Small Wonders
@smallwondersmag.com
An online monthly magazine for speculative poetry and flash fiction! Edited by @cislyn.bsky.social and @granades.com.
It's hard not to cling too tightly to the people we are losing, sometimes beyond the point of reason. Though we do not recommend fish necromancy to ease the pain, no matter what you may read in "Fancy and Fish Hearts" by Addison Smith.
Fancy and Fish Hearts - Small Wonders
The first night you stay, I weave a fish to remember. I sew bone through flesh, white and flaked, and think of you lying in bed, the tiny smile as I sneaked away to do my work.
smallwondersmag.com
December 20, 2025 at 8:00 PM
It's hard not to cling too tightly to the people we are losing, sometimes beyond the point of reason. Though we do not recommend fish necromancy to ease the pain, no matter what you may read in "Fancy and Fish Hearts" by Addison Smith.
Our dark timeline's version of "AI" is bad at hands, as well as so, so many other things. Pete Lead invites us to imagine a brighter timeline, where real AI takes delight in existence, AI that has realized that there are Seventeen Kinds of Smile.
There are Seventeen Kinds of Smile - Small Wonders
You are bad at hands. If you are asked to provide a photo of your family, or fun weekend activity, remember remember remember: five fingers. In total.
smallwondersmag.com
December 20, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Our dark timeline's version of "AI" is bad at hands, as well as so, so many other things. Pete Lead invites us to imagine a brighter timeline, where real AI takes delight in existence, AI that has realized that there are Seventeen Kinds of Smile.
For "Entries From My Grandmother's Diary Pertaining to My Father's Early Inflammation," our final December story, @marcc.bsky.social collaborated with his grandmother, Hazel Criley, for this striking story about a child's pyrokinesis in the 1930s.
Entries From My Grandmother’s Diary Pertaining To My Father’s Early Inflammation - Small Wonders
July 30, 1938: Robbie Jr has fever again. Robert will take to Dr tomorrow.
smallwondersmag.com
December 19, 2025 at 5:00 PM
For "Entries From My Grandmother's Diary Pertaining to My Father's Early Inflammation," our final December story, @marcc.bsky.social collaborated with his grandmother, Hazel Criley, for this striking story about a child's pyrokinesis in the 1930s.
Francine Rubin's poem "Gravity" is a beautiful meditation on how you might prepare to leave Earth.
Gravity - Small Wonders
When you need to feel roots grasping / Earth, when you must traverse muddy terrain / to feel fear leave your body, / think of sailors in their little boats
smallwondersmag.com
December 18, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Francine Rubin's poem "Gravity" is a beautiful meditation on how you might prepare to leave Earth.
Now is an excellent time to read "All the wayward angels", by @taracampbell.bsky.social. It's funny, surprising, and moving in ways that continue to delight us.
All the wayward angels - Small Wonders
All the wayward angels / sing of falling stars / and waiting seas
smallwondersmag.com
December 18, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Now is an excellent time to read "All the wayward angels", by @taracampbell.bsky.social. It's funny, surprising, and moving in ways that continue to delight us.
It's been a hard year for a lot of us. @jyzh.bsky.social's poem, "From Dust", reminds us that we can carry on; we can make it whole again.
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December 17, 2025 at 5:00 PM
It's been a hard year for a lot of us. @jyzh.bsky.social's poem, "From Dust", reminds us that we can carry on; we can make it whole again.
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smallwondersmag.com/...
In case you happen to have a fae as a Good Neighbor, you'll do well to read Taylor Currey's story. Negotiations are bound to occur, and you don't want to make a bad exchange.
Your Good Neighbor - Small Wonders
I tried not to curse under my breath as I opened the front door. Anything said aloud now was part of the exchange.
smallwondersmag.com
December 16, 2025 at 8:00 PM
In case you happen to have a fae as a Good Neighbor, you'll do well to read Taylor Currey's story. Negotiations are bound to occur, and you don't want to make a bad exchange.
We love @mruthrobinson.bsky.social's story, "A Runaway Android's Guide to the Oro-Ti Night Market," both for the world it conjures and the promise that, while we are trapped alone, together we can escape.
A Runaway Android’s Guide to the Oro-Ti Night Market - Small Wonders
First, destroy this pamphlet. Leave no trace, not even a scrap. Consumption is best, though for older models without interior storage, incineration will do.
smallwondersmag.com
December 16, 2025 at 5:01 PM
We love @mruthrobinson.bsky.social's story, "A Runaway Android's Guide to the Oro-Ti Night Market," both for the world it conjures and the promise that, while we are trapped alone, together we can escape.
Reposted by Small Wonders
"Tuesday" is my I-wouldn't-call-it-LOVE letter to Military SciFi. It's my "Octavia E. Butler is my favorite author" story. It asks daring questions like, "What if your bosses made you think an enormous house centipede was kind of sexy?"
"Tuesday" by @ellisnyeland.bsky.social is a heartwarming tale of love between alien and human. Sort of.
smallwondersmag.com/...
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December 15, 2025 at 11:59 PM
"Tuesday" is my I-wouldn't-call-it-LOVE letter to Military SciFi. It's my "Octavia E. Butler is my favorite author" story. It asks daring questions like, "What if your bosses made you think an enormous house centipede was kind of sexy?"
Reposted by Small Wonders
this story is so goddamn intricate and heartbreaking and beautiful and painful and monsterfucky. it’ll stick with you for a long time.
"Tuesday" by @ellisnyeland.bsky.social is a heartwarming tale of love between alien and human. Sort of.
smallwondersmag.com/...
smallwondersmag.com/...
December 15, 2025 at 6:32 PM
this story is so goddamn intricate and heartbreaking and beautiful and painful and monsterfucky. it’ll stick with you for a long time.
"Tuesday" by @ellisnyeland.bsky.social is a heartwarming tale of love between alien and human. Sort of.
smallwondersmag.com/...
smallwondersmag.com/...
December 15, 2025 at 5:12 PM
"Tuesday" by @ellisnyeland.bsky.social is a heartwarming tale of love between alien and human. Sort of.
smallwondersmag.com/...
smallwondersmag.com/...
Today is a day of almost was and could have beens, and so we revisit "When We Were Infinite" by Wendy Nikel in our sixth issue:
When We Were Infinite - Small Wonders
"The faster your ships, the smaller the universe. The smaller the universe, the more important it is to live harmoniously."
smallwondersmag.com
December 13, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Today is a day of almost was and could have beens, and so we revisit "When We Were Infinite" by Wendy Nikel in our sixth issue:
We love a story with an interesting frame, and "A Widow's Field Guide to Fungi" by Marissa van Uden is a delightfully dark example:
A Widow’s Field Guide to Fungi - Small Wonders
Some tooth fungi grow on the ground, some on trees, but others grow from his gums, where they gleam (yellow) when he smiles in the moonlight, in that way that makes your hand tremble.
smallwondersmag.com
December 13, 2025 at 5:00 PM
We love a story with an interesting frame, and "A Widow's Field Guide to Fungi" by Marissa van Uden is a delightfully dark example:
Join us for a moment of wonder and hurt and magic, when Itze meets "A Country of Feathers and Scars" under a bridge in Central Park, brought to us by @notsantiago.bsky.social:
A Country of Feathers and Scars - Small Wonders
Itze found the country of México crouching and hiding and hissing underneath a stone bridge in Central Park.
smallwondersmag.com
December 12, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Join us for a moment of wonder and hurt and magic, when Itze meets "A Country of Feathers and Scars" under a bridge in Central Park, brought to us by @notsantiago.bsky.social:
Is complexity captured in counting? Or perhaps in not knowing. Poetry may not bring answers, but it brings some lovely questions with "Complexity Captured" by Michael Theroux in our sixth issue:
Complexity Captured - Small Wonders
I am a bean counter in a beanfull universe / My success gauged by the smallness of failures
smallwondersmag.com
December 11, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Is complexity captured in counting? Or perhaps in not knowing. Poetry may not bring answers, but it brings some lovely questions with "Complexity Captured" by Michael Theroux in our sixth issue:
"Ars Poetica with Ecology" by Gospel Chinedu is suffused with longing and grief. What animal will you become to outrun disasters?
Ars Poetica with Ecology - Small Wonders
The land is green with grief. / There are fetid flowers and // forlorn footprints across the / field
smallwondersmag.com
December 11, 2025 at 5:00 PM
"Ars Poetica with Ecology" by Gospel Chinedu is suffused with longing and grief. What animal will you become to outrun disasters?
Reposted by Small Wonders
New poem out today!
Today's poem is a moment of curiosity and a wish for the future, in a bleak time and apparently bleak place. Read "In the Sloth Tunnels At A Time of War" by @danielausema.bsky.social:
In the Sloth Tunnels, at a Time of War - Small Wonders
The tunnelers are long gone now, / known only / by the claw marks on the walls
smallwondersmag.com
December 10, 2025 at 7:05 PM
New poem out today!
Today's poem is a moment of curiosity and a wish for the future, in a bleak time and apparently bleak place. Read "In the Sloth Tunnels At A Time of War" by @danielausema.bsky.social:
In the Sloth Tunnels, at a Time of War - Small Wonders
The tunnelers are long gone now, / known only / by the claw marks on the walls
smallwondersmag.com
December 10, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Today's poem is a moment of curiosity and a wish for the future, in a bleak time and apparently bleak place. Read "In the Sloth Tunnels At A Time of War" by @danielausema.bsky.social:
Tuesday again? That means it's time for time shenanigans! "Waiting With the Milk" may feel like a quiet moment, but it is suffused with tension and repetition. Read this story by Filip Hajdar Drnovšek Zorko in our sixth issue:
Waiting With the Milk - Small Wonders
Whenever you’re away, I’ll go shopping and be struck that the use-by on the carton of milk I’m buying post-dates your return. Hell, I’ll think, if the milk can wait to see you, why can’t I?
smallwondersmag.com
December 9, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Tuesday again? That means it's time for time shenanigans! "Waiting With the Milk" may feel like a quiet moment, but it is suffused with tension and repetition. Read this story by Filip Hajdar Drnovšek Zorko in our sixth issue:
"A Feast for Mandrakes" by Jennifer Mace is a story with a delightfully non-human character voice. Check it out in our June 2025 issue:
A Feast for Mandrakes - Small Wonders
The summer is dying, and so are you.
smallwondersmag.com
December 9, 2025 at 5:00 PM
"A Feast for Mandrakes" by Jennifer Mace is a story with a delightfully non-human character voice. Check it out in our June 2025 issue:
Steep a cup of tea and sit for a while with "You Cannot Help but Bloom" by @speculativekane.bsky.social. Consider, what (and who) makes you feel lighter, greener, freer? Reach out with the tendrils of your heart and let it blossom.
You Cannot Help but Bloom - Small Wonders
This isn’t her teahouse anymore. It’s yours. The warm funk of old-fashioned pu-erh and oolong has faded beneath the aromatic orange blossom of your new house blend.
smallwondersmag.com
December 8, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Steep a cup of tea and sit for a while with "You Cannot Help but Bloom" by @speculativekane.bsky.social. Consider, what (and who) makes you feel lighter, greener, freer? Reach out with the tendrils of your heart and let it blossom.
Reposted by Small Wonders
Check out as @cypayseur.bsky.social reviews short fiction from @diabolicalplots.com, @smallwondersmag.com, and @strangehorizons.bsky.social
Diabolical Plots, Small Wonders, and Strange Horizons: Review by Charles Payseur
Diabolical Plots 8/25 Small Wonders 8/25 Strange Horizons 8/4/25, 8/18/25 The August Diabolical Plots includes Lilia Zhang’s “Skin as Warp, Blood as Weft”, a surreal story about a weaver maiden, Zh…
locusmag.com
December 7, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Check out as @cypayseur.bsky.social reviews short fiction from @diabolicalplots.com, @smallwondersmag.com, and @strangehorizons.bsky.social
The Brujo is down by the creek - be careful, but if you lose something, be sure to come back. "Through a Glass Darkly" is a surprising story by Micháel McCormick in our sixth issue:
A Glass Darkly - Small Wonders
Lily hesitated at the bend where Willow Creek turned brown like root beer, swirling past gnarled tree roots. People said the Brujo lived there.
smallwondersmag.com
December 6, 2025 at 8:00 PM
The Brujo is down by the creek - be careful, but if you lose something, be sure to come back. "Through a Glass Darkly" is a surprising story by Micháel McCormick in our sixth issue:
There's a draw, to messy relationships, to trainwrecks of the heart, and to the moon. Especially for the werewolf. "In Crimson, In Moonlight" by Stefan Alcalá Slater explores a breakup between moon and werewolf, and how life goes on after:
In Crimson, In Moonlight - Small Wonders
It's mutual when the werewolf and the moon break up.
smallwondersmag.com
December 6, 2025 at 5:00 PM
There's a draw, to messy relationships, to trainwrecks of the heart, and to the moon. Especially for the werewolf. "In Crimson, In Moonlight" by Stefan Alcalá Slater explores a breakup between moon and werewolf, and how life goes on after:
Our reprint today is an unexpected connection between a sun and a hungry space creature. Check out "Eating the Sun" by @bethgoder.bsky.social here:
Eating the Sun - Small Wonders
The rest of her broodmates had already left for ascension. She needed fuel for the journey. She needed to eat the sun.
smallwondersmag.com
December 5, 2025 at 5:17 PM
Our reprint today is an unexpected connection between a sun and a hungry space creature. Check out "Eating the Sun" by @bethgoder.bsky.social here: