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The godfather picked up a hatchet from a nearby marble table and asked, “Who will volunteer to put their right hand on this marble table?”

As soon as the godfather finished saying those ominous words, the suck-up placed his right-hand on the marble table.

As soon as the suck-up did so, the godfather chopped off the hand at the wrist.

The suck-up then said, “that’s the cleanest cut that I have ever seen, and my dad was a butcher. But don’t worry, shortly my right-hand will grow back,” and it did.

The godfather then smiled for the first time in his adult life and said, “I see I’m not the only one with superpowers.”

“That’s not my only superpower,” the suck-up said. “I can show you all of them if you like Boss.”

“Come with me,” said the godfather before opening a portal to another dimension, and the suck-up did as he was told.



Steve Castro's poetry is forthcoming in Salamander, SLICE Magazine, and Dryland. An exquisite corpse short fiction collaborative project with visual artist Josh Dorman is forthcoming in 7x7. Kyle Dargan wrote, "Castro is taking his place in a poet constellation with other twinkling voices such as Walid Bitar, Elaine Equi, and Charles Simic." You can read more of Steve's writing at https://linktr.ee/ThePoetryEngineer.
Current Issue
31 Mar 2025

We are delighted to present to you our second special issue of the year. This one is devoted to ageing and SFF, a theme that is ever-present (including in its absence) in the genre.
Gladys was approaching her first heat when she shed her fur and lost her tail. The transformation was unintentional, and unwanted. When she awoke in her new form, smelling of skin and sweat, she wailed for her pack in a voice that scraped her throat raw.
does the comb understand the vocabulary of hair. Or the not-so-close-pixels of desires even unjoined shape up to become a boat
The birds have flown long ago. But the body, the body is like this: it has swallowed the smaller moon and now it wants to keep it.
now, be-barked / I am finally enough
how you gazed on our red land beside me / then how you traveled it, your eyes gone silver
Here, I examine the roles of the crones of the Expanse space in Persepolis Rising, Tiamat’s Wrath, and Leviathan Falls as leaders and combatants in a fight for freedom that is always to some extent mediated by their reduced physical and mental capacity as older people. I consider how the Expanse foregrounds the value of their long lives and experience as they configure the resistance for their own and future generations’ freedom, as well as their mentorship of younger generations whose inexperience often puts the whole mission in danger.
In the second audio episode of Writing While Disabled, hosts Kristy Anne Cox and Kate Johnston welcome Farah Mendlesohn, acclaimed SFF scholar and conrunner, to talk all things hearing, dyslexia, and more ADHD adjustments, as well as what fandom could and should be doing better for accessibility at conventions, for both volunteers and attendees.
Issue 24 Mar 2025
Issue 17 Mar 2025
Issue 10 Mar 2025
By: Holli Mintzer
Podcast read by: Emmie Christie
Issue 3 Mar 2025
Issue 24 Feb 2025
Issue 17 Feb 2025
Issue 10 Feb 2025
By: Alexandra Munck
Podcast read by: Claire McNerney
Issue 27 Jan 2025
By: River
Issue 20 Jan 2025
Strange Horizons
By: Michelle Kulwicki
Podcast read by: Emmie Christie
Issue 13 Jan 2025
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