Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Joel Hans @joelhans.com · 15d

Yesterday @astrolabe.ooo materialized a little further out into the darkness with eight amazing new pieces of prose, poetry, and art. It's our eleventh time around, which is pretty amazing to reflect on... and it'll be three years come this winter!

Astrolabe @astrolabe.ooo · 16d

With autumn comes the careening of the Whale, bringing tales of transition, transformation, and yearning.

Featuring work from: @msstefaniekirby.bsky.social, @shalinisingh.bsky.social, Eniola Abdulroqeeb Arowolo, Veronica Tucker, Eden Petri, David Capps, Emily O Liu, and Laura Walker.

astrolabe.ooo

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Reposted by Joel Hans

Stefanie Kirby @msstefaniekirby.bsky.social · 16d

Thrilled to have a new little prose poem floating around over at @astrolabe.ooo (and they *happen* to be open for submissions)!

Astrolabe @astrolabe.ooo · 16d

With autumn comes the careening of the Whale, bringing tales of transition, transformation, and yearning.

Featuring work from: @msstefaniekirby.bsky.social, @shalinisingh.bsky.social, Eniola Abdulroqeeb Arowolo, Veronica Tucker, Eden Petri, David Capps, Emily O Liu, and Laura Walker.

astrolabe.ooo

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Reposted by Joel Hans

Astrolabe @astrolabe.ooo · 16d

With autumn comes the careening of the Whale, bringing tales of transition, transformation, and yearning.

Featuring work from: @msstefaniekirby.bsky.social, @shalinisingh.bsky.social, Eniola Abdulroqeeb Arowolo, Veronica Tucker, Eden Petri, David Capps, Emily O Liu, and Laura Walker.

astrolabe.ooo

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Joel Hans @joelhans.com · 29d

Thank you! It’s a beautiful and beautifully messy process and I’m just trying to enjoy it as much as I can 💚

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Joel Hans @joelhans.com · Aug 28

Thank you, Sam! Between this nice news and a little vacation starting tomorrow to reset a bit, feeling pretty optimistic about next week 👀

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Joel Hans @joelhans.com · Aug 27

My book got its first blurb in. My first ever blurb! All those kind words on the cover of my book? Just wild. Floating on this new kind of joy.

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John Chrostek @johnchrostek.com · Aug 4

It's August, which means release month for FEAST, my horror adventure novel about a kaiju Hobbes' Leviathan, the sea-stranded devoured souls surviving inside its belly and their rebellion against the beast + the cult that feeds it to sustain an astral Atlantis

eveninghousebooks.com/product/feas...

Feast of the Pale Leviathan (Signed Copies) - Evening House Books

A man falls asleep on a river raft tube and drifts out to sea, where he is found and devoured by a titan of unbelievable size. But rather than death, what Owen finds inside is a community of fellow su...

eveninghousebooks.com

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Reposted by Joel Hans

Tiny Molecules @tinymolecules.bsky.social · Aug 6

Summer 2025 is here. We have 12 amazing pieces for you to read, share, and enjoy!
https:/www.tinymolecules.com/issues/twentyfour

twenty-four — Tiny Molecules

www.tinymolecules.com

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Joel Hans @joelhans.com · Aug 3

Grateful for this today: the girls, covered in dust, leading me on another small adventure in another beautiful place.

Two young girls, the nearer in pink and further in seafoam shirts, walking away from the camera and toward an opening in a small valley with pine trees and grasses

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Patricia Q. Bidar @patriciaqbidar.bsky.social · Aug 1

PRE-ORDERS OPEN NOW! Excited as all hell my debut collection is finally coming out! I hope you get it!

Pardon Me for Moonwalking

Check out Pardon Me for Moonwalking - Slide into the bittersweet, beautifully peculiar world of Patricia Q. Bidar's Pardon Me for Moonwalking</em>, a collection of short stories that illuminate the of...

bookshop.org

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Joel Hans @joelhans.com · Jul 26

Lastly: I loved “Sorrow for Youth” by @thisisguan.bsky.social for how it invokes the idea of leaving ourselves on the water. A hint of fairy-tale—selkies, perhaps. Prose that's quiet but electric. A perfect way to round out the Retrograde—

www.astrolabe.ooo/un-sorrow-fo...

Sorrow for Youth • fiction from Guan Un

There’s no one else in the beach parking lot. You turn off the engine and the silence rushes in but for the hum in her throat, the tick of the engine cooling.

www.astrolabe.ooo

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Joel Hans @joelhans.com · Jul 24

I loved Carter Lappin's "Sometimes You Can’t Help but Feel Like He Does These Things on Purpose" most for the way it weighs the definitions of help and helplessness. Its imagery. How quickly it sets a scene and ashes it completely.

www.astrolabe.ooo/lappin-somet...

Sometimes You Can’t Help but Feel Like He Does These Things on Purpose • fiction from Carter Lappin

Flames lick his arms and legs like an over-enthusiastic puppy. He’s broken the fire alarm with a broom—

www.astrolabe.ooo

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Joel Hans @joelhans.com · Jul 24

Eli Dowd's "They Buried Their Dead in Sitting Posture" swept me up in language and scene-setting: the sun-spottedness of it all, the all-yellow, the vulture that mutes atop a tree. The name Mabel always hits close to home, as does the loves we cannot help.

www.astrolabe.ooo/dowd-they-bu...

They Buried Their Dead in Sitting Posture • fiction from Eli Dowd

The clouds are sparse, and trees shift almost imperceptibly beneath their foliage as if to reject the advances of a late noon breeze. Everything is yellow. A vulture mutes atop a tree.

www.astrolabe.ooo

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Joel Hans @joelhans.com · Jul 22

Next up, "Annual Review" from @shanaross.bsky.social: This made me laugh more than once in a touch under 200 words which is a true FEAT. It's surreal and absurd and yet *exactly* spec of working life. Go read and laugh and sublimate your own rage!

www.astrolabe.ooo/ross-annual-...

Annual Review • fiction from Shana Ross

You could have put in an escalator. Or better yet, you could have invented an elevator. That would have been Exceptional.

www.astrolabe.ooo

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Joel Hans @joelhans.com · Jul 21

First, Amanda Yskamp’s artwork “gathering,” of which I’ve included just a portion of here: I love the interlocking of hands and shreds, how they seem to be holding both the scenes and each other. The perfect way to bind this group, the whole Universe.

www.astrolabe.ooo/yskamp-gathe...

A sampling of Yskamp’s “gathering,” collage-like artwork that features hands holding onto various objects and scenes

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Joel Hans @joelhans.com · Jul 21

Each day this week, I’m sharing why I loved one of the pieces we published last week on @astrolabe.ooo as part of the Retrograde.

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Joel Hans @joelhans.com · Jul 18

Once again @astrolabe.ooo gets wider and weirder and more beautiful.

Grateful for everyone who's read, submitted, and published with us, or sent us little messages to say they like what we're doing and to keep going; we're going to keep going.

Astrolabe @astrolabe.ooo · Jul 17

A touch late, but never forgotten, the Retrograde has arrived! With it comes signs of yellowing and desiccation, omens from the sun, but also some things Exceptional and worth gathering around.

As always, we encourage you to explore and delight in these works among the Universe: astrolabe.ooo

Astrolabe
Summer 2025
---

Amanda Yskamp - "Gathering"
Shana Ross - "Annual Review"
Guan Un - "Sorrow for Youth"
Eli Dowd - "They Buried Their Dead in Sitting Posture"
Carter Lappin - "Sometimes You Can't Help but Feel Like He Does These Things on Purpose"

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Reposted by Joel Hans

Gone Lawn Journal @gonelawn.bsky.social · Jul 8

These are bad days.

If you have anything that will help us through them, please send it along.

gonelawn.net/journal/glj_...

Gone Lawn : Submission Guidelines

gonelawn.net

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Joel Hans @joelhans.com · Jul 8

All over this preorder! So excited to read it!!

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Dana Diehl @danadiehl.bsky.social · Jul 8

I'm excited to share the cover of my forthcoming book! Thanks to @blacklawrence.bsky.social and the Zoe Norvell for the cover design and Brooke Sauer for the cover art.
You can pre-order now! blacklawrencepress.com/books/the-ea...

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Reposted by Joel Hans

Lindz McLeod - THE UNLIKELY PURSUIT OF MARY BENNET is out now! @lindzmcleod.bsky.social · Jul 8

Since I offered some free query edits recently, I figured I should take a moment and talk about what I suggest and why!

"I'm delighted to present you with my novel [TITLE], a [WORD COUNT] [GENRE] which will appeal to fans of [BOOK ONE] for [THESE REASONS] and [BOOK TWO] for [THESE REASONS]."

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Joel Hans @joelhans.com · Jul 7

Having spent many hours working on @astrolabe.ooo over the weekend (reading; building proofs; building a v2 that's gonna be sweet), news like this makes it all worthwhile & then some. Congratulations, Joshua!

Joshua Jones Lofflin @jjlofflin.bsky.social · Jul 3

I’m so excited to be a part of this anthology with so many amazing writers. Many thanks to @astrolabe.ooo for originally publishing my story.

Apex Magazine (is funding for 2026!) 🎉 @apexmag.bsky.social · Jul 1

NEW BLOG POST ALERT! 🌱🍄
Violet Lichen Books and Apex Book Company are delighted to announce the finalists for the inaugural ECO: The Year’s Best Speculative Ecofiction! Thank you to everyone who submitted and nominated stories this year. Check the post or keep reading for the full table of contents!

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Chelsea Stickle @chelseastickle.bsky.social · Jul 5

IKYMI: I had a micro in Ghost Parachute about what happens when the doctors can't figure out what's wrong with you.

ghostparachute.com/issue/july-2...

Listen to Your Body — Ghost Parachute

The doctors couldn’t determine what was causing the thumping fluttering agony in my chest, the dread that haunted me and kept me awake nights. X-rays, MRIs, CTs had no answers. Finally, I told them to...

ghostparachute.com

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Joel Hans @joelhans.com · Jul 4

Thank you Majda!! Means so much to hear that from you.

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Joel Hans @joelhans.com · Jul 4

Thank you! 💚