Ryka Aoki is a poet, composer, teacher, and novelist. Her latest novel, Light From Uncommon Stars (Tor Books 2021) was an Alex, SCKA, and Otherwise Award winner, and was also a finalist for the Hugo, Locus, and Ignyte Awards.

Charles (Cy) Payseur is an avid reader, writer, and reviewer of speculative fiction. Their works have appeared in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, Lightspeed Magazine, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies, among others, and many are included in their debut collection, The Burning Day and Other Strange Stories (Lethe Press 2021). They are the series editor of the Locus and Ignyte Award winning We're Here: The Best Queer Speculative Fiction (Neon Hemlock Press) and a multiple-time Hugo and Ignyte Award finalist for their work at Quick Sip Reviews. You can follow their reviews (and cats) on their Patreon (/quicksipreviews).

We’re Here: The Best Queer Speculative Fiction 2024 edited by Ryka Aoki and series editor Charles Payseur

This fifth volume in Neon Hemlock's yearly series celebrating the wonder and breadth of queer speculative fiction contains stories of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and many spaces in between.

CURATOR'S NOTE

We're delighted to include another great collection of terrific queer short fiction from such great writers as John Wiswell, Izzy Wasserstein, Suzan Palumbo and more. – Catherine Lundoff and Melissa Scott

 
 

BOOK PREVIEW

Excerpt

Contributors for We're Here 2024:

"Climbing the Mountains of Me" by Phoebe Barton (Kaleidotrope)
"The Offer of Peace Between Two Worlds" by Renan Bernardo (Diabolical Plots)
"Something Small Enough to Ask For" by AnaMaria Curtis (Uncanny)
"Mackson's Mardi Gras Moon Race" by David DeGraff (F&SF)
"Show Goes On" by Louis Evans (Fusion Fragment)
"Emergency Calls Only" by Kelsey Hutton (Analog)
"The Last Flesh Figure Skaters" by Claire Jia-Wen (khōréō)
"A Book Is a Map, a Bed Is a Country" by Angel Leal (Uncanny)
"Memories Held Against a Hungry Mouth" by Ann LeBlanc (3LBE)
"The Owl" by Stephen M.A. (Apex)
"No Happy Endings for Chasers" by Uchechukwu Nwaka (Fiyah)
"Jumbie Closet" by Suzan Palumbo (The Crawling Moon)
"The Spindle of Necessity" by B. Pladek (Strange Horizons)
"Linden Honey, Blackcurrant Wine" by M. R. Robinson (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
"Zariel: Parable of a Gifted Black Child" by Denzel Xavier Scott (F&SF)
"Together Like Hands on a Clock" by Jo Telle (Fiyah)
"How to Make a Snow Maiden" by Kristina Ten (Porter House Review)
"Syndical Organization in Revolutionary Transition" by Izzy Wasserstein (Embodied Exegesis)
"A Taste of Justice" by John Wiswell (Sunday Morning Transport)