Table of Contents, October 2026

It's a new month and a new crop of short stories are here for you to check out! You can check out last month's (newly updated!) installment here, and the prior installments here.

Here's what you can read this October:

Adventitious (October/November 2026, Issue 5)

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Fiction

• “Burnt Sage and Bygones” by Em Harriett
• “How to Understand Each Other” by Emmie Christie
• “God in the Vacuum” by Tehnuka
• “Sensitive Ice” by Keyan Bowes
• “Organs of Mortal Obstruction” by H. Marin
• “The Gorilla Fighters Under Texas, or: Derek King, Age 8, Shares His Take on the Salvadoran Civil War With Classmates at Sam Houston Elementary Based on a Viewing of ABC World News Tonight with Peter Jennings on January 19, 1988 (Confederate Heroes Day)” by Chris Baker
• “Starfall” by V.M. Ayala
• “The Adventures of Zakar Hussani, Boy Oracle” by Amanda Ilozumba
• “Cordyceps crystal” by Sarah Grace Tuttle
• “Last Farewell of the Emperatrix” by Daniel Ausema
• “Puddlejumping” by Parker M. O’Neill
• “In The Gardens of Allster Hall” by Rebecca Halsey
• “New Game Plus” by Abhijeet Sathe
• “Ruby Tips To Her Feathers” by Ash Vale
• “The Big, Cushy Cutie” by Jennifer Lesh Fleck

Nonfiction

• The Museum Tombstone Card For “Last Original Plank Replaced On King Theseus’ Ship” by Scott Beggs

Aurealis (October 2026, Issue #194)

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Fiction

• "Boy Leaves Girl Inside a Giant Octopus" by Cameron Semmens
• "Form a Shape, Besides Yourself" by C.H. Pearce
• "The Vineman of Nancy" by Benjamin George Coles

Nonfiction

• From the Cloud
• How Pop Culture and A.I. Interacted from 2000 to 2025 by Lynne Lumsden Green
• Who put all these tentacles in my eldritch horror story? by Annie Mills
• Conservative Mythology in Weapons (2025) by Ani White

Clarkesworld Magazine ()

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Fiction

Nonfiction

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Flash Fiction Online (October 2026, Issue #157)

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Fiction

• "A Face Slipped Off Its Skull" by Ashlee Lhamon
• "Really and truly dead" by Emma Burnett
• "下楼 – Next Floor" by Crystal Leung
• "They’ve Got Your Number" by Aeryn Rudel
• "You/we/us" by Beth Goder
• "In the Garden of Death" by Chris Clemens
• "The Shit Thing About Being a Werewolf on the Moon" by Eliza Pry
• "right here, on this spot" by Parker M. O’Neill

Nonfiction

• Introduction: A Genre of Losers by Jacob Baugher

Forever Magazine (October 2026, Issue #141)

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Fiction

• “Wyatt Earp 2.0” by Wil McCarthy
• “Cuttlefish” by Anil Menon
• “Encore” by Wole Talabi

GigaNotoSaurus (October 2026)

Fiction

• "People Like Us" by Grace F. Hopkins

Kaleidotrope (Autumn 2026)

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Fiction

• “The Bargain” by Mari Ness
• “Soul Food” by Rob Gillham
• “Rain” by Emily O’Malley Liu
• “Boxed In” by Stuart Docherty
• “The Sea Calls” by Jennifer Skogen
• “A Brief History of the Doorway Program” by Damian Stockli
• “Monsters in the World” by Jenny Rae Rappaport
• “The Beasts of Altain” by Jay Kang Romanus
• “Unsought Books” by Corey Farrenkopf
• “The Commodore’s Dreams” by Jake Stein
• “Something in the Air” by Chris Barnham

Poetry

• “Good Morning Forgetfulness” by Kit MacAllister
• “Bluebeard at Midnight” by Faith Allington
• “Spellbound” by Robert Borski
• “The Old Vagabond Club” by Marisca Pichette
• “Field Notes from a Failing Simulation” by David Anson Lee
• “Takoyaki Tuesday” by K.M. Praschak
• “And Yet” by Neile Graham

Lightspeed Magazine (October 2026, Issue 197)

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Fiction

• "The Raspberry Manifesto of Professor Warana" by Adam-Troy Castro
• "Congratulations on your Magic Sword™" by John Wiswell
• "Guidance" by Martin Cahill
• "Until the Cure" by Marissa Lingen
• "Master/Slave Couple Seeking Physicist to Feed to a Black Hole" by Arden Powell
• "Uncanny Jack" by Susan Palwick
• "Ice Like Honey" by Rob Cameron
• "All the Shapes We Have Ever Been" by Kehkashan Khalid

Nonfiction

• Editorial: October 2026 by John Joseph Adams
• Author Spotlight: Marissa Lingen by Phoebe Barton
• Book Review: Strange Lights by Mira González by Chris Kluwe
• Author Spotlight: Arden Powel by Erik Grove
• Book Review: Lo que nos siguió a casa; Something Followed Us Home: Tales of Latiné Horror by Cynthia Pelayo, ed. by Arley Sorg
• Author Spotlight: Rob Cameron by Robin Jeffrey
• Author Spotlight: Kehkashan Khalid by Delia Cullity
• Book Review: Where We Go at Night by Ikwo Ntekim by Melissa A Watkins

Nightmare Magazine (October 2026, Issue 169)

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Fiction

• "An Unavoidable Consequence of . . ." by Kurt Fawver
• 'The Taker" by Mari Ness
• "Shambling Groaning Brain-Dead Endocannibal on Exeter Street" by Ferdison Cayetano
• "There Is Blood Coming Through the Ceiling of My House" by Natalie Wang

Nonfiction

• Editorial: October 2026 by Wendy N. Wagner
• Author Spotlight: Kurt Fawver by Devin Marcus
• The H Word–The Final Girl Fifty Years Later by Tanya Pell
• Author Spotlight: Ferdison Cayetano by Alex Puncekar
• Feature Interview: Michael Wehunt by Erik Grove

Uncanny Magazine (September / October 2026, Issue #72)

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Fiction

• "Dragon Pearl" by Emily Y. Teng
• "Children of Calliope" by Seanan McGuire
• "Home/Body" by P. H. Low
• "Recollection" by Marvellous Mmesomachi Igwe
• "Butterfly Effect" by Angela Liu

Nonfiction

• Magic Mirror: Folklore and Fairy Tales for Writing the Self by Kristiana Willsey
• When the Book Wasn’t Better or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Adaptation by Luke Elliott and James Bailey
• Interview: Emily Y. Teng by Caroline M. Yoachim

As always, thanks for reading. Check back at the end of the month for the next round of updates, and let me know in the comments what you read!