fund four issues for next year, with the opportunity to unlock issues five and six through stretch goals. I really, really want to go back to six issues a year! www.kickstarter.com/projects/ape...

I knew about the moral rights contract issues with Analog magazine et al, and this newsletter is a very insightful read on contracts for a budding pro author like me. All that and more! I agree on the "AI" aspects too.

P.A. Cornell (She/Her)@cornellwriter.bsky.social · 11mo ago

September newsletter just dropped! In which I discuss some contract woes and take a deep dive into an AI nightmare. (Aside from the usual updates). open.substack.com/pub/pacornel...

Hello, yes please! "Love, Scotland" is getting a beauty of a home. 🤩

Apex Magazine and Book Company@apexmag.bsky.social · 11mo ago

THE SUPERBLOOM HAS ARRIVED 🏵️🌹🪷🌻🌷🌼💮 @marissavu.bsky.social and the Violet Lichen team are thrilled to present the cover for ECO24: THE YEAR'S BEST SPECULATIVE FICTION! 🌿 Cover Art: @tropicalgloom.bsky.social Cover Design: Mikio Murakami @ Silent Q Design

Some reflections from #WorldCon on how to talk to friends about "AI" buttondown.com/maiht3k/arch...

Friends Don't Let Friends Prompt

By Emily Alex and I were at WorldCon (the World Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention) last week, talking about The AI Con with people whose livelihood...

buttondown.com

Today’s poem is called ‘How Much I Dislike the Daily Mail’.

My Writers of the Future winning story "A Word That Means Everything" is out in @penumbricmag.bsky.social. New achievement for me because it's the first time my work has been first in a ToC!

Penumbric Speculative Fiction Mag@penumbricmag.bsky.social · 12mo ago

Thank you to all the contributors in August's #Penumbric! @andydibble.bsky.social, @spires.bsky.social, EJ Kavounas, Ritiksha Sharma, Richard Magahiz, Carl Scharwath, @tamikathompson.bsky.social, Camellia Paul ... www.penumbric.com/currentissue... #fiction #poetry #art #scifi #fantasy #horror

Habitats looks lovely, with artwork from Mateusz Urbanowicz, an illustrator from some of my favourite anime (like Your Name). I missed it first time around, so it's Volumes 1 & 2 for me. #ShortStory #FantasyArt

Habitats Press@handle.invalid · 12mo ago

We're pushing up on 50% funded with only five days to go, and Kickstarter is all or nothing so we need your help! Every single share could be the difference between this project happening or failing to fund — please share with your friends! 🌱 www.kickstarter.com/projects/sam...

A wonderful story and summation of the ableism that exists from the top down in our society and the impact that has.

E.M. Faulds / Beth or Taxes / Not em faulds@emfaulds.com · last yr.

It's out and I'm 😭 Awesome job, @elizachanwrites.bsky.social, you did it proud. And thank you once again to @podcastle.org for this special. It's my privilege to have taken part. podcastle.org/2025/07/29/p...

This is something I’ve had lots of big feelings and thoughts about, so it’s only appropriate that I constrain myself to 100 words for this story. Happy pub day to Gig Economy 🎙️

100-Foot Crow Magazine@100footcrow.bsky.social · last yr.

NEW STORY: "Gig Economy" by @lizjbradley.bsky.social. 100footcrow.com/gig-economy/

In Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 Episode 49, @ginasue.bsky.social joins @alexhanna.bsky.social & I to take apart the UK government’s “AI Opportunities Action Plan” and discover it’s made up of so much AI magic dust: www.buzzsprout.com/2126417/epis... Thx to @whatulysses.bsky.social for production!

I love this article by @emmanewman.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... "Science-fiction writers have the ability to look at big systems and how changing one variable can affect the people who live within them. We bring them to life and help readers to understand..."

Scientists can help governments plan for the future. But don’t forget sci-fi writers: we can do it too | Emma Newman

Our job is to imagine scenarios from the impact of the climate crisis to the rise of AI – and decision-makers need our help, says Emma Newman

theguardian.com