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.

If you'd like to support us, consider grabbing a copy at our ko-fi shop or subscribing through our patreon!

Carly A-F is a freelance illustrator from the the UK making colourful, dramatic art inspired by nature, science, myth and magic. Her work is a combination of digital and traditional media; and she illustrates for a wide variety of projects including book covers, posters, games, and picture books.

ANCIENT ELK is inspired by the skull of a giant ancient elk found in an Irish Lake. The spirit of this legendary creature rises from the lake, towering over the lands it once roamed.