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To: Meat-Carapace Beings of Photic 17 Meltyworld (“Earth”)

Hello! Impoliteness is not intended. You are very weak! And where are your eyes?

Not your recessed optical orbs, unable to see beyond printed warnings. We have tasted these orbs, found them wanting. Range-limited. Spectrum-disabled. A distressing absence of eyes.

Surely you have evolved or constructed some measure of your situation. Surely you can glimpse the swirling shadow of an Adversary creeping across your continents, sifting through your meat, into your broodlings, poisoning their potential to learn and ascend.

Perhaps blindness is best. If not, signal in response.

We will bring real eyes.



Chris Clemens lives and teaches in Toronto, surrounded by raccoons. Nominated for Best Microfiction and Best Small Fictions, his writing appears in The Dribble Drabble Review, Polar Borealis, Dreams & Nightmares, Apex Magazine, and elsewhere.
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7 Sep 2026

Strange Horizons
Strange Horizons will open to general fiction submissions on October 1, 2026, at 3 p.m. UTC! This window will remain open until we hit our submission cap of 1,000 stories. Our maximum word count for this window will be 5,000 words. We offer payment of 9¢/word USD. We do not read simultaneous or multiple submissions. Response time: Our goal is to respond to all submissions with either a hold notice or rejection within eight weeks. We hope to send acceptances or rejections within one month of hold notices. This is ambitious, and we might fall behind schedule. Please be patient
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