• “Future Perfect.” Asimov’s. Ed. Sheila Williams. June 2024.

In a crumbling Met Museum, surrounded by ghosts of exhibits past, an artist prepares her final piece of performance art.

• “Other Kelly.” Tor.com. Ed. Miriam Weinberg. May 2024.

Kelly’s friends were all getting a little sick of Kelly, even before the doppelganger showed up. And sure, it probably wants to kill her; they’re just trying to decide if that’s worse…or better.

• • Reprint: Some of the Best from Reactor: 2024 Edition. 2024.

• “Gimmer.” Conjunctions 78. 2022.

If you never touch the lock, you never have to know whether you’re trapped. That’s almost as good as being free.

• “The Expedition Stops for the Evening at the Foot of the Mountain Pass.” Lost Worlds & Mythological Kingdoms. Ed: John Joseph Adams. Grim Oak Press. 2022.

The company sent them all up the mountain to die for Dr. Cameron’s great discovery. Tonight, they wait around to do as they’ve been told.

• “Sooner or Later, Your Wife Will Drive Home.” When Things Get Dark: Stories Inspired by Shirley Jackson. Ed: Ellen Datlow. Titan. 2021.

Elizabeth, in the car. Elizabeth, in the car. Elizabeth, in the car.

• “Everyone Knows That They’re Dead. Do You?” The Outcast Hours. Ed. Mahvesh Murad & Jared Shurin. Solaris. 2019. 

A multiple-choice test about ghosts.

• • Nominee, World Fantasy Award 2020.

• “Hello, I’m Your Election.” IRL Podcast (Mozilla). 2018.

A glimpse of the future of voting.

• “Abandonware.” Lightspeed Magazine. Ed. John Joseph Adams. 2018.

Christine started watching the deer glitch in the video game because she wanted something she couldn’t change. Now she can’t stop. Now the deer knows she’s there.

• “A Comfort, One Way.” Mad Hatters and March Hares. Ed. Ellen Datlow. Tor Books. 2017.

The Duchess used to be Alice. Sometimes Alice still is.

• “Intro to Prom.” Clarkesworld. Ed. Neil Clarke. 2017.

Four teens left behind in an underwater Utopia stage a few proms while they’re waiting to die.

• “Overburden.” Infinity Wars. Ed. Jonathan Strahan. 2017.

The Glorious Forces have brought order to Cirrus Prime, if only the fucking locals would admit it. Colonel Davis has a bad evening.

• • Reprint: Lightspeed. Ed. John Joseph Adams. 2019.
• “Everyone from Themis Sends Letters Home.” Clarkesworld. Ed. Neil Clarke. 2016.

The terraformers are making some progress. The inmates are making some choices. The company is making some mistakes.

• • Reprint: Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2017. Ed. John Joseph Adams, Charles Yu. 2017.
  • Reprint: The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2017. Ed. Rich Horton. Prime Books. 2017.
  • Reprint: The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Eleven. Ed. Rich Horton. 2017.
• “Familiaris.” The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales. Ed: Navah Wolfe & Dominic Parisien. Saga Press. 2016.

The prince and princess had no child. Eventually, wolves.

• • Reprint: Lightspeed Magazine. Ed. John Joseph Adams. 2017.
• “La beauté sans vertu.” Tor.com. Ed. Ellen Datlow. 2016.

A fashion show; some children’s hands; a dress that won’t hold.

• • Reprint: Body Shocks: Extreme Tales of Body Horror. Ed. Ellen Datlow. Tachyon Publications. 2021.
  • Reprint: Worlds Seen in Passing: 10 Years of Tor.com Fiction. Ed. Irene Gallo. TorDotCom. 2018.
  • Reprint: Some of the Best from Tor.com, 2016 Edition. Ed. Ellen Datlow et al. Tor Books. 2016.
• “(dis.).” Hanzai Japan. Ed. Nick Mamatas. Haikasoru. 2015.

A young urban explorer becomes obsessed with an abandoned amusement park – and the body she finds there. 

• • Reprint: The Year’s Best Crime & Mystery Stories 2016. 2016.
• “</3”. Popular Science. 2015.

A look at the future of fandom.

• “Given the Advantage of the Blade.” Lightspeed Magazine 63. Ed. John Joseph Adams. 2015.

A fairy-tale-heroine battle royale, until somebody gets it right.

• • Honorable Mention, Tiptree Award
• “Blood, Ash, Braids.” Operation Arcana. Ed. John Joseph Adams. Baen Books. 2015.

All the women pilots are a little superstitious. Only one of them is right.

• • Reprint: Lightspeed Magazine, 2021.
  • Reprint: Year’s Best YA Speculative Fiction 2015. Ed. Alissa Krasnostein, Julia Rios. Twelfth Planet Press. 2016.
  • Reprint. The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Ten. Ed. Jonathan Strahan. Solaris Books. 2016.
• “This Evening’s Performance.” The Mammoth Book of Dieselpunk. Ed. Sean Wallace. Prime Books. 2015.

Two of the last actors alive try to come to terms with their past in the face of their mechanical replacements.

• • Reprint. The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2016. Ed. Rich Horton. Prime Books. 2016.
• “A Story You Know the Ending To.” Story Magazine. Ed. Ryan Britt. 2015.

One morning, when Natalie Carver woke from troubled dreams, she found herself transformed in her bed into a Kafka story.

• “Visit Lovely Cornwall on the Western Railway Line.” The Doll Collection. Ed. Ellen Datlow. Tor Books. 2015.

Everyone on the train notices the strange little girl with the doll. She notices them, too. 

• • Reprint: Year’s Best Weird Fiction, Volume 3. Ed. Simon Stranzas & Michael Kelly. Undertow Books. 2016.
  • Reprint: Nightland Quarterly. (Japanese translation.) Ed. Makihara Katsushi. 2016.
• “Aberration.” Fearsome Magics. Ed. Jonathan Strahan. Solaris Books. 2014.

Two beings that bring death wherever they go take a brief respite in Venice, the city that’s already dying.

• • Reprint: Lightspeed. Ed. John Joseph Adams. 2018.
  • Reprint: The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2015. Ed. Rich Horton. Prime Books. 2015.
• “The Lion Cage.” Nightmare Carnival. Ed. Ellen Datlow. Dark Horse Books. 2014.

She feels sorry for it.

• “What Happened, the Winter You Found the Deer.” New Haven Review. Ed. Brian Slattery. 2014.

A brother and sister who live all alone found a deer. If they did find it. If they are alone.

• “Small Medicine.” Upgraded. Ed. Neil Clarke. Wyrm Publishing. 2014.

 The family replaced Sofia’s grandmother with a Mori. They forgot her; Sofia never has. (Companion piece to “The Nearest Thing.”)

• • Reprint: LeVar Burton Reads. 2019.
  • Reprint: More Human Than Human. Ed. Neil Clarke. Night Shade Books 2017.
  • Reprint: Lightspeed Magazine. Ed. John Joseph Adams. 2016.
• “The Insects of Love.” Tor.com. Ed. Ellen Datlow. 2014.

Two sisters; beetles; tattoos; the stars.

• • Reprint: The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume 9. ed. Jonathan Strahan. Rebellion Publishing. 2015.
• “Eighty Miles an Hour All the Way to Paradise.” Robot Uprisings. Ed. John Joseph Adams. Random House. 2014.

A woman on the run from the smarthouse rebellion finds out that a little courtesy goes a long way.

• “A Dweller in Amenty.” Nightmare Magazine. Ed. John Joseph Adams. 2014.

Sin eating is a very particular profession. You have to choose your clients wisely.

• • Reprint: The Best Horror of the Year Volume 7. Ed. Ellen Datlow. Night Shade Books. 2015.
• “Trousseau.” The Time Traveler’s Almanac. Ed. Ann VanderMeer & Jeff VanderMeer.  2014.

Tips on packing for your trip back in time.

• “The Lenten Rose.” Once Upon a Time. Ed. Paula Guran. Prime Books. 2013.

A Snow Queen retelling that examines all the other things that broke after that shard of mirror went into Kai’s heart.

• “From the Catalogue of the Pavilion of the Uncanny and Marvelous, Scheduled for Premiere at the Great Exhibition (Before the Fire).” Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells. Ed. Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling. Tor Books. 2013.

Being a catalogue of unique and wondrous items beyond the natural, available for viewing until the tragic accident.

• “Terrain.” Tor.com. Ed. Ellen Datlow. 2013.

A collection of refugees find their mechanical Pony Express outpost under attack. They respond in kind.

• “86, 87, 88, 89.” Clarkesworld. Ed. Neil Clarke. 2013.

After the government drops the bomb on Manhattan, somebody has to go through the wreckage.

• “Captain Justice Saves the Day.” The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination. Ed. John Joseph Adams. Tor Books. 2013.

Being the assistant to a mad scientist is probably the second-worst job she’s ever had.

• “Abyssus Abyssum Invocat.” Lightspeed Magazine. Ed. John Joseph Adams. 2013.

Three mermaids; a teller of stories; a school by the sea.

• • Reprint: Mermaids and Other Mysteries of the Deep. Ed. Paula Guran. Prime Books. 2015.
  • Reprint. The Penguin Book of Mermaids. Ed. Cristina Bacchilega, Marie Alohalani Brown. New York: Penguin Publishing Group. 2019.
• “The Advocate.” Eclipse Online. Ed. Jonathan Strahan. 2013.

The first discovered Martian life form was a handful of cells. They need an ambassador.

• “The Segment.” After: Nineteen Stories of Apocalypse and Dystopia. Ed. Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling. Little Brown. 2012.

Two girls at an acting school for staged news segments have very different plans for their careers.

• • Reprint, as “Let Those Who Would”: LeVar Burton Reads, ed. LeVar Burton. 2020.
• “Good Fences.” Nightmare Magazine. 2012.

The car was already burning when he saw it.

• “The Dancing Master.” Willful Impropriety: 13 Tales of Society, Scandal, and Romance. Ed. Ekaterina Sedia. 2012.

The dancing master was hired by her governess, to get her a husband.

• “A Bead of Jasper, Four Small Stones.” Clarkesworld. Ed. Neil Clarke. 2012.

Correspondence between two strangers on the verge of a new era in space travel.

• • Reprint: The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume 7. Ed. Jonathan Strahan. Night Shade Books. 2013.
• “Armless Maidens of the American West.” Apex Magazine. Ed. Lynne Thomas. 2012.

 In the story, the father cut off her arms before he drove her to the woods. Everyone feared her. Who feared the father?

• • Reprint: Mythic Journeys. Ed. Paula Guran. Night Shade Books. May 29, 2019.
  • Reprint: The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2013. Ed. Paula Guran. Prime Books. 2013.
  • Reprint: The Best of Apex Magazine, Vol. 1. Ed. Jason Sizemore. Apex Publications. 2016.
• “The Last Run of the Coppelia.” Armored. Ed. John Joseph Adams. Baen. 2012.

Some unlucky fisher-mecha pilots find a video clip they should not have, and have a fight that will change everything.

• “The Gravedigger of Konstan Spring.” Lightspeed Magazine. 2012.

The water in Konstan Spring will make you live forever. That’s the trouble.

• • Reprint: The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2013. Ed. Rich Horton. 2013.
• “A Game of Mars.” Under the Moons of Mars: New Adventures of Barsoom. Ed. John Joseph Adams. Simon & Schuster. 2012.

A princess of Mars has learned the game well. She is a better player than they assume.

• “Aurum.” Abyss & Apex. Ed. Wendy S. Delmater. 2012.

The dragon offered gold for the passage; she couldn’t fly.

• “The Dire Wolf.” Running with the Pack. ed. Ekaterina Sedia. Prime Books. 2011.

 That’s what their jaw was made for; to bite down, and hold on.

• • Reprint: The Weird Fiction Review. Ed. Ann Vandermeer and Jeff Vandermeer. 2012.
• “Bufonidae.” Phantasmagorium. Ed. Laird Barron. 2011.

Amid the collapse of society, one captive collects some frogs.

• “The Nearest Thing.” Lightspeed Magazine. Ed. John Joseph Adams. 2011.

A Mori is just as good as the person you lost. That’s what everyone says. That’s what they’re making. (Companion piece to “Small Medicine.”)

• • Reprint: Twenty-First Century Science Fiction: An Anthology. Ed. David Hartwell & Patrick Neilsen Hayden. 2013.
  • Reprint: The Year’s Best SF 17. 2012.
  • Reprint: Robots: The Recent AI. Ed. Sean Wallace .Prime Books. 2012.
• “Souvenir.” Strange Horizons.  2011.

A noir story about a touch-telepath detective whose new case might be her last.

• “Demons, Your Body, and You.” Subterranean Magazine. Ed. Gwenda Bond. 2011.

The demon she was dating got her pregnant. It’s going to ruin junior year.

• • Reprint: The Mammoth Book of Angels & Demons. 2013.
• “Semiramis.” Clarkesworld. Ed. Neil Clarke. 2011.

A mercenary (maybe two mercenaries) on Svalbard, near the seeds.

• “The Finest Spectacle Anywhere.” Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Ed. Scott H. Adams. 2011.

The Mechanical Circus Tresaulti comes to town. (Companion story to Mechanique.)

• “Study, for Solo Piano.” Fantasy Magazine. Ed. John Joseph Adams. 2011.

That winter, the Circus rested in a house that someone left behind. (Companion piece to Mechanique.)

• • Reprint: Steampunk III: Steampunk Revolution. Ed. Ann VanderMeer. 2012.
  • Reprint: CIRCUS: Fantasy Under the Big Top. Ed. Ekaterina Sedia. 2012.
• “She Drives the Men to Crimes of Passion!” Bewere the Night. Ed. Ekaterina Sedia. 2011.

A greedy Golden Age movie director and a were-hummingbird.

• • Reprint: The Cutting Room. Ellen Datlow. 2014.
• “Things to Know about Being Dead.” Teeth. Ed. Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling. 2011.

After I realized I was a vampire, I had to learn to live with it.

• • Nominee, Shirley Jackson Award 2012.
• “Carte Blanche.” Electric Velocipede. Ed. John Klima. 2011.

They promised to let him go, so long as he answered the card.

• “The Sandal-Bride.” Fantasy Magazine. Ed. John Joseph Adams. 2011.

A cynical spice merchant takes a contract to bring a woman across the flatlands to her intended husband. 

• • Reprint. StarShipSofa. Ed. John C. Smith. 2011. 
  • Reprint: The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year 2012. Ed. Rich Horton.
• “The Burmese Tailor.” Jabberwocky 5. 2011.

A Victorian gentleman gives in to the needle.

• “And in Their Glad Rags.” Happily Ever After. Ed. John Klima. 2011.

Her grandfather was a fox. She knows a wolf.

• “Bread and Circuses.” Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Ed. Scott H. Andrews. 2010.

A young man is appointed an unwilling guard to a circus defector. (Companion piece to Mechanique.)

• “Seeing.” Clarkesworld. Ed. Neil Clarke. 2010.

A failed launch; a repeat offender; a planet some people won’t reach.

• “So Deep that the Bottom Could Not Be Seen.” The Way of the Wizard. Ed. Sean Wallace. 2010.

After the last whale dies, a pariah is summoned to a council.

• • Reprint: The Mammoth Book of Warriors and Wizardry. Ed. Sean Wallace. 2014.
• “And She Shall Be Crowned According to Her Station.” Strange Horizons. Ed. Jed Hartman, Karen Meisner, Susan Groppi. 2010.

Nobody believes her, about the roaches.

• “And the Next, and the Next.” The Living Dead 2. Ed. John Joseph Adams. 2010.

Where do you go, when the zombies come, except to Coney Island. What can you do, except hold still.

• “Take Four.” Kaleidotrope. Ed. Fred Coppersmith. 2010.

A director gets exactly the shot he wants.

• “A Garden in Bloom.” Shimmer. Ed. Beth Wodzinski. 2010.

The false flowers were more beautiful than the real.

• “The Zeppelin Conductors’ Society Annual Gentlemen’s Ball.” Lightspeed Magazine. Ed. John Joseph Adams. 2010.

Their bodies change, inside the balloons. 

• • Reprint: The Mammoth Book of Steampunk. 2012.
  • Reprint: The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume 5. Ed. Jonathan Strahan. Night Shade Books. 2011.
• “Wondrous Days.” Apex Magazine. Ed. Jazon Sizemore. 2010.

After the end of the world, two strangers decide which one of them will live.

• • Reprint: Wastelands 2. 2015.
• “A Brief Investigation of the Process of Decay.” Strange Horizons. Ed. Jed Hartman, Karen Meisner, Susan Groppi. 2009.

Something is different about these ships; something in them is alive.

• • Reprint: Berlin Quarterly. 2016. 
• “To a Dear Friend, on Her Departure.” Last Drink Bird Head. Ed. Ann VanderMeer & Jeff VanderMeer. 2009.

Being a letter from a jilted suitor about a very particular custom.

• • Reprint. Wonderbook.com. Ed. Ann VanderMeet & Jeff VanderMeer. 2013. 
• “Light on the Water.” Fantasy Magazine. Ed. Sean Wallace. 2009.

Two buildings fall in love.

• • Nominee, World Fantasy Award 2009.
• “To Set Before the King.” Interfictions Annex. Ed. Delia Sherman, Christopher Barzak. 2009.

In the fairy tales, the princess always finds a way out. But.

• “Is this Your Day to Join the Revolution?” Futurismic. Ed. Christopher East. 2009.

On the way to a date with her government-assigned boyfriend, Liz is waylaid by a criminal.

• • Reprint: Brave New Worlds. 2012.
  • Reprint: StarShipSofa. 2011.
• “Advection.” Clarkesworld. Ed. Neil Clarke. 2009.

Fortuni knew about the secret thing she was keeping alive. Fortuni knew about everything.

• “How to Write a Sad Song.” Jabberwocky 4. Ed. Sean Wallace. 2009.

First, lose your heart.

• “Bespoke.” Strange Horizons. Ed. Susan Groppi. 2009.

Petra does her best to dress the time travelers, but business is hard, and her boss is strange.

• • Reprint: Bloody Fabulous. 2012.
  • Reprint: EscapePod. 2010.
  • Reprint: Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2010. 2010.
  • Reprint: Year’s Best SF 15. 2010.
• “The Drink of Fine Gentlemen Everywhere.” Sybil’s Garage. Ed. Matthew Kressel. 2009.

In some houses, it isn’t the ghosts you have to worry about.

• “Carthago Delenda Est.” Federations. Ed. John Joseph Adams. 2009.

The ships were all waiting, in their own ways, for whoever had sent the message to finally appear. 

• • Reprint: Lightspeed Magazine. 2017.
  • Reprint: Aliens: Recent Encounters. 2013.
  • Reprint: War and Space. 2012.
  • Reprint: Escape Pod. 2009. 
• “White Stone.” Fantasy Magazine. Ed. Sean Wallace. 2009.

When he built the little maiden out of stone, he didn’t know. He didn’t know.

• “Keep Calm and Carillon.” Farrago’s Wainscot. Ed. Darin Bradley. 2009.

Everything was different after her sister survived the elevator crash. She knew that even before the bell choir.

• • Reprint: Creatures! Thirty Years of Monsters.  2013.
• “Count.” Cabinet des Fees. Ed. Erzebet YellowBoy, Helen Pilinovsky. 2008.

The Little Robber Girl knows how to count.

• “The Red Shoes.” Journal of Mythic Arts. Ed. Terri Windling. 2008.

Tango isn’t like other dances. Other dances let you walk away.

• “29 Union Leaders Can’t Be Wrong.” Strange Horizons. Ed. Susan Groppi. 2007.

The full-body transplant was a success. Now he has to learn how to live with it.