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I am the healer of clouds, jeweler to the wide rebellious sky,
Nobody cows me except myself;
I made my smallness, hid among the grains of sand,
and walked the roads in flaking ash.
I made the fear of death my fear,
the power that arises from the ash
the conquering flame reborn from quietude:
I cowed myself into my own submission,
I sprang myself into my own domain.
I'll walk the sun my labyrinth,
demand no recompense for past misdeeds,
confess to no regret but need,
its paths to burn along my symmetry.
I'll make such pain as to reveal your hue,
I'll make such splendor feathered in my triumph
to comfort with unfolding majesty
the ancient storms awoke from aeons' slumber,
adorned in all the wide rebellious sky.




R.B. Lemberg (they/them) is a queer, bigender immigrant from Ukraine to the US. R.B. is an author of six books of speculative fiction and poetry, an academic, and a translator from Ukrainian and Russian. R.B.'s latest novella Yoke of Stars (Tachyon, 2024) won the 2025 World Fantasy Award. Their other work has been shortlisted for the Le Guin Prize for Fiction, Nebula, Locus, Ignyte, Crawford, and other awards. You can find R.B. on Bluesky at @rblemberg.bsky.social, Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/rblemberg, and at their website: rblemberg.net.
Current Issue
11 May 2026

Coming Home 
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.
Gone 
Siberia our first home / wild and remote–safe / but Alexei wanted more / theatre–dances–rich men
The Mermaid Speaks of Social Justice from the Bathtub 
Change requires examination of the initial errors
Monday: The Curve of the World by Vonda N. McIntyre 
Wednesday: The Apple and the Pearl by Rym Kechacha 
Friday: Zoi by Jane Mondrup 
Issue 6 May 2026
Tempered And Spiced: A Recipe for Mythic Fiction 
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.”
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