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  1. The night before I marry you, I start to have a panic attack. Are you filled with dread too? Does the word forever sound like the end of time?
  2. I want a bath to calm my nerves, but someone’s already showering in the hotel bathroom. Steam billows out of the open door. A groundhog named Raúl stands in the tub with his eyes closed. Hot water sprays on his face from high up. He slowly massages a cloth around his neck in circles. He looks at peace. In the height of my mania, I think about shouting, “More like shower hog!” but it feels wrong to startle the groundhog. And for what, a story, a cheap laugh? I close the bathroom door so the groundhog can remain in his pleasure.
  3. Let the groundhog dream his dream. Let water be water. Shut your eyes.


Joe Aguilar is the author of Half Out Where. He lives in Worcester, MA. Website: joe-aguilar.com
Current Issue
11 May 2026

If only Serthe'P had been able to fit in, maybe she could have protected —. No. This thought was dangerous. Mnth’R had helped her understand that their isolation had more to do with the Raja’s exploitation of their cast’s fears than any shortcomings of theirs, his Manifest Sight propaganda curdling climate anxieties into prejudice against community members. Serthe’P needed to remember that their lives mattered too much to be reduced by a tyrant’s ideology. Separated from the cast, they were still finding ways to take care of each other.
Siberia our first home / wild and remote–safe / but Alexei wanted more / theatre–dances–rich men
Change requires examination of the initial errors
Friday: Zoi by Jane Mondrup 
Issue 4 May 2026
Issue 20 Apr 2026
By: Athar Fikry
Podcast read by: Emmie Christie
Issue 13 Apr 2026
Issue 6 Apr 2026
Issue 30 Mar 2026
Issue 23 Mar 2026
Issue 16 Mar 2026
Issue 9 Mar 2026
By: Lio Abendan
Podcast read by: Jenna Hanchey
Strange Horizons
2 Mar 2026
Strange Horizons invites non-fiction submissions for our March 30 special issue on “Fungi in SFF.”
Issue 2 Mar 2026
Strange Horizons
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