Maria Haskins
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mariahaskins.com
Maria Haskins
@mariahaskins.com
8.2K followers 3.4K following 7.2K posts
Swedish-Canadian SFFH writer. Reviewer for LOCUS. Editor @ Ruadán Books & Many Worlds. Work in Best Horror of the Year, Lightspeed, The Deadlands & more. she/her 📚: WOLVES & GIRLS+SIX DREAMS ABOUT THE TRAIN🔗 http://linktr.ee/MariaHaskins Rep: Eric Showers.
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mariahaskins.com
"It is a wretched, gorgeous thing."

I was utterly undone by this story: “Full Fathom Five” by Gwendolyn Maia Hicks / @prioryruins.bsky.social in @kaleidotrope.bsky.social .
In the glare of the sternlight Jack can make out the details of its strange, pale body clearly: the wrasse-like red-tipped ventral fin, the near-translucent skin over its stomach, the oily black guts inside. No navel, no nipples. The colors of its scales shift like petrol in a puddle. It adjusts itself clumsily, tail flapping, and tries to pull itself up by the netting with its clawed, webbed hands. It’s a wretched, gorgeous thing.
January 4, 2026 at 2:49 AM
mariahaskins.com
A small green budgie in his younger days, yellow head and black stripes, bright green chest and abdomen, blue cere. He was a gorgeous, sweet boy.
January 2, 2026 at 2:37 AM
mariahaskins.com
Post a perfect album from the
90s that isn't Nirvana, Pearl Jam
Soundgarden, or Alice In Chains
Cover for Tracy Chapman's NEW BEGINNING from 1995.
December 27, 2025 at 4:32 PM
mariahaskins.com
Me and oldest kiddo on the Skytrain.
Pic taken with my selfie reflection in glass divider with kiddo leanong on the divider from the other side. My reflection superimposed on him.
December 26, 2025 at 10:41 PM
mariahaskins.com
Vancouver with dramatic skies.
Vancouver skyline seen from Lonsdale Quay in North Vancouver. Vancouver skyline seen from halfway across the water from Lonsdale Quay in North Vancouver.
December 26, 2025 at 10:00 PM
mariahaskins.com
Our latest essay at Thoughts From the Writer's Desk is by multi-award-winning author Angela Slatter and it's all about mentors: where to find them, and how to work with them.

ruadanbooks.com/mentors-and-...
Picture of a blue and white compass rose and a photo of the author.
December 23, 2025 at 4:24 PM
mariahaskins.com
Found some Swedish Christmas joy on Granville Island.
Photo of matjessill, aka pickled herring matjes style in a tub on ice.
December 20, 2025 at 9:14 PM
mariahaskins.com
If you see this, we IMPLORE YOU to post a picture from whatever device you’re using without explanation.
Pavetta screaming in season one of the witcher, screaming until the world changes.
December 14, 2025 at 4:37 PM
mariahaskins.com
You will be visited by 3 spirits
Nami, Luffy, Zoro from One Piece.
December 9, 2025 at 4:50 AM
mariahaskins.com
If you're looking for award-worthy, writing-related essays, please have a look-see at what we've published at Ruadán's Thoughts From the Writer's Desk.

I am so freaking proud of the amazing work we've published by so many amazing writers this year.

ruadanbooks.com/category/tho...
Ruadan logo: stylized red fox in a circle.
December 8, 2025 at 4:39 PM
mariahaskins.com
My latest corrected) newsletter with my 2025 writer/editing recap is now at mailchi.mp/f460bbcef2b9...

It's been a whole year since my last newsletter! Where does the time go...
Black and white photo of me at my desk by the window in profile. No face visible just the hair and my arms.
December 5, 2025 at 9:30 PM
mariahaskins.com
The anthology SPRING IN THE CITY is out today! In it, you can read my story "Vancouver" which is set on Third Beach in Stanley Park. 👀 mariahaskins.com/2025/12/01/n...
Cover for Spring in the City. A cherry tree in bloom with a white dragon in its branches and people walking next to a waterway below. The opening paragraph for my story "Vancouver" - "Third Beach in Stanley Park is Emma's favourite beach, but she hasn't been back there since she drowned."
December 2, 2025 at 7:55 PM
mariahaskins.com
December 2 is the book birthday for Spring in the City, an anthology that contains my short story “Vancouver”.
You can get your copy from Ruadán Books:
ruadanbooks.com/product/spri...
It's also available elsewhere: books2read.com/u/47oz7N
Cover for Spring in the City. A cherry tree in bloom with a white dragon in its branches and people walking next to a waterway below. The opening paragraph for my story "Vancouver" - "Third Beach in Stanley Park is Emma's favourite beach, but she hasn't been back there since she drowned."
December 2, 2025 at 5:30 AM
mariahaskins.com
I love them.
Kit, Jade, Boorman, and Graydon on horseback looking epic fantasy awesome in a rolling landscape of hills.
December 1, 2025 at 10:55 PM
mariahaskins.com
It's the first of advent and time to make the house smell like Swedish saffron buns and glögg. 🕯
Golden Swedish saffron buns rising on a baking sheet under a red and white checked kitchen towel.
November 30, 2025 at 9:11 PM
mariahaskins.com
Beep Beep meets a giant (pinecone).
Green cheek conure meets a pinecone his own size. Green cheek conure meets a pinecone his own size and peeks at it. Green cheek conure meets a pinecone his own size and nibbles it.
November 28, 2025 at 8:11 PM
mariahaskins.com
He was reading "Hare's Breath" in Shimmer: www.shimmerzine.com/hares-breath/
Cover of Shimmer 39. A person in the water embraced by a bog body. TOC: The Creeping Influences, by Sonya Taaffe She came out of the peat like a sixpence in a barmbrack, her face shining like wet iron between the spade-edge and the turf, the bright rusty plait of her hair broken like a birth-cord around her neck. En la Casa de Fantasmas, by Brian Holguin Everyone knows about La Bruja. They say she lives somewhere down in the Avenues south of Eagle Rock. She is a tiny thing, short and round. Always dressed in black no matter the weather or time of year. Draped in mourning, they say, like La Llorona. Fixer, Worker, Singer, by Natalia Theodoridou The sky creaks as Fixer makes his way across the steel ramp that is suspended under the firmament. It’s time to turn on the stars. He pauses a few steps from where the switches and pulleys are located and looks down. He allows himself only one look down each day, just before sunset. Hare’s Breath, by Maria Haskins It’s Midsummer’s Eve, and even this close to midnight there’s no darkness, only a long, translucent dusk that will eventually slip into dawn. Britt and I are fifteen, and she has just come back from That Place, the one the adults won’t talk about even when they think I’m not listening. Something’s happened to her there, but I don’t understand what it is, and she can’t find the words to tell me.
November 26, 2025 at 3:42 PM
mariahaskins.com
You’ve been kidnapped. The characters from the last TV show you watched are trying to rescue you. Who’s coming to save you?

(Crossing Jordan Season 1.... I hope they come and get me before I end up in the morgue?)
The cast of Crossing Jordan Season 1: dr Macy, Lilly, Jordan, Jordan's dad, that weird british guy, Bugs who is delightful and OMFG Mahershala Ali!!!!
November 26, 2025 at 3:28 PM
mariahaskins.com
My latest What to Read at Ruadán is an inside job: it's all about the books published by Ruadán Books. And right now, Ruadán is donating 50% of all profits to the Greater Boston Food Bank + our CEO R.B. Wood is matching those donations.
ruadanbooks.com/what-to-read...
Cover of Spring in the City anthology with Spring crossed out and replaced with Fed.
November 26, 2025 at 3:20 PM
mariahaskins.com
Contributor copies of SPRING IN THE CITY!!!
Cover art with cherry tree in bloom and a dragon above a seaside walkway. Table of contents including me! Beginning of my story "Vancouver".
November 26, 2025 at 4:56 AM
mariahaskins.com
Cover art by Clare Stacey at Head Design.
Cover for the Ganymedan. Blue toned silhouette of a man's head with a spaceship in the background. Everything in flow and motion with colours shifting from black to different shades of blue.
November 23, 2025 at 4:23 PM
mariahaskins.com
It's a heartache
Nothing but a heartache
Hits you when it's too late
Hits you when you're down

It's a fool's game
Nothing but a fool's game
Standing in the cold rain
Feeling like a clown
photo of Pope Leo in white garb looking like he’s singing into a microphone
November 23, 2025 at 5:17 AM
mariahaskins.com
Baby. ❤️
Black giant dog curled up like baby.
November 21, 2025 at 1:55 AM
mariahaskins.com
From Skellefteå, my Swedish hometown: calskrovet. A calzone with a burger and fries baked inside.

Video: www.instagram.com/reel/DOqj4E3...
Calzone pizza with fries and a burger inside.
November 18, 2025 at 7:52 PM
mariahaskins.com
New today at Thoughts From the Writer's Desk, a wonderful, gutsy essay by Kirstyn McDermott - "When 'EAT THE RICH' is Not Enough: Horror Meets Late-Stage Capitalism" 👀 🖤
ruadanbooks.com/when-eat-the...
November 13, 2025 at 3:53 PM