ISSUES

Issue Sixteen, July 2024

I once read that people facing parole hearings have a much better chance of release if their hearing is early in the morning. This is because, by the afternoon, the parole board has decision fatigue—the parts of their brains responsible for hearing testimony and weighing evidence are literally exhausted, and so they just start saying no to everyone. This is, in fact, a terrible reality that incarcerated people face in this country, and it's only one of the very many aspects of the carceral system that has to fundamentally change.

I've been thinking a lot about the concept of decision fatigue and how it applies to my life, though, and I have to say: running a magazine is hard, y'all. I've had enough people close to me do time that I'm comparing literal prison with running a small SFF magazine, but there are so many decisions that have to be made, from going through the slush to deciding what to include in each issue to figuring out how to beg people to support us through subscriptions and sales so that we can keep the lights on. Of course, the bright side is that when my brain sputters out and makes me want to hide under my desk, it's a lot harder to ruin people's lives.

Issue Fifteen, May 2024

These poems and fictions, like my life at the moment, are about change. Resisting it. Surrendering to it. Massaging it and its outcomes.

One is about getting revenge for other versions of you because you couldn’t get revenge for yourself. One is about the specter of grief and the art of letting go. One is about listening to the world we found amid the buzz of the world we’ve made. One is about becoming an alien and falling in/out/in love. One is about the powers of love, admiration, and becoming. One is about being taken and choosing to stay. One is about the travaux a woman survives and who she’s meant to be afterward. One is a force of nature and/or a woman scorned. One is sci-fi synesthesia. One is about the journey, what you lose to embark and what you find along the way.

In this issue, you will find fiction by Madi Haab, N. R. M. Roshak, Rin Willis, Avra Margariti, Natalia Theodoridou, and Matt Tighe, poetry by Emmie Christie, Jess Gofton, Elizabeth Shack, and Sofia Ezdina, and short fiction reviews by Danai Christopoulou. The cover art is by Lauren Raye Snow.
Guest Editor, LP Kindred

Issue Fourteen, March 2024

Spring has come to the Northern Hemisphere, and that means the birds are singing, the plants are blooming, and there's more great fiction and poetry to read! Spring is a time of renewal, a time of opening back up after the claustrophobia of winter, but it's not all sunshine and puppy dogs. A spectre is haunting us, like Marx and Engels said, but instead of communism, it's the deep and abiding dread of the climate crisis knocking on our doors. The March issue therefore is a special one, what we call our DRY ISSUE, and it's full of stories and poems meant to evoke a vision of a changing world, an clarion call of catastrophe and hope. Here are the sins of our past and the bright songs of a painful and glorious future.

In this issue, you will find fiction by E.M. Linden, Ai Jiang, Crystal Lynn Hilbert, and Lucero Valdovinos, poetry by Temidayo Okun, Abdulkareem Abdulkareem, and P. H. Low, and short fiction reviews by Danai Christopoulou. Cover art is by Aimee Cozza.

Issue Thirteen, January 2024

Haven Spec Magazine is now a pro-paying market! We’re grateful to everyone who supported our Kickstarter, and we are so glad to be able to give our wonderful authors the rates that they deserve. We have big plans for 2024, including interviews with some amazing editors, stories from across the width and breadth of the human experience, and short fiction reviews from your very own Haven Spec staff (okay, mostly Danai). I very much want Haven Spec to be a part of the wider SFF community, and that means paying people what they deserve, shouting out the stories and magazines we love, and publishing as much awesome fiction and poetry as we possibly can.

In this issue, you will find fiction by Melissa A Watkins, Thomas Ha, T. K. Rex, Sophia Adamowicz, and Dana Berube, poetry by Russell Nichols, Matthew Roy, A.J. Van Belle, and Anna Quercia-Thomas, and short fiction reviews by Danai Christopoulou. The beautiful cover art is by Carly A-F.

Issue Twelve, December 2023

Issue Twelve is here!

We've got:

Fiction by Monte Lin, Richard Ford Burley, Elisabeth Kauffman, Karen Aria Lin, Elizabeth Broadbent, and Karl Dandenell!

Poetry by Wen Yu Yang, Shana Ross, H.V. Patterson, Goran Lowie, Anna Madden, Archita Mittra, Brian Hugenbruch, G.E. Woods, Elis Montgomery, Maria Schrater, and Elizabeth R McClellan!

Read the entire issue now!

Issue Eleven, October 2023

Issue Eleven is here!

We've got:

Fiction by T. R. Siebert, James Parenti, Rajeev Prasad, Natalie Kikić, and A. R. Frederiksen!

Poetry by Sandra Pope, Connie La-Huynh, Gretchen Tessmer, • R L • powell, and Rebecca A. Demarest!

Read the entire issue now!

Issue Ten, August 2023

Issue Ten is here!

We've got:

Fiction by Amanda Haimoto Rudd, Lindsey Duncan, Dana Vickerson, Marissa Lingen, Lynne Sargent, and AD Sui!

Poetry by Sodïq Oyèkànmí, Kevin Martens Wong, Avra Margariti, Mark A. Fisher, and S. T. Eleu!

Read the entire issue now!

Issue Nine, June 2023

Issue Nine is here!

We've got:

Fiction by Jessica Cho, Timothy Johnson, KT Wagner, André Geleynse, Anne Marie Lutz, and Mike Morgan!

Poetry by Marcus Whalbring, Marisca Pichette, Anton Cancre, L. Acadia, Tania Chen, Colleen Anderson, and Eva Papasoulioti!

Read the entire issue now!

Issue Eight, March 2023

Issue Eight is here!

We've got:

Fiction by Valo Wing, Taylor Grothe, Carol Scheina, Paul Michael Anderson, and Catherine Tavares!

Poetry by Monica Louzon, Anuja Mitra, Crystal Sidell, and Jessica Peter!

Read the entire issue now!

Issue Seven, November 2022

Issue seven is here! We've got:

Fiction by Danai Christopoulou, Moustapha Mbacké Diop, Erin K. Wagner, Warren Benedetto, David Farrow, Andi C. Buchanan, Rhiannon Rasmussen, Frances Koziar, and Austin Shirey!

Poetry by Jennifer Crow, Overcomer Ibiteye, Beth Cato, J.D. Harlock, Sarah Cannavo, Ashley Gilland, Lin Darrow, Gary Bloom, and Tiffany Morris!

The first half of the issue is available to read for free on the website right this very second, and the second half will become available on 12/5!