Table of Contents December 2025

One final batch of short stories for 2025!

Graphic: Andrew Liptak

December is upon us, and that means one final batch of short stories from across the world of SF/F publishing.

You can check out last month's installment here, and prior installments of this series here. Here are the short stories coming out this month:

Apex Magazine (Issue 151, October-December)

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Fiction

"Cassandra and the Changeling" by R.J. Sterling (12/09/25)
"Involuntary Self" by Jim Horlock (12/11/25)
"Horse and Rider" by Christine Beres (12/16/25)

Nonfiction

"More than Lighting: Speculative Noir" by Premee Mohamed (12/18/25)
Interview with Artist Natasa Illincic by Bradley Powers (12/04/25)

Augur Magazine (Issue 8.3)

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Fiction

"Natural Desire" by Kelley Tai
"Observer Effect" by Morgan Cross
"Leave Your Skins by the Shore" by Natasha King
"Flame Weeding" by Colleen Coco Collins
"Rocky Mountain Gothic" by Ev Datsyk
"Bonds of the Forest" by Ally R Colthoff
"Blueberry" by Jade Riordan
"On Fields of Purple Grass" by Ian Li
"Tapetum Lucidum" by U.M. Agoawike
"The Great Divide" by Meryem Yildiz
"Chlorophilia" by Mike Thorn and Miriam Richer

Beneath Ceaseless Skies (Issue 447, December 2025)

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Fiction

"A Good Brother" by Anne Wilkins
"Vanya and the Dog Witch" by Walter J. Wiese

Clarkesworld Magazine (Issue 231, December 2025)

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Fiction

"Tomorrow. Today" by R.T. Ester
"Imperfect Simulations" by Michelle Z. Jin
"The Cold Burns" by Anne Wilkins
"The Hole" by Ferenc Samsa
"Between Here and Everywhere" by Robert Reed
"This Sepulchral Aegis" by Rob Gillham
"Home Grown" by Madeleine Vigneron

Nonfiction

Decoding Animal (and Alien?) Language by Gunnar De Winter
Allegory and Worldbuilding: A Conversation with Simon Stålenhag by Arley Sorg
Climate, Hope, and the Global Community: A Conversation with Ed Finn and Joey Eschrich by Arley Sorg
Editor's Desk: The End of the Year by Neil Clarke

The Dark (Issue 127, December 2025)

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Fiction

"Most Likely To . . . (Class of 1997)" by A.C. Wise
"Lustre Mining" by Eliza Chan
"Beneath the Duwak Tree" by Jorja Osha
"Measurements Expressed as Units of Separation" by M. L. Krishnan

Dark Horses Magazine (Issue 47, December 2025)

Fiction

"Bite" by David Sheskin
"A New Captain" by Griffith Pound
"Horror Business" by Jeff Seeman
"The Lost Sprites" by Mikel J. Wisler
"Every Blade Of Grass" by Wayne Kyle Spitzer
"Flight 23" by Alec Wallin
"Riding Off Into A Sun That Does Not Set" by Cy Hill
"The Thing In Nacho Cave" by Anthony Neil Smith
"Finally, Doomsday!" by Bendix Vagle
"Watchdog" by Jaryd Porter

Fantasy Magazine (Issue 99, Winter 2025)

Fiction

"More Than A Blank Parenthesis Equals God’s Forgetfulness" by Nwuguru Chidiebere Sullivan (poetry; online 12/5)
"The Matriarchs" by Malena Salazar Maciá (flash; online 12/12)
"A Cup of Forgetting" by Eleanor Glewwe (short story; online 12/19)
"Grove of Jealous Lovers" by Alex Jennings (poetry; online 12/19)
"When You Hit The Poison Ivy Thicket, You’ve Gone Too Far" by Cory Farrenkopf (flash; online 12/26)
Ichthyosis" by M. L. Krishnan (short story; online 1/2)

Nonfiction

Unlikely Friends on a Quest: A Conversation with Kemi Ashing-Giwa" by Arley Sorg (interview; online 12/5)
Collective Action: A Conversation with Karen Lord, Annalee Newitz, and Malka Older" by Arley Sorg (interview; online 12/12)
Marked for Destruction: A Conversation with Moniquill Blackgoose" by Arley Sorg (interview; online 12/26)

Flash Fiction Online (Issue 147, December 2025)

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Fiction

“Homonyms” by Laurence Klavan
“Ornithogonia, or Five Featherings” by M. R. Robinson
“Shedding the Weight” by Chiemeziem Everest Udochukwu
“Reflexive Benevolence Imperative” by Matt Dovey
“Growing House” by Madison Ellingsworth, and
“Small Prayers for the God of Sow Thistle Hill” by Kate Francia

Future Tense Fiction (December 2025)

Fiction

"Bonum Certamen" by Andrés Martinez

Nonfiction

Can an AI Manage the “Beautiful Game”? by Deji Bryce Olukotun

Lightspeed Magazine (Issue 187, December 2025)

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Fiction

"Reality Check" by Nancy Kress (12/4)
"You Always Told Her You’d Give Her the World" by Aimee Ogden (12/4)
"Us, in Another Universe" by A.C. Wise (12/11)
"Crickets in Lost Light" by Jonathan Olfert (12/11)
"The Hub Living Among the Stars" by Oyedotun Damilola Muees (12/18)
"HagioClass" by José Pablo Iriarte (12/18)
"The Space Between Us" by P.A. Cornell (12/25)
"Memories of the MindMine" by David Marino (12/25)

Nonfiction

Editorial: December 2025 by John Joseph Adams (12/4)
Author Spotlight: Nancy Kress by Delia Cullity (12/4)
Book Review: Sinister Societies: Six Novellas of Secrets and Horrors edited by Linda Hartley by Melissa A Watkins (12/4)
Author Spotlight: Jonathan Olfert by Erik Grove (12/11)
Book Review: The Trident and The Pearl by Sarah K.L. Wilson by Chris Kluwe (12/11)
Author Spotlight: Oyedotun Damilola Muees by Robin Jeffrey (12/18)
Book Review: These Bodies Ain’t Broken edited by Madeline Dyer by Arley Sorg (12/18)
Author Spotlight: David Marino by A Humphrey Lanham (12/25)

Luna Station Quarterly (Issue 064, December 2025)

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Fiction

"All Creatures" by Morgan Lockhart
"Trespassers" by Mina Ramirez
"Secrets of the Goblin Market" by Valerie Hunter
"Sunk Cost Fallacy" by M.J. Jones
"Magical Thinking" by J Amanda Ferry
"What Should We Do With the Body?" by Amelia Weissman
"Bussola" by Teresa Koeppel
"Vale of the Firefae" by Jalyn Renae Fiske
"The Museum of Lost Sound" by Vikki Stea
"Seedpod" by Ellen Parent
"Diving into the Wreck" by Sierra Bibi
"Gig Economy" by Ali MacLeod
"Winter Finds" by Heather D. Norton
"Attach" by Mikhaela Woodward
"The Smoldering Kittens in Her Wake" by Jo Weir
"Big Sister" by Jang Ami , translated by Joheun Lee
"The Weather Girl" by Summer Jewel Keown
"Bumblecat" by Johanna Ivy Levene

Nightmare Magazine (Issue 159, December 2025)

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Fiction

"The Short History of a Long-Forgotten, Ill-Fated Telenovela" by Dante Luiz
"Shahmeran" by Leyla Hamedi (12/17)
"Blacula" by P.C. Verrone (12/24)

Nonfiction

Editorial: December 2025 by Wendy N. Wagner
Author Spotlight: Dante Luiz by Clay Vermulm
Review: When the Baby Sleeps by Lyndsie Manusos (12/10)
The H Word: Double Dog Dare You by Kristina Ten (12/10)
Author Spotlight: Leyla Hamedi by Clay Vermulm (12/17)
Media & Book Review: December 2025 by Adam-Troy Castro (12/24)

Reactor (December 2025)

Fiction

"All That Means or Mourns" by Ruthanna Emrys

Small Wonders Magazine (Issue 30, December 2025)

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Fiction

"Loving the Alien is the Easiest Thing in the World" by Elijah J. Mears
"Your Mom, The Space Sailor" by Pam Yve Simon

Strange Horizons (December 2025)

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Fiction

"I Wish You Died Laughing" by Lio Abendan
"Morning Shed" by Namita Krishnamurthy
"Bloodless" by Emily Woodworth

Poetry

"Excerpt From the Memoirs of a Saint" by Jenna Le
"Thalassophile After Visiting Exoplanet TOI 733 b" by Colleen S. Harris
"The World To Come" by Jennifer Hudak
"O ASHY WINGS STILL FLUTTERING" by Joemario Umana
"The ghosts of me are in your machine" by R.B. Lemberg
"Skull-God — A Broadcast from the Trenches" by Yucheng Tao
"Captain’s Lay Back" by Jeané D. Ridges
"Addendum to the Martian Social Studies Textbook, 5th Ed." by Maya Wristen

Nonfiction

For Your Consideration: Strange Horizons 2025 Award Eligibility by the Strange Horizons staff
Feminist Futurism Versus Project 2025: An Empowering Speculative Salon by Ada Palmer and Charlie Jane Anders