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ISSUE 11: CONTRIBUTORS

Adele Gardner, Avra Margariti, David A. Hewitt, D.A. Xiaolin Spires, Elaine Vilar Madruga, M. Bennardo, Mary Soon Lee, Phoebe Low, Qurat Dar, Timothy Bastek, Toshiya Kamei, Uma Menon & Wren Wallis. Cover art by Edward Hicks (1848).    

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Young Witch, Old Witch

In my heart, I wanted to be better, more patient, more adequate. Grandma had hurt me many times in the past. She never had a good thing to say, and her criticism went from fat and ugly to selfish and useless. When I was younger, she would say both that I was heartless and that I was kind to the point of stupidity, and she would laugh whenever I felt pain, saying my mother spoiled me rotten.

Haunted Castle on the Midway

Standing there in the shadow of the building with the entire town’s held breath in her hand, she knew they’d suffer if she went through. That somehow, their lives were wrapped up in or… antithetical to the existence of the haunted castle.

Sorcerers’ Highway

She and I are alive, along with half the city’s sorcerers. The enemy fleet has entirely vanished, together with every male sorcerer in Flowers and Summer. The day is ours, but at what cost?

Pilot Narratives

For me, the grim realities of flight did not negate The Little Prince— / instead, I became more certain / that everything Saint-Exupéry said was true: / that same sincere voice, that never-lost child’s wonder / at being alive.

Soul Lanterns

Our loft starship, tear-shaped pod of night, / Glows inward with familial joy, / A hearth of laughter, warm, bright— / Hearts leap across deep space…

A World Without Hospitals

In an ideal world, everybody will be healthy. There will be no need for a doctor in a future world where bodies can be replaced, limbs and organs regenerated. Where every home, every transport vessel is equipped with AI medical bots and sickbays, there is no requirement for a hospital—every home, every vehicle can serve as hospitals in case of emergencies. While the Star Trek future is still far, we are on the verge of a medical, biotechnological revolution right now.

Strange Recollections of Brook Farm

The looking glass now contained a love letter to a boy in Waltham, a maudlin faun pining while he held his pipes, and a thousand other faces and images. Whatever had infected her and Cora had spread and crept over Brook Farm like vines on an old stone.

Sparrow

The boss has with his back to you. He grips a machine shaped like a hexagonal ship’s wheel. You saw an image of it recently in a trade magazine in his office: a newly-invented window cleaning drone. Unlike he said days ago, he isn’t firing you because he found cheaper labor, but because he has decided that a robot is better than you.

The Breaking

I’d been dreaming of something red that morning. Fire. Explosions, plumes of thick smoke. And for a moment, I saw again a line of trees catching light, blazing up into torches. A wall of roaring flame along the highway. I was in the car with my family; we were trying to escape, Dad driving as fast as the traffic allowed; and I whimpered and squeezed my eyes shut but even so I could feel the Angels watching through the flame.