Leyla Guirand

Jul 19, 2024 | strangehorizons.com | Tristan Beiter |Steven Archer |Leyla Guirand |Mary Lee

“What is a witch?” asks prolific and award-winning editor Jonathan Strahan in the introduction to The Book of Witches. Ultimately, he declares “a witch could be anyone” (p. xix) and thus be written by anyone, closing the introduction with his interest in representing a wide variety of different voices in the collection. The star-studded contributors list includes writers from several countries and a wide variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds.

Jul 17, 2024 | strangehorizons.com | Sneha Pathak |Steven Archer |Leyla Guirand |Mary Lee

Manjula Padmanabhan is a well-known figure in the field of Indian science fiction. Besides novels and stories, she has also written many plays, books for young readers, and created a long-running comic strip, Suki. Stolen Hours and Other Curiosities, published by Hachette India in 2023, is a collection featuring twenty-six of her stories, all published between 1984 and 2021. It also includes four stories that find space in this collection for the first time.

Jul 16, 2024 | strangehorizons.com | Leyla Guirand |Steven Archer |Mary Lee |Octavia Cade

The potion queen is vapor, unquenchable, emergent in absence against the roseate dawn, resurrecting from the paucity, torrentially abounding. She burnishes her prized vocations, fashions the ice crystals into semblances, talismans, crescents, amidst the idols of speaking tides, the obsessive beasts eulogize, pearls command the sky in hushes, the blush unceasing, she, numb in her construct, frosted, replete, inhabiting dreams.

Jul 16, 2024 | strangehorizons.com | Steven Archer |Leyla Guirand |Mary Lee |Octavia Cade

Half-painted in the angled mirror, I ignore my mother’s calls and sweep blush onto my temples. The face of Luz Divinity takes shape beneath my brush. My mother tries again as I tug a wig onto my shaved head, the unit sleek and long, and again as I zip a vinyl bodice over my chest, false cleavage contoured on. I almost let the call expire, answer on the last ring, then shrug the phone against my cheek to wash lipstick swatches from the back of my hand. “Allô, Ma.” The water runs sunset colors.

Jul 16, 2024 | strangehorizons.com | Mary Lee |Steven Archer |Leyla Guirand |Octavia Cade

Low Owl, Gutter Eagle,Corvid, Hawk, Heron, Jay—Who stitched our nerves? Who gave us words? The dialects of Gooseall honk and hiss and huff—Who built the cities? Who extruded roads? Whistle Thrush, Kestrel,Common Condor, Toucan—Who chose who spoke? Who silenced the sparrow? The scratchmark and scuffof Sandpiper slang-sign—Who lifts the tides? Who steers the stars? Vatic Vulture, High Grouse,Stork, Crane, Pigeon, Budgie—Who emptied the cities? Who broke the Moon?