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Direct link: Sultana's Dream (mp3)

In this episode of the Strange Horizons podcast, editor Anaea Lay presents Rokheya Shekhawat Hossein's "Sultana's Dream." You can read the full text of the story, and more about Rokheya, here.

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Anaea Lay lives in Chicago, Illinois where she writes, cooks, plays board games, reads too much, and questions the benevolence of the universe. Her work has appeared in many places including Apex, Penumbra, Lightspeed, Daily Science Fiction, and Nightmare. She lives online at anaealay.com.
Sultana's Dream was originally published in The Indian Ladies' Magazine, Madras, 1905, in English. Rokheya Shekhawat Hossein (9 December 1880 – 9 December 1932), was a Bengali writer, thinker, educationist, social activist, and advocate of women's rights.  
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9 Feb 2026

“I’ve never actually visited the pā before,” she said out loud. “Is this where they gather lāʻī to make the pūʻolo?” she asked. “Yes,” Benny responded, glancing to see where Nanea was pointing. “Here and in other places as well. Many of these ti have been growing for decades now.” She paused for a moment. “I think about all the work you guys do, you know, up in those offices, and I think that all of that work actually starts from right here, in the ground, all covered in the earth and the pōhaku and the ti. Most people don’t even know it, but it all starts right here.
sometime in the night, we heard rocking and knocking and rapping and tapping, a million trillion tiny feet
The triangles bred and twisted, replicating themselves.
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