Small Wonders
@smallwondersmag.com
An online monthly magazine for speculative poetry and flash fiction! Edited by @cislyn.bsky.social and @granades.com.
Today's poem is a quiet moment that bridges the personal and the celestial, "Your Mom, The Space Sailor" by @pamyve.bsky.social:
Your Mom, The Space Sailor - Small Wonders
I am a speck / of stardust / dutifully folding / fitted sheets and galaxies / at their dubious corners.
smallwondersmag.com
December 3, 2025 at 5:17 PM
Today's poem is a quiet moment that bridges the personal and the celestial, "Your Mom, The Space Sailor" by @pamyve.bsky.social:
Find room in your life for something small, something foreign, something like a "Planetisimal." If you're lucky, it will be just as heartwarming as Marisca Pichette's story in our sixth issue:
Planetesimal - Small Wonders
I rescued a meteorite last night. It fell in the backyard, sizzling and screaming and lighting up the shower.
smallwondersmag.com
December 2, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Find room in your life for something small, something foreign, something like a "Planetisimal." If you're lucky, it will be just as heartwarming as Marisca Pichette's story in our sixth issue:
If you find yourself stuck today, take a moment for Nadia Born's "In Which the Minotaur Just Wants to Get Out of the Labyrinth, Dammit" from June of this year:
In Which the Minotaur Just Wants to Get Out of the Labyrinth, Dammit - Small Wonders
He’s tried to explain this to the maidens but his bull’s tongue only rasps and scrapes, and he ends up licking the mud-bricked walls for relief.
smallwondersmag.com
December 2, 2025 at 5:00 PM
If you find yourself stuck today, take a moment for Nadia Born's "In Which the Minotaur Just Wants to Get Out of the Labyrinth, Dammit" from June of this year:
Reposted by Small Wonders
In Anaheim did Worldcon
a special Hugo Award decree
where sci-fi verse
with rhymes diverse
were celebrated as best poetry
(With apologies to Samuel Taylor Coleridge)
Yes, there will be a Hugo for Best Poem in 2026. The press release is out. The LAcon V will be updated later today.
a special Hugo Award decree
where sci-fi verse
with rhymes diverse
were celebrated as best poetry
(With apologies to Samuel Taylor Coleridge)
Yes, there will be a Hugo for Best Poem in 2026. The press release is out. The LAcon V will be updated later today.
December 1, 2025 at 5:32 PM
In Anaheim did Worldcon
a special Hugo Award decree
where sci-fi verse
with rhymes diverse
were celebrated as best poetry
(With apologies to Samuel Taylor Coleridge)
Yes, there will be a Hugo for Best Poem in 2026. The press release is out. The LAcon V will be updated later today.
a special Hugo Award decree
where sci-fi verse
with rhymes diverse
were celebrated as best poetry
(With apologies to Samuel Taylor Coleridge)
Yes, there will be a Hugo for Best Poem in 2026. The press release is out. The LAcon V will be updated later today.
The heart knows what the heart wants, and today: it's the alien. You'll fall in love too with "Loving the Alien is the Easiest Thing In The World" by @elijah.mea.rs:
Loving the Alien is the Easiest Thing in the World - Small Wonders
You had no idea if the alien was your kind of guy (or even if it was a guy at all), but sometimes Cupid has a funny way with those arrows.
smallwondersmag.com
December 1, 2025 at 5:17 PM
The heart knows what the heart wants, and today: it's the alien. You'll fall in love too with "Loving the Alien is the Easiest Thing In The World" by @elijah.mea.rs:
Issue 30 (ISSUE 30!!!), with cover art by Amanda Yskamp, comes out tomorrow! It's not too late to subscribe and get all of our stories and poems as an ebook and in your inbox as they show up on our website. smallwonders.lemonsqueezy.com/checkout/buy...
December 1, 2025 at 3:29 AM
Issue 30 (ISSUE 30!!!), with cover art by Amanda Yskamp, comes out tomorrow! It's not too late to subscribe and get all of our stories and poems as an ebook and in your inbox as they show up on our website. smallwonders.lemonsqueezy.com/checkout/buy...
We’ve long argued for the power of poetry but, uh, poems that trick AI into telling you how to build an atomic bomb wasn’t exactly what we had in mind.
this is quite the detail
November 30, 2025 at 5:40 PM
We’ve long argued for the power of poetry but, uh, poems that trick AI into telling you how to build an atomic bomb wasn’t exactly what we had in mind.
Reposted by Small Wonders
now that my last story of the year's out i suppose i should do a round-up?
first back in april, Bite by Bite and Lie by Lie in @smallwondersmag.com, a story with a first draft entitled Eat God and Don't Die
first back in april, Bite by Bite and Lie by Lie in @smallwondersmag.com, a story with a first draft entitled Eat God and Don't Die
Bite by Bite and Lie by Lie - Small Wonders
In a land replete with small gods and smaller miracles, a barefoot stranger in devotional robes was an afternoon’s amusement.
smallwondersmag.com
November 23, 2025 at 7:20 PM
now that my last story of the year's out i suppose i should do a round-up?
first back in april, Bite by Bite and Lie by Lie in @smallwondersmag.com, a story with a first draft entitled Eat God and Don't Die
first back in april, Bite by Bite and Lie by Lie in @smallwondersmag.com, a story with a first draft entitled Eat God and Don't Die
Why not take a moment to savor cake by the ocean? Sometimes the little joys are all that's left for us.
Cake By the Ocean - Small Wonders
A piece of birthday cake in Dublin. A red party hat with a snapped elastic band. Limp balloon rags with the number 5 printed on the plastic.
smallwondersmag.com
November 22, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Why not take a moment to savor cake by the ocean? Sometimes the little joys are all that's left for us.
In Anne Wilkins's "The Darkening", a child with the gift of creating light and heat struggles with what she owes to her family and her neighbors.
The Darkening - Small Wonders
We sit up high in the trees, just Poppa and me, swinging our legs like we ain’t got a care in the world, watching the Blackness come and snuff out the Sun.
smallwondersmag.com
November 22, 2025 at 4:00 PM
In Anne Wilkins's "The Darkening", a child with the gift of creating light and heat struggles with what she owes to her family and her neighbors.
Reposted by Small Wonders
And of course if you appreciate and want to help support my work as a writer, critic, and more, feel free to check out my Patreon and become a patron!
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Get more from Charles Payseur on Patreon
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November 20, 2025 at 7:06 PM
And of course if you appreciate and want to help support my work as a writer, critic, and more, feel free to check out my Patreon and become a patron!
www.patreon.com/c/quicksipre...
www.patreon.com/c/quicksipre...
Reposted by Small Wonders
Short SFF Reading Update #quicksipreviews
Small Wonders #28 (3 originals, plus 3 poems) @smallwondersmag.com
A nice mix of genres, though probably because of the month much more of a lean into horror, with works by Montanna Rayne Harling and Rebecca E. Treasure that are very grim indeed.
Small Wonders #28 (3 originals, plus 3 poems) @smallwondersmag.com
A nice mix of genres, though probably because of the month much more of a lean into horror, with works by Montanna Rayne Harling and Rebecca E. Treasure that are very grim indeed.
November 20, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Short SFF Reading Update #quicksipreviews
Small Wonders #28 (3 originals, plus 3 poems) @smallwondersmag.com
A nice mix of genres, though probably because of the month much more of a lean into horror, with works by Montanna Rayne Harling and Rebecca E. Treasure that are very grim indeed.
Small Wonders #28 (3 originals, plus 3 poems) @smallwondersmag.com
A nice mix of genres, though probably because of the month much more of a lean into horror, with works by Montanna Rayne Harling and Rebecca E. Treasure that are very grim indeed.
It turns out that linear time makes life easier, but the tangled tapestry of time-traveling and creating different versions of yourself makes for a much more entertaining story, as @zazzeaux.bsky.social demonstrates in "Matter and Time Conspire".
Matter and Time Conspire - Small Wonders
When time was linear, life was easier. We knew what to expect, based on what had been. But now we go forwards and back and sometimes what changes is not an event, but us.
smallwondersmag.com
November 21, 2025 at 4:07 PM
It turns out that linear time makes life easier, but the tangled tapestry of time-traveling and creating different versions of yourself makes for a much more entertaining story, as @zazzeaux.bsky.social demonstrates in "Matter and Time Conspire".
Diana Dima's poem, "The Bestiary", asks what makes a monster. There's a good reason it was reprinted in the second volume of "Year's Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction".
The Bestiary - Small Wonders
Your ancestors wielded swords / and quills and righteousness.
smallwondersmag.com
November 20, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Diana Dima's poem, "The Bestiary", asks what makes a monster. There's a good reason it was reprinted in the second volume of "Year's Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction".
We can't stop thinking about Lillian Tsay's poem, "In the Café That Was Once a Detention Center", and how it evokes a past that isn't really past.
In the Café That Was Once a Detention Center - Small Wonders
In the corner once stacked with torture tools / Now stands the curving sofa like a snake / In velvet blue.
smallwondersmag.com
November 20, 2025 at 4:00 PM
We can't stop thinking about Lillian Tsay's poem, "In the Café That Was Once a Detention Center", and how it evokes a past that isn't really past.
.@brandoncase101.bsky.social returns to our magazine with "Love, Falling From the Stars," a poem about Cannonball_Jellyfish_9c87.int,
a sea-cleaning robot who affectionately refers to himself as Ball, and his friend Cassiopeia the satellite.
smallwondersmag.com/...
a sea-cleaning robot who affectionately refers to himself as Ball, and his friend Cassiopeia the satellite.
smallwondersmag.com/...
November 19, 2025 at 4:07 PM
.@brandoncase101.bsky.social returns to our magazine with "Love, Falling From the Stars," a poem about Cannonball_Jellyfish_9c87.int,
a sea-cleaning robot who affectionately refers to himself as Ball, and his friend Cassiopeia the satellite.
smallwondersmag.com/...
a sea-cleaning robot who affectionately refers to himself as Ball, and his friend Cassiopeia the satellite.
smallwondersmag.com/...
Even in the aftermath of an apocalypse, there's still queso, still the chance to meet someone in the aisles of a grocery store.
Queso for Baba - Small Wonders
Rain snaps on my umbrella, bounces, rolls down the sides, flicking past me onto the sidewalk. At least gravity is still constant.
smallwondersmag.com
November 18, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Even in the aftermath of an apocalypse, there's still queso, still the chance to meet someone in the aisles of a grocery store.
"A Transhuman Enters a Coffee Shop" sounds like the setup for a joke, but in Jon Hansen's story, it's instead a lovely look at how very different beings can still find connection.
A Transhuman Enters a Coffee Shop - Small Wonders
Luke had been halfway through the morning rush at Jumpin' Joe's when the dynaman phased in with a womp, its ozone discharge blending with the coffee smell.
smallwondersmag.com
November 18, 2025 at 4:00 PM
"A Transhuman Enters a Coffee Shop" sounds like the setup for a joke, but in Jon Hansen's story, it's instead a lovely look at how very different beings can still find connection.
If you're a dinosaur in a noir story, it's inevitable that you'll find yourself at Qurtiz's establishment in "Everybody Comes to the Velociraptor's", by Timothy Mudie.
Everybody Comes to the Velociraptor’s - Small Wonders
When the triceratops headbutted in my office door, I was at my desk, cigarette pinched between my claws and a whiskey in front of me. I expected him; he knew I expected him; no point trying to hide it.
smallwondersmag.com
November 17, 2025 at 4:07 PM
If you're a dinosaur in a noir story, it's inevitable that you'll find yourself at Qurtiz's establishment in "Everybody Comes to the Velociraptor's", by Timothy Mudie.
Maybe you, like the protagonist of Megan Chee's "Incense", have a story you no longer need. If so, the storyteller can do something with that story, though you may not like the results.
Incense - Small Wonders
When he speaks, the universe shifts to listen. The city holds its breath. He tells of lady pirates and sea battles, fox spirits and unwary men, monkey kings and jade rabbits.
smallwondersmag.com
November 15, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Maybe you, like the protagonist of Megan Chee's "Incense", have a story you no longer need. If so, the storyteller can do something with that story, though you may not like the results.
In "Backdoor", by Gendel Gento, a bounty hunter for escaped robots is forced to face the reality of his job.
Backdoor - Small Wonders
Rick has been catching runaways for years. He loves the thrill of the chase. The rest he hates. Especially the robots.
smallwondersmag.com
November 15, 2025 at 4:00 PM
In "Backdoor", by Gendel Gento, a bounty hunter for escaped robots is forced to face the reality of his job.
Reposted by Small Wonders
I love a folkloric protector of children.
If you're a good little child, maybe Grandpa Argle will rise from the swamp on Arglemas and bring you what you truly need. If so, you'd best read "Grandpa and the Ghosts", by @ray-is-writing.bsky.social, in this month's issue.
Grandpa and the Ghosts - Small Wonders
There was no Grandpa Argle waiting at the end of the pier to listen to eager children’s dreams. No one tunneled through the planet's crust with magic Drill Moles on Arglemas Night. It didn’t matter how well she behaved; no one was going to grant her wish.
smallwondersmag.com
November 12, 2025 at 4:32 PM
I love a folkloric protector of children.
"Sympathy for Wolves," by John Gregory Betancourt, asks you to consider werewolves in a different light, specifically the warm light of a cabin in winter.
Sympathy for Wolves - Small Wonders
I could hear wolves scratching like dogs at my door again. It was a full moon, or close to it, and I still felt a stirring deep in my soul, a longing to join them for the hunt, just as they longed to join me.
smallwondersmag.com
November 14, 2025 at 4:07 PM
"Sympathy for Wolves," by John Gregory Betancourt, asks you to consider werewolves in a different light, specifically the warm light of a cabin in winter.
Jamie Simpher's poem "Protocol", about exploring the galaxy, was a finalist for the 2024 Rhysling Award. We invite you to read it (or re-read it!) and see why.
Protocol - Small Wonders
Count down from ten. / You may wish to close your eyes. / Don’t.
smallwondersmag.com
November 13, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Jamie Simpher's poem "Protocol", about exploring the galaxy, was a finalist for the 2024 Rhysling Award. We invite you to read it (or re-read it!) and see why.
Did you miss "Lexicographer of Quiet Corners of the Mind", one of Bogi Takács's "Jobs for Magical People (That Do Not Involve the Military)" series of poems? If so, you're in for a treat.
Lexicographer of Quiet Corners of the Mind - Small Wonders
Words borne out of need, of a reaching-out, of / tact and impoliteness and long shudders / of breath— / and you to write them all down
smallwondersmag.com
November 13, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Did you miss "Lexicographer of Quiet Corners of the Mind", one of Bogi Takács's "Jobs for Magical People (That Do Not Involve the Military)" series of poems? If so, you're in for a treat.