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Table of Contents, May 2026

April showers brings May stories

Table of Contents, May 2026

The year is trucking right along: the spring flashed right by, and already there's a daunting list of short stories to read. May brings a whole new crop, and I'm looking forward to checking some of these out in the coming weeks.

You can check out last month's (newly updated!) installment here, and past installments here. Here are the short stories coming out this month. Check back later in the month for a fully updated list!

Analog Science Fact and Fiction (May/June 2026)

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Fiction

  • "Imprint" by Zach Poulter
  • "Carpenter" by Jay Werkheiser
  • "Some Plates Get Eaten" by Thoraiya Dyer
  • "In The Overlap" by Eric Del Carlo
  • "The Cold Embrace" by C. Stuart Hardwick
  • "Camino Mundo" by Brian Hugenbruch
  • "The Enshittification Of Dogs" by Tom R. Pike
  • "Amel And The Bride" by Julie Duffy
  • "Awkward Incident Transpiring While Exploring The Neighborhood" by Timons Esaias
  • "A Lesson In Orbital Mechanics" by Michael Johnston
  • "Children Of A Sunnier Star" by Gregory Feeley
  • "The Two Thousand And Seventieth Time Sara Deletes Her Family" by J.R. Dewitt
  • "Whispers Of Twilight" by Ken Miura
  • "An Arm For Every Tooth" by Colin Alexander
  • "My Next Duchess" by Anna Kahn
  • "Nirvana and Mr. Sparks" by Kevin J.E. Walsh
  • "Telling The Bees" by Eóin Dooley
  • "Hetero Sapiens" by Sarina Dorie
  • "Fossil Record" by Rick Hollon
  • "Schismogenesis" by E.G. Condé
  • "For Sojourner" by Adegboyega Kayowa

Nonfiction

  • Editorial: The Editor’s Page by Trevor Quachri, Emily Hockaday & Kevin Wheeler
  • The Reference Library by Sean CW Korsgaard
  • The Doctor Will Scan You Now by Douglas F. Dluzen
  • The V-2 In Astounding by Edward M. Wysocki, Jr.
  • In Times To Come
  • Unknowns Edited by Alec Nevala-lee
  • Interplanetary Hive by Patrick Berry
  • Guest Alternate View by Howard V. Hendrix
  • Alternate View by John G. Cramer

Asimov's Science Fiction (May/June 2026 Vol. 50 Nos. 5 & 6)

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Fiction

  • "Hot" by Cecelia Holland
  • "Failed Attempts at Predation" by A.M. Dellamonica
  • "The Girl Who Stole Life" by Zhou Wen (Translated by Xueting C. Ni)
  • "The Sky Above the Earth Below" by Steve Rasnic Tem
  • "The Language of Machines" by Betsy Aoki
  • "A Penrose Dirge" by Chris Campbell
  • "Sophie Simpson’s Whizz-Bang Day at World War I" by Dale Bailey
  • "Half Inside the Spirit Box" by Stephanie Feldman
  • "Unspeakable Knowns" by Donald McCarthy
  • "Alpha Gal" by Greg Egan

Poetry

  • "Love Letter to Nuclear Fusion by Connor Yeck
  • "Jukebox for the Interplanetary Traveler by Brian U. Garrison
  • "Your Regular College-Town Climate Elegy by Ursula Whitcher
  • "Image as a Stone on the Water by Ruth Berman

Nonfiction

Dark Horses Magazine (May 2026, No. 52)

Fiction

  • "A Child Without Sin" by Diana Ionita
  • "A Minor Revolution" by Lee Clark Zumpe
  • "A Night At The Castle" by Lee Clark Zumpe
  • Vorpal" by Wayne Kyle Spitzer
  • "Dark Timber" by Lee Clark Zumpe
  • "Among The Dead 101" by Dennis Kohler
  • "Psychosomatic" by Terry Sanville
  • "Way Station" by Michael Fontana
  • "The Trade" by Bradley J. Collins
  • "A Rulebook For Ghosts" by Ausiàs Tsel
  • "Circle Of Stones" by Joe Prosit
  • "Drains" by David Castlewitz
  • "Hell Hath No Fury" by James Callan
  • "Lost In The Stacks" by Peter Emmett Naughton
  • "Pyrrhic Proof" by Mark J. Schultis
  • "Releasing The Chesapeake Bay" by Griffith Pound
  • "Ekkle-rog And Menk" by Taylor Layne
  • "Plunge" by Anuel Rodriguez

Diabolical Plots (May 2026)

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Fiction

Flash Fiction Online (May 2026)

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Fiction

  • "After Enlightenment, the Sewage" by Joelle Killian
  • "Citizens!" by Sasha Brown
  • "This Is Your Village" by Charlie Kieft
  • "The Screaming Garden" by Em Starr
  • "She Said Yes and a City Died" by Liz Levin
  • "Soon It Would See Eyelessly, Turn Corners on Its Own" by John K. Peck

Nonfiction

GigaNotoSaurus (May 2026)

Fiction

Lightspeed Magazine (May 2026, Issue 192)

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Fiction

  • "The Knacker Man" by Scott Dalrymple (5/7)
  • "Sarah’s Laugh" by Melissa A Watkins (5/7)
  • "The Star Where We Meet" by Sam W. Pisciotta (5/14)
  • "The Aerialist" by Yoon Ha Lee (5/14)
  • "The Stars Look Away From This Vessel" by dave ring (5/21)
  • "Ten Unsent Letters to the Dark Lord" by Ada Hoffmann (5/21)
  • "The Test of Time" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (5/28)
  • "The Last Season of Your Life" by Christopher Barzak (5/28)

Nonfiction

  • Editorial: May 2026 by John Joseph Adams
  • Author Spotlight: Melissa A Watkins by A Humphrey Lanham (5/7)
  • Author Spotlight: Sam W. Pisciotta by Robin Jeffrey (5/14)
  • Book Review: The Quarter Queen by Kayla Hardy by Arley Sorg (5/14)
  • Author Spotlight: Ada Hoffman by Phoebe Barton (5/21)
  • Book Review: The Republic of Memory by Mahmud El Sayed by Melissa A Watkins (5/21)
  • Author Spotlight: Kristine Kathryn Rusch by Robin Jeffrey (5/28)
  • Book Review: The Dorians by Nick Cutter by Chris Kluwe (5/28)

Nature Futures (May 2026)

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Fiction

New Edge Sword & Sorcery (Issues 6 and 7

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Issue 6 authors:

  • Melissa Burlock
  • Andrew Whalen
  • June Orchid Parker
  • Sarah Macklin
  • Sara Century
  • Steve Hugh Westenra
  • Oliver Brackenbury
  • Alec Worley
  • Eric Williams
  • Bryn Hammond
  • Robin Marx

Issue 7 authors:

  • Dariel R. A. Quiogue
  • James Enge
  • Prashanth Srivatsa
  • Kirk A. Johnson
  • Larissa Glasser
  • Jay Wolf
  • Cora Buhlert
  • Anthony Perconti

Nightmare Magazine (May 2026, Issue 164)

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Fiction

  • "Hollow Cast" by Sarah Grey (5/6
  • "A Magic Kingdom" by Bruce McAllister (5/23)
  • "consumed" by Ash Vale (5/27)

Nonfiction

  • Editorial: May 2026 by Wendy N. Wagner (5/6)
  • Author Spotlight: Sarah Grey by Carrie Finch (5/6)
  • The H Word: An Intimate Gaze at Headless Horror by Eugen Bacon (5/13)
  • The H Word: An Intimate Gaze at Headless Horror by Eugen Bacon (5/20)
  • Author Spotlight: Audrey Coble by Kevin Figueroa Quiñones (5/20)
  • Plumbing the Depths: The Origins and Omissions of Apocalyptic Horror by Lizzie Wade (5/27)

Uncanny Magazine (May/June 2026, Issue 70)

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Fiction

  • “The Snatchers” by Eugenia Triantafyllou (5/5)
  • “The Glass City” by AnaMaria Curtis (5/5)
  • “Extracted from an unravelled braid” by Aline-Mwezi Niyonsenga (5/5)

Poetry

  • “A Mermaid Looks at 40” by Fran Wilde (5/5)
  • “Empty Music” by Prosper Ìféányí (5/5)

Nonfiction

  • “The Uncanny Valley” by Michael Damian Thomas
  • “The End of This Day’s Business—Or, My Life as Repetitive Epic” by Una McCormack (5/5)
  • “The Mopey Ghost Nightmare Girl: The Character of Hari in Three Filmed Versions of Stanisław Lem’s Solaris” by Alex Bledsoe (5/5)
  • Interview: AnaMaria Curtis by Caroline M. Yoachim (5/5)

As always, drop what you've read and would recommend in the comments!