Meg Elison

Philip K. Dick Award Winner for Distinguished Science Fiction When she fell asleep, the world was doomed. When she awoke, it was dead. In the wake of a fever that decimated the earth's population--killing women and children and making childbirth deadly for the mother and infant--the midwife must pick her way through the bones of the world she once knew to find her place in this dangerous new one. Gone are the pillars of civilization. All that remains is power--and the strong who possess it. A few women like her survived, though they are scarce. Even fewer are safe from the clans of men, who, driven by fear, seek to control those remaining. To preserve her freedom, she dons men's clothing, goes by false names, and avoids as many people as possible. But as the world continues to grapple with its terrible circumstances, she'll discover a role greater than chasing a pale imitation of independence. After all, if humanity is to be reborn, someone must be its guide.

The Book of the Unnamed Midwife

A neglected girl's chaotic coming-of-age becomes a trending new hashtag in a novel about growing up and getting away by an award-winning author. Underprivileged and keenly self-aware, SoCal fourteen-year-old Layla Bailey isn't used to being noticed. Except by mean girls who tweet about her ragged appearance. All she wants to do is indulge in her love of science, protect her vulnerable younger brother, and steer clear of her unstable mother. Then a school competition calls for a biome. Layla chooses her own home, a hostile ecosystem of indoor fungi and secret shame. With a borrowed video camera, she captures it all. The mushrooms growing in her brother's dresser. The black mold blooming up the apartment walls. The unmentionable things living in the dead fridge. All the inevitable exotic toxins that are Layla's life. Then the video goes viral. When Child Protective Services comes to call, Layla loses her family and her home. Defiant, she must face her bullies and friends alike, on her own. Unafraid at last of being seen, Layla accepts the mortifying reality of visibility. Now she has to figure out how to stay whole and stand behind the truth she has shown the world.

Find Layla

In the gripping sequel to the Philip K. Dick Award-winning novel The Book of the Unnamed Midwife, one woman undertakes a desperate journey to rescue the future. Etta comes from Nowhere, a village of survivors of the great plague that wiped away the world that was. In the world that is, women are scarce and childbearing is dangerous...yet desperately necessary for humankind's future. Mothers and midwives are sacred, but Etta has a different calling. As a scavenger. Loyal to the village but living on her own terms, Etta roams the desolate territory beyond: salvaging useful relics of the ruined past and braving the threat of brutal slave traders, who are seeking women and girls to sell and subjugate. When slavers seize those she loves, Etta vows to release and avenge them. But her mission will lead her to the stronghold of the Lion--a tyrant who dominates the innocent with terror and violence. There, with no allies and few weapons besides her wits and will, she will risk both body and spirit not only to save lives but also to liberate a new world's destiny.

The Book of Etta

Annalee Newitz

Hannu Rajaniemi

Madeline Ashby

Charlie Jane Anders

Lee Konstantinou

Paolo Bacigalupi

Nnedi Okorafor

Maureen F. McHugh

Mark Oshiro

Mark Stasenko

An anthology of new Science Fiction short stories from both established and emerging contemporary authors

Stories of Tomorrow

Future Tense Fiction

"A tense ride from the start...terrific." —Richard Kadrey, New York Times bestselling author of Sandman Slim

She created a beautiful world. Now he wants it all.

On her way to a speaking engagement, bestselling novelist Eli Grey gets into a cab and accepts a drink from the driver, trusting that everything is fine. She wakes up chained in the stranger’s basement. With no close family or friends expecting her to check in, Eli knows she needs to save herself. She soon realizes that her abduction wasn’t random, and though she thinks she might recognize her captor, she can’t figure out what he wants. Her only clues are that he’s very familiar with her books and deeply invested in the fantastical world she creates. What follows is a test of wills as Eli pits herself against a man who believes she owes him everything—and is determined to take it from her.

Terrifying and timely, set against the backdrop of convention culture and the MeToo reckoning, Number One Fan unflinchingly examines the tension between creator and work, fandom and source material, and the rage of fans who feel they own fiction.

A Novel

Number One Fan

Rae Carson

E. Lily Yu

Alex Bledsoe

C. L. Clark

Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam

Eugenia Triantafyllou

Sharon Hsu

The January/February 2020 issue of Hugo Award-winning Uncanny Magazine. Featuring new fiction by Rae Carson, Eugenia Triantafyllou, C. L. Clark, Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam, Sharon Hsu, and Alex Bledsoe. Reprint fiction by E. Lily Yu. Essays by Meg Elison, Marissa Lingen, Malka Older, and Katharine Duckett, poetry by Ada Hoffmann, Brandon O'Brien, Leah Bobet, and Betsy Aoki, interviews with Eugenia Triantafyllou and Bonnie Joe Stufflebeam by Caroline M. Yoachim, a cover by Nilah Magruder, and editorials by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas, and Elsa Sjunneson.

January/February 2020

Uncanny Magazine Issue 32

The Book of the Unnamed Midwife (The Road to Nowhere 1)

"El Huge" reveals how small-town, small-time teens can accomplish Big Ugly Things on their own. "Big Girl" chronicles the media's fascination with the towering anxieties of a sixty-foot tall teen. "The Pill," the collection's previously unpublished centerpiece, celebrates a "miracle cure" for obesity that sends society to a grimly delightful new utopia. "With Such People in It," also new to readers, welcomes us to a brave new world where cowardice is a virtue. "Gone with Gone with the Wind" is a nonfiction analysis of privilege, denial, literary classics, and personal honesty. "Afterimage" is a one-way trip into a VR world that's more "real" than our own. Also included is "Guts," which is about just what its title suggests, as well this volume's characteristically frank and thought-provoking Outspoken Interview.

Big Girl

Ramsey Campbell

Judi Calhoun

Flame Tree Studio Staff

T. J. Berg

Urban Crime Short Stories

Safe Surrender

Underprivileged and keenly self-aware, SoCal fourteen-year-old Layla Bailey isn't used to being noticed. Except by mean girls who tweet about her ragged appearance. All she wants to do is indulge in her love of science, protect her vulnerable younger

Premee Mohamed

John Wiswell

This is the eighth annual edition of the Long List Anthology. Every year, supporting members of WorldCon nominate their favorite stories first published during the selected year to determine the top five in each category for the final Hugo Award ballot. This is an anthology collecting more of the stories from that nomination list to reach more readers. The Long List Anthology volume 8 collects 21 science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories from that nomination list, totaling over 400 pages of fiction by writers around the world. From magical couches to impossible radio broadcasts, from robotic uprisings to rogue artist AIs, from gigantic alien telepaths to elaborate death trials held on a deadly stage. There is something here for everyone. The following stories are in the anthology: "For Lack of a Bed" by John Wiswell "The Cold Calculations" by Aimee Ogden "Laughter Among the Trees" by Suzan Palumbo "The Revolution Will Not Be Served With Fries" by Meg Elison "If the Martians Have Magic" by P. Djèlí Clark "Let All the Children Boogie" by Sam J. Miller "Crazy Beautiful" by Cat Rambo "Things From Our Kitchen Junk Drawer That Could Save This Spaceship" by Marie Vibbert "Before, After, and the Space Between" by Kel Coleman "Orumai's Choice" by Gautam Bhatia "Questions Asked in the Belly of the World" by A.T. Greenblatt "Mulberry and Owl" by Aliette de Bodard "The General's Turn" by Premee Mohamed "The Music of the Siphorophenes" by C.L. Polk "Just Enough Rain" by P H Lee "Ina's Spark" by Mary Robinette Kowal "The Red Mother" by Elizabeth Bear "Small Monsters" by E. Lily Yu "Tombs of the Universe" by Han Song, translated by Xueting C. Ni "(emet)" by Lauren Ring "Submergence" by Arula Ratnakar

The Long List Anthology Volume 8

Tim Waggoner

Gil Valle

NOTE: This is the black and white version of the magazine. A full color version is also available. Red Room is a magazine of extreme horror and hardcore dark crime. FICTION BY: Jack Ketchum, Meg Elison, Tim Waggoner, David James Keaton, Larry Hinkle, Tom Barlow, Nick Manzolillo, Josh Scott Wilson, and Gil Valle. "The Phantom Video Stream" by Nick Manzolillo sets the tone with red-room atmospherics in the story of a man who discovers a hidden channel streaming from what may be another reality. Tim Waggoner's "Are You Crazy?" answers its own question in shocking Waggoner style. Larry Hinkle's "Meat Cute" opens with "Stop staring at her tits!" and ends with a coldblooded revelation. Short and not so sweet. Tom Barlow's "Selfie" demonstrates that two heads aren't always better than one, not when they're spitting images. Meg Elison's "The Middle Child" takes an unflinching look at fame and greed and the mania underlying video virality. In "Sick Jokes" Josh Scott Wilson takes political incorrectness to new heights--and depths. David James Keaton, aka DJK, takes us for a ride into brutal biker mayhem that hits like a jackhammer in "The Flowery." Some tattoos ain't cool. Jack Ketchum reprises "Megan's Law," a disturbing look at what can happen when a child molester moves into a concerned dad's neighborhood. Plus, an exclusive excerpt from the NYPD's "Cannibal Cop" Gil Valle's upcoming Comet Press release of his first novel A Gathering of Evil, which parallels the message-board fantasies that landed him in jail. FEATURES: Duane Bradley takes an irresistible look at the Video Nasties and the uproar those "obscene" video cassettes caused in the UK back in the 1980s. Ben Arzate reviews a formerly out-of-print classic horror novel, which is making a howling comeback. Patrick King reviews one of the best of the recent horror movie releases. Red Room interviews the phenomenal Meg Elison, and David L. Tamarin interviews Gil Valle, getting him to open up about his incarceration by the "thought police." Red Room regular Barfly Bob taste-tests the World's Most F**ked Up adult beverages. A surreal, behind the scenes glimpse at the Red Room headquarters with rogue reporter Brian J. McCarthy.

Magazine of Extreme Horror and Hardcore Dark Crime

Red Room Issue 1

“Elison offers a troubling yet hopeful vision of the future.” —Los Angeles Review of Books “A strikingly powerful story of one woman’s physical and emotional resourcefulness under the most dire of circumstances. An apocalyptic page-turner that picks up where Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale left off.” —Jackie Hatton, Tor.com “I could talk about female empowerment, body positivity, and gender flexibility. But those terms are wholly inadequate for Meg Elison’s clear-eyed satire in the guise of fantasy and science fiction. Powered by rage, incandescent with a deep understanding of injustice, angry for all the right reasons, yet still essentially optimistic, these are the stories I need to keep me warm through the long dark night. Compelling and fierce and unstoppable.” —Pat Murphy, World Fantasy Award winner “Meg Elison’s stories will raise blisters on your conscience. Her politics are smart, her prose is like a razor, and her characters will break your heart. Read at your own risk.” —Annalee Newitz, author of Autonomous “Meg Elison’s work is visceral and compelling. A voice that doesn’t so much demand attention as it 100 percent deserves every ounce of it.” —Elsa Sjunneson-Henry, Hugo-winning writer and editor

"A tense ride from the start...terrific." —Richard Kadrey, New York Times bestselling author of Sandman Slim She created a beautiful world. Now he wants it all. On her way to a speaking engagement, bestselling novelist Eli Grey gets into a cab and accepts a drink from the driver, trusting that everything is fine. She wakes up chained in the stranger’s basement. With no close family or friends expecting her to check in, Eli knows she needs to save herself. She soon realizes that her abduction wasn’t random, and though she thinks she might recognize her captor, she can’t figure out what he wants. Her only clues are that he’s very familiar with her books and deeply invested in the fantastical world she creates. What follows is a test of wills as Eli pits herself against a man who believes she owes him everything—and is determined to take it from her. Terrifying and timely, set against the backdrop of convention culture and the MeToo reckoning, Number One Fan unflinchingly examines the tension between creator and work, fandom and source material, and the rage of fans who feel they own fiction.

A Thrilling Horror Novel

Emily St. John Mandel

Carmen Maria Machado

Deji Bryce Olukotun

Maureen McHugh

Future Tense Fiction is a collection of electrifying original stories from a veritable who’s-who of authors working in speculative literature and science fiction today.

A disease surveillance robot whose social programming gets put to the test. A future in which everyone receives universal basic income—but it’s still not enough. A futuristic sport, in which all the athletes have been chemically and physically enhanced. An A.I. company that manufactures a neural bridge allowing ordinary people to share their memories. Brimming with excitement and exploring new ideas, the stories collected by the editors of Slate’s Future Tense are philosophically ambitious and haunting in their creativity. At times terrifying and heartwrenching, hilarious and optimistic, this is a collection that ushers in a new age for our world and for the short story. 

A partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University, Future Tense explores how emerging technologies will change the way we live, in reality and fiction.

Jack Ketchum

David James Keaton

Red Room is a magazine of extreme horror and hardcore dark crime, full color and fully illustrated. FICTION BY Jack Ketchum, Meg Elison, Tim Waggoner, David James Keaton, Larry Hinkle, Tom Barlow, Nick Manzolillo, Josh Scott Wilson, and Gil Valle. "The Phantom Video Stream" by Nick Manzolillo sets the tone with red-room atmospherics in the story of a man who discovers a hidden channel streaming from what may be another reality. Tim Waggoner's "Are You Crazy?" answers its own question in shocking Waggoner style. Larry Hinkle's "Meat Cute" opens with "Stop staring at her tits!" and ends with a coldblooded revelation. Short and not so sweet. Tom Barlow's "Selfie" demonstrates that two heads aren't always better than one, not when they're spitting images. Meg Elison's "The Middle Child" takes an unflinching look at fame and greed and the mania underlying video virality. In "Sick Jokes" Josh Scott Wilson takes political incorrectness to new heights--and depths. David James Keaton, aka DJK, takes us for a ride into brutal biker mayhem that hits like a jackhammer in "The Flowery." Some tattoos ain't cool. Jack Ketchum reprises "Megan's Law," a disturbing look at what can happen when a child molester moves into a concerned dad's neighborhood. If you've never read this classic, you're in for a creepy treat, and if you have then you know it's definitely worth rereading. Plus, an exclusive excerpt from the NYPD's "Cannibal Cop" Gil Valle's upcoming Comet Press release of his first novel A Gathering of Evil, which parallels the message-board fantasies that landed him in jail. FEATURES Duane Bradley takes an irresistible look at the Video Nasties and the uproar those "obscene" video cassettes caused in the UK back in the 1980s. Ben Arzate reviews a formerly out-of-print classic horror novel, which is making a howling comeback. Patrick King reviews one of the best of the recent horror movie releases. Red Room interviews the phenomenal Meg Elison, and David L. Tamarin interviews Gil Valle, getting him to open up about his incarceration by the "thought police." Red Room regular Barfly Bob taste-tests the World's Most F**ked Up adult beverages. A surreal, behind the scenes glimpse at the Red Room headquarters with rogue reporter Brian J. McCarthy.

Red Room Issue 1: Magazine of Extreme Horror and Hardcore Dark Crime

Arkady Martine

Fran Wilde

Suzanne Walker

Jennifer Marie Brissett

A.T. Greenblatt

Emma Törzs

The May/June 2020 issue of Hugo Award-winning Uncanny Magazine. Featuring new fiction by Arkady Martine, Jennifer Marie Brissett, Emma Törzs, A.T. Greenblatt, Meg Elison, and Suzanne Walker. Reprint fiction by Sonya Taaffe. Essays by Fran Wilde, Kelly Lagor, Khairani Barokka, and Ada Palmer, poetry by Valerie Valdes, Ali Trotta, Roshani Chokshi, and T.K. Lê, interviews with Emma Törzs and Meg Elison by Caroline M. Yoachim, a cover by Julie Dillon, and editorials by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas, and Elsa Sjunneson.

May/June 2020

Uncanny Magazine Issue 34

Roger Zelazny

John Joseph Adams

Maria Dahvana Headley

Ashok K. Banker

Chris Kluwe

A. Merc Rustad

LIGHTSPEED is an online science fiction and fantasy magazine. In its pages, you will find science fiction: from near-future, sociological soft SF, to far-future, star-spanning hard SF--and fantasy: from epic fantasy, sword-and-sorcery, and contemporary urban tales, to magical realism, science-fantasy, and folktales. This month, our cover art comes from Reiko Murakami, illustrating a brand-new short story set in A. Merc Rustad's Sun Lords of the Principality series: "With Teeth Unmake the Sun." Our other original science fiction story, "Midway," by Tony Ballantyne, is about living life as an intergalactic wanderer. We also have SF reprints by Roger Zelazny ("The Engine at Heartspring's Center") and Sarah Micklem ("The Book Collector"). Our original fantasy stories include the second installment of Ashok K. Banker's Legends of the Burnt Empire series--and if family sagas are for you, you definitely won't want to miss this new story, "Son of Water and Fire." Meg Elison digs into family drama, too, in our second fantasy original, "Endor House," which is one witchy reporter's attempt to tell the story of a family of magical innovators. We also have fantasy reprints by Emily B. Cataneo ("The Emerald Coat and Other Wishes") and E. Lily Yu ("The Pilgrim and the Angel"). Our nonfiction lovers will enjoy our usual assortment of author spotlights, along with our book and media review columns. We're also excited to bring you a feature interview with Henry Lien, who is not only creating inspiring fantasy fiction for younger readers, but who once served as LIGHTSPEED's art director. We couldn't be happier for his success! For our ebook readers, we have an ebook-exclusive reprint of the fantasy novella "What There Was to See," by Maria Dahvana Headley, and an excerpt from Charlie Jane Anders' new novel, THE CITY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT.

Lightspeed Magazine, #104

Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 104 (January 2019)

Meg Elison

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