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Table of Contents, April 2026

Table of Contents, April 2026

I've often thought of short fiction being the engine that drives speculative fiction. So many authors cut their teeth with shorter works, and it's a phenomenal way to meet new storytellers and creators – as well as new publications.

Since I've launched this column, I've been adding new publications as I come across them, and if you turn back to March's installment, you'll find a whole bunch of newer publications that have arrived on the scene. Give them a try and see what they're bringing to readers.

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Okay, here are the short stories coming out this month:

Adventitious (April 2026, Issue 2)

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Fiction

  • “All Under Heaven” by Marie Brennan
  • “Madam Strzyga’s Pagan Pest Control” by Katharine Tyndall
  • “Fernie” by Angela Liu
  • “Passing Through” by Laurie Doyle
  • “We Decay In The Dark” by Ayida Shonibar
  • “Of Sight, Of Mind, Of Heart” by Samantha Murray
  • “Penance” by Jennifer Hudak
  • “Fractal House” by Merc Fenn Wolfmoor
  • “Raze My Brain, Open My Eyes” by Faith Allington
  • “Spirit Alembic Keeper” by Emma Burnett
  • “The Place of Oblation” by Deborah L. Davitt
  • “Last Edit to THE ALL BANGERS LIST Made By Your Sex Robot at 11:39 A.M.” by Natalie Zutter
  • “Fire and Brimstone” by S. I. Fapohunda
  • “Biter” by Michelle Knudsen

Apex Magazine (Issue 152)

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Fiction

  • Excerpt of The Cellar Below the Cellar by Ivy Grimes (4/6)
  • "One Last Light to Guide Me Home" by Avery Parks (4/28)

Nonfiction

  • "Intellectual Colonialism and the Erasure of South and Eastern European Writing Voices: Another Tikka-Masala" by Sophia-Maria Nicolopoulos (4/14)
  • "Words for Thought: Short Fiction Review" by A.C. Wise (4/21)

The Dark (April 2026, Issue 131)

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Fiction

Dark Horses Magazine (April 2026, Issue 51)

Fiction

  • "A Past Life" by George Larson
  • "Grampa’s Shed" by K.b. Olszewski
  • "Just Birds" by Beau Maibaum
  • "The Ank Williams Story" by Wayne Kyle Spitzer
  • "The Melting Pot Of Us" by Khaled T. Aly
  • "The Slow Apocalypse Of The Clockwork Saints" by Lucien R. Starchild
  • "The Thing About Ashridge" by Bri Eberhart
  • "The Simoom" by Rex A. Paar
  • "We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Program" by James Rumpel
  • "Grasshoppers" by Theodora Sterling

Flash Fiction Online (April 2026, Issue 151)

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Nonfiction

GigaNotoSaurus (April 2026)

Fiction

Lightspeed Magazine (April 2026, Issue 191)

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Fiction

  • "Saint Zero of the Hollows and the Eagle Knight" by V.M. Ayala (4/9)
  • "Hell Is Empty" by J.R. Dawson (4/9)
  • "Dad Died on Discord by Andrew Dana Hudson (4/16)
  • "Six-Gun Vixen and the Machinist of Doom Valley [Part 1] by Ashok K. Banker (4/16)
  • "Update on Rules for the Spatiotemporal Use of Campus Spaces" by Andrea Kriz (4/23)
  • "Six-Gun Vixen and the Machinist of Doom Valley [Part 2]" by Ashok K. Banker (4/23)
  • "Empathetic Psychosis" by Justin C. Key (4/30)
  • "Time Management" by P.A. Cornell (4/30)

Nonfiction

  • Editorial: April 2026 by John Joseph Adams (4/9)
  • Author Spotlight: V.M. Ayala by Leighanna DeRouen (4/9)
  • Author Spotlight: J.R. Dawson by Phoebe Barton (4/9)
  • Author Spotlight: Ashok K. Banker by Erik Grove (4/16)
  • Book Review: Sauúti Terrors Eugen Bacon, Stephen Embleton, and Cheryl S. Ntumy, eds. by Arley Sorg (4/16)
  • Book Review: The Witch by Marie N’Diaye, translated by Jordan Stump by Melissa A Watkins (4/23)
  • Author Spotlight: Justin C. Key by Delia Cullity (4/30)
  • Book Review: Aicha by Soraya Bouazzaoui by Chris Kluwe (4/30)

Nature Futures (April 2026)

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Fiction

Nightmare Magazine (April 2026, Issue 163)

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Fiction

  • "The Final Girl Trap" by A.C. Wise (4/8)
  • "The Spiders You Swallow in Your Sleep" by Wendy Nikel (4/15)
  • "We Are All in the Same Boat" by Avi Burton (4/22)
  • graveyard of butterflies by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe (4/29)

Nonfiction

  • Editorial: April 2026 by Wendy N. Wagner (4/8)
  • Author Spotlight: A.C. Wise by Clay Vermulm (4/8)
  • The H Word: Why Do We Like the Weird? by RSL (4/15)
  • Author Spotlight: Avi Burton by Devin Marcus (4/22)
  • Interview: Dan Coxon by Alex Puncekar (4/29)

Uncanny Magazine (March/April 2026, Issue 69)

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Fiction

  • Welcome to Heroism by John Wiswell (4/7)
  • The Woman Who Stole Flowers by Theodora Goss (4/7)
  • Permanent Press by Sunwoo Jeong (4/7)

Poetry

  • Nuclear Deterrence Doll by Thomas Mixon (4/7)
  • The Truth About Wolves by Marissa Lingen (4/7)

Nonfiction

  • What Does It Mean to Be Immortal? by Ai Jiang (4/7)
  • What Prose Writers Can Learn from Script Writers (and What Not to Learn) by Jane Espenson (4/7)
  • Interview: Sunwoo Jeong by Caroline M. Yoachim (4/7)

Thanks for reading, and check back at the end of the month: I'll update the links for stories as they come out.

I'll have the first book list for April coming next week.