“I have always loved playing around with words. I didn’t know it was called poetry. I was just an innocent kid messing around with words.”

—Benjamin Zephaniah, 1958–2023

Issue 2024.68

Short stories

• ‘The Rose Sisterhood’, Susan Taitel - art by Fluffgar
• ‘Escape Choice’, Emma Burnett - art by Cécile Matthey
• ‘A Witch, a Wakening’, Laura Blackwell - art by Sarah Salcedo

Novelettes

• ‘The Ensanguined Shore’, Jennifer R. Donohue - art by Sebastian Timpe

Poetry

• ‘Bone Planet’, Petra Kuppers - art by Toeken
• ‘Homunculi of Creation’, Avra Margariti - art by Melkorka

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Uniformity of genre, style or subject matter don’t necessarily make for a coherent collection, magazine or anthology. A (pseudo-)chaotic patchwork and pandemonium of topics, narrative modes and literary fields might even be the unifying theme for a radically diverse and activist publication. Or sometimes the world just throws a beautiful disarray at you without having to do it on purpose.

This issue of TFF contains poems and stories, from short to novelette, in genres as varied as fairy tale, space opera, dreamquest, military SF, surrealism and spaceweird. Unevenly matched to these are themes including witchcraft, queer survival, queered and flipped classics retelling, neurodiversity acceptance, disability and body positivity, multiculturalism and feminist fightback. I don’t see any rules; we’re all just playing around with words. It’s always poetry, because the words sing, they say things in addition to (or even in spite of) the stories we think we’re telling through them. If we keep telling stories, while being mindful of the world around us, generous to our readers, and caring enough to avoid harming ourselves and others, we can all still be that innocent kid who loves what they’re doing, while also being a force for change and for revolution.

So join us and enjoy the words and art of Avra, Cécile, Emma, Fluffgar, Jennifer, Joel, Laura, Melkorka, Petra, Sarah, Sebastian, Susan and Toeken. A wilder and more wonderful motley crew of adventurers we could never hope to be accompanied by on this ride.

See also: Call for submissions: Hopeful SF.

Djibril al-Ayad, January 2024

Comment on the stories in this issue on the TFF Press blog.