Definitely on another poetry kick. I started this issue with 'The Persecution of Witches' by Ali Trotta. It gave me chills.

Tell me what ‘legitimate’ means—
how much proof do I need
to convince you
that blood is blood
and bruises are bruises?
Why is my voice a casualty
of violence you won’t examine?

It's a commentary on modern rape culture and I recommend everyone read it. Very strong, very poignant. Available online here. ( )

I liked this story very much. The writing is sharp and raw and immediate; you feel the characters' pain and frustration, rage and despair. The story both has a wide sweep and also a close, almost claustrophobic setting. Very well done. ( )

A Hundred and Seventy Storms by Aliette de Bodard - a poetic and tragic story about a family, that includes a sentient ship, in the midst of storms. A little too poetic for my taste - or just too much worldbuilding crammed into too few pages. I couldn't connect emotionally with it, but it was lovely.

El Cantar of Rising Suns by Sabrina Vourvoulais - a lovely piecemeal story about short lives drenched in blood and gunfire and the stories told about them, inside and out; a very modern, Latin@ urban fantasy.

The Words on My Skin by Caroline M. Yoachim - a tiny little story about creating yourself, when you have the power to do it definitively: the conceit (words written on skin that become personality traits) feels like something out of soulmate fanfiction, and I love it.

Snow Day by Catherynne M. Valente - the story of a woman with an allergy to bad art who grew up in isolation with only her paranoid mother, a vast library of pornography, and a turkey as companions. And the world is ending. Enthralling.

An Ocean the Color of Bruises by Isabel Yap - a dreamy, oddly comforting story about a haunted beach in the Phillipines and the polyamorous group of teenagers vacationing there, young and lost and uncertain. I kind of want to move into this story, horrifying drowned people and all.

Reprint - Travels With the Snow Queen by Kelly Link - one of my favorite Kelly Link stories, a fairy tale retelling about the lengths women go to for the sake of men who don't deserve them, even when they already know that, and what the journey means.

Essays: We Were All Trini: Searching for Asian-American Mirrors in SF/F by Sarah Kuhn, about being able to see yourself in heroes; So You Want to Start a Podcast by Erika Ensign and Steven Schapansky, a surprisingly thorough introduction; The Death of Very Special Diversity Comics by Sigrid Ellis, about the vast improvement we've seen from the era of 80s stories about Accepting Everyone's Differences (with recs); Myth Has Momentum, or: How I Accidentally Deified a Jar of Jelly by Kelly McCullough, about the unlikely power of stories

Poems: Good Neighbors by Jessica P. Wick, about hiding your strangeness; Phaya Nak Goes to the West by Bryan Thao Worra, the lament of a dragon; The Persecution of Witches by Ali Trotta, about the many ways people try to delegitimize rape.

And interviews with Sarah Kuhn and Sabrina Vourvoulias.