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In this episode of the Strange Horizons podcast, editor Anaea Lay presents Marie Brennan's “This Is How.”



Marie Brennan is the Nebula and World Fantasy Award-nominated author of the series The Memoirs of Lady Trent, other fantasy series, several poems, and over ninety short stories. Her Strange Horizons piece “A War of Words” won the Hugo Award for Best Poem. For more information and social media, visit linktr.ee/swan_tower.
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16 Feb 2026

Water is life here, and it's evident in that if you stray too far off the beaten path and away from water, you will get lost and you’ll be lucky if anyone sees you again before sundown. My village is settled neatly between two gentle rolling mesas and along a thin river in a sparsely populated community lovingly called ‘the valley’.
In the beginning, the ocean was lonely / and so she created a fifteen-year-old girl / (or was it the other way around?)
It’s me not you, and the / Hole in the sky still weeps sticky tears.
Wednesday: Lies Weeping by Glen Cook 
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