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"Do you remember that meme from way back when? Meme? Yeah, from the Age of Memes. Come on, you know the one. 2026 . . . Ah, I see where you’re going with this. In January they thought the Australian wildfires would be the biggest disaster of the year?...
Tremendous news, Space Unicorns! Uncanny Magazine is thrilled to announce that Submissions Editor Kirsty Thomas will be the new Uncanny Magazine Assistant Publisher! Kirsty has been with Uncanny Magazine since July 2025, when she joined the submissions...
Content note: mentions of suicide June finds the dragonfly the summer after Miko dies. Has died, June’s mother might say, shadow tremoring in the doorway to June’s room. Has been dead for months, Junebug. But not you. God, not you. But time for June has...
The Sigil of Assurance You take a bit of wax and drip it over the em dash fresh out of the printer, working it over, building it up until it’s a little caterpillar crawling on the page, nestled between two words, perhaps burrowing into one—I’m so...
Nobody dances the way he does, and he knows it, and everyone can tell. The beat is something ancient and otherworldly, or that’s what it feels like; it wakes something inside him, half-remembered, half-submerged like the marble arm of a maiden or a piece...
Ending 1 The world decays. It is your fault. Ending 2 The world decays. It is only somewhat your fault. Ending 3 Do I need to say it? Are you beginning to understand? Ending 4 Clearly not. Ending 5 You cannot save him. Every time you try it only...
deathself-harmviolence
Content note: suicidal ideation “Please—turn it off!” A pained, painful wail from the room across the hall; soundtrack laughter dissolving into guttural thunder as a film projector slowed to a stop. “Well damn,” said the stranger who was entering the...
deathdeath-of-a-loved-oneviolence
Feast #1 We stare at Judar of the Island, stunned, as he picks up a piece of roasted chicken and bites into the place where thigh meets leg, the marinade smearing the corners of his mouth. His teeth sink into the flesh again, then again, then again, until...
body-horrordeathviolence
For Seanan McGuire. And Coyote. Let me tell you about the year Coyote took the Devils to the State Championship. Coyote walked tall down the halls of West Centerville High and where he walked lunch money, copies of last semester’s math tests, and unlit...
sexual-content
Because it’s Carnaval, Iara wears a striped pirate shirt and a red pirate headband. And because of who she is, she sits on the bathroom floor, closes her eyes, and wears the perspectives of seven alley cats, three stray dogs, and a single pigeon for the...
sexual-content
Content note: suicidal ideation I am a star, falling. “Awake now?” My eyes open to words as an unknown face greets me, small with a curious gaze. She parts full lips to bare teeth and I tense. A threat? No. A smile. I stare back. “I didn’t think you’d...
slaverysuicidewar
Kate was cursed by her cousin on his deathbed to never stay. She and her cousin Bo didn’t hate each other—far from it. They’d grown up together: same small farming town in the inland northwest, population 394. So small that when Bo finished high school, he...
deathdeath-of-a-loved-one
1. A photograph in black and white, taken with a Zenit vintage Soviet camera. Taken outside what would much later become Tong Yun City, in the days when it was still just a cobbled-together mass of crash-landed jalopies, connected with primitive tubing...
death-of-a-loved-one
After the braiding, a low buzzing remains in Memoire’s ear. It reminds her of the low buzzing she heard while they shampooed her hair. They told her she could never submerge her head in water after the braiding. No more swimming. No more drifting on her...
body-horror
Before the world ends, Miri’s family saves up enough money to escape to 2004. 2004: a safe haven. The year lilts off the tongue, like a promise. Miri and Lise spend their last evening together in their favorite spot, sitting on the top of the holotower at...
Well, Officer, the trouble really start when Mr. Vincent dead. I shouldn’t have been surprise eh. My neighbour wasn’t studying he health at all. He was young still, in he sixties, so he spend a lot of time by the bar down by the football field drinking and...
“Always just. Always magical.” When the four of us first started working as Magical Girls, we penned the slogan in a McDonalds, giggling about how corny it sounded. Annie joked about how we’d still be calling ourselves magical girls when we were eighty,...
deathgoreviolence
LA NDRY or L UNDRY. Those were the two choices. You never knew which one you were gonna get. The letters took turns to be fickle, blinking and spluttering in a game of chance. Mr. Lee, the laundry-mat owner, was stingy with the upkeep. He let his...
The wall of the city is made of glass, smooth and clear, slippery and strong. The stranger and his dog wear a path outside it every day, watching, listening, waiting to be ready. The wall is about three times the stranger’s height, perhaps a bit taller. As...
body-horrordeathdeath-of-a-loved-one
Out in the great expanse of cosmos, little seeds float. They have been drifting for billions of years in the cold darkness of space from one planet to the other, driven by the need for survival and propagation, but most of all driven by spite (they will...
body-horrorgoreviolence
Unknown Compartment There is no door where there should be a door—no hall where there should be a hall. The house has reconfigured itself, again, and I find myself before […]
body-horrordeathviolence
"They are travelling in the great dark before them nothing behind them stars just the two of them the man that captains and the ship that sails darts flies through space —whoever said space is empty did not know what they were talking about space is full...
body-horrorsexual-content
"Sing. Sing the world into being. The world’s misty valleys and sunlit hills are described by the song of all things. So is the work of skilled hands and the begrudging march of soldiers’ boots. Every action, every object, in the past and the present and...
violence
"Peter and Isaac were the last remaining of their small, close-knit group. Isaac had been sick for several months, and Peter missed their weekly lunch get-togethers at the Café Sosie. His wife used to warn him he needed new friends. “Those old men are...
It was all the gossip in the marshlands when the youngest wife of the Hisanha chain brought home a young man from upriver. The young man, whose name was Aigistha, […]
If you drive far enough into the farmland around Kindersley, Saskatchewan, there’s only one channel on the radio. It’s a country music channel, of course. When I started to work […]
Qopa was once a world of marshes. Visitors hear this often, in tones that range from apologetic to bitter, wistful to matter-of-fact—especially when they are shown the vast clay pan […]
I made eye contact today. I knew my life leaked, droplets of soul seeping from my pores, and I did not care. For those eyes were a pale sage glass, […]
Can whales talk? Apparently! We just can’t understand them. What we hear in soothing ambient soundtracks or while on a whale-watching tour becomes a game-changer for ecology. Whale song translation […]
This episode features "The Universal Human Happiness Program" written by Y.M. Pang. Published in the August 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at:...
We’re ten and watching what must be the last physical television in what must be the last laundromat in the world. Your mom is on her third load, jeans this […]
Three aliens float across from Tabitha, their bodies undulating softly, wetly, like enormous raindrops filled with chrysanthemums. Petallike structures push against their transparent membranes, forming rounded shapes within, which curl […]
This episode features "Water-Eaters" written by Beth Goder. Published in the September 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/goder_09_26 Support us on...
01 The first time I saw her, she was trying to prove to a water dispenser that she was human. The dispenser wouldn’t give her any water because she still […]
This episode features "When You Give a Dokkaebi Taco Tuesday" written by H.H. Pak. Published in the August 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at:...
This episode features "Feed Them on Your Dreams" written by E.N. Auslender. Published in the August 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/auslender_08_26...
abuseslavery
This episode features "Piece de Resistance" written by D.A. Xiaolin Spires. Published in the August 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/spires_08_26...
death-of-a-loved-one
This episode features "Passenger Pigeons, Dodos, Neanderthals" written by Jordan Alexander. Published in the August 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at:...
racismviolence
This episode features "All the Ruined Doorways of the Moon" written by Eilis O'Neal. Published in the August 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at:...
abuseviolence
It was, Anna had to agree, a most excellent house. As the estate agent led them from room to room, Nigel admired the tall-shelved library, the long, ever-flowing swimming pool […]
abuse
Your first swim starts like this: your mother, checking the seal of your rebreather and the cables attached to the port at the base of your skull before lowering you […]
deathdeath-of-a-loved-oneviolence
This episode features "As the Tide Loves the Diver, As the Diver Loves the Tide" written by Ravn J. Silver. Published in the August 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at:...
deathdeath-of-a-loved-oneviolence
Vacule Grievouss, as anyone would suspect, wasn’t bequeathed much in the way of opportunities by his parents. He was the child of two stack zappers operating out of the newly […]
child-abuseslavery
I was a month into the Endangered Species Initiative when my case manager decided I was acclimated enough to Martian society to start working. When she told me what the […]
racismviolence
“All clear, go!” yelled Klara from beyond the plastic confines of the ball, and I came tumbling. Water sloshed against my feet, and adrenaline rushed from my stomach up my […]
death-of-a-loved-one
Dreamer AQ#1367-458-MATT stood on the scaffolding of an incomplete skyscraper, hair blown wild by the spring breeze. Skinny legs trembled inside skinny jeans, but he took one step, then another, […]
suicide
Of course I could kill him. If I wanted to, I would not hesitate to unhinge my jaw around his neck, skewering his trachea with my tusks and locking my […]
This episode features "Nesting Behavior of Imported Species Troglodytes aedon on Planet Americearth" written by R.L. Meza. Published in the July 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at:...
body-horrorgoreviolence
This episode features "This Is an Emergency Broadcast" written by R.S.A. Garcia. Published in the July 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/garcia_07_26...
deathviolencewar
This episode features "Our Revels Now Are Ended" written by Thomas Ha. Published in the July 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/ha_07_26 Support us on...
body-horrorviolence
This episode features "The Animator and the Glazer" written by Ju Chu and translated by S. Qiouyi Lu. Published in the July 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at:...
body-horrordeathself-harm
This episode features "Focus" written by Carlos Hernandez. Published in the July 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/hernandez_07_26 Support us on...
deathviolence
This episode features "Cliff's Girl" written by Fiona Moore. Published in the July 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/moore_07_26 Support us on...
death
When Cliff came back home for Casey’s wake, he brought his robot Will, and he also brought a girl. A woman, Morag corrected herself. Just as she shouldn’t think of […]
death
—for Rory Cooney It’s July 23, 4:17 p.m., and I’m box-breathing like my life depends on it. My forehead is pressed against the door of the meeting room of the […]
body-horrordeathviolence
The other animals in my territory keep disappearing; it’s perfect. The yard is safer without the cats, so I’m free to search the bushes for unwanted guests while I consider […]
body-horrorgoreviolence
I first reached consciousness in a peaceful library. It looked like a library not far from my apartment, though not exactly the same. There were high ceilings and large windows […]
body-horrordeathviolence
1. Lu Yuan’s company was going to go under if he didn’t find an animator with great potential. Torrential rain thundered against the sheet metal roof. Before him sat ten […]
body-horrorself-harm
It was night on Endymion, and the pollen hovered, blue and luminescent, in the trees. Isaac’s camp lantern also burned blue. It was designed to interfere with the sensory systems […]
deathdeath-of-a-loved-one
This episode features "The Life and Times of the Extraterrestrial Potoo" written by K. J. Khan. Published in the July 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at:...
death-of-a-loved-one
. . . We interrupt our programming- “ . . . for this incredible announcement. The first one thousand customers get an extra 15 percent off during this holiday weekend and . . . ” “ . . . it’s buy one, […]
substance-useviolencewar
This episode features "Ice, Rock, Empathy" written by Damián Neri. Published in the June 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/neri_06_26 Support us on...
body-horrordeath
This episode features "Burning Day" written by Samantha Murray. Published in the June 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/murray_06_26 Support us on...
This episode features "A Life Measured in Seconds" written by Anne Wilkins. Published in the June 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/wilkins_06_26...
abusebody-horror
This episode features "Three Cases from the Cosmic Psychiatric Clinic" written by Pan Haitian. Published in the June 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at:...
deathviolence
This episode features "The Floating Republic" written by Rebecca Campbell. Published in the June 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/campbell_06_26...
deathviolencewar
This episode features "The Potential Side Effects of Roleplay Stimulation Therapy" written by Claire Jia-Wen. Published in the June 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at:...
abuseself-harmsubstance-use
Ashwan To be born in the year 2615 on the 21st of March was fortuitous, but to be born at 14:59:30 hours on that same day made you a God. […]
abusebody-horrorviolence
Part 1: 2075 <It might be good for you to take a new route,> said Aly. Xavi jogged out of his tenement building. He joined the stream of lunchtime runners […]
substance-usewar
This episode features "Aly" written by Grace Chan. Published in the May 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/chan_05_26 Support us on Patreon at...
mental-illnesswar
Teresa finds the first site right after she gets back from maternity leave, Daniel snug in a baby sling at her chest. He’s quiet as far as babies go, sleeping […]
death
This episode features "Archaeological Evidence for the Time Traveler" written by Tia Tashiro. Published in the May 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at:...
death
“Rivers do not drink their own water; trees do not eat their own fruit; the sun does not shine on itself, and flowers do not spread their fragrance for themselves. […]
This episode features "Bend Like the Palm" written by David D. Levine. Published in the March 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/levine_03_26 Support...
You’d expected the gravity on Vixiv-11 to be fractionally more than that on Earth. It is not something you ever notice much, even in the beginning, beyond an exhaustion that […]
1 Mayzelle hurried from her hab-hut, tacked shut the canvas door, and hustled down the bamboo steps. She’d sworn she wouldn’t stand for this anymore. She’d sworn. In the clearing, […]
This episode features "Conquerors" written by Nick Wolven. Published in the May 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/wolven_05_26 Support us on Patreon...
Tell me a story where it all goes right. Say that we only ever stopped at the station with the largest wingspan and busiest fuel pipes, the fifty-something spears jutting […]
deathviolence
This episode features "Crosstalk, Elysium" written by Carolyn Zhao. Published in the March 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/zhao_03_26 Support us on...
deathviolencewar
When D0G hears the scream and streaks ahead down the leaf-strewn road through the fall-bright birch and beech and maple, I remember what my sister Taylor used to say: there […]
deathviolencewar
This episode features "D0G" written by Tania Fordwalker. Published in the April 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/fordwalker_04_26 Support us on...
death-of-a-loved-oneviolencewar
Layla was bleeding out. Her neurons began to supernova and transmute into a new electrical form. A maglev of old memories zipped past her. She was thinking about that one […]
body-horrorgoreviolence
This episode features "Decimation Circles" written by Raahem Alvi. Published in the May 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/alvi_05_26 Support us on...
body-horrorgoreviolence
It’s the second Thursday of the month, so I spend the evening regenerating my skin. The procedure is painless but dull. I often fall asleep. It’s fine to do so; […]
deathdeath-of-a-loved-oneillness-and-pandemic
This episode features "Eternity in Their Hearts" written by Katherine Khan. Published in the April 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/khan_04_26...
death-of-a-loved-one
The afterlife on Mars is different from the afterlife on Earth. I was the first ghost to experience both worlds: a pioneer like Neil Armstrong stepping on the Moon, minus […]
body-horrordeathviolence
This episode features "First Human Ghost on Mars" written by R.L. Meza. Published in the March 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/meza_03_26 Support...
body-horrordeathviolence
Notes on specimen “Efren Vargas” 1022/204.27.3: >> Supposed to be married to “Joan Dimagiba,” his fiancée. >> Was in bed with some other woman* a week (in human time) before […]
This episode features "Human Studies 401" written by Abby Nicole Yee. Published in the April 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/yee_04_26 Support us...
Iridescent algae glowed upon the ice and rock of the world, signaling the start of a new day. The patterns of their light, which we had trained over many estrous […]
body-horrordeathviolence
Verity crawled through the endless dark of the tunnel, the false safety of her Colony home now half a mile behind her. All she could see in the dim light […]
deathillness-and-pandemic
This episode features "Macaroni Art in the Age of Filtration" written by Ryan Cole. Published in the April 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at:...
deathillness-and-pandemic
Normally, Tillie didn’t mind being the object of everyone’s gaze. But today, the crowd loitering in the street wasn’t drawn to her orange-red curls or her height or regalness. They […]
deathsexual-contentviolence
This episode features "Paper Airplane Poet" written by Sheri Singerling. Published in the May 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/singerling_05_26...
deathgoresexual-content
I speak human very well, better than any of my colony. You can tell that I speak human very well because I didn’t make the obvious mistakes like “I speaking […]
violence
This episode features "Person, Place, Thing" written by Marissa Lingen. Published in the March 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/lingen_03_26 Support...
This episode features "Scion" written by Thomas Ha. Published in the March 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/ha_03_26 Support us on Patreon at...
body-horrorgoreviolence
I have done my best to transcribe the account found in the recently excavated cenotaph, but, as you’re aware, these experiential simulations don’t easily lend themselves to direct reproduction. Nonetheless, […]
death
This episode features "Scion: Afterword" written by Thomas Ha. Published in the March 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/ha2_03_26 Support us on...